Wanderings

I don't think Berliners, or Europeans in general, are aware of how lucky they are to live in such beautiful old buildings upon such beautiful cobblestone streets. This is certainly true of the residents of Prenzlauer Berg. Like seriously. These are typical apartment buildings around here!

Looking down Hufelandstrasse.

Now, this isn't to say that Toronto isn't beautiful, too. It is, and I kind of love it desperately. But seriously...Prenzlauer Berg is crazy pretty, and I think that coming from a city that is a fraction of the age of Berlin has given me, as it would most North Americans, a certain appreciation for the kind of beauty these streets offer. But to think that this is all just old hat for Berliners...it boggles the mind a little bit. I mean, I look at the multitude of children who live in this neighbourhood and can't help but think about what it would be like for them to grow up here. Maybe, when they're in their mid-twenties, they'll fly off to North America to learn English (but, of course, they'd already know it because Europeans are crazy multilingual like that) and they'll be blown away by how spread apart the buildings are and how unadorned and modern. Most of the condo buildings in Toronto are all glass and steel--the apartment buildings here are colourful stucco and stone and have etchings of angels and cherubim underneath the windows and framing the doorways.

It's not really fair to compare Toronto and Berlin, or North America and Europe in general--at least not in terms of where one is more likely to live in a lovely old building--but being abroad invites these kinds of comparisons and makes self-reflection rather impossible to avoid.

And of course, I know that not all of Berlin is like Prenzlauer Berg. East Berlin, for instance, is chockablock with ugly GDR-era buildings, these massive, characterless apartments that sometimes stretch for entire city blocks. On the other hand, parts of the city that once formed the deadly no-man's land surrounding the Wall are now frequently home to frighteningly modern constructions. Potsdamer Platz, for instance, is a sterile collection of shiny towers and large expanses of concrete. And then you have a medieval church footsteps from the space-age Fernsehturm in Alexanderplatz, and an imperial Prussian palace set among the modern apartment buildings of West Berlin. But that's the beauty of this city. I mean, areas like Prenzlauer Berg are lovely on their own merit, but there's something about the bizarre mix of architecture in this city as a whole that really speaks to the history nerd in me. You can read a different chapter of Berlin's tumultuous history in each and every one of these buildings and neighbourhoods. I may not be very well-traveled, but I don't think there's another city in the world that wears its history quite like Berlin does.

I mean, many of the buildings in the city still have bullet holes in their walls, for goodness sake!

An example of the many physical scars of the war that still mark this city...

Anyway, enough self-reflection for the moment. Today I've had a lazy day. I haven't spread my wings too far from the apartment because I feel myself possibly fighting off a cold, one of the perils of spending 8 hours on a plane with a few hundred strangers. I ran an errand this morning, picked up some more groceries, and went out for a nice walk through the neighbourhood and this great local park, Volkspark Friedrichshain, the oldest public park in the city, dating back to the mid-1800s.

One of the many lovely paths winding through Volkspark Friedrichshain.

Man-made lake, anyone?

Or how about a pond?

(For Mom, who will understand and appreciate this ugly photo of myself. I stumbled upon this place in the middle of the park!) 

But here's the thing about Berlin. It can be beautiful, like this park. But you're never going to get rid of the grittiness. Example: The lovely Fairy Tale Fountain that sits grandly by the park's main entrance...

The Märchenbrunnen.

...and then, the same fountain, viewed from the back, and complete with Berlin's ubiquitous graffiti:

Blargh.

Also, DID YOU KNOW that the hills in this sprawling park were apparently formed by rubble from the buildings destroyed during the war? Man, Berlin is cool.

If today was a lazy day, yesterday was a busy one. In addition to going grocery shopping (it seems like I do that every single day!!), I did a test run of the walk from my apartment to the Goethe Institut, about a 25-30 minute walk that I think I'll try to do most days, weather-permitting.

Along the walk to school...

And then, since I was already out and in the city, I ended up doing this great big sprawling walk through the Zentrum (Centre). I started off by visiting my old haunts, including the lovely picturesque street where I used to have classes every day with the LBSU (Leo Baeck Summer University):

Sophienstrasse 22A on the right!

I walked through the narrow streets for a while before grabbing a falafel (from the same place I used to get them at five years ago!) and settling down for lunch by the Spree River.

A nostalgic lunch of falafel and Apfelschorle (apple juice and carbonated water).

The Spree!

Re-energised from lunch, I continued to wander through the city, crossing over Museumsinsel (literally, an island of museums) towards Unter den Linden, Berlin's grandest avenue, and ending at the Brandenburg Gate, crowded with tourists on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Look, Mom! I found a very well-situated Starbucks for you!

Tourists head towards the Brandenburg Gate. I get swept along.

Bizarrely, there was a carnival set up at the foot of the Brandenburg Gate. I say bizarrely, because a block away from the Brandenburg gate is the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Germany's national Holocaust memorial. So, you know. It's a bit of a weird juxtaposition, is all.

The beginnings of the carnival.

The end of the carnival. Literally just beyond those tents lies the memorial.

The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.

Within the memorial.

The concrete stellae tower over you. Very affective.

At first, as I made my way through the pop-up carnival to the memorial, I was pretty pissed off. I mean, it's a bit offensive, somehow, isn't it? But then, I reminded myself that the memorial isn't supposed to be this sacrosanct place. I mean, it is, I guess, but it's not supposed to be cut off from the city or removed from the reality of life in Berlin today. Because if there's one thing about Holocaust memorialisation in Germany, it's that it's just as much backwards-looking as it is inwards- and forward-looking, too. It's an effective memorial if it causes you to reflect on the past while also placing that past within today's context. At least, I suppose that's what the memorial's architects might argue. And if that's indeed the case, then I suppose the memorial was never more impressive to me than it was yesterday. I had been there many times before during my last trip to Berlin, but this time, with the music from the carnival penetrating the eerie stillness within the memorial, and with children spilling over from the rides and stands to play a boisterous game of hide-and-seek between the columns...well, the juxtaposition between Berlin seventy years ago and Berlin today has never felt more stark. It was still all very weird to me, but by the time I had walked completely through the memorial, I had at least come to terms with the weirdness as simply being part and parcel with Berlin itself.

After this odd detour, I opted to begin to make my way home. I took a circuitous route that ended up being a very fortuitous one, because it brought me to the Ritter Sport Chokowelt (literally: Chocolate World!). You can make your own chocolate bar here! Seriously! You choose the type of chocolate and what you want added to it, and they'll make it for you right in front of you! Future visitors, we are definitely going to have to do this!

The gift store, with every kind of Ritter Sport bar imaginable!

I couldn't justify making my own chocolate bar all by my lonesome, but I couldn't resist temptation altogether...

Chocolate bar in hand, I continued along my way. I took a photography stop at the sunny, impressive Gendarmenmarkt, with its twin churches and the impressive Konzerthaus.

One of the churches; I don't know which one.

I've noticed that there are a lot of lions and bears in Berlin.

The Konzerthaus!

Gendarmenmarkt!

Moving on from the Gendarmenmarkt, I made one last stop at Alexanderplatz, to take some photos of the beloved Fernsehturm, the tacky-ass TV Tower made by the GDR government in the late 1960s.

Close...

...closer...

...closest!

Yesterday's activity was largely responsible for my lazy day today. Tomorrow? If the weather is tolerable, I may try to go to my favourite place on earth (yes, on EARTH), which is only about a 40-minute walk away from my apartment here.

Curiosity sufficiently piqued? Stay tuned!

Bötzowstrasse

It was a cool and overcast day in Berlin today, but that didn't stop the birds that live in my building's courtyard from singing. Google has revealed to me that they are Eurasian blackbirds. I like 'em. But sometimes one of them will land on my windowsill or balcony and scare the living bejeesus out of me. True story. I'm on the third floor (really the fourth--silly Europeans), and sometimes I think that means no one and nothing should be able to appear in front of my window. Of course, birds can fly, which I recall at such moments. At any rate, I like their song quite a bit:

Look, this blog has an aural component! Exciting! Isn't it like you're actually here with me now?

These photos may help further with that:

The entrance to my building, sandwiched
between a wine salon and  little restaurant.

I have to go through the main door shown in the previous photo, then through this courtyard to the other side of the building to get to the stairs leading up to my apartment. Door is on the right.

Main area of the apartment!

Bookshelves, complete with more wine glasses than I will ever need.

The little, well-appointed kitchen!

The view from my desk.

The balcony!

Looking down from the balcony into the courtyard, and neighbouring buildings' courtyards.

I've rented this apartment from an American couple currently living in Paris for the year. I chose it because it's in a quiet, residential, fairly non-touristy neighbourhood called Prenzlauer Berg, just northeast of Mitte, the old city centre. I haven't explored it fully yet, but it's pretty lovely so far! From my understanding, Prenzlauer Berg wasn't heavily bombed during the war, so many of the original buildings dating back to the turn-of-the-century still stand, and cobblestone streets greet you at nearly every turn. I hadn't spent a lot of time here during my last Berlin sojourn five years ago (when I was living in decidedly grittier but perhaps cooler Kreuzberg), but I'm looking forward to getting to know this area better.

The apartment seems pretty well situated--walking distance to multiple grocery stores and just a few blocks in almost any direction to bus/trolley stops to Alexanderplatz and other parts of the city. I've already been to three different grocery stores: Lidl, the German equivalent to No Frills, but with even less frills; Rewe, fairly average and with a good selection of things; and Alnatura, an organic/healthfood store. AND GUESS WHAT I FOUND AT ALNATURA???

The mother lode!

Unbelievably, at Alnatura I stumbled upon a whole two fridges full of vegetarian and vegan products, INCLUDING some soy salami slices that, as many of you know, serve as one of the essential ingredients of my go-to lunch. I haven't tried them yet, but hopefully they're tolerable. Because you have no idea how happy I am that they have these kinds of products here. I like this country a lot, but its cuisine is another story. It's a meat-and-potatoes land and this vegetarian was weary to subject herself once again to two months of cheese sandwiches for lunch, day in and day out. But Germany, or at least Berlin, has made leaps and bounds in this area since my last time here, although perhaps I just hadn't been looking in the right place. My coming upon Alnatura was a fortuitous event indeed. So, thank you, sandwich gods!

While on the topic of German cuisine, shockingly, I have yet to have a pretzel, despite being in the country for more than 24 hours already. I will try to remedy this problem post-haste. On another note, does anyone happen to know how to set up a tally/counter on this website--not for page visitors but for pretzels eaten? It'd have to be something I could manually update. (This is a very serious question.)

I've been pretty busy since my arrival. The flights were fine (I connected in London Heathrow, which, incidentally, is full of posh stores but is too cheap to provide free wifi to passers through), with the exception of some turbulence on the London-Berlin flight. Jet lag and luggage demanded that I take a cab from the airport to the apartment, which I did. My taxi driver was, well, perhaps not the definition of a law-abiding German. He didn't break any major laws, mostly just driving in bus lanes and making left and right turns out of the wrong lanes...he was cursing the traffic, which was cursing him right back. My favourite was when he took a shortcut through a supermarket parking lot to avoid a long line up to turn left at a light. And now, who hasn't thought about doing that at one point or another? At any rate, I made it, and had no difficulty picking up the key and finding the apartment. Today, after catching up on my sleep, I hit up those grocery stores and even sorted out my cell phone situation. Back at home, I had taken an old iPhone 3 that a former colleague kindly gave to me, and had it unlocked. Today, I went to Telekom, the German equivalent of T-mobile in the States, and purchased a prepaid SIM card. I haven't used it yet, seeing as I don't really know too many people here as of right now, but it seems to be up and running.

Luckily, the guy in the Telekom store spoke enough English for us to get by. Mein Deustch ist...nicht so gut. I've already apologetically said that to several store clerks today. Five years ago when I was last here, mein Deutsch was non-existent, so even with the little German I know now, I have already noticed a difference. For instance, on my walk around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon, a man came up to me and asked which way the Deutsche Bank was, and while I lack the vocabulary to have explained it to him, fortunately I in fact did not know where the bank was and was able to honestly respond in German that I didn't know. I think he bought it! And, quite simply, the fact that I understood him at all is greatly encouraging to me. I didn't get all of his words, but I got the gist, even through my fog of exhaustion. So, bring it on, Goethe Institut!

I would post some photos of the neighbourhood here, and I did take some today, but because it was so grey and drizzly, the photos aren't too spectacular. Hopefully the weather tomorrow will be better. But for now, I'll leave you with this:

Why, hello there, Fernsehturm!

I love that ugly ass tower. So happy to see it again.

my bags are packed...

...and I'm ready to go!

It's after midnight. I leave tomorrow evening. I'm too wired to go to bed, which is predictable but nevertheless sucks, because I'm on the redeye and I can't sleep on planes. So it's going to be a long 36-hours. But an exciting one! Onward!

Requisite Canadian flag on backpack? Check! (Thanks for the sewing help, Mom!)

T-minus 2 days!!

Okay. The last several weeks I have been going around telling everyone about my plans to set up a blog to help document my upcoming summer sojourn in Europe. Ta-dah! Here it is!

In telling you all about this blog, I've intentionally placed pressure on myself to update fairly regularly, so hopefully that will work. But, to be honest, I don't know how much I'll write here, or what, but at the very least I'll post photos and links to albums and let the pictures do the talking.

At any rate, if you're here reading this, then you probably already know at least the broad outlines of my plans for the next four months. I'm leaving in two (!!) days for Berlin, where I'll be spending May and June learning German at the Goethe Institut. (Incidentally, the Goethe Institut's Berlin office is located in the lovely Mitte neighbourhood, only a few blocks away from Sophienstrasse 22a, where I spent six lovely weeks during the summer of 2008 studying post-Holocaust German-Jewish history with the Leo Baeck Summer University...if you're curious, see my previous, photo-less, fairly self-reflective and academic blog here, which I kept during that time.) After two months spent imbibing generous quantities of beer and gorging on pretzels, I will fly off to the UK in early July to spend the summer months simply being a tourist and visiting with family. With a BritRail pass in hand, I intend to scour the British countryside for all things Jane Austen, soak in the healing waters at Bath, trace the footsteps of the ancient Romans along Hadrian's Wall, revel in the academic glamour of medieval colleges, take part in Royal baby mania come July, poke into London bookstores and museums...and eat lots and lots of scones and drink LOTS and LOTS of tea. Etc. Etc.

So please check in when you can and feel free to leave comments!

For now, I'm off to continue packing...