Berlin mural

I came across this mural painted with lots of Berlin landmarks - there was one from most neighborhoods. I didn't get the best angles, but hopefully you get the idea: 

Also, here is another bear:

And sculpture!

Swiss army?

This is vaguely Father's Day themed, as my dad always carries his Swiss Army knife. The street art version is a little more... Bizarre.

Evolving street art

This is around the block from us - it's my third photo of this wall, but it seems to be constantly changing!

Out and about

Today we saw one of David's friends play a gig (the bend is called Ray Man Three):

There was a really cool mural right next to them:

And on our way home I spotted these two:

And, the demise of the statue from a previous post (http://lifeadventuresandstars.blogspot.de/2016/04/ongoing-sculpture.html):

From a random corner

Just some more of the ubiquitous graffiti!

Rainy Walk

Despite the grey skies and rain, I needed to get out of the house. I decided to hunt for photos - so today I uploaded the full resolution images. Our street looked like this today - the construction has been slowly working it's way towards us... and it's here.

Usually when I get down to the river I turn right and look at the Wall, but I realized I hadn't walked the other direction, though I'd seen it on a boat tour months ago. As I made my way to the water, I saw this... sculpture?

Or maybe it's just storage for some construction stuff? The shopping cart looks really out of place. The waterfront looked like this:

A little further along, I noticed some colorful painting on some riverside ruins:

And so I took more pictures of them:

And at that point, my podcast ended and I decided I wouldn't see anything else as fascinating and headed home!

Street art from Revalerstrasse

Went for a walk yesterday and got these pictures of street art: 

Snow and street art

We've had a few flurries of snow in the past day, and some of it was sticking to roofs and grass and bridges. You can see some of it in my view from the train platform in the morning.

The morning looks a bit bleak, but the sun did come out for a glorious hour before sunset today.

On a run

I spotted this collection of street art and murals on a run today. I moved in to take a better picture, but then my phone started complaining that it's out of space. Oh well.

Stairs

I was amazed at the sheer amount of graffiti on these stairs, which we spotted on the way out tonight.

Welcome

Today I went to the Ausländerbehörde (where visas are processed) to get my work permit and blue card straightened out. Everything was super easy and should be processed relatively quickly (and I have a temporary document while it all goes through).

It draws a strong contrast to the experience of refugees that are currently in Germany or trying desperately to get here. I am feeling my privilege - white privilege, western privilege - that allows me to so easily travel between countries in search of a temporary or permanent change in my life. I do hope that this welcome is truly for everyone:

Street art!

We saw these murals as we were headed out to some delicious pizza in Prenzlauer Berg. It seems to span the usual range of murals/street art, all in one go.

Sunday Morning Flea Market

Berlin (or maybe it's all of Germany) has some pretty strict laws around when stores can be open - for many stores, they limit hours per week and prohibit opening on Sundays. We've been trying to put together items for our impending move, but no errands can be run today. Instead, we hit up two neighborhood flea markets (one at Boxhagener Platz and the Raw Flohmarkt). I accidentally deleted my Boxhagener Platz pic, but here is the edge of the Raw Flohmarkt:

We ended up with some funky wine glasses an a set of small glass bowls. Classy.

And here a bonus picture of a crossfit gym:

Numerology

I was getting blisters between multiple apartment viewings and sat down on a handy bench while David very nicely ran back to our apartment to get me better shoes. I started to examine the following building: 

Which is covered in these words and pictures that seemed really strange at first...

And on closer inspection, even stranger than I'd imagined. According to the author/artist, the number 43 is a big deal.

Against the backdrop of Berlin, this hardly seems all that strange. 

Around the neighborhood

I walked a little north of our current place to check out a part of our current neighborhood that seems to have a few interesting apartments for rent. Many of the buildings were painted creatively and there was tons of graffiti everywhere  - I couldn't always tell the difference between paint job, street art, and graffiti. This building caught my eye - the nature scene on the bottom with the various layers on top. But it also captures (to some extent) that apartment buildings here just look kinda different then those in the US.

Around Friedrichshain

On a whim, I decided to go on a walking vegan tour of Friedrichshain (our current neighborhood) advertised on meetup. Because of the heat (it reached 98 F today), the tour was only three people and our guide. The guide (Maja) was excellent - she'd lived in Berlin for most of her life and has also traveled extensively. It's super awesome to get a local perspective on gentrification and local food. The food wasn't as picture worthy as some of the street art - here is a wall right outside a vegan beer garden:

And these are from a space that hosts a flea market and lots of street food:

Nearby Graffiti

This is a quick panorama we did at the end of our block showing some pretty exciting graffiti there. It felt like we saw a lot of the city today (and much of it has graffiti on it), but only while we were exhausted and running errands. Tomorrow should be a little more relaxed: David starts work, so I'll be home working much of the day.