Surreales Museum für Industrielle Objekte

It's hard to walk around Berlin without running into a museum. There is a lot of history and culture in this city and 

 The entry draws you in, giving just a taste of the wonder found inside.

A weekend in Leipzig

A short 2 hour bus ride from Berlin, Leipzig is a fabulous day or weekend trip. I'm lucky enough to have a friend from the States who immigrated here a few years ago with his wife, who is from Germany. We spent a few days wandering around with his daughter, showing a family friendly side to Leipzig.

Monster Ronson's Ichiban Karaoke

Karaoke. A dividing line among friends. Some love the public displays of disaster, others avoid it with every fiber of their being.

I am solidly in the former category.

I am proud to say that I have now sung karaoke in every country I have visited. It's a goal I didn't know I had until now, but it is a goal that will carry me, and perhaps this blog, forward.

Späti-crawl

Berlin has a thriving street culture, promoted in large part by the seeming lax attitude people have about acceptable behavior in public. There are no open container laws, people of all stripes can be seen enjoying an beer while walking down the sidewalk, and Spätkaufs are usually open 20-24 hours a day to grab a bite or drink.

An ode to laziness

The other day I wandered down Torstrasse heading west. I had no destination in mind, but chose to turn only when the street stopped me from going further. Three parks drew me in, each delightful in their own way, a respite from the busy street I was ambling down.
Berlin seems to be made up of a series of parks, buildings fitting in where there happens to be space. The amount of green space in the city makes it feel human in a way most American cities can’t capture. The acknowledgement that people live here and want to spend time relaxing. There are so many opportunities to stop and sit, no shame about looking like a vagrant.
It can be difficult to get out of the American mindset of productivity. The feeling that, if you aren’t producing something useful to the community, you are being a bad person. It’s no wonder the American entertainment business is so successful, we need distraction from the guilt that permeates our every minute. I’d thought that I had escaped a lot of that poisonous thought, but swimming in the muck leaves its trace.

Literatur Fest Berlin

The annual festival celebrating the written word started on Wed Sep 9th. Last night I attended the Opening of the Vision 2030 program, The Future of the City.
I was quite excited to hear the opinions of writers and scientists who live and study the urban environment talk about their perspective on what direction cities are heading. Unfortunately, even though the program was featured in the English speakers section and was advertised as 'Consecutive translation in English', only two of the panelists spoke in English, which was then translated to German, but the same was not done for the two panelists and moderator who only spoke German.
What I was able to understand was interesting and I'm glad I made the trek out to the Berliner Festspiele Haus.

Viktoria Park

Wandering around the Kreuzberg neighborhood this afternoon, I came upon a park with a winding trail up a hill. Hills are quite rare in Berlin, so I figured this was just one of the larger Tueflsburgs (sp?), mounds of detritus from WWII covered with dirt.
That turned out not to be the case, as I reached the top and came upon the Prussian Memorial to soldiers killed during the Napoleonic Wars.






The view from the top was quite nice.





The waterfall pictured escaped my notice on my walk up because I came into the park from the opposite direction. But I couldn't leave without enjoying a bit of time sitting nearby and listening to the rushing water.





And a great statue was waiting to be admired at the bottom of the waterfall.

Zentral- und Landesbibliothek Berlin

Libraries, my one true love.

I've been in the city for almost a week and I was so busy playing tourist with other friends who are visiting that I hadn't gotten a chance to seek out this city's book repositories.

Berlin is a very literary city. Homages to Goethe pop up all over the place, bookstores (which will be another post) are thick on the ground, and I'm even fortunate enough to be here during the annual Literature Festival! But I feel the heart of a city lies in the library, the availability and different kinds of resources that are offered can tell you a lot about what the people consider important.

Afternoon Karaoke

Wandering around Mauer Park flea market, I was surprised by the sight of a crowd in the distance and faint music drifting across the field.
Lo and behold, it's a karaoke concert! A crowd unlike I've ever seen, beer vendors plying their trade, a more pleasant way to spend the day I can't imagine.

In Transit

Traveling can lead to a lot of "hurry up and wait". 

Airports, for the most part, are bland waypoints that can lead to existential angst, making one wonder why you have decided to embark on a journey that moments before you were pronouncing your life's mission. Heathrow very much makes me question the meaning of life.

But other airports are trying to make the transition period a little less bleak.