Berlin: I ♥ You: January 2012

20th January: Do you read me?

Inspiration. Inspiration. Inspiration.

Expensive but oh so many books and magazines for inspiration for all different aspects of my work in uni!!

Due to my tight budget, I couldn't actually afford to buy anything.. But being savvy, I took the titles, authors and ISBN numbers. Got back to the hotel and Amazon'ed them!

Hey Presto! Half the price, and due to Birthday, I have amazon vouchers, so didn't even spend a penny on the book I wanted. Typomag.

20th January: Lunch.

Currywurst by the River: YUM.

Time to get well rested before heading on with our day!

20th January. Tachelles.

A Hidden Treasure: Tachelles.

People who had taken an alternative tour had told me about a place called Tachelles. Tachelles is an abandoned building that has been taken over by squatters and had been turned into a graffiti/street art masterpiece.

Floors and floors of cool motifs and people and characters and whatever else graffiti artists like to draw!! A couple of floors up, we arrived at some artists studios.

The art was very provocative and modern, mostly multimedia based. But totally went with the cool, Berlin vibe of anti-authority.

Some allowed us to take pictures(ish) and others not.

Unfortunately the government want to take over the building, for whatever reasons,

· not safe?!

· they would rather have a share in money by charging entry?!

I think its so outrageous, the building is perfectly safe(ish) for a non-official tourist attraction. It’s on everybodys own wishes whether they want to enter the building, and yes, the putrid smell of urine really would put some people off! But these artists are special and I don’t think this place should be taken away from them!

So, there is a Save Tachelles campaign going on where they ask you to hold up a plaque with Save Tachelles on and take a photo of you and send it back: More artistic, creative and interesting (and hopefully effective) than a petition with signatures. Keep posted for my image of me, helping to Save Tachelles.

The view from the top of the 5 story building.

20th January: Cinema Cafe.

Rain = Hot Chocolate Stop!

The rain had started falling heavier and more and more unbearable! So we quickly headed to a café. This time, instead of going to the usual Starbucks, we headed to the cute, quirky, independent, Café Cinema. It had film memorabilia inside and was dark and ever so cool. It was also a very cool hang out for those who smoke as for some reason, they have managed to twist the No smoking in Public places law and allow smokers inside to have a cigarette.

Anyhow! This is my gorgeous Hot Chocolate; doesn’t it look lush? It was quite cool to drink out of this particular mug as it had no handles so was a bit like drinking soup!!

MILK MOUSTACHEEE!!

19th January. Graffiti Alleyway.

Jack directed us to an alleyway in the area we were, which was full of such colourful graffiti wall art. I was a really beautiful in an ‘oh so urban’ way! The overgrown plants, cobblestones, old buildings but then this modern art was totally juxtaposed to make fabulous contrast! The metal sculpture at the end just added to the urban feel, using scrap industrial metal into animal/monster figures!

20th January. The Last Sights.

Cramming in the last of the tourist sites today.

On the cards:

Tachelles
East Side Gallery
and get a lovely Currywurst for the last time!

19th January.

Feeling a little homesick after a crappy day...

So Dad has driven down from Hamburg to take me out for a meal. Happy girlie again. Means I can also give him the finger puppet I bought for my sister.

Blockhouse, Dad's favourite restaurant on the cards for tonight! So salad, french dressing, BBQ steak pieces (done medium rare!) with jacket potato, sour cream and coleslaw! Should have taken a pic..

This will have to do!

Oh.. and Apfelstrudel for pudd with Vanilla cream. Feeling full up and happy now after a big meal with Daddy! Thanks!!!

19th January: More Exploring.

In the grey Berlin weather.

After yesterdays successful trip exploring some really cool, independent stores; I enjoyed myself so much! I decided that was where I’d direct myself today, but in a different area.

We first explored the market, which was full of such nice food, cheese, fish, olives, vegetables and a juices store and various other little clothes and jewelry stores. I however found a perfect little gift for my 3year old sister, a little finger puppet for €1! Bargain!!

Unfortunately the weather was so awful, rain and cold and greyness that we retreated into a Starbucks for a hot drink and cookie!

We planned what direction to head to next and continued on in this dreary weather. I have now been officially introduced to Weekday, and I was very impressed! I spotted a gorge long blue, sheer shirt that would look lush in the summer teamed with some white cut-off Levi’s. Unfortunately, due to my lack of budget, trying to do a week in Berlin on €150, €50 was just too much. Maybe, I’ll search for it on the Internet and get my Dad to send it to me? We also visited All Saints, the store I wish I had the money to shop in more, even though I love colour, some of the darker items are so gorgeous and lovely! (Perhaps they’re the wrong words to describe them but I’ll just say lushhhh!) I found my dream leather jacket in there, the €450 price tag soon saw me walking away, the leather was soft and a bit battered with buttons sewn to the back. A really ‘cute’ touch! I also tried on some jeans on that were in the sale and down to €35, which for All Saints is a bargain, however, no such luck as they didn’t have a size big enough! Majorly upset about that!!!

We then choose to go to the Charlottenberg area where we had been recommended to go for some more really cool independent stores. We were nearly there, but by this point I was so wet and cold, resembling a drowned rat, I decided to turn around and head back to the hotel to dry my hair and warm up!

18th January: Torstrasse.

I ♥ Torstrasse

Fed up of the talk of tradeshows, I decided to focus my attention on doing some retail research of the small, independent stores, putting my research into action. I had found a list of the 20 best stores in Berlin and plenty were on Torstrasse; so I guided a small group of us to Rosa Luxemburg station on the U-Bahn and we just wombled slowly down the street, uncovering more than just the shops we were originally looking for.