Day 90 – 93, Berlin, April 8th – 11th 2012

Tea 90, Al-Otour, the apartment, Berlin.

Tea 92, Yunnan Green Superior.

also; Tea 91, Power Tea, , Tea 93, Japonska Wisnia.

Day 90, Sunday.  Today the sun was shining and it was almost warm, but i still felt the need for some gloves.  I left the flat reasonably early, around 10, in order to get to the Mauerpark Flea Market.  This is up to the north of the city centre in a district called Prenzlauer Berg.  There is everything you could imagine in this market, from a huge bric-a-brac stall, full of boxes of what is mostly junk and broken stuff, but with the occasional highlight, a few box-brownies for instance, to food stalls, bikes, camera’s.  Everything you could imagine (almost).  So I spent a while meandering up and down the aisles, all the time it was getting busier and busier.  I almost bought quite a few things, but actually came away with nothing, despite the efforts of quite a few people…  I then wandered in the sunshine, and relative peace to another market just a few streets away.  This one, Arkonaplatz, is much smaller and the quality of things they are selling is generally higher, and due to the popularity of Mauerpark this one is much gentler and more peaceful.  Some more browsing and yet again away with nothing I walked slowly in the sunshine back towards the apartment, but taking a few little side streets and a much deviated path back, ending up by the TV tower and then back onto my main route back to the apartment.  This seems like a short day now that I type it, but I had spent a long time getting to and then around and back from the markets.  The weather turned a little bit cold by the afternoon too.  Also, due to it being Easter Sunday, almost literally nowhere was open!

Day 91, again today, very little was open.  But I made the most of my day by embracing tourism once again and heading out to the Brandenburg Gate, or Brandenburger Tor.  The walk there was very pleasant, in the sunshine most of the time, when I stayed on the right side of the street.  It’s quite a simple walk from Kreuzberg there too.  It also takes you past the section of the Berlin wall still standing.  I’ve walked past this before, but today was the first day I took a photograph of it.  Then I carried on towards the Gate.  In the area of the gate, which sort of acts, or acted like an entrance to the Tiergarten, is also the Holocaust Memorial, or as it is really called the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.  I spent some time wandering amongst the huge concrete blocks.  It’s an interesting place, with lots of children playing and smiles and laughter happening amongst the stones.  This seemed somewhat strange to me, considering the context of the thing, but there was actually something strangely refreshing about this kind of atmosphere in such a place if I’m honest.

I then walked to the Brandenburg Gate itself.  This is a big disappointment, not with regard to the gate itself.  But they may as well charge entry and called it ‘Das Disney Welt’ if you ask me.  There’s Mickey and Minnie Mouse, a big Teddy Bear, breakdancers, a sexy soldier girl with a flag, and Darth Vader!  I can totally understand why the performers are there, they need to make money, but why on earth people would want to see these things here is another thing entirely!  I soon made my escape from the circus and took some peace and sunshine from the Tiergarten.  I sat by a little pond, people buzzing past on bikes and with their cameras.  I saw what was only my second red squirrel ever!  I sat for a while and wrote some of my thoughts down before heading back towards the river and past the Berlin Philharmonic hall and a few of the larger galleries, one was shut, the other open, but rammed with people so I decided to avoid it.  I don’t know why but ever since arriving in Berlin I’ve actually lost my appetite for looking at art!

Onto day 92, Tuesday.  Shops are open again!  This lead to a celebratory visit to Lidl to buy chocolate!  Then, with the first day for a few that can actually be described as warm I ventured back into the city centre, with no real aim other than to enjoy the sunshine.  Today was Abigails birthday, so we had spent the morning chilling out and eating the chocolate before she went to see Sergej who had unfortunately had to go and work on a pitch for the next day.  So I took myself out into the sunshine and just people watched.  I did visit Berlin Carre, a funny little shopping centre with only a few shops on the inside (most actually face the street, but head inside if you want what I imagine is a reasonably authentic East Berlin experience!)  I bought a snack in the supermarket and then went back outside.

There was a tiny protest happening at the Neptune Statue next to the Rathaus and the TV tower.  It seemed to be about banking and they had a lot of colourful umbrellas all painted with slogans.  There were less than ten of them, but still had the beady eye of the police on them constantly.  It was a strange protest with no chanting or marching around or anything, they just seemed to make little structures from the umbrellas, which the police then told them they had to keep behind a certain line that he drew with chalk.  Very odd.  Anyway, I let that play out for a while before wandering a bit more, visiting a huge second-hand clothes store, then I bought myself a new pair of sunglasses and went back to the apartment.

Day 93, and I’m sorry to say no photos of today.  Abigail and I had to put our heads down good and proper for the day, working on the Hello Collective, getting the plan of action down ready for the summer residency / studio program.  And also trying to figure out what will happen if we don’t reach our sponsorship target.  But hopefully we will.  http://kck.st/GD326Q  Click the link if you are interested in the project and can maybe help by pledging a little.  If you let me know that it’s through my blog that you have donated I’ll send you some tea as a thank you!