kieken in berlin

On the door of my flat hangs a postcard with the skyline of Berlin and the text: "Du kiekst hier, ick wohn hier". I guess it's some kind of old/dialectical German and I suppose it's kind of laughing with the tourists. Glad I "wohn" here too :)




Last week I did some "kieking" in Berlin after visiting the Alte Nationalgalerie. You know, the one I wanted to visit when I accidentally wound up between the Roman and Greek pots and helmets in the Altes Museum.
The AN is pretty cool, even though only two of the three floors are open to the public (still lots of renovation works going on). Lots of nice statues and paintings - some cool impressionism as well.

This is Berlin as well, even in the touristic heart of the city (picture taken on my way from the Museuminsel to Unter den Linden. Some kind of old subway entrance or an old pedestrian passage. Very cool, actually :)




Huge Bionade advertisement on the front of the Humboldt University on the Bebelplatz. Bionade is a big softdrink brand here - and it tastes actually very good. It's pretty expensive though. Funny thing: it's not simply "made", but brewed, with the same production methods like beer which results in a delicate, natural taste. If you want to look hip and organic in Germany, you drink bionade. I stumbled on this newspaper article, which tells me that dr. Oetker has bought a major share in bionade and wants to take it international. Maybe it'll show up in our supermarkets in Belgium soon as well.

An iconic sight of Berlin - the Fernseheturm from the Bebelplatz, with the corner of the Deutsche Staatsoper on the right. The tower is one of the main skyline items of Berlin, and a very practical landmark as it's right next to Alexanderplatz. Can't ever get lost in Berlin.



The inside of the entrance to the Staatsbibliothek. Also lots of renovation work going on here. Stones were pockmarked with bullet- and shrapnel holes, as are many of the historical buildings there.











Inside of a free art gallery, the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin. Was, erm, interesting :) The gallery is located on the grounds of the old Palast der Republik. On Google maps, you can still see the demolishing going on, now all that remains is a big grass field with wooden walking paths and some parts of the foundation. There is also some information about the history of the PdR like the asbestos contamination and about the plans to build a replica of the former Berlin Stadtschloss, which was situated there.

Picture of some remnants of the PdR foundations, with the Temporäre Kunsthalle Berlin on the background and part of an information board on the front.










Berliner Dom with yet again the Fernseheturm. Hard not to get that one on picture :)







Crappy picture quality? Yup, I leave my trusty old Canon A95 at home most of the time, as it is simply too heavy and cumbersome to carry around all the time. And besides, I don't like the tourist look. So my two megapixel Nokia 6300 it is. I like the gritty, washed-off-color pictures. Kind of fits Berlin. And actually the quality of the pictures doesn't matter that much, it's what is on it that counts.
You must've noticed I use google maps a lot. That's because it is properly awesome! It has very high-resolution satellite images and a precise naming of streets, places and landmarks for Berlin and I use it all the time to check out a place before I'm going there. Now if only they had the street level view here too, I'd never have to leave the apartment. Hmm.

fall

Today fall arrived, with a vengeance. Woke up to a rainy, cold, dark, windy day. Time to turn on the central heating.
Plans for today? None yet, will consult my good friend the internets and my recently arrived Lonely Planet city guide to Berlin. It's an excellent book, written in a funny yet informative and professional way and is clearly aimed at those young of heart, with lots of information about going out, art and even a chapter dedicated to gay and lesbian Berlin. That doesn't mean it does not include poshy places to eat and drink or a decent introduction to the history of Berlin. Lots of practical tips as well about the public transport and daily life in Berlin. A large part of the book is actually available for free on google books, check it out. I bought it for 12 euro on thebookdepository.co.uk.

Last night I had to get back from Alexanderplatz to my place, which turned out to be not as easy as getting there. Subway service is shut down during the week between 12 and 4 o'clock (or something like that), which means I had to rely on buses and trams. And while those do work fine as well, the system of those lines is much more complicated than the straightforward subway system. Basically, I just ended up getting lost and walking around for 45 minutes trying to find the right bus stop.
A big thumbs-up however, for the Bluespot terminals found at tram stops in the centre of Berlin. These are computer terminals which offer you city maps, public transport time tables, lots of other stuff and even internet access - for instance to check the bvg website and generate a way to get home, like I did. Brilliant things, and the best thing: they actually work. Easy to use as well, with a heavy-duty trackball and on-screen keyboard. As I had to wait for twenty minutes for my bus to arrive, I killed some time by surfing, which you can do at do-able speed for up to 500 seconds.

Funny thing: after the 500 seconds end, the machine doesn't simply jump back to its main page, it actually reboots - after giving you some obscure windows memory access violation error. Oops? I'd have programmed that better.






Before the whole bluepoint story, I went to a jazz bar which is called Schlot for a small free concert. Wasn't jazz actually, more folk-rock-pop by a small local band. Music was pretty good, 3.5 euro for half a litre of beer which is a normal Belgian price. Which was nice as well :)

Oh, and I've discovered admission-free berlin, which lists, erm, admission free events. Free is good. Will check that out.

cheap foodz

Wanted to eat the spaghetti sauce I have in my fridge which I bought last week, until I spotted the white funghus spot on top of the sauce - the pot still unopened. Crap.
I could go to the Mc donalds which is close, but I'd rather get some real food made by real people. So I walked around and found this pizza-pasta place on a couple of minutes walk which is great: I had a whole plate of decent spaghetti for... 2.5 euro. Now thát is "too cheap to prepare it yourself" price level, damn.
I'm not sick of it (yet), knock on wood. But it looks like a good place to go if I don't feel like preparing food myself. That's the advantage of living in a neighbourhood where mainly "normal" citizens live.

one last nice sunday

After waking up at 6 o'clock and not being able to sleep again, decided to check out the goa party announced for saturday evening. It's a goa party and this is Berlin, so it would still be going. Took the Sbahn to Ostkreuz where it was a ten minutes walk to the party location in some old building in Friedrichshain.
Subways and subway stations in the weekend are best entered with a half-litre bottle of beer or a bottle of wine in your hand, as you would stick out immediatly. The fondness of Berliners for glass bottles expresses itself in the fragments of dark brown glass held together by bottle labels literally all over Berlin.
Anyway, the party was still going indeed. The street was completely empty but as I was looking for the street numbers I suddenly heard some high-bpm beat through a ventilation hole and soon after that entered a dark, smokey and hot cellar filled with about 15 dancing people. Bought a beer wich was 3 euro AGAIN (ok, the party was for some good goal, but still a lot of money?) and stayed for about an hour after which I returned to my flat, suddenly feeling very tired and tired of the music which wasn't very good. Still, good to know they do have an active goa scene here as well :)

The reason for the messed up state of my circadian cycle was friday night, for then Monolake and Modeselektor and some other artists which I didn't know about came to the WMF club, which is located right at the Oranienburger Str. subway station. Again easy to locate if you follow your hearing :)

The club consists of two rooms: a main room at ground level and a smaller one upstairs. Heard almost the complete Monolake and Modeselektor sets, which were both very much excellent. Pounding basses, lots of cool people, and all that for a good cause: Energy Allianz, which aims to improve awareness of the climate change. Most people there cared only about the party of course, but hey, can't blame EA for trying and throwing a party like that :)
Beers? 3 euro, yup. No set time listing either, which was annoying. I like to know who the artists are, allows me to check them out later if they are something special.

Went reading in Treptower Park for a couple of hours this evening, the weather was excellent. No wind, sunny, great temperatures. Will be the last nice warm day of the year i guess, predictions give me a maximum of 13 degrees at Friday..
The Park is enormous, by the way - the grass field on the west side of the park must be almost five hectares. The soviet military monuments inside of it are impressive as well. Lots of people were reading, talking, playing at the park, one guy flying a small electric plane around, looked like fun.
Thick rows of trees keep the traffic noise out, clean, very nice place. On the picture you see the Allianz tower, which is illuminated at night and serves as a great landmark. The picture is taken from the park in northern direction.

A couple of days ago, when looking for a wrench (which I didn't find) to adjust the saddle of my bike, I found the apartment owner's stash of grafitti cans. Not just two or three, but a whole box full of them, all kinds of colors. Neatly stashed away toghether with carrying bag and old pair of Jeans.
Did I tell you Berliners are cool? They are.
Those cans are mighty tempting. However, my limited artistic talent would result in something ugly, and I'm not into that idiotic tagging which covers most of Berlin's walls. I don't live here anyway. Maybe I'll make some cool stencil out of a pizza box. We'll see :)