At the end of WWII, Russia quickly threw up some monuments. Tiergarten got the first one, literally months after Berlin was captured. Here’s Tiara and our college friend/Berlin expert John:
I kid you not, this is the “small” soviet memorial in Berlin
We heard some skepticism when we mentioned we were going to Warsaw. It’s not nearly as popular with tourists as Krakow and we heard we might not enjoy the city very much. Either we are very lucky, they are misinformed, or we possess all the secrets of Polish travel, because we thought Warsaw was awesome. Here are some reasons Warsaw is great:
1. Parks. Warsaw has TONS of beautiful parks. The most beautiful and spectacular is Łazienki Park, which might just be the best park ever. Observe:
While in Berlin we visited the must-see museums (Pergamon, Neues Museum, and the surprisingly unpopular Gemäldegalerie), but one of the strangest and most interesting museums we visited was the Design Panoptikum. The Panoptikum is a private museum operated and curated by the surrealist artist Vlad Korneev. Vlad is a primarily a photographer, and one part of the museum displayed some of his works:
One thing we loved about Berlin was the range of affordable and delicious international food available. While we’ve clearly been eating well, we have missed our favorite Thai, Vietnamese, Japanese, and Chinese dishes. Berlin had good restaurants specializing in all these cuisines. One favorite was Yumcha Heroes in Mitte, which served a wide variety of Chinese dumplings.
Yes, I know, Tiara already did one on Nice. But I took pictures too, I’m just slower at posting/writing. So here goes.
This one goes out to @briantobin, who taught me the word pareidolia.
Cranberry danish or evil alien overlord? You decide.
Somebody call this coconut a cab; he’s had enough.
I don’t want to grow up, ’cause if I did, I couldn’t be a bolshevik kid
Continuing our legacy of eating all the things, we checked out Street Food Thursday while in Berlin. Every Thursday Markethalle Neun in Kreuzberg has many stalls of vendors selling snacks from all over the world. It’s pretty much exactly like Off the Grid, for you Bay Area friends. Nothing we had was a standout but it was a really fun scene and there was a ton to choose from. Definitely recommended!
These knödel (dumplings) were stuffed with spinach and cheese. They were ok, but really rich.
The East Side Gallery is a nearly mile-long section of the Berlin Wall that was painted by muralists in 1990 and is intended as a memorial for freedom. The murals have been covered with graffiti and though some restoration work has been done it seems like a losing battle. It is truly sad to see how the art has been disrespected. Still, walking along this stretch of wall is quite interesting and moving. Here are some favorite pieces:
While in Marseille we stopped by the one noteworthy bar we could find; Carry Nation. For those of you not familiar with the history of the US temperance movement, Mrs. Nation was a 6′ tall radical famous for her “hatchetations.” This is exactly as bad-ass as it sounds.