As Cat and I wandered through Berlin, we realized that we crossed the "line" from East Berlin to West Berlin numerous times without even realizing. We were baffled as we thought about how a mere 20 years ago that would have been an impossibility. Though the lines were a bit blurred, in some places, the influence of being on a particular side of the city was evident. Below are some photos from the artistic side...which we found in both the east and the west.
In 2006 Berlin participated in United Buddy Bears - the Art of Tolerance project to raise money for charity; there are still many bears scattered throughout the city. Some of you may recall my love for these city art projects...for those who don't, allow me to fill you in. It began with Cow Parade in New York. It was my mission to see and be photographed with as many cows as possible. Next came the horses of Saratoga...a much easier task since it was local and significantly smaller. The madness really took full force in August 2007 when Greg, Alanna, and I went to Seattle. Unbeknownst to us, we arrived in the middle of the Pike's Place centennial. In honor of this, 100 pigs (the symbol for the market place) were scattered throughout the city; they had some great hiding places like on rooftops, in multitiered shopping malls, banks, and sports stadiums. We spent our three days there on a serious pig hunt (in between hunting for cupcakes...the best of which, should you find yourself in Seattle, are at Cupcake Royale) and I am proud to say I captured 88 pigs! But I digress...while I was pretty excited to find the Berlin bears, I did exercise a little self-control (it helped that we were only going to be in the country for 28 hours and that I had pulled yet another all-nighter the previous evening in preparation for my 6am flight) and forewent the bear hunt. So enjoy this welcoming bear because his is the only bear photo I took.
In addition to making fun of Americans (see my hot dog picture from the previous post), Germans are pretty good at finding humor in themselves too. About as far as we could be from Bavaria, here was a larger than life image of the iconic German figure. My German friends tell me the assumption that all of Germany is like the beer guzzling Bavarians is like assuming that all Americans are gun-toting cowboys from Texas. Hmmm......
You know I can't resist busquers...these guys were pretty unique. The top photo is from in front of the Brandenburg Gate. The bottom one was from a protest of some sort at Alexanderplatz.
"Berlin, I love you!"
This is the really cool park we found near the Brandenburg Gate. If only the leftover tributes to Communism in Sofia were so much fun!
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