Berlin, Wo Gehst Du Hin?

Hallo aus der Haupstadt von Deustchland! I have fallen in love with Berlin immediately, and I cannot put my finger on whether this is due to the circumstance (my last chance to start again and lose myself in a new city entirely, one with such an amazing history AND a language I can speak...) or the city itself. I arrived on a dank, grey Sunday afternoon after my 7 hour coach journey from Copenhagen which had involved a wonderful Australian and a ferry (nicht zusammen) and lots of sleeping, and found the flat in Charlottenberg where I am lodging. 

Berlin life so far.

I have been asked why I am undertaking a language course seeing as I can already speak German, and I have quickly come to the realisation that it's really a glorified reason to be living in Berlin for a while. I have always found the history of the city so interesting, and it really is up-and-coming more than ever, so I thought why not dust off my dictionary and go back to school, if only for three weeks. I am attending the GLS school in Prenzlauerberg, an area which I have fallen head over heels for.

It houses tiny streets jampacked with happy Germans sitting out drinking coffee at all hours, and is a really lovely campus (even if I'm not living on it) and with class only from 9 bis 12.30, I have the afternoons free to sight-see, wish I really am making the most of. It's a city of colour, age, and not too many tourists. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Even if the food shops aren't open on Sundays (I found that out the hard way), my German isn't up to scratch (I found this out the hard way too) and I have forgotten all about dative and accusative reflexive verbs (I found this out the hard way as well...).

I have just a small collection of photos as no one really wants to see photos of a classroom, so have a wee jumble of Things and anticipate a logical post in the next few days when I have done Real Things over the (hopefully sunny!!) weekend. Bis später!

Holocaust Memorial - the museum is free, but get there early or face a long queue as they only let 10 people in at a time due to the security checks. Leave your cameras in your bag, get an audio guide, and try to comprehend all the information and figures that you will learn. I am still trying to understand it all. Around the corner from the Museum is the Reichstag AND Brandenburg Gate (Tor) so you can knock all of those out in a few hours!

Checkpoint Charlie - free, and complete with overly friendly German guards.

'The smell of waffles binds more to life than all philosophical arguments' from my favourite coffee shop, Rosalyn, where Chai Lattes and Yoghurt may as well be served on tap; a lovely way to spend the morning break.

On a slight side note, I'd like to wish my Mum a very happy birthday! I am in Berlin (obviously) so made this teeny tribute at the Brandenburg gate and received some lovely looks from various tourists. Happy birthday Mum!

The Physical Impossibility of a Non-Pretentious Damien Hirst Piece.

N.B: 10/10 if you understand the blogpost title! If not, do some basic Wikipeadia-ing of Damien Hirst and you'll soon be sorted. These titles are becoming more and more cryptic/obnoxious as my blog progresses. Oops.

Anyway, Esther Walker - wife of the esteemed Giles Coren and keen food-blogger - once wrote an article for The Times giving her advice on blogging, with the first of many tips that I didn't agree with, being 'Never Apologise For Not Blogging' followed by 'Blog Consistently or No-One Will Read Your Blog Ever' or something along those lines. Well Ms Walker, I am sorry that I have neither been consistent and am about to be rather apologetic for the former.

While my blogging in America and my follow-up of India were both frequent and interesting, my posts have during this last leg of my gap year have been neither, and for that I apologise! This trip is running away with me, and I am already two weeks from coming home. I know; 22,360 miles, 37 plane hours, 15 art galleries, 8 months, and numerous existential-crises later, I am just 15 days from being home for a sustained amount of time.

The commitment-phobe in me is screaming loudly and frantically searching Easyjet's website for a holiday anywhere.

Though, truth be told, I am looking forward to home-based adventures, and to getting a Real Job in order to earn some money before moving up North at the end of September. As I type this, I am skimming through both my photos and blogposts from this year and wondering how I ended up here, and how, if you'd said to be this time last year that I would wind up living on my own in South-West Berlin to round off nearly 8 months of travelling, I would have made you take a drug-test and walk in a straight line, for fear of you being rather, well, let's just say 'no with it' and be done with my point.

In NY Carlsberg Glyptotek which I would also recommend!

I had a fantastic last week in Roskilde, and the inner art-fan-girl in me had a phenomenal last few days in Denmark as I explored the NY Carlsberg Glyptotek Museum/Gallery, the Arken Gallery, and Louisiana, all on the Zealand island. Last year, I really started to enjoy art, much more than I had previously, and I discovered my love for Damien Hirst, Tracey Emin, Judy Chicago, Louise Bourgeios, just to name a few. I have tried to encorporate as much art into my travels as I can, and often I've wandered haplessly into an exhibition hall without even realising it.

I hadn't heard of the 'Arken Gallery' until Hanne and Mogens (the very kind, very lovely, very Danish friends whom I stayed with - a shout out to you both, thank you!) mentioned it over dinner last Tuesday, and mentioned in passing that there lies, in said gallery, the biggest collection of Damien Hirst in Northern Europe, due to a recent donation. A tear or two may have been shed at the suggestion that we go later in the week, and I was so utterly impressed with the collection. Having been to, and fallen in love with, his retrospective at the Tate Modern last Spring (almost a year to the date) I was really lucky to see his work again, including some pieces that I'd never heard of.

While it is a bit in the middle of nowhere, I would absolutely recommend this gallery! The other collections (including the current exhibition on Carl Henning-Persden and their permanent exhibitions featuring Grayson Perry  amongst others) are brilliant too, and entrance costs just 95DK (£10). I may have taken a few sneaky photos but shhh, let's not tell the gallery(ies).

Damien!

Just a little bit excited about the Grayson Perry tapestry..

My formaldehyde friends - 'Love's Paradox (Surrender or Autonomy, Seperateness as a Precondition for Connection)'

'Art'

"There's [Nothing] Rotten in the State of Denmark"

I just wanted to quickly add photos of our (mine and Lucy's!) time in Roskilde as I wanted to give this town its dues, even if three of our days together were spent indoors watching the snow, cooking, eating ice cream, and watching SATC in bed. It's a beautiful town with a fabulous Cathedral and Viking Museum, and all the crazy amenities a town could want - with brilliant transport links to Copenhagen and thus to the rest of Denmark and to Sweden too. I needed this week to really relax as I found myself 'coming down' after the high of my crazy gap year and Lucy was the best ever person to hang out with in this if-a-little-too-cold-and-snowy haven. Photos below are pretty self explanatory.

It did clear up after a while, promise!

Lucy graces my blog wearing her FABULOUS Sarah Lund style jumper whilst writing her name in runes.

The frozen fjord (which melted before I left) was one of my favourite places to walk by - very serene.

Excitable undergrad puppy enjoying the snow.

Before we sat by and then discovered (in that order) a very dead, very fat seagull.