Friends, Finds, and Fotos

Berlin has been good to me.
Yes I'm only thinking of the good. Like a new lover I've got a permanant set of rosy eyeballs through which I'm seeing everything. But even the bog stench of the city isn't enough to deter my affections.

And so as the saying goes, time has flown while I had fun. It helps that I had two good buddies to hang out with (and made a few more along the way!). Simone and Corrina have headed off to Prague after four rediculously fun days. Thanks guys! It was awesome.

But here's a quick recap to cover my Berlin-capades.
Have done all the touristy things such as the Brandenburg Gate, Memorial the Murdered Jews of Europe (not exactly a happy title, but effective, and isn't that the point?), Museum Island, Bableplatz (Nazi book burning square), and the redone modern glass dome on the Reichstag (soooo cool!). Even took a boat ride down the river Spree (pernounced like "spray" but with a bit more phlegmy rasp).

Really enjoyed the Reichstag. Too cool of a building. Read more about it here. But the best part had to be running into Elizabeth a PhD student of Archaelogy at Cambridge. Brillant that she is, she even managed to instruct a lout like me on how to use my camera properly. She had exactly the same one, but with a million better lenses. Now have many delicious photos of reflective glass and interesting modern architecture. Thanks Elizabeth!

Yesterday all of us were feeling a bit damaged from the night previous (I curse you red wine! Curse you!). So with slow plodding steps headed over to one of three flea markets that Berlin hosts ever Sunday. Holy heck! This place was amazing. If you're ever in Berlin on a Sunday, go. You won't regret it. And unlike flea markets back home, there was plenty of new things as well. I managed to pick up a neat shirt by a local graffiti artist. (Not to mention picking his brains on how he made them!) Also scored a super cheap copy of Edgar Allen Poe's short stories. Neatest bit was that the guy selling them made me pick a random bookmark card from a deck. After I selected a pretty blue one, he turned it over and translated the poem written on the other side. (Poem was in german despite being by a South American poet.) The basic jist of the poem is "Don't run too fast, your inner child won't be able to keep up." Good idea to live by I think.

Today all the museums I wanted to see are all closed (Damn you Europe and your weird museum closed days!). So I spent it shopping instead! The damage? Six Copic markers (have been drooling over these for years.) and a pair of black and white Onitsuka Tiger runners (have been lusting over these since Genoa). Yes it cost a bit. But it could have been WAY worse as there are a billion stores near my hostel that I would be quite happy to completely deprive of merchandise. Oh well, next time Berlin!

Tomorrow I hop a plane for Barcelona, Spain. Time to chase the warmer weather. I'm so done with this Autumn thing. :P