four cities, two weeks --- berlin, day 6

guess who woke up on the sixth day of our trip with feet that were NOT human sized. YES ME why? too much walking AND CRAZY DEHYDRATION

fun fact:  if you are not getting enough water, YOUR BODY WILL FLIP OUT AND START HOARDING IT IN YOUR HANDS FEET AND PRETTY MUCH ANYWHERE IT CAN STORE IT YOU BECOME A HUMAN CANTEEN so disgusting. so frightening and yet, AND YET i still went to hamburger banhof. 

"went" hahah i fucking LIMPED. worth it though.

before we get started on the art, let me mention this:  german women are TALLTALLTALL I LOVE THIS. in germany, I FEEL SHORT :D so, THANK YOU BEAUTIFUL GERMAN LADIES FOR MAKING ME FEEL NORMAL and not like the north american giant that i am.

and now on with the story. hamburger bahnhof used to be a train station. this becomes readily apparent when you see all of the room for CRAZY AMAZING STUFF. our trip started with birds.

you can walk through them. i almost didn't trust myself to do so, what with my foot issues, but i managed it. no birds were harmed in making of this post.

ungh, the paintings in the hb's collection. let's just look, k? (artist and titles can be seen in the url at the bottom of the page if you hover.)

not a painting but who can resist a holzer, amirite? (iamrite)

HERE IS AN OWL I AM GIVING IT TO YOU (and crying because it is dead)

there is quite a bit of video at the hb. my favorite of the day had to be "los encargados" here's a still

but you can watch the whole thing here if you'd like.

in the historical hall is susan phillipsz's superb sound installation, "part file score". WHY DO WE NOT HAVE AUDIO OF THIS? ugh, sorry. here is more info which includes some sounds. 

in the nearby "wall works" ("small works"??) section, things get even more awesome and crackerdog.

on the day that i saw this, i was squinting at the roots and seeing the brushwork of dekooning. (i may have been very tired. (i was.))

ah, here is a two parter. video of the creation of this piece beginning, appropriately enough, at the beginning.

and the finished install. fucking beautiful.

i was SO pleasantly surprised by how wonderful hamburger bahnhof was. the discrete tagging was nice.

even if there was no exit. *ba doom ching*

RIGHT the BIGGEST collection at the time that i was at hb was joseph beuys. APPROPRIATE FORTUITOUS TIMELY leff and i were heading to amsterdam in a few days and had been discussing beuys' views on the destruction of dutch light in the 1950s. (what, don't look at me like that. WE DO TALK ABOUT THINGS LIKE THIS)

i have to tell you, i SQUEAKED when i read "the secret block for a secret person in ireland". I HAVE WANTED TO SEE THIS FOREVER HOW HAD I FORGOTTEN IT WAS IN BERLIN

k, so, quick rundown. "secret block" is composed of 456 drawings that were completed during a 40 year period. (if you'd like a more thorough explanation, please click on this great article.) these are just a few of my favorite drawings that i saw while limping.

i mean, it's really a collection that you need to visit more than once. you kinda' have to live with "secret block". obviously, i did not have enough time to devote to it but GOOD NEWS it is on long term loan in berlin so i WILL see it again.

ANOTHER thing that i am sure i will see again is hbf.

we were there this time for a train to alexanderplatz. this platz was important because for some reason that escapes me, i told pip that we would recreate this photo

of him being irritated near there. (it was a twitter joke? ??? don't look at me, it happened over two weeks ago so i have forgotten.)

i'm not exactly sure if this is what he expected me to do but BWAHAHA HERE IS PIP IN BERLIN AGAIN BEING IRRITATED ON A SUNNY DAY EN ALEX XD

thanks for helping, jens! XD

alex was kind of odd. i was expecting it to be WAY more brutal/brutalist than it was? it was also A LOT cleaner than i thought it would be.

and there was this tasty looking apfelstrudel sitting on my table not long after the picture of the clock was taken. those rodeberries!!! I LOVE THEM (i saw a carton of them later in amsterdam and almost bought them THEY ARE SO TART AND DELICIOUS!)

and doppio is dope, yo.

after alex, my feet had had enough. i needed a break if we were going to make the solander show later that night. we still made a quick stop so leff could get some secret sausages though.

but THEN i rested. i probably watched footie SOMEWHAT IRONICALLY *ba doom ching* for some reason, i will watch sports if i cannot really understand the language in which it's being broadcast.

later that night, we s-bahnned it to jens' neighborhood, the ZOOOOOOOOOO here is a deer that was in the zoo.

we walked down kurfurstendamm (i think i surprised jens by knowing that it can be shortened to ku'damm, heh) on the way to a bio grocery. OMG THIS BREAD THAT IS SERIOUS BREAD

we also picked up some berlin sausages. (i am not sure what makes them specifically "berlin" sausages other than the fact that they were labelled as such and we ate them there. anyone know?)

also some cheeses and assorted meats

and BEEEEEER

and had dinner at jens'. THANK YOU JENS FOR LETTING US VISIT YOUR APARTMENT THIS WAS ONE OF MY FAVORITE MEALS OF THE WHOLE TRIP

after dinner, u-bahn to kreuzberg. YOU ARE NOT SURPRISED THAT WE WENT TO KREUZBERG WE HAD ALREADY BEEN TO LOGAN SQUARE ON THIS TRIP

anyway, i am a fan of this font.

i am also a fan of solander and i am not just saying that because the singer resembles an old roomie of mine in baltimore.

privatclub is fantastic. the lighting and sound, a ++ but, honestly, it was the crowd that made it for me. everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves and live tweeting was not constantly occurring. i want to move to berlin I WOULD GO TO SHOWS ALL THE TIME AGAIN

solander had an insanely appropriate chorus that we would sing again and again on this vacation. 

in fact, we had a bit of walking to do after the show. no problem though, i had the whole night to rest my feet. and on the way back, we stopped at le crobag to pick up some tasty pastries for breakfast. 

we also picked up a new insult, you crobag.

heh, crobag.

TOMORROW ON RAKKA REALLY SHOULD NOT BE WALKING BUT SHE DOES IT ANYWAY:  our last full day in berlin :( :( A WALK ROUGHLY WHERE THE WALL USED TO BE LOCATED we don't get tickets for the biennial because it is TOO MUCH TOO CONFUSING TOO FAR AWAY BUT!! WE DO GET CURRYWURST PLUS TECHNIK MUSUEM IT IS THE LAST DAY WE SPEND WITH JENS :( :( :( :( :( :(  but we got to see the sad carousel of sushi. CHECK BACK TOMORROW