Paris, ohne Fotos des Eiffelturms für die Faule =P

i couldn't resist. i had to see it and why not use my InterRail Ticket to catch a night train from Berlin to Paris when there was a full moon? worked out lovely. arrived early morning, stopped by the hotel (all hostels and couches were full), dropped off my things and promptly went wandering.

[kleines Zimmer mit Dégas]

for Paris, my room was quite inexpensive, and especially considering it was directly over a subway station for Montmartre. i definitely fell in love the area. Paris is freaking expensive, but i felt i could skate by as a starving artist.

[Friedhofs Katze]

so i spent my first day just wandering on foot around the Montmartre area, inside and out. i found a cool cemetery underneath one of the main streets, browsed through artist stands around Sacré-Cœur, checked out the Moulin Rouge, marveled at the old subway entrances, drank coffee outside at a tiny café, got asked fifty million times if i wanted to buy an Eiffel Tower keychain, chilled in my tiny little room for a bit and repeated almost the same process at night, without my camera.

[retro Metro]

day2: more walking. lots of walking. i took the subway to the Arch de Triomphe, then walked to a beautiful outlook on the Eiffel Tower from the Palais du Chaillot, across the Parc du Champ-de-Mars, photographed the Ecole Militaire, continued to the Esplanade des Invalides, walked along the Seine, looked at the line going into the Musée d'Orsay, decided against actually going inside, crossed a bridge to the Île de la Cité, photographed Notre Dame, crossed to the other side of the river and settled at the Louvre for a moment.

[der Louvre]

i rave about seeing art in person, and well it applies to I.M.Pei's Pyramid as well. damn. you see it in a book and you're like, "yeah, it's pretty neat. and?" see it in person. see the different pyramids in relation to one another. see it surrounded by the enormousness of the Louvre. see the clouds reflect off the glass and the water together. go inside. see the world through the pyramid. look closely at how it is put together. see the sunlight make patterns around you. ... i would love to be there with rain pelting against the glass.

[Straßenkünstler vor der Sacré-Cœur]

Elisée once said that you should go to Paris with friends. now i understand. the beautiful buildings and parks are all amazing, but at the end of the day it would have been perfect to sit at a café and chat about everything we had seen. there is something about Paris that is so finished, constructed and finished. i guess you could say it was like an artwork in itself. naturally, as an artist, that leaves Paris open for LOTS of discussion. ;) next time.

endlich, Berlin!

so, not visiting Berlin would definitely have been more sacrilegious by my book than missing Oktoberfest. ;)

i don't even know where to begin. of course there is all the heavy stuff about Berlin that first comes to mind, but i was also well aware of how alive it is. plus, Greg and i had been planning this visit together for a while, and were totally psyched about getting to hang out with our other (good) roommate, Marie. her family was just a nice and bubbly as she! couldn't have been better.

[Gebäude wie eine Jet-Turbine]

the good company made up for the shitty weather. Marie took me and Greg all over the city, complete with nights out. we had wonderful meals with the family, with long discussions over many bottles of wine. after the piano got tuned, i taught Greg the lower part to Heart 'n' Soul and we jammed away for a whole hour.

[Mischung auf dem Potsdamerplatz]

i felt the city had a general lust for new and modern, but more than just material things. there was so much thought put into concept. we randomly found the Science Center for Medical Technology that was amazing. check out the link, but the kicker was a video artwork that would have impressed Twarog. in the lobby hung three pendulums with three flat screens each. it began with images of hands that interacted between the screens, reaching towards one another or pushing and pulling against one another, all in sync with the actual motion of the pendulums. from the outside, the screens were just colors that blended when the pendulums overlapped one another. ganz geil!!

[Holocaust-Gedenkstätte]

the Holocaust Memorial was tenfold as well executed, as well as one-hundredfold heavier. i cannot begin to explain how this museum was a work of art in itself. the maze of monoliths on uneven ground, illuminated floor exhibits like glowing graves, exhibits hanging as stalactites in heavy blocks, a dark room with names being read... the stories were so disturbing, but the beauty kept drawing me back in. respect.

[Brandenburg Tor]

more walking and more beautiful Berlin. i found a photographer on Behance with some nice collections of the city. check it out.

[im Museum für Naturkunde]

further on museums: i had never been to an older natural history museum until now; didn't have enough time while i was in New York. wow. i've always been a closet science enthusiast and seeing exhibits in a building this old, with taxidermy this old, with archives of specimens this old... blew me away.

[das Archaeopteryx]

despite the common idea that Americans have superficial friendships, i have been lost in a sea of new people with no interest in opening up to a temporary resident. to be in the home of friend is one of the greatest gifts ever. thank you so much, Marie!