Seasons Part III

It's that time of the year again for a seasonal tree update. Lately they've been chopping down trees around our beloved Lietzensee like nobody's business, but thankfully my favorite Baum is still standing tall and proud. Who could really cut down such an extraordinary tree like this one, anyway? It's too bad I didn't think to get a shot when the lake was frozen, but the other part of me is happy that temperatures are now hovering around freezing rather than plunging deeply below it. Makes my 2 hr weekend jogs somewhat more enjoyable. More to come soon, but for now it's bedtime. Gute Nacht!

July 2012

October 2012

January 2013

Warm Tiergarten, Cold Tiergarten

New Sinti-Roma Holocaust Memorial

What does one do when it's -7C outside? Why go jogging in the Tiergarten of course! Because if -7C in the second week of Berlin winter deters you, then you may as well just give up, hole up in your apartment, and disappear for the subsequent 15 weeks. It's not about being bad-ass, it's about remaining human.

Berlin has split personalities, called summer and winter. In summer, or even the first semblance of mild weather, people are out on the streets frolicking, smiling faces pointed toward the sun absorbing its warmth, drinking in the parks and dancing at outdoor parties. In winter, they're bundled up in Jack Wolfskin coats and scarves, hands buried deep in their pockets, with faces pointed toward the ground to avoid the snow and wind. But we endure it, because the pay-off is pretty sweet. Just a short 5 weeks ago, the Tiergarten looked like this. Sigh. 

Herzliche Grüße zum Valentinstag

Love,
Berlin

Mauerpark

The Mauerpark, or literally "Wall park" is known for a weekly flea market, a crazy karaoke tradition that I hope to take part in one day, and for being home to a remaining stretch of the Wall. It's not the longest remaining stretch, that's East Side Gallery, but what Mauerpark does have is a section of what used to be called the "death strip."

When many people think of the "Berlin Wall" they are just thinking of the more symbolic wall on the West side that's covered in graffiti. That is the "barrier wall" and only one part of the very intricate barrier that existed between East and West. To get to the barrier wall, attempting escapers first had to pass a slew of other barriers that become known as the death strip. These defenses included watch and control towers, barbed wire, sand so that footprints of attempting escapees would quickly be noticed, ferociously trained dogs, and surface barriers such as beds of nails.

The Wall was not originally constructed this way. It started off as a wire fence in 1961 and evolved into its most sophisticated and impenetrable form between 1975-1980.

Baby, it's f'in cold outside.

Let's get something straight. The reason my status updates on Facebook have been primarily weather-focused is not because I'm a weakling and can't deal with a little cold, and it's not because I'm boring. Please don't think I'm boring.

The truth is, I'm not a winter person. I prefer sun and heat and shorts and walking leisurely down the street with an ice cream to anything winter-related. But that doesn't mean I can't handle it. I've stood witness to DC blizzards so bad they were given names like "Snowpocalypse" and "Snowmaggedon." I survived half hour walks to and from school in a Boston winter that lasted almost six months. I am accustomed to wearing tights under jeans, donning two or more sweaters at a time, and whatever else is involved in the proverbial "bundling up." But what we've been dealing with in Berlin and all over Europe these last couple weeks is pretty serious. There was even snow on the beach in Mallorca!

Thankfully Berlin hasn't been hit the worst, but it hasn't been pretty either. Temperatures for the past two weeks have been well below freezing and even hit minus figures on the Fahrenheit scale. Yet life goes on! And in my case, so does outdoor half-marathon training three times a week.

Even Bertolt Brecht looked a bit cold and lonely, so I gave him some company and adjusted his friend, the snowman:

Karl-Marx Allee

Once home to many middle-class Berliners, then massively destroyed during the war, and then transformed into "Germany's first socialist street" by the DDR government, this street is famous, yo.

Karl-Marx Allee, which heads east from Alexanderplatz into an eastern borough called Friedrichshain, has a lot of history behind it. In DDR days, it was called Stalinallee and is the best example of socialist architecture in former East Berlin. The building of Stalinallee was a massive undertaking between 1951-1960 that became the focal point of the 1953 worker uprisings I mentioned back in December. In order to build the numerous eight-story "wedding-cake style" apartment buildings that lined the boulevard, "work norms" were increased such that workers were required to work more hours without increased pay. People were understandably displeased. Though the apartments were quite spacious and modern for their time, the over 2,000 apartments mostly become home to higher-ranking members and functionaires of the SED (Socialist Unity Party- main party during the DDR) and not those actually constructing the apartments.

Kelly and I explored the street together and also checked out Cafe Sibylle, a famous cafe that houses a small exhibition about the boulevard's history. I'm a fan of this joint museum/cafe concept, especially in this case where there was more emphasis on the cafe. What? Just walking down the street was enough of a history lesson!

Kelly checking out the cafe menu:

Cafe Moskau, a "national restaurant" from the DDR days that housed salons, lounges, and galleries, among other things, and is now a historic building:

DDR "wedding-cake" style housing complexes:

All smiles in the bitter, bitter cold:

Marx and I getting acquainted:

 

Maybe next time he and I can catch up when it's not -10 degrees Celsius out.