I've been meaning to post these pictures since August. In July I took a couple days to walk around the city and take pictures of graffiti. Everything in the city gets tagged, no matter how nice the neighborhood. The variety of graffiti in the city is amazing and the sheer amount of it is one of the things that sets Berlin apart from other German cities. It's a lost cause to prevent it anyways.




( Exit to streets )

Well, I fly out of Berlin in a little over 12 hours. Er...15 really. I'm very sad about leaving. I have tons more pictures to post, as I took so many I fell behind in organizing them. And I spent a lot of the past weeks just out and about doing stuff. Except for this week, because I was sick and pretty much had to stay in my room from Saturday to Wednesday. And the weather was horrid. Cold rain every day. Not fun. I did get out for a bit today, which was nice, and finally got good enough weather to take decent pictures of what remains of the Berlin Wall. I also got fined by the ticket inspectors on the train today, so...whee! Fun last day.

So...I go finish cleaning. And hopefully soon there'll be pics of: the East Side Gallery, Berlin graffiti, random stuff, dinosaurs (!), German train history, and...more random stuff.

See you all soonishly.

It's cold and rainy (wtf?), and I seriously need to spend a day organizing myself and my stuff, so no intrepid adventuring today (I do need something to do tomorrow and Friday and after that). I did go to the zoo on Monday, though. And saw lots of animals. Not quite all 14000 of them (world's largest zoo, hurrays!), but I spent almost five hours wandering around. I saw Knut!

( I'll try not to squee too hard. )

So...I also went to Kassel in mid-June to see the contemporary art exhibition Documenta. This is #12. It happens every four years. The collection was not so great overall (don't get me started). One of the exhibit halls is terrible (overgrown potting shed). I am glad I did spend money on the catalog.


( Kassel and Documenta 12 )

I'll upload a bunch of pics today. I should be studying for exams tomorrow. But I'm not. The internet is faster at university than at home. Anyways...here is a Random collection of Barcelona Day 4 and Ruegen.

( Random collection of pictures ahoy! )

Pictures are coming. I've got Barcelona Day 4, Ruegen, Kassel/Documenta 12, and random shots of Berlin all to post. School's just been really busy the last weeks with presentations, essays, and too much reading to do. And it's been raining almost nonstop since the solstice. We're getting spring weather in summer. Ugh. Everything's green, though!

I also bought some PLO scarves at the revolutionary store next to my building. I'm so dangerous.

I've only got four weeks left! I'm sad.

Apparently, Tom Cruise is in town and has bought a villa on Wannsee. He's filming/producing "Valkyrie" in Berlin-Brandenburg this summer about the failed plot to assassinate Hitler and its main plotter von Stauffenberg. The article also says that for the Babelsberg studios where it will be shot, he spent 300,000Euro on installing air conditioning because he doesn't like to film in temperatures above 69 degrees F.


Meanwhile, the Wachowski brothers are filming "Speed Racer" this summer, and that started last week, so Emile Hirsch, Christina Ricci and Matthew Fox (!) are in town too or will be. I've heard Susan Sarandon is supposed to be in it as well.

Another film occasionally shoots in the streets near my apartment, but I don't know what that one is. It's been going off and on since September.



In other news, I could really go for some BBQ right now.

Despite how *absolutely* captivating the coverage of the protests in Rostock is, I'm giving you another pic spam of Barthelona. Day 3. Dali Day. With some Picasso thrown in for good measure.

( This way to the pretty... )

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!


I'm watching the protests against the G8 going on in Rostock on TV.


HAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!1111!!!!1eleventy!!!!1onez!!!!

The second part of Day 2's adventures! I am an intrepid explorer!

( Day 2, part 2. )

*Apparently Eljay couldn't handle the original amount of pictures in the post, so I've had to split it up.*

Yes, I am writing this on a Friday evening. I'm a dork for not being out on the town at the moment. But I had to watch the season finale of "Lost." So there.

( Day 2, part 1. )

Here are pics from Barca. Finally. Day 1, Friday, was me getting up super early for a 6am flight to Palma de Mallorca, where I got to change planes for the flight to Barca that was just long enough for the plane to reach altitude then immediately start descent. At least that meant that I didn't have to wait ages for the snacks to be brought around. So I got to the city about 11 am, checked into my hostel (after I finally found it), then went wandering around to try and figure out what to do. And I went to the Museum of Contemporary Art. I also had to decipher a lot of signs written in Catalan and Castillian. Did I mention the tourist crowds? Throngs of people everywhere and I think every other person was British. I also ate lunch at what turned out to be a sort of fancy restaurant. Well, fancy in a trendy way. Not the best experience because I was sort of fresh off the plane and they, heh, put me in a corner that wasn't readily visible to the rest of the restaurant. They had very good cod dumplings, though.


( Day 1. )

Today's holiday is Christi Himmelfahrt. That's Ascension for us, but the German word is way better. It's a public holiday in quite a few countries around here, and I think it's also Father's Day in Germany. And so everything is closed. Again. Didn't we just have Easter where everything was shut for like four days?!?!?

Whatever...it's a day I don't have to go to classes! Horray! I get to...do laundry and clean my room.

Barcelona pics are coming...I now just have to feel like sitting around long enough to upload them to LJ and all that good stuff. I've been trying to upload some videos to YouTube or DailyMotion, but they just take soooooo long.

And I looked at my calendar...only 10 weeks left! NNNNOOOOOOOOOOO!

I'm back from Barcelona. It was warm and sunny the whole time. I did quite a lot of stuff. And I did indeed come back with an obscene amount of photos, not to mention a t-shirt with something obscene written on it. Photos posted when I get around to rotating and sorting them.

It is raining and hailing in Berlin. Whyyyyyy?!?!!?

So...yesterday was May Day. Formerly a big Communist holiday, but now mostly just an excuse to demonstrate, party, and throw bottles at police if you're so inclined. Berlin has been home to some very bad May Days, especially in my neighborhood Kreuzberg, but the creation of the Myfest street party a few years ago has prevented any large scale riots. Boo. Anyways....

( A few pics of lefty, communisty, dancing with tomatoes type stuff. )


And I'm off to Barcelona/BarTHelona on Friday for four days. I got a new Speicherkarte (my English is failing me at the moment), so I'll probably have way more pics when I come back than I really need. I hope it doesn't rain for all four days. And my hotel will be minutes away from the beach!!!