berlin

last week there was a small christmas market in baden, just alongthe main street badstrasse and there were a lot of stands selling stuff like mittens and sweets like candied almonds and gingerbread and stuff like that, it was very cool, looking forward to going to a big christmas market in germany in a little while.



went to berlin on friday after work from basel, about an hour and a half flight. got there at night, went to the hostel, took awhile cause the s-bahn was a little messed up just then. walked to the reichstag at night, stood in line for a bit, but it was very awesome going up there at night. mirrors, glass, windows, view of the city at night. so it was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall so there as just a ton of stuff set up around brandenburg gate, it was very very cool. something once in a lifetime for sure. proceeded to go eat some kebabs at 'pergamon bistro' where we would end up eating 90% of our meals in berlin. nothing better than 3 euro kebabs, that is about 4.50 chf which is less than half of what a 10 chf kebab is in switzerland. and also ate a currywurst as well as the kebab. it was alright, i expected better. come to think of it i also ate a falafel in addition to that as well. after dinner we pretty much started wandering around. somehow wandered into the most awesome art collective building ever. it's called 'tacheles' and it's an old building that artists have been squatting for years. randomly, we followed these people carrying old beat up brass instruments up these stairs in this completely graffiti-ed building. there were people selling stuff like clothes prints and jewellry, very very cool. i honestly was so taken away in this place. stood there and listened to the band play for a long time. somehow they were so good, so into it, just a great time. there were 4 floors i think in this place, we explored all of them. there was another band playing home pipe instruments including a homemade bagpipe. this other artist's exhibition was really just incredible as well. and just all over the place awesome graffiti. there are also two bars i think that are attached to this place.

the next day, got up and went on a free walking tour of the city. started by brandenburg gate, there were a lot of people there obviously for the whole event thing, but managed to get on the tour. walked around for a good 4.5 hours actually, but it was very good. lots of history, lots of stuff to see. cool city. went to the holocaust memorial again and went through the museum, it was pretty sobering but yea, should probably have gone through it. went for more food, obviously kebabs again, and then went out that night. didn't really stay out too late though.

sunday we went to go see the east side gallery, all of it had been freshly repainted - just a long section of the berlin wall that's now a big outdoor gallery, it was very cool, about the length of an interval between s-bahn stops. it was also pretty cold this weekend just throwing that out there. after this, we went to a great outdoor market, forget what it's called now, but there was a lot of just junk there, but also some really neat stuff. old cameras, food, i bought a couple t shirts, lots of socks, ate some corn. watched some random karaoke, started a dance party in a field with random speakers at 4:30 in the afternoon. it was great. didn't really do too much else this night, just hung out at the kebab place, wandered around some more - the next morning was getting up at 5:00am to get to the airport to get home, and then for work once getting back to baden at 9:30 am. but it was a really cool trip, nothing like i have ever seen before.

the city is somehow so "real". it's kinda dirty, artsy, grungy, just a lot of stuff has happened there, and it definitely shows still, but the people are cool, lots of arts and culture going on. yea, an interesting place, i feel like everyone should visit there.