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a christmas markt

i know i skipped some time. the bloggist that lies within me is a bit reserved, quite scatter brained, and helplessly romanticizes stories that they seem to not make it to real text often. anyways, this past weekend i traveled down south and westward  some distance to a sleepy little town, kindsbach: home to the Tresemers. it was a wonderful time and perfect timing to get away from what has become my life here. work had been hectic and the sun had not shown his (i believe the sun to be male and the moon to be female) face on berlin in a solid four days here.

we had a real american thanksgiving, southern style deep fried turkey and all. we set the table fancy. we played games. we overate and nearly fell asleep watching football. it felt all so familiar and all so out of place. i also found myself missing berlin. i have fallen head over heels for this city and realized i know it better than any other place i have lived in. i'm sure this will change as i move back home in a months time and slowly seek out the crevices hiding in austin. i believe i can attribute knowing berlin well due to my mode of transporting oneself. the cities i have taken up residence and know the least are ones where i was held down by a car - my fault or the layout of the land's fault. denver falls in the middle of the spectrum as i drove mostly, biked quite a bit, and walked a decent amount. though most of the walking was started off with an automobile getting me there. san antonio i know the very least despite living there the longest time. no big plans to return.

i once had a professor in school that said he would walk for 3-4 hours every sunday. three to four HOURS! that is a lot of time. he would travel on different paths and new roads each walk he set out on. he also knew the city of fayetteville like that of the men who drew the city maps (pre-satellite days). i always admired this about him. we take in vastly different perspectives in how we engage with our city by the way we are being carried. even a ritual jog through your local park will be a different sight for your eyes if you are strolling at a slow gait with company by your side. my biking eyes here have picked up on many things my walking eyes never did and vice-versa.

[here are some pics of the first christmas market i've laid my eyes on. heidelburg, germany is was. and the company was delightful]

my little point and shoot camera has died. this is sad news. i still have many days left in germany and quite a few images that need capturing, especially as the barren trees reveal what was nestled behind. it's funny how when you don't have a camera in your pocket you think about all of the things you want to snap a photo of. well, this was sad news for two days until a friend here lent me one of theirs. it is one of those in between easy-to-use cameras and manual fancy ones. i think i will keep it on manual and see how i quickly, or not so, adapt. 

first photo:

on the m-4 tram

kolliwitz platz market

a hill of war rubble is beneath you at this high point in prenzlauer berg. the structure on the left is a renovated water storage now residential building. and we discovered public trampolines. i waited patiently behind the 3 year old for my turn. i jumped and giggled.

snowy view

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fantastic web-site


Second [2]

we ventured (read: I pulled my flatmate along to my out-of-the-way curiosities) on our way from berlin to dresden to check out a viewing platform. while i'm not entirely sure what over arching category viewing platforms fall under in regards to architecture i'm sure i would be content designing them. i like views. who doesn't like views. i think it is the trip up to the view that most loathe. in this case it was stairs. corten stairs. oh, and a fit of snow, pronounced sneee in german. because of the snow conditions we sadly couldn't 'view' very far. i was content just going. would love to go back on a clear winter day, though not sure that will ever happen as i need a car and am without an international drivers license. 

okay then. pictures do the work here. 

leafage

fall chemtrails

old . new.
(two minutes after i took this photo a man living off of his bike , stopped himself, said a few choice words in german, and proceeded to hit my camera out of my hand. i guess these things just happen sometimes) 

playful lines

bike on leaves

frau jinah

moabit lane

a red reichstag

fall time is underway in berlin and has been for some weeks now. not sure why i haven't noticed the stages of autumn leaves as much as i have recently. they are floating above: changing, they are in the air between head and feet: dancing, they are below as the carpet of the city streets: crunching. on every street here that has trees lining down them is a sea of gold. perhaps it's the combination of city-backdrops and fall foliage that have been stealing my stare. or the hours i spend on my bike moving through this big place. 

september skies at the reichstag

snapped before circling up the glass dome

our other side trip was prague, or as everybody else in the continent of europe would call it, praha. do you know why we choose to change the name of cities? i mean they are already foreign words, right? let us just stick with the original. if we brainstorm for a hot second as which cities we (the english language) have altered we can come up with: munich/münchen | rome/roma | florence/firenze....the list goes on. i guess if you go there you get to choose what you want to call the place. i like that idea.

okay i did some research and it seems a few logical reasons for why the text has changed in city names but i still like the idea of each person getting to choose, which is pretty much what happened anyways, as it 'fit' into the english language more fluidly.

sad to say: praha was swarming beyond bees with tourists. i'm not saying i wasn't amongst them snapping pictures, gabbing non-local language, standing in the middle of the roadway while head buried in  map (just to name a few stand-outs) but the tourist traffic really did a number on the genuineness of the city. i'm sure it is there, just buried. i'm sure praha is lovely. i'm sure it is quaint and has nimble little alleyways to discover. looks like i need a time traveling machine to explore the city in the ways i would like. any folks out there have one? i would like to land in 1885. one hundred years before i was born. don't worry, i'll come back.

so this tourism scene. it is here to stay. it has changed cities like praha and many others. cities have created whole marketing strategies around how they can collect and wrangle as many of these globe-totters as they can. i do not blame the city, it is just not for my most ideal travel ways. however, living is a whole different discussion and might call for a pot of green tea. i'm talking about visiting, the 48-96 hour type, as we were.

i'm not sure who out there has qualms with instagram, but i instagrammed the crap out of one of our days in prague. i had an iphone in my hands and was like a kid who wouldn't let go of their teddy bear. it was fun. now that is over and my point and shoot, currently dying a slow death, will suffice and boy it will.

: instagrammation :

in retrospect: too much blur effect. i'm an amateur.

dresden

dresden military history museum

there is a list of german cities that i would love to walk though and gaze upon. the list is kind-of, sort-of long as well as continually being added to and so presents a small problem in visiting them since germany is not so tiny. on top of which, a normative job is being played out in my days and some weekends you just want to hang around prenzlauer berg and live local. however last week was all exploration in two new cities. dresden was first and instantly had a strong affinity for the place.

we took the bus (read: i told my mom there was no other way to travel; cheap here) and got to dresden in two short hours with bokoos of euros saved. plus, they give you wasser and fig granola bars on the ride. double score. our place was in the new part of town and just a walk away from the old part. this whole NEW part and OLD town is common language in european cities. Sometimes still intact are the old medieval walls that gives one a sense of how compact the city really was. Also to see the growth that happened as the city was bursting out of the seams for more land to live on.  

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play-by-plays are not really my forte as i get on tangents and not sure anyone really cares about all the details, for they should just experience something similar to know how the story goes.

the sketch above is from a building i was completely taken aback by. the ginormous gesture of old and new. a redefinition of worlds colliding and something emerging from them. i believe this architectural move was quite appropriate for what the designer was trying to achieve. many locals are upset. they are allowed to be. the building is begging for an emotional and intellectual focus on history. in this specific case: the history of war.

as we know, dresden was decimated in 1945 at the tail end of world war II. this occurrence totally razed the historic center of they city. it's truly amazing to walk through the streets as it has been restored almost as it once existed before bane.

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architect: daniel libeskind

completion: 2011

previous uses: saxon armory | nazi museum | soviet museum | east german museum

survived 1945 bombing: yes!
http://daniel-libeskind.com/projects/military-history-museum/images



approach



scale



juxtaposition

[fancy architecture word for one thing next to another]



view to the city

           model © Studio Daniel Libeskind