Berlin-tastic

So over easter break I went to visit my amigo MR in Berlin and it was faaantastic. You expect Berlin to be very gray and German, which it is in some parts. However, I was surprised to find how much it reminded me of Paris just in the way that it feels. I stayed in the eastern part of Berlin (the cool part) and though I have no basis for saying so, it is what I imagine 80s new york city was like; a little run down but charm around every turn. That said, I took some pictures though probably not enough, but I'll be back there soon enough so probably more then.


I booked my train a bit late so I had to switch trains 3 times which kind of sucked. This was switch number 2 in Hamburg.


A random building in east Berlin. I have no idea what it was, but it was pretty cool.


This was across the street. Yup i'm the guy that went to berlin and took pictures of old apple computers. Honestly though, this was all that was in the store, I really don't get the point. It was just a random side street as well. Go figure.


MR and Eric. MR was a year behind me at skidmore and eric was 2 years ahead. I had no idea Eric and Jules (next picture) even lived in berlin until we met up with them at a wine bar (which by the way was amazing, pay like 2 euro for a glass, drink a lot, then pay what you want on your way out). This was in a bombed out building converted into a multilevel bar. It definitely seemed to be well on it way to its transition to a tourist spot, but it was still cool.


Here is a crappy picture of Jules. Jules was the year above me at Skidmore, so with the four of us in Berlin, we spanned 4 years of skidmore history, that's kind of crazy but it was really awesome at the same time. Eric, Jules and MR are all much more artistic than myself and unlike me they are much more committed to making art so I can't wait to see what comes out of Berlin from these three soon!


Later we all went to a traditional German restaurant. In all honesty though it was fantastic. Denmark really doesn't have mexican and man, I missed burritos.


The Sony center in downtown Berlin. A gigantic superfluous structure that was actually pretty cool. It is one of the first strides in redeveloping the new downtown Berlin from what I understand and I think it's really neat to see a city kind of in the middle of re-inventing itself. It's odd because there is obviously so much history with the Berlin wall etc and the city is really doing its best to become an modernized and central German hub while still retaining ties to a somewhat embarrassing history. Not that it is, but I think Germans have a soft spot about it despite current generations having nothing to do with it. Perhaps I'm imposing a foreigners view, in fact, I probably am, but there you go.


In recognition of said history this is a picture of the holocaust memorial which is much cooler in person. If you look at it from the outside its actually a bit unimpressive. I didn't really 'get' the memorial until I walked down into the center of it. When you get there the ground actually sinks a bit and you find yourself enveloped by these huge stone columns. I was actually surprised how different the views were from inside and outside the monument. Under the monument there is a small exhibit you can walk around which was very nicely designed. Really nice organization of information and typography, I though it was really great.

This is in sharp contrast to the Checkpoint Charlie museum which I was anxious to see at the recommendation of many travel books. I was really disappointed when I got inside though. The exhibition design was absolutely terrible. There was simply too much information and it was completely unorganized to boot. I think there were a lot of great stories that were told in the museum (which was really just a collection of rooms connected by many flights of stairs and confusing corridors). I understand the problem of having too much fascinating material, but I think but putting it all in it diluted what would have otherwise been a very compelling exhibit.

I have a few more pictures that I may try to post soon but overall Berlin is really terrific and I can't wait to see it in nicer weather.