Fall Break in Berlin

This post is quite overdue, but here it is . . . pictures from my fall break in Berlin. Berlin is awesome; I think my favorite city so far. History lingers in every corner, whether it be a vestige of Prussian prosperity, the horrifying events of WWII, or its central position in the Cold War. But history is really only one point of interest here. No other European city seems to be as much of a manifestation of 21st century culture. Unlike little Praha over here which seems to live in the shadow of its much more glorious past, Berlin has clearly propelled itself beyond its historical bounds. This can clearly be seen in the architecture, with its many innovative and truly unique buildings (versus prague, say, which generally rejects modern architecture, with the exception of one interesting Frank Gehry building, in an attempt to hold onto a perceived notion of a national identity based in the past).

In Berlin, contemporary art galleries permeate numerous neighborhoods and rival the fantastic older collections in some of the world's greatest museums. The nightlife is very young as many creative young people flock to the region, and the population is quite culturally diverse with a large Turkish population. The people seemed friendly and genuine and usually very interesting to talk to. Although anti-semitism still plagues a small group of Berliners, it is a very progressive city (its mayor is openly gay). So here are a few pics, I reserved quite a few because I just had far too many (its a very photogenic city) . . .

examples of the contemporary architecture . . .

Mies Van Der Rohe's building for the Neue Nationalgalerie . . .

The hub of contemporary Berlin, Potsdamer Platz, was destoryed in WWII and then lay desolate during the cold war, butttt now!

my mom is like soo heep (hip with German accent)

we went to the Pfaueninsel, Peacock Island, where the Prussian kings summered and played

the off-duty peacocks
the pocket-sized palace
back to the city, an interesting apartment complex . . .

and, of course, I wouldn't feel like I actually went to Berlin without a picture of the potentially most famous historical 20th c. icon to prove it (even though its kind of a lame pic)

 

another not so fun reminder of the past at the Topography of Terror - 
back to the present, moma and i visited the turkish market in Kreuzberg, which was packed with people and interesting goodies


We sampled turkish delight, some dried fruits, those honey covered pastry things which are delicious, etc. This cute couple performed on one side of the market for a congregation of kool kids who were jus chillin:

Daniel Libeskind's architecturally-interesting and informative Jewish museum, within which the architecture represented the experience of the Jewish people in Germany (the Holocaust, emigration from Germany, and the continuity with German history):

a rando piece of interesting architecture:

These next few are from the Pergamon Museum, which houses the Pergamon Alter:

And here I am for Halloween in a rather odd pic with a large Playmobile figure. I put some goblin-like face paint on. Most people in Berlin, however, didn't participate in the festivities of Halloween, so I probably just looked like I had some pretty severe skin problems. Meagan didn't dress up, but Ben featured a lovely mix of Peruvian and Estonian textiles.