I'm not a person who normally seeks out the easiest road. In fact, if I follow my own impulses, I often make every day things harder for myself than they would have to be. Occasionally this can even boarder on absurdity. Take this story as an example: A few weeks ago I went to visit a friend in the neighborhood Friedrichhain. In Berlin, hardly any of the U-Bahn stations have an elevator or escalator, meaning if you want to take a small child with you, you are dependant on the kindness of strangers. The trouble is, strangers in Berlin are usually the very opposite. My baby buggy weighs well over 30 pounds, but often enough no one even offers to help me with it (I can just barely schlepp it by myself...) When they do help, they usually give me a look at the end like I just ruined their day. Needless to say, I most often stick to the neighborhoods and areas within walking distance (no car, by choice, but the upkeep here is also really expensive.)
Anyway, when I got to the Warschauer Strasse station, I saw that I could either carry the buggy down around five steps, or take an elevator that went back behind the station (I didn't notice that there was also a ramp. D'oh!) Of course, I took the elevator, but soon discovered that there was no way out back onto the street except by going up lots of stairs. Cursing, I schlepped my buggy up them, hoping I wouldn't kill my back in the process. Later, when I was telling my friend the story and complaining about how unhelpful Berliners are she just said "Why didn't you just take the elevator back upstairs and go down the ramp?" The sad truth is, this never even occurred to me as a possibility.....
But sometimes going the hard way can be a creative thing. Like in the pursuit of beauty. Anyone can find a sunset or an Italian village on the riveria beautiful. But to find beauty in unexpected places; gritty, dirty and drab places; is much more of a challenge. With my new Olympus I have been trying to do just that. Here, in the urban jungle, I have found interesting details that are aesthetic and yes, sometimes even beautiful.
One thing I love about Berlin is, although it is a big city, you are never very far from nature. I took this picture in Baerwald strasse here in Kreuzberg in front of a grey, battered grade school building. But, in front, there is this field of green wild grass and flowers, beautiful but uncared for.
If my neighborhood, Kreuzberg 61, is a late 30s graphic designer with an 18 month old daughter buying apples at the organic market, then Kreuzberg 36 is her younger punky brother making sculptures out of old tin cans.
Yes, the weather was great again, so once I dropped Mia off at pre-school I was itching to wander into different lands. All winter I spent either trapped indoors or by taking walks in the local graveyards (as seen in various posts in Jan. and Feb....) Today I walked over to Oranienstrasse, into Wrangel Kiez, finishing off the journey with a jaunt through the back end of Görlitzer Park.
Style wise, SO36 is heavy on the urban grit. It used to be the center for left wing radicals and hou
se squatters (and thank god for that. If they hadn't been squatting, all of the old buildings would have been torn down, the 70s monstrosities pictured here taking their place.) You can still see a little of the lefty, hippie thing, but mainly it is hipsters with a punk 
edge and Turkish families. They say Kreuzberg is the third biggest Turkish city after Ankara and Istanbul.
The good news, if you get sick of all the grit and graffitti, nature is never that far away.
SO36: 2 good 2 be 4-gotten! ;)
As anyone who has read this blog likely knows, I have a bit of a thing for graveyards. I've traced it back somewhat to my childhood in Arizona (they were one of the only places where there were trees and grass). As a teenager I was also a bit of a "light" goth, i.e. I didn't wear all the make-up and went easy on the black lace but I was into the music and wrote lots of depressing poetry (the first boy I got involved with wrote me a poem partially in his own blood which I found VERY romantic!) But the main reason for the graveyard love is that they are so beautiful here in my neighborhood, full of art deco and art nouveau ornaments and delightfully delipidated.
Still, I didn't really want to take all of my pictures for my shop in the graveyard. As someone who bores easily, it is necessary to mix it up. I made a funky necklace a while ago which I call Neukoelln Forever (rough neighborhood I lived in for
a while, I wrote a blog entry about it earlier this month....) Anyway, I knew I wanted to take pictures in a more urban, gritty setting but I have no desire to actually go to Neukoelln right now because, with the baby buggy, steep stair and no elevator, the U-Bahn is too much of a pain in the ass and it takes too long to walk there (about 40 minutes)when the weather is so "wechselhaft" as it is these days: clouds and sprinkles and general crapiness.
Today, when walking toward Bergmannstrasse here in Kreuzberg with Baby Li, I ran across the playground on Solmsstrasse. Placed where a bombed building once stood that was never re-built, they went with an urban jungle graffitti art theme. Perfect for posing with my necklace. Here are some pics:
As usual, I had fun. Baby Li also found it ok, I assume since she continued peacefully sleeping. Afterwards we went together to Cafe Molinari for a delicious Italian hot chocolate. Yum! :)
