Exploring!

Since we only have German class in the mornings (9-12), and we have most afternoons and evenings free if we don't have one of our content courses, so we have been doing quite a bit of exploring the city.

On Monday, David and I went to explore Mitte after our history class. Both being history nerds, we reflected on the immense history of the city as we walked around. Although it was only maybe about 4 when we got there, it was already starting to get dark. But, the Brandenburger Tor is very nicely lit up at night.


[Brandenburger Tor at night, photo courtesy of David]

Two days ago, David, Sal and I realized that we had a couple of hours of daylight left (it gets dark very early here), and to take advantage, we went to Schloss Charlottenburg, the summer residence of Queen Charlotte. Although I had been there last spring, it was kind of nice to see the castle lit up (since it was dark by the time we got there).

Yesterday, Annie, Jessica, Christy, David, Eric and I went to the East Side Gallery. Right by the Spree River, there lies an old section of the Berlin Wall which is now open to artists to come and paint.


[at the East Side Gallery]

However, there is also a lot of graffiti that gets written over the artwork, from people writing their names to stenciled commentaries.


[stenciled graffiti over the art]

Most of the graffiti has a political message, sometimes very clear, sometimes less clear.


[focusing on important dates in German history since the end of the war]


[more art...]

When we got to the end of a section of the wall, we realized that there was a lot more graffiti on the other side of the wall. Although perhaps we shouldn't have been back there, we found some really cool art work, that hadn't been defaced, and was in a very different style.


[ALIENS!]


[pretty classic graffiti]


[art or vandalism?]

In my opinion, this side of the wall was much cooler, mainly because it seemed like more free expression, but also because it hadn't been 'vandalized' by other spray paint or markers.

It is pretty fun to just wander about the city, choose something that we haven't seen and just check it out. It leads to some good adventures and some good pictures; hopefully there will be more coming...