Umweltfest

This Sunday was the "Environment Festival" in Berlin, which took place between the Brandenburg Gate and the Siegessäule. There were different stands by environmental organizations and political groups, also artists, and farmers, beer brewers, organic foods stands.
Below is a poster from Greenpeace, against genetically modified milk:
Below: steak in a Brötchen (roll), roasted potatoes with quark. Beer from Potsdam (outside Berlin).

We also got to watch a chef for a while...It was funny how the audience interacted with him. One woman stood up at some point and grabbed one of the bottles of oil he was using to look at it. It was a plug for organic cooking.
At one point we listened to a panel for a while (on the stage behind the cook) of various politicians from Berlin talking about pedestrian traffic/bike traffic/public transportation. It was really interesting. Berlin is totally bike-friendly but they were talking about how to make it even more so...how to redesign intersections so pedestrians and bikers have priority over cars, lowering speed limits in residential areas and near schools to reduce noise, making the buses more efficient, etc.

das Konzerthaus

The Konzerthaus, one of the three buildings on the beautiful Gendarmenmarkt, had an open-house so we got to peek inside. It was built between 1818-1821. The interior was redesigned after WWII. It is now the concert hall for the Berlin Symphony Orchestra.

Seen in Berlin

Some random things I've seen while jogging/biking/walking through the city:

- artists painting the Berlin Wall - The longest remaining stretch of the wall is called the "East Side Gallery" and is painted by various artists. It has been damaged and graffitied and now they are restoring (or maybe just redoing?) some of the works. When we ran by there were bright white places waiting to be painted, and artists in action, behind a wire fence so the new pieces would be protected.

- policemen guarding Jewish sites - Outside the Jewish Museum and "CAFE BETH", a Jewish cafe, there are permanently two policemen stationed.

- people fishing on the Spree - sorry, Dad, I didn't stop to see if/what they were catching

Zoo, Ku'Damm

Another area of the city is the area around the Zoo, with one of the biggest shopping areas, a street called Kurfürstendamm ("Ku'damm" for short). One building which stands out is the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, which is left half-destroyed as it was after the war, as a reminder of the damage and destruction. To the left and right of the ruined church are new buildings, with beautiful stained glass. At night they glow bluish from the outside.
Below: Lots of people out shopping
Here is also the biggest department store in continental Europe (Harrods in London is bigger), the KaDeWe, which stands for Kaufhaus des Westens (KDW), Department Store of the West. They have a huge gourmet foods section on the sixth floor (the size of two football fields?!).


This used to be West Berlin, and in 1950 when the store reopened after the war, there was such a flood of people that they had to call in the police to get them out and only let in a few at a time. (picture below) It was a symbol of the thriving capitalism of West Berlin while the city was divided. And what it looks like today:
Here is a New York Times article in case you are interested in the food in this place.

Tiergarten und Siegessäule

yay! bikes! long story but we now both have bikes...so we took a ride through the Tiergarten (more pictures below, but these are our own) past the Siegessäule (victory column, lined with cannons, commemorates victory against France...) to the Zoo area. On top of the column is a woman called the Goldelse, "Gold Else" and along the base there is a mosaic commemorating 1871, "birth of the German nation."

on the Spree

The Spree is the river that flows through the city. There is a small island in the middle with musuems on it, boringly called "Museumsinsel," Museum Island.

Alexanderplatz

(left) This is one of the symbols of Berlin, and the most definite symbol of East Berlin, the "TV tower," Fernsehturm. Right now it has all kinds of kitschy "ich liebe Berlin" graffiti put on it for the 20 year fall-of-the-wall anniversary.

The square itself is called Alexanderplatz, or just "Alex" for short, and it was the main square of East Germany.

Now it is totally developed, with a movie theater and a shopping mall. Currently there is a special open-air exhibit about 1989 on the square. The banners say WIR SIND DAS VOLK, (we are the people) one of the most famous slogans of the Monday Demonstrations in Leipzig, people's protests which helped lead to the fall of the wall.

Karneval der Kulturen

Today we went to the Karneval der Kulturen, the "Carnival of Cultures" in Kreuzberg, the city district with the most diversity. Every year they have this huge parade and a crazy fair to go along with it. The fair is all weekend, with different stands set up with food, alcohol, jewelery, clothes, etc.
The parade is made up of about a hundred different groups, from different countries or different kinds of music, some are sponsored by various organiztions in the city. The parade went for nine hours, to give you an idea of how much stuff there was. Most of the music was electro, and people would jump in behind their favorite floats and just follow them, dancing to the music.
There was so much alcohol everywhere, everyone drinking and dancing, I couldn't believe how many people there were. The newspaper said it is about 850,000 people watching the parade.

The food/drink: You could get a 0,33 Liter beer for 1 or 2 euros, lots of people were drinking mixed drinks (for some reason I think caipirinha is the most popular), and the most common foods were probably Wurst, grilled steaks, crepes, and Indian food, chicken. Michael and I also got Pfannkuchen, which is what non-Berliners call "Berliner," the jelly donuts Kennedy made so famous. :) Here's a picture to the left.





And some people even sorted their recycling. :) haha, not everyone, there were bottles everywhere...in Germany there is a deposit on the bottles, so there were also people going around and collecting the beer bottles, they will earn money when they return them.

Tiergarten

The Tiergarten is this huge park in Berlin where I have been running. On the easternmost side it starts a few blocks from me, at the Brandenburger Tor. From there it goes west a few miles and it is really wide with lots of winding paths.

It used to be the hunting grounds for the royalty living in Berlin (the German word Tier is related to the English word deer but now it means "animal", hence Tiergarten). It became increasingly "tamed" and fenced in until the late 18th century when it became more a park than hunting grounds.

I really like running here because there are so many interesting things hidden throughout the park...tons of various statues, little bridges, benches, flower gardens, ponds, lakes, but most of it is forest. It's not very old forest because of war damage.

Today I noticed that one of the major paths I am running on, which is called Bremer Weg, is named for the city of Bremen, which gave Berlin the trees which line this path in 1950.

One of the other paths is called Fasanenweg, "Pheasant Path", which I think my dad would think is pretty cool. Didn't hear any drumming though...The only wildlife I have seen so far are birds, not even squirrels, which seems strange.

Here is a picture I found of what the park looked like in 1945:

Berlin! Berlin!

So after two long flights we arrive in Germany and I feel right away like I am in the modern world again. Seriously, to come into Frankfurt airport and go to their ultra-modern looking train station and go 10 minutes into downtown Frankfurt, and from there get on a high-speed train to Berlin...I just have the feeling every time that the US is decades behind. The train ride was totally comfortable, I slept more than on the flight, and in less than five hours we were in Berlin, standing outside the apartment.

The building is what is called Plattenbau, cheap apartment bulidings put up in East Germany like building blocks. It has since been renovated, but you can tell from the outside which buildings were constructed like this. Our apartment is on the seventh floor, with no elevator...which is already starting to be a workout in itself. :)

We are living right on Gendarmenmarkt, below. This square has two huge churches, the French and the German Dom, and between them the Konzerthaus.

It is so beautiful. Here is a picture at night, so gorgeous:

And here I am, enjoying a half-liter sized bottle of good German Bier: