Berlin cont.

After I woke up I went to breakfast and ate with Martina, Mary, Rebecca and Olga. Because we want to go with Martina to photo galleries in the afternoon, Olga Josh Carra Annie and I went with the MFAs to see a residency - Künstlerhaus Bethanien Berlin. We took the bus there and talked about legally getting married and separating for 4-5 years in order to get a legal divorce in order to procure citizenship haha. The place was amazing. We got to see a really great slide show/history of the place. It used to be a hospital and was on the west side of the wall. the houses on the opposite side of the street that are viewable from the windows of the place were on the east side. it also had a protestant church attached which is now the main gallery space. Two of the older MFAs were going to a concentration camp in the afternoon. it's something i feel the need to see at some point, but not this trip. The place in general was amazing. After the slideshow, he let us take a lot of magazines and art books for free. We went to three of the artists' studios. The 2nd & 3rd ones were amazing. After we were done around half one, we went and sat outside of a nice cafe and ate on the street (really made me homesick for Paris!) I had a salad with two toasted baguette halves with melted goat cheese on top. Martina dropped her cigarette down a grate and had to pour water on it to keep it from catching on fire haha.

Martina Mary Chris Olga & I set off to find a gallery with Kandida Hopper paintings. When we were in the U-bahn on a certain line it was like paris, where the cars aren't separated and you can see down the line, Chris Attenborough started getting obsessed with it- "It's like being inside of a snake!" On the confused walk to find the gallery, we were in this giant square where they filmed the scene in the Bourne Supremacy where Matt Damon kidnaps Julia Stiles on the tram. We saw this statue and Olga said "I did that!" So I did a giant mosaic on a building nearby and Chris did the entryway. "How long did that take you?" "A long time coz it was all found objects." Okay, it was a lot funnier to us at the time. Like seeing this strange cafe with grey and brown blankets folded up by each seat. We decided it was a refugee cafe and started naming all the things we'd serve in our own refugee restaurant. Eventually we found it, and the photos were very good. Olga thought she lost the ring julien had given her and started to have a panic attack but I told her it would be alright and to just explain to him what happened and he would understand and probably get her a new one. Next we went to a gallery with a show on called "Mummy is Nasty." It was absolutely brilliant. I took photos/videos. We were rather museum'd out by the time we were done there and were supposedly near a street Martina's friends said had good vintage and second hand shops. We set out on a quest that Chris A soon left. I got a pendant of a silver and mirror handmirror heh. The woman spoke no english but we still managed to all communicate and it was really fun. There was a silver designer dress from paris that i wanted SO badly but it was over 100 eur, so no. I ended up hiding it in the middle of the rack so I didn't have to look at it haha. We walked up the street to another place and were carrying on till we found out the woman working was actually from L.A. and then felt slightly silly. However, she pointed us towards a 2 level vintage shop called Made In Berlin. We got there after asking many random people and stopping very quickly in another shop. Made In Berlin was pretty amazing. One floor each for ladies and gents. I found two pairs of boots and a long skirt. Olga got a beautiful green jacket with elbow patches. Mary left to go home and we darted into an Apotheke right as they were closing and I grabbed some stockings. We split up to get changed and met Martina back downstairs. Aoife Angel and Shannalia were going to a German food restaurant down the straße, but we weren't in the mood at the moment, so we returned to our sushi dinner place. I ate a ridiculous amount of food but it was absurdly cheap. We talked a bit over dinner and then I went home because I was very tired and didn't feel in top form. A whole crowd of Burren people were in the lobby so I sat with them for awhile before heading upstairs and having a heart-to-heart with Kristen.


I woke up atound 8 and got ready. Olga and I went out around half 8 and got strawberries and cold coffee beverages in Kaisers. We ate as we wandered and then meandered into the only store open, some oriental-ish place that smelled very good but was not very cheap. We ran into Rebecca and Steve and then went to check if the 2nd hand shop Kristen told us about was open, but no luck. So we went back up to the street we'd been on and got breakfast at a cafe. I got a rasberry smoothie in a sippycup and cake. While we sat outside Martina and Pam (i think it was pam) walked up and sat with us and had lattes. Chris and Dan showed up as well and Martina told us that the one giftshop we'd wanted to go in was open, so we walked back there and I got some souvenirs and a large luggage bag to bring everything back in. Walking back up toward the goth store (where I hoped to find a corset for photos), another vintage shop was open so we stopped in there and the man was very nice and funny. The woman, Julia was also very nice and helped us try on and find clothes and shoes. They cut their prices more than in half when they found out we were on the USD (they thought we were from London at first. YES! 2nd time!) We went to the goth shop and a sign said back in a moment (in german) but a woman outside saw us looking and talking about it and asked if we wanted to go inside because she just happened to be the store owner. I got my corset and by then it was 11.40 so we hurried back and got back in 10 minutes, I repacked everything and changed my pants so I could wear my new boots. We all met in the lobby upstairs and then went out to the bus. Noah, Drew Franz, Elizabeth & I got into the lift and Olga darted in as the door was closing and collided with it but got in. The bus was uneventful and I nodded off. In the airport, we got our boarding passes and went through security and all that. I finally found the Yves Saint Laurent "Cinema" perfume that I've been looking for since Paris in the Duty Free shop. As we waited to find out what gate we'd be at, Drew guessed it would be 7 and it was. I had a window seat (14A) and luckily my knee didn't bother me like it had on the way over.

The Berlin art scene seems to be a bit edgier than London or Paris and there are a lot of roads with multiple galleries one right after another which is nice. The nightlife in Berlin was excellent but everything opened fairly late in the morning. It seems like the opposite of London in that respect. London wakes up before dawn and sleeps early. Berlin stays up all hours and sleeps in. Like London, everyone had the very best coats and boots. The architecture was more colourful and varied than London but maybe less so than Irish towns and cities. The graffiti is unrivaled, however. It it did not have as much street music as in London Paris or Dublin. I think I only heard it three times the entire time. London had the most I believe, almost tied with Paris.

I made lists of everything I bought/drank/ate/galleries I went to/music I listened to on the way back. Luckily Drew's retractible fishing rod made it through checked luggage. As soon as we stepped out of the airport we were hit with the strongest possible wind. We stopped for food and then went home. I kept trying to see what people were doing but they kept changing their minds so I ended up staying in and falling asleep. Chris texted me after I already nodded back asleep that there were people over but I didn't get it till the next morning.