now that i've cleared the craziness of the tradeshow from my brain, my thoughts on berlin become a little more clear. first of all, there is something about the color of berlin, the way the natural light hits the city. lucky for me, the skies were pretty clear during my whole stay there, yet as the sun shone the city maintained this unique sedate color. if you've ever been there i'm sure you'll be reminded of what i mean when you look at the photos. it's not dark, but it's not bright. it's berlin, i suppose.
as far as the vibe goes, it's calm, but happening. meaning, it's definitely not flashy, but you can tell straight up that berliners know what's going down/what's in/what's out. one of my favorite spots was hackescher markt. granted there is art everywhere, once you step into this part of town, you see art on every wall, every building; stickers and posters on every pole, trash can, and sidewalk; and the population transits into a younger crowd. you see windows with people chatting, looking, eating, or drinking; the streets buzzing with youth; and the shopping - it was excellent, well-rounded and full of great ideas.
i should note that a lot of the observations i'm making about berlin are more like comparisons to my opinion about living in france. as much of a good experience it is to live in the "french riviera,"i feel like the region is behind on the times. image is everything down here, but when a city's not even up-to-date with what that is, they've got a ways to go. for example, the well-to-do, successful image still consists of wearing a tie. meaning, the french down here will be the first ones to turn down a 30-year-old kid at the door because his 300-euro jacket, 200-euro jeans, 55-euro cap and 150-euro sneakers (all while carrying a debit card with at least 200k and priceless gold-plated mont blanc pen in his pocket) don't fit their definition of "image" (true story, by the way). ironically, a lot of the reason why i don't go out down here is because the idea of having no option but to wear something stiff and black and old-person-looking would go against everything i consider my image to be.
with that, the complete opposite is true about berlin. or at least, they already understand that it's okay to generate and encourage elements of what is young and new to progress the city in a number of different ways. i enjoyed berlin very much! i could do without the cold, but the city has a lot to offer: a great vibe, lots of history, and a seemingly endless amount of great ideas.
the brick trail that runs through the city is all that remains of the wall, originally uploaded by mjane.
the dents in this century-old fountain are battle wounds from the war that you'll see in many of the monuments here, originally uploaded by mjane.
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