Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain

I'm sorry that I haven't written any updates in a long time and that I still don't have pictures up for my last post! Hopefully I can cover everything in here!

I'll start with today. My roommate works in a music studio and primarily manages bands, but he is also in one himself. They had a concert tonight in Kreuzberg and I went to go see it. It was a restaurant with a bar/stage in the basement and it was really cool. Music and art are huge parts of Berlin. When you ride in the S- or U-Bahn, you will sometimes have a little band play for you and you can always here some street musicians in Mitte. the band played great and it was a really cool, relaxed scene. Most of the people were friends of the band members, but there were some other music producer types there and they seemed to be fans of it too. They sang in German, which was cool for me, because a lot of German bands sing in English. The best song was Katzenleben, but there were lots of other good ones. New York compares Berlin to New York and they talked about Berlin specifics in a lot of their songs. You can hear all their songs on their webpage, http://www.myspace.com/amkiosk.

Last weekend, I went to Kreuzberg/Friedrichshain to check out some of the Flohmarkten (flea markets). I really wanted to see a Turkish Market on the Maybachufer, which is canal that runs through Berlin. I started out on the S-Bahn, but completely missed my stop (Jannowitzbruecke). I ended up in Ostkreuz, which was at least three stations to far. The area looked really cool, so I decided to follow the tracks and walk to the last station. I took a bunch of pictures along the way. The area is really cool, because the two neighborhoods around there, Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain, are really youthful, international and artistic. There is a bunch of really cool grafitti. Here are a couple examples:















I really liked the dinosaur in the first picture and it also shows the pink pipelines that run all over Berlin. I was really confused as to their purpose at first, but I asked my dad. They are actually for construction sites to provide what I assume is water, but maybe natural gas or something. I really love the second picture, which is I weird, because I actually love capitalism. It's cool to see all the different opinions here.

Here is another picture of Friedrichshain grafitti. I actually too this picture when I was with my dad, but it is in the same area. By now, you can probably tell where most Berliners lean politically, haha. I like how they paint these huge murals on buildings along the Spree river. The painting on the left seems to symbolize our slavery to capitalism, but I'm having trouble interpreting the one on the right, so if you have suggestions, let me know! Maybe something to do with how we are robbing each other.



When I got to Warschaurstrasse, where I needed to get back on the S-Bahn, I saw some more cool grafitti. I'm not sure how much you can see of the picture, but in the background is a huge building with "Deutschland Verrecke" written on it. Deutschland Verrecke is probably similar in meaning to "Death to America", only applying to Germany instead of the US. It was a little shocking the first time I saw it, especially because it was right after I had seen a soccer game at a public viewing venue run by 11 Freunde (a soccer magazine). I was with my roommate and at first all we saw was Deutschland. We were so happy to see someone who was so proud of Germany during the World Cup that they would write Deutschland on the their roof. Slowly the rest became visible though and it was a little shocking. It is a left/punk expression against Germany's nationalism, especially during the World Cup, when you see flags everywhere.

After getting on the S-Bahn, I had to switch to the U-Bahn. I got out pretty close to the market, but it is unfortunately closed on Saturdays, so I have to go on a Friday some other day. I was a little disappointed, but I got an ice cream and walked down Kottbuser Damm, which is in a different neighborhood, Neukoelln. Neukoelln has a huge immigrant population and all you heard was either Turkish or English. It was kind of funny, because all the natives speak Turkish and all the signs are in Turkish, but Americans really love this part of Berlin, so you hear it almost as much. I knew a different Flohmarkt to go to and I was able to walk there, but it was a bit long, maybe 4 km. There were some interesting personalities along the way. There was a man - who I assume was homeless and was probably in his 50s - who was walking along a major street with his pants rolled up in his hand and only wearing only underwear and a shirt!

I arrived at the other Flohmarkt, which is close to Mehringdamm U-Bahn station. Most of the stuff was cheap and used, but I was able to find a couple of cool things. I talked to one of the vendors who was from Liberia. He was really cool and he had lived in America for 3 years, in New York City and Flagstaff, Arizona! I really like how international Berlin is and even though most immigrants are from Turkey, you see a lot of Africans, Arabs and East Europeans too, not to mention Americans. It makes for good food as well. I now know where to get the best Currywurst (Curry 36) and the best Doener (near Kleistpark).

My dad was able to come the weekend before and it was a fun, relaxing weekend. We took a boat ride down the Spree and the canal by the Turkish Market. I was able to see a lot of new things that I hadn't seen yet, especially the Friedrichshain/Kreuzberg area. On saturday we went went into Mitte and saw Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt and Potsdammer Platz. I had already seen all those things at least once, but my dad hadn't seen Berlin since 1988 (before the fall of the wall). At that time, Potsdammer Platz was an empty field in East Germany - part of the death strip before the wall. Gendarmenmarkt was in the East and probably not very nice (there are two beautiful churches facing each other with an opera in between them). Check Point Charlie wasn't the biggest crossing point back then, but it's become such a big part of American culture (because it was the American check point) that it's the most popular for tourists. The biggest check point was Friedrichsstrasse, but that's an S-bahn/U-bahn station now. Later that day, we went to a restaurant with amazing Flammkuchen (similar to pizza) and watched the US game, but we were the only people really interested and most Germans seemed to be for Ghana. On Sunday, we went to Potsdam and took a boat tour. It has been extremely hot for the last two weeks and it was almost unbearable on the deck, so we had to go inside. It was cool to see all the castles again, but this time from the Wannsee. Afterwards, we took the S-bahn back to my apartment and watched the Germany-England game. we were worried at first, but Germany quickly scored two goals and it seemed we were unstoppable until a quick England goal. England almost scored again, but the ref didn't notice it passed the line, so we were a bit lucky. The Germans dominated the game though and won 4-1. Everyone was happy, but there wasn't much overconfidence at that time. We knew England was bad and we now had to play Argentina, the best team up to that point other than Germany.

For the Germany-Argentina game, I went to biergarten with my roommate. It was a lot of fun, but extremely hot. We had played beach volleyball before, which was a lot of fun. Germans aren't as good as Americans at volleyball, so I didn't look terrible! Germany won the game 4-0 and nobody could believe it. Every goal was a miracle and at the end everyone was chanting "einer kann noch rein" (one more can go in) and 5 minutes later, Germany scored its 4th goal. Here is a picture of the afterparty at the Biergarten. It seemed impossible to lose after that game! Unfortunately, just as everyone built up hope, our dreams were smashed against Spain and we had to live with third place again. I watched the Spain game at the biergarten again and the third place game at a beach bar, which are really popular here along the rivers. The German team didn't even greet the fans this year and a lot of people were disappointed.