Summer Berlining

For me going to Berlin is like to going to a modern art museum. Only calling it a 'museum' would definitely be a wrong thing to do, as it's much more dynamic than that. You can literally see art happening on the street - right in front of your eyes. Everywhere. I swear! :) See for yourself.


What things one can do in Berlin?

Inhale the history, walk under the lindens, stay in a funky urban industrial style hostel, eat the best kebab in Berlin (and probably the world :P) - with lemon juice, crumbled cheese, mixed fresh and grilled vegetables and fresh mint! (I know the address). Make stupid faces and take a real photo of yourself in an old FOTO AUTOMAT - your pics will come in a series of 4 and the best thing of all? they are developed the old way and you gotta wait some 5 mins until they dry off!

Roam the streets and imagine who could live behind those weirdly painted and decorated walls in those funky Eastern Germany style blocks. Tired? buy yourself a weißbier and drink it on one of the numerous beaches created on the banks of the Spree. (You can take a nap there too).








Pay attention to details:













Go visit one of the numerous markets where vintage, hip and simply junk things are sold.


Absorb the street art and watch people creating it:



Contemplate The Wall:







...and leave your own mark on it :)



Pick your favourite graffitti style and point out those you haven't seen before to your friends:













Help support Tacheles art center - a huge (9000 square meter) building on Oranienburger Straße in Mitte. Impressive colorful graffiti-style murals are painted on the exterior walls, and modern art sculptures are featured inside. In April 2011 the owner scheduled an eviction, but it was not carried out. Instead, on the next day, the gastronomy and cinema left the building peacefully in return for a payment of 1 Million Euros from an anonymous source. Eighty artists vowed to stay inside with their ateliers and metal workshops. One week later, the sequestrator ordered an almost 3 m tall wall to be built, separating the Oranienburger Straße from the building's courtyard. The future concept for the building remains undecided.











Go see some well known historical places made look modern - Check point Charlie:





Go party and get to know some new cool people:















In the end you can just pretend being a normal tourist and have some good currywurst ;). Whatever your style is, I'm sure you would enjoy Berlin.


all images by Olga & Arek

Ready :)

So I think I'm now ready to tell you about my summer adventures and share some photos. Here comes a little preview..




images by Olga

Back To Cool

It's always weird to come back after a long silence - it's like discovering a completely new territory all over again... even though I do realize this is my good old blog :) - it's still a little strange to write all this. Well - if this is a valid excuse for not writing too much (or rather at all..) - I've been busy this summer. Summers are usually busiest for me - not much time to blog at all :(. But I also truly believe you need to have the right state of mind in order to produce anything meaningful to publish on your blog - and also the right weather to do so. For me the colder - the better it seems ;).

If I think of it, before my last post on this blog I was still happily living in Gdansk, happily unmarried, happily working for the same company for the Xth year... And then the time came to change it all, so now it's 'good bye happy Gdansk' - 'hello happy London'. Actually I need to see whether London is happy. I'm curious.

Then we also got married this summer. I can tell you one thing: the person who never wanted to marry, cried of emotion on her wedding day. It was a great day and a great feeling :).

I also needed to find another job... and though I still haven't decided about which one to take, looking for a job was a very refreshing and rewarding experience. I learned one needs to go through this experience once in a couple of years - the adrenaline makes you suddenly more agile and motivated to learn something totally new. And you realize how many opportunities you were missing while working comfortably at the same place! And then probably the best part is when you get these job offers and you have that feeling that finally it's you who is getting to choose, instead of being chosen. There is also the pain of making that choice involved of course, but hey, who has ever complained of having options?

Apart from all these boring things I still have loads of travel- (and not only) photos to share - from Berlin, Athens, Greek islands, etc. Can't wait to do that. I think I need a blogging vacation - read: vacation when I can just blog!

Well, enough about me. I wanted to thank you all - for dropping by and saying 'hello' and sharing comments, thoughts and for your e-mails. I wish I was more responsive - most of my blogging time was consumed by job search - but it was great to hear from you!

Recently I can't get enough of this blog - you definitely need to check it out - just go inside the posts - as more images are hidden there. This blog is written by a Russian roofer. You could define 'roofing' as a sort of industrial tourism where illegal climbing of roofs, bridges, metro, towers and other constructions is involved. This blog is a chronicle of him climbing the famous and infamous roofs and taking all of these breathtaking pictures - being and not being caught. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Russian speakers - don't mind the word on the last pic :)


































all images by Raskalov. Cities photographed: Saint Peter's, Minsk, Vyborg and Moscow