DDR Museum

Patrick Berlin, Travel

On one of the previous weekends I hung around Berlin, I dropped into the DDR museum. It’s literally around the corner from where I stay and holds a lot of the memorabilia from the East Berlin side when the wall divided the city.

They had plenty of artefacts, everything from cars, school articles, clothing and newspapers and create a stiflingly close atmosphere that makes you feel like you’re transported in time. Perhaps it was also its popularity with people and the fact that the rain brought even more people than usual inside.

I didn’t get the audio guide, but there with plenty of signs to see, and things to interact with, there was enough in the two large sections to keep me busy for a couple of hours.

The DDR museum is found on Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 1 right on the river Spree and directly opposite the Berlin Cathedral.

Quick Visit to Chicago

Patrick Travel

On my way to a conference in Salt Lake City, I was fortunate enough to stop over in Chicago where I had a bit of a hurried catch up with several people before making my onward journey to the conference. It just so happened that the weekend I stayed in Chicago also happened to be the weekend on of their largest musical festivals, Lollapalooza was playing. Featuring three days of plenty of amazing bands, I was a little disappointed I didn’t get a ticket. Until I found out a couple of other friends that Ajit had visiting also happened to be going, and one of them happened to be one of the festival’s stage producers. What this meant was a free pass that I was able to use on the last day of the festival.

Lollapalooza draws plenty of crowds, one of the big reasons is that it takes up the city’s amazing Grant Park – a wide open space that runs alongside almost of the down town area, and where you can see the great skyline from all parts of the festival.

Not only did I get a pass to the festival, the pass that I was given also happened to grant access to the “Artist’s Lounge”, a backstage area right behind the largest main stages. I arrived there quite late, with only three or four other acts left to play. I can’t say that the “Artists’ Lounge” had any of the other acts – looking like it was also filled with people who knew people. Benefits of this were tremendous however, with a private bar, easily accessed and a side entrance to the main stage.

For the most part, the weekend seemed to be pretty nice given the time of year however heavy storms had been forecast for this weekend. It came down almost as soon as I made my way into the Artists Lounge, and also happened to cut into half of the one hour set of the Arctic Monkeys. We tried sheltering under one of the large umbrellas towering over the table making some new friends and great conversation. The result didn’t really work with the “windy city” having its way and me almost entirely drenched. Fortunately I had brought some shorts and a fairly thin shirt that dried out rather quickly.

As you can imagine with torrential rains and a festival like atmosphere, a rather predictable and terribly muddy result ruled.

Fields of mud pretty much everywhere. I ended up walking around mostly barefoot given that flip flops only served to really throw up even more of a mess into the air and I didn’t really want to be covered from head to toe in mud, just as some people obviously had been.

The Arctic Monkey’s admirably finished their half hour set, joking about the weather and being back home putting on a great show in the short time.

With evening starting to set, we headed out to another stage to catch Explosions in the Sky whose dreamy music and fairly chilled out set served to prepare the crowd for the two big headliners of the night, Deadmau5 heading up the cavernous tented, though just as muddy Perry stage, and the Foo Fighters who I really wanted to see live.

As soon as the other set finished, we darted, just like everyone else, towards the main stage. Using our Artists Lounge pass, we went around the back and popped up with almost a perfect side-view vantage point of the band playing.

The heavens opened up once again, this time with hugely torrential rain. Kudos to the band, who became just as drenched as we were and didn’t miss a beat, simply swearing at the crowd about how, “At least all you *** dirty people got a shower now.”

An amazing two hour set that simply flew by, they whipped the crowd into a frenzy with many of their classic songs and a few different ones. A completely serendipitous weekend that turned out to be one of the most fun in quite some time.

Friedrichshain Volkspark

Patrick Berlin, Travel

I like to think that London has a many more green spaces when compared to New York City. Although I agree that Central Park is an impressive area, it’s not really designed to be accessible by all people and really only most beneficial for those rich enough to afford park side residences.

London has many more areas, though Berlin still puts London to shame. It’s not really a fair comparison though because Berlin doesn’t have the lack of space problem.

One of the parks I visited recently was Friedrichshain’s Volkspark (or the Folk’s Park). Friedrichshain Volkspark is a pretty awesome place. Different to Tiergarten, this one seems really built up for utility rather than just the green space around it. I saw everything from tennis courts, beach volleyball courts and a fountained area near a cafe where everyone can lounge around in.

It’s even got one of the hilliest points in the city that I’ve seen so far, with good vantage points of the surrounding area.

Located not far from Mitte, another great green alternative to the rest of the city.

Mastering Mount Mitte

Patrick Berlin, Travel

Inspired by our ventures in the UK to do a high ropes course, Michael managed to find one located right in the heart of the city that we could take part in immediately after work called, “Mount Mitte“. Being centrally located, the chances of tree top adventures wasn’t very high – instead a three stories man made tower of diabolical courses that meant more flexibility and proved much more interesting because you could choose any path you would like.

They had special harnesses and a really cool safety mechanism that made sure you would always be attached as some point. They had two floating cars you could sit in suspended by wires, and even one of classic German “Standkörb” (canopied wicker chairs) to sit in above all the beach volleyball courts that surround the location.

It was great value and an awesome evening for it too.

Berlin Protests

Patrick Berlin

I’d written about tension in Berlin previously. I’d also been warned about the May day riots that typically happen all over Germany, although this year it apparently turned out much quieter than in previous years.

This doesn’t really mean that things didn’t really happen. Take this (former) BMW car for instance, that I found in Friedrichshain one weekend. The smell of burnt everything still lingered in the air.

Here’s a different shot from the front.

It’s these little things that remind you of how many issues often get swept under the carpet.

Meeting Stace in London

Patrick Farringdon, General, UK Life

A small reprieve from Berlin this week due to some Clojure training, meant an opportunity that serendipitously overlapped with Stace’s last visit to London for work. Stace and her husband, Wes, are expecting a newborn very soon, hence her last trip to London. I caught up with her on a trip last year, and we couldn’t believe that almost a year had already passed.

I met her at the wonderful Fox and Anchor where we enjoyed a delicious meal in the cosy and atmospheric abode. With the little one expected to pop in the next month, I appreciated the awesome time we had over a meal.