reciting the airships

first of all, i love berlin.

i really, really love berlin. i love it in the way that i loved new york the first time i was there and i trust my initial infatuations with cities. and, if new york hadn’t come and claimed my heart four years ago, i could and would certainly live here.

berlin is rich with culture and has an artistic edge that can easily rival new york cty’s. ad added bonus is that it’s as laid back as los angeles without the indifference.

an essay i read not to while ago about the three great cities of united states commented on the fact that los angeles is an amazing city because no one really gives a shit about you while your there. what you do is your business and you can do whatever you want, from pornography to avante-garde art (or avant-garde art that’s also pornography) and no one will really bat an eye-lash.

berlin is much the same way, but while los angeles tends to merely leave everyone alone, berlin has an incredible “welcome everyone, welcome everything” kind of mentality. i’ve heard, and this makes sense, that this is residual from berlin coming to terms with the wall coming down and much of the city’s darker history – absolutely vibrant, beautiful response!

while at the hostel on my first morning in berlin, i struck up a conversation with a girl from guadalajara, mexico. she’s also been traveling around europe by herself for the last week or so and we spent the last couple of days exhausting many of berlin’s museums. (this city is a monster when it comes to art, so this was no easy task, and there was much left unseen). luckily, thursdays provide free entry into many museums and we spent nearly 10 hours exhausting the best of them. today, we took in a smaller museum that focused on picasso’s work, the man is as absolute genius and i’ve made a decision to read much more about him when i return to the states. the breadth of work he’s put together and the myriad experiments he’s explored are truly inspiring and i was generating so many city breathing ideas that i wished very much that marwan and ron were around to discuss them with me.

i have one more day in berlin before i run off to amsterdam and i’m planning on taking it lightly. in the mean time, more pictures coming. stay on the flickr.

ooxx aa

the problem with traveling is that as soon as you begin you immediately begin compiling the list of things you’d do differently. today. i took the jungfraubahn train from interlaken to the tiny mountain ville of grindelwald. although only 35 minutes away, grindelwald is a fairly stark departure from interlaken and i can say with certainty that my next trip here will involve camping at the sites near the foot of the alps in grindelwald.

interlaken is a serene setting for the best of us to behave impulsively. despite being set in pure serenity, everyone here is chasing after frenetic activities (myself included). skydiving, paragliding, hang gliding, canyoning (you name it). it’s a place to express the most adventures and add elements in our personas.

grindelwald is like brian eno’s music for airports. it demands patience and invites you to explore every little corner very very quietly. i woke up early this morning and hopped on the train after a hearty breakfast provided free of charge from the hostel. from the grindelwald train stop, i took a long, uphill hike the pfingstegg. it’s possible to take a funicular to this viewing dock, but that seemed a waste of money. i stopped frequently along the forested walk way to take pictures of the small town as it continued to grow tinier and tinier with the ascent.

after passing the forested region, i continued up hiking trail 23 which leads to the lower grindelwald glacier. those of you that know of my icelandic adventure will remember my fondness for glacial valleys. the hike from the top of pfingstegg to the glacier took another two and half hours, but was well worth it. i met some very peasant hikers along the way and i have to say it’s impressive the number of different ways people will say hello to you in a place like switzerland. there’s a restaurant at the top of the hike that overlooks the glacial valley and it was nice to see so many parents bringing their very young children along with them for the hike. the swing set at the top of the hike was probably a nice bonus – nothing like swinging 6,000 feet above sea level…overlooking a glacier.

the hike down was quick, though hardly painless. anyone who’s done any sort of hiking knows that going down is fast and easy, but complete murder on your knees. still, it’s the kind of pain that’s always memorable and, afterall, i’ll do anything for a  glacier.

a very plesant mountain goat opted to hike part of the trail back down into the village with me. he caught me off-guard at first, because he was standing in my way on the very narrow trail. so as not to anger him, i passed on trying to take his photo, and eventually mustered the courage to try and walk by. he was nice enough to step out of my way and then accompanied me down the hill for a few hundred meters, before deciding to run off into the wild. this was almost as lovely a pay-off as the sights from the top of the hike.

my plans for tomorrow are uncertain, but only because the hiking trails in this region are so numerous that i can’t quite decide which to explore. either way, more pictures and what not coming. stay tuned. check out the flickr for way more photos.

ooxx aa