Back in Berlin - I/2014, day two

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At first we had in mind going to Potsdam, but getting back to the hostel in the middle of the night and waking up in the middle of the day made us change our plans a bit. I've decided to track down a few squats and street art - we walked around Kreutzigerstrasse and then towards the Aleksanderplatz. To be fair, during our stay we mainly spend time in the former East Berlin - guilty as charged, I've always used to choose the less representative (and usually more interesting) parts of cities I've visited. The Christmas/New Year's Market was still there - with mulled wine and plenty of heavy German food (not a country for vegetarians... no, I'm kidding, Balkans were much worse in that respect). We walked back to Hackescher Markt to see some street art around the river and Hackesche Hofe – a set of merchant houses. Next to them there is a place that reminded me of Tacheles - an "art centre" on Rosenthalen Strasse 39. Full of graffiti and galleries, there is also a bar and a café – if it still exists next time I’m in Berlin, I’m going there for sure.

Nordbahnhof S-Bahn station holds a very interesting free exhibition about the closed S-Bahn stations (the Ghost Stations) in Berlin during the Cold War – definitely a must-see. Next to the station there is the Berlin Wall Memorial – most of the exhibition is held outside, and by the time we got there it was too dark to see anything. Instead we went to the memorial centre to see a photo exhibition from 1960s ( the first few years after the Wall was build); also, two movies about the construction of the Wall are shown in the centre – in English and in German.

Our (short) day ended up at Postdamer Platz – this part of the city was rebuild after the fall of the Berlin Wall, so it’s full of modern style glass-and-steel buildings. When I was there last time we seemed to be the only people there, like the City in London it looked dead apart from the working hours. It was better this time – maybe because there was another one for those Christmas Markets…

Just next to it (Leipziger Platz 7) there is the Dali Museum – maybe it’d be extremely interesting for a die-hard Dali fan, but honestly I’ve felt a bit disappointed and thought that paying 11 EUR for two small exhibition rooms was a bit too much.

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Photos

Berlin 2014
Kreutzigerstrasse

Berlin 2014
Alexanderplatz

Berlin 2014
Alexanderplatz

Berlin 2014
Rosenthalen Strasse