kendra aronson: Berlin, Deutschland (Day 8)

Friday, October 30, 2009

Berlin, Deutschland (Day 8)

Today was a long day full of sweet sight-seeing. We started by picking up Greg's freshly developed 120 film. We looked at the TV tower but were too lazy to wait in line and pay the fee to go up. We then headed over to Checkpoint Charlie.

Checkpoint Charlie or "Checkpoint C" was the name given by the Western Allies to the most well-known Berlin Wall crossing point between Easy Germany and West Germany during the Cold War. Nowadays it is an open-air exhibit and gallery walls with photographs, text, maps which explain its significance as a focal point during the cold war. To learn more, click here.

and there are of course souvenir stands galore...

After filling our heads with historical facts we jaunted over to a park to sit and load some film into my supersampler...

The trees were such bizarre shapes and wonderful colors...

'fur den kleinen Hunger' means for the little/small hunger. I like this concept. It can be found on most menus and it's our favorite German expression, try saying it out loud it's really really fun hahaaha. We ate at this overly-priced-small-portion cafe. I ordered a cup of soup, which literally came in a coffee cup. Greg ordered a sandwich which was the size of a tea sandwich. We don't even want to know how small the portions were for the 'fur den kleinen Hunger'....

I was eyeing their desserts in the case when I carefully inspected the prices. If you wanted to enjoy a slice of cake or cookie in the restaurant it costs more.....but if you wanted to take it to go it costs quite less. You already guessed it, of course we took it to go and ate it on the outside steps of the cafe...

This was some sort of delicious cheesecake....

inspecting the deliciousness....

nom nom nom....

but you see, I wanted another one....so I went back inside and asked for this apple tart to go.....yes, of course it was a very faux pas thing to do, but we didn't care.

mmmmmm....

After our meal we took a jaunt over to the Reichstag....

then we found these glorious trees....

and this dreamy forest....

Then we headed over to the Memorial of Murdered Jews of Europe. I shot this polaroid and it is my most favorite shot of the trip so far.

I hope you enjoy it too.

The colors came out extremely well in this shot

I like that it has that eery feel to it.

Here is Greg trying to get a shot just minutes before getting yelled at by the security guard...

This is the shot that he ended up getting:

to see more of Greg's photos, click here.

The site itself is covered with many concrete slabs arranged in a grid pattern on a sloping field. It is designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere, and the whole sculpture aims to represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason. However, the design represent a radical approach to the traditional concept of a memorial, partly because it does not use any symbolism. Although I very much like the sculpture itself, it feels too "German" in my opinion and is not capturing it's true purpose of commemorating the lost lives of the Jewish people. Here is a video of me walking through the site:

post-getting yelled at, Greg wanted to make sure he got the shot he want, so he was literally bending over backwards to capture it...

On a lighter note, check out this little Haagen Dasz truck!!!!

After an already exhausting day I dragged Greg to the Polaroid store. It was the size of a kitchen but I felt like a kid in a candy store. I've never seen so many Polaroid films in my life! Although I didn't buy any film I was proud to see this store in business!