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!