Berlin

So…last weekend was very lazy and I barely went outside so there’s nothing to report.  It was in effect a recovery that had been held off for a week from going to Berlin for my birthday the previous weekend…and got getting nearly enough sleep.  Basically partying + Ryan Air delays + hangovers + keeping odd hours = knackered.

We did manage to see a few cool things other than just the inside of bars while we were there though.  This pipe work, which wound it's way above ground all over Berlin, being a source of continual fascination for starters...

It was gorgeous weather on the first day so we headed out of town a bit to the Eastside Gallery, a mile long stretch of the Berlin which has been preserved and decorated, after the fall of the wall, by a number of international artists, remembering those who were subject to the wall and expressing messages about the symbolism of it and it’s eventual fall.  I took a lot of photos…

It was still eerie to stand in No Man’s Land in between sections of the other side of the wall that had been left standing and to remember that standing here while the wall was up would have resulted in imprisonment or death.  The guard towers at the beginning of the section are still standing, although rusted and it’s a poignant reminder of the tyranny and persecution that went on there and that these events were not in the distant past, or in some far off land.

The artistic approach Berliners take to their surroundings is really interesting, such an atmosphere of free expression.  There is loads of graffiti as a result, most boldly making the point.  The clothes being worn too were great, but it’s less embarrassing to take photos of walls than humans.

I celebrated my birthday in style at White Trash, Fast Food, a great restaurant/ bar/ venue/ club.  The sort of place that in London would cost a fortune to get in to, have unbelievable ques and then the drinks would be an arm and a leg.  In Berlin this translated to six euros each, taken by a charming drag queen on the door, after waiting precisely 2 minutes, then being able to get a table to eat at 11pm, being asked to wait by the bar while the lady found us a table (barely had time to order beers before she’d got one for us) then reasonably priced food, cheap drinks and cool bands to listen to before the DJs took over.  As a result it was 5am before we realised it might be time to call it a night.

Being chronically hungover the next day, plus the fact that it was pouring with rain, resulted in some half hearted sight seeing and lots of sitting.  Then cake and singing before heading off to Tacheles, an artists collective in an abandoned building, for a beer and a mooch about.  It’s a very cool place but the music was a bit too ‘techno, techno’ for my tastes.  It was a fabulous place to people watch though, teenage wannabes, ultra cool hipsters, business types on weekend off mode, tourists and OAPs all mixed in together all, seemingly, perfectly at home. 

Sunday, after a hearty breakfast in the Prenzlauer Berg area, with the coolest shops (all shut, damnit!) and little cafes we decided to avoid the rain and head to the Pergamon Museum, to look at the amazing sights there.  I’d been told that they had the Ishatar Gate of Babylon and other amazing relics but I had not expected to see floor to ceiling temples, gateways and statues.  It was truly breath taking.  I especially liked the lions that had originally run the length of the walkway to the city, which must have been pretty intimidating if you were entering for the first time.  I mean, we were gobsmacked at the scale of it and we live in a world of sky scrappers and men on the moon, the impact on your average pleb in 575BC must have been massive to put it lightly!

I also found a statue of the god Hadad, responsible for the weather and not doing such a great job in my opinion, what with having endured rain that not only fell down, but up due to a weird quirk of the howling winds that accompanied it.

All in all I love Berlin.  I love that the trains run all night, the trams are efficient, the bars don’t appear to shut and the people are relaxed, friendly and helpful.

Oddities on the way to work

There I was, quietly minding my own business, walking to the station to get to work the other morning and a series of sights stopped me in my tracks...

I think this is a drama/ dance school not a cult...although, having done a lot of dance I imagine a cult would not be that different.  They were standing in a circle swaying.  In fairness not half as weird as coming back the other Monday from the airport in the middle of the morning and finding a field full of black-clad people pretending to be cats.  Think George Galloway making a prat of himself on Big Brother and you're half way there.  I was feeling too ill at the time to take pics of that though unfortunately.

Then I turned down a quite side street, which is pretty posh considering it's right by the train line, and found that someone had set up a tyre graveyard overnight.  Where did they come from?  Where did they go? Complete mystery.

I hit the cross roads, thinking, hmmm, that was a bit odd and saw this.  Now, I may at times walk along with my eyes closed for all I manage to take in, but I'm fairly certain this lamp post was at the usual 45 degree angle to the ground the night before rather than listing drunkenly.  Everyone else seemed to be taking no notice so I took the photo to assure myself it wasn't just my hazy morning focus.

And then, lastly, as I walked down the road to the station, someone had burnt the bin down in rather an artistic fashion.  The bin still functions, clearly, but has since been joined by a new, non-burnt down bin, for what purpose I'm not sure as this one is still there.  Half arsed local council?  I suspect so.

I find mornings confusing at the best of times, what with not properly waking up until after lunch, but this was the oddest for a while...

New Graffiti in Shoreditch Town

It would appear that the local artists have been busy decorating the surrounding landscape again.  Every now and then a swathe of new pieces turn up, mostly on (I hope) obliging shop shutters but elsewhere too.

Mickey has been up for years, with the 'Rock the Mouse' slogan but as you can see, he's now sporting a speech bubble...stating that he is the "center" of his own universe.  So that'll be a non-Brit wot's been adding the wording judging from the spelling.  And yes, I do feel that all the detective dramas I watch are clearly paying off.

What is also new is the 'mouse hole', bottom right...

Minnie...er, sort of.  This is one of many teeny-tiny pieces that's gone up around here that, unless you walk about looking at the ground you would miss.  I try to keep an eye floor-wards generally as it helps avoid the constant tripping up/ falling over so I see lots of them which is a nice bonus.

Porky pig + psycho eyes + weird thought bubble = creeeeeeepy.  It is interesting through as it looks like it's been done in biro, which must have taken forever.  But then, as Record Breakers taught us in the 80s - dedication's what you need!  Wow, just had a weird flashback to someone attempting the most ever bounces on a trampoline, feeling sick was an issue apparently.

Anywho, and finally in tonight's rather wandering insight into the 50m of wall I walked past this evening...

A new Stik man!!!!  Very exciting.

A weekend in Amsterdam

So, a few weekends ago Sam and I spent a lovely few days wandering around the beautiful city of Amsterdam.  We went to visit some friends of his and their lovely daughter who have moved there and who live just outside the main city centre.

This meant that on the first day we had a wander through the beautiful Vondelpark.

There were some extremely exciting playgrounds which I investigated although it was a bit too damp and muddy to play on the massive slides.  Sam pretended to read the 'information' available at the front of the park to avoid association with me...

We took a cruise on the canals, which was a very chilled out way to begin an exploration of the city.  Our various boat drivers pointed out all the land marks as we hopped on and off to get some lunch (and accidentally stumble across the red light district, with the most bored prostitutes you could imagine).

This is the narrowest house in Amsterdam, something of a feat given they're generally on the slim side.  This is 1 1/2 metres wide and you can see that someone was actually in the process of moving in!

There were bikes everywhere, it was so wonderful.  They don't even lock them up, or to anything and no one nicks them, stabs their tyres or makes off with their saddles while they're not looking.  Pretty different to East London basically.  They also had whole families on bikes, tandems with kiddie seats front and back, or massive carts on the front to put the sprogs in.  AND most importantly, cyclists have right of way.  So the cars  etc have to avoid hitting them, not vice versa as it is in the UK.  That and the lack of roads in the centre of town made it a cyclists heaven.

There were some interesting shops too.  This one was...a loo.  Literally.  You paid a Euro to go and use the (very posh) facilitites and them you could buy branded accessories on your way out.  Bit of a money-spinner frankly but necessary as their shops don't have loos so there's no nipping into the equivalent of John Lewis or Topshop.

This shop was on the edge of the red light district close to the very cute little cafe we found to have lunch in.  It's wares were not as romantic as you might assume from the name...

There seemed to be quite a few branches of Henry Willig.  Cheese.  AND more.  What more could you possibly ask for?!

And last but not least, the 'British Isles Food Emporium' that is...Arkwright's (Open many hours).  I didn't go in as I would have required there to be yells of G-g-g-g-g-granville! in order to avoid disappointment, and it seemed a bit unlikely.

Sam fulfilled his role of standing by things....

...and sitting on things so I could take pics.  Although, in fairness, no coaxing was required.

We checked out the Museum of Dutch Resistance, about the situation before, during and right after WW2, which was the most amazing museum I've been to in a very long time.  The lengths they went to, to protect people were truly inspiring and all from a population that pretty much acquiesced to the Germans to start with, working with them in government and even the Jewish population registering themselves when asked to do so.  The most amazing tale was their solution to the problem of people being caught with false ID cards to cover up their Jewish heritage or something, which led to the bearer being imprisoned or worse.  The resistance solved the problem by burning down the central records office, so no further checks could be made!  Definitely worth checking out if you happen to be there.

Now, because I suspect you're a bit bored of this post now, a series of things that amused me.

And, finally!  My new pretty (white) iphone 4 comes with a camera mode that allows you to see yourself whilst taking the picture, no more 'ye gads, what the hell do I look like!' moments.

Amber 'The Frog Killer' Cat

This is my Mum's cat Amber.  Cute, no?  Just mooching about in the garden, playing with string, sharpening her claws, doing the obstacle course that is my parents pebble-bubble-fountain-pond-thing.

Ah, but what's that noise?

I must investigate.  Stalk-y, stalk-y, stalk-y....  Huzzah!  A frog!

** Interlude: This is the bit where my Mum rescues the poor frog and secretes him in the undergrowth away from Amber, partly for the frog's sake as it's clearly still alive, partly because frogs give off a noxious liquid when attacked, which causes cats to lose their teeth.  Previous cat-based experience has taught my Mum that cat dentists are very expensive, as there's no such thing as Kitty NHS, and that cats with no teeth make a right mess when trying to eat, hence the move a few years back from carpet tiles to lino in the kitchen. **

Damn you woman, where's my frog!  I saw you come over here and....

Gotcha!!  *evil cat laugh, round a mouthful of frog*

** Interlude 2:  This is where I yell "Muuuuuuuuuuuuum, the cat's got the frog again!" and my Mum performs rescue number two, deciding on a more sheltered accommodation option for the frog until such time as it's sufficiently recovered to make a proper getaway. **

This is the stand-off that ensued.  The frog fortress was propped up on the piece of tile you can see on the grass until Amber decided to 'paw sweep' under the gap in an attempt to obtain said frog, after which the frog was imprisoned for it's own survival.  Having been foiled in this latest endeavour Amber set up watch over the frog until she could be coaxed inside for biscuits.  At some point around midnight.

And trust me, you don't want to know what happened to the mouse that tried to set up shop in the garage...

A few pictures from the weeks just gone

In the last few weeks I have been....

witness to a Mods convention on Carnaby Street.  This man was my favourite, leopard print with cream, tweed with perfectly pressed trousers.  The best bit was that this was when the Barcelona fans at the pub right by this starting doing their football chants (Why? Why do they do that?) and the Mods responded with a healthy chorus of 'We are the Mods'.

I left soon after as the smell of petrol fumes became overwhelming to check out an exhibition by Stik...which was pretty disappointing actually, nothing like as good as the pieces on the walls near me.

We also checked out the Tate a bit and saw a Roy Lichenstein sculpture and...

...a large wooden plug suspended from the ceiling.  Hmm....

Then to Covent Garden in pursuit of shoes where we saw an upside down busker hanging from a tree (times are hard it's all about the USP I suppose)....

...and ate enormous ice creams from a little boutique-y shop I can't remember the name of.  Doh!

Spotted on Bethnal Green Road.  I appreciate the trend for fake lashes but, erm, really?

I made chicken and ham pie.  I prefer it with mushrooms but apparently I'm surrounded by weirdos who hate them.  Pft.

And last but not least on this random post, I saw these this morning at Liverpool Street station and thought I was hallucinating...  How do they get them like that?!