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Another busy day
9 May 2010 06:28 pmLast night I went out, originally to Kreuzberg to meet a gal from class, but she said the bar they were at was in OranienBURGERstrasse, instead of Oranienstrasse, so I ended up going to the other damn end of the city. It's certainly easy to mix them up. I'd been planning to go to a bar called Aufsturz, which has a whole bunch of different beers, and that's where I ended up. I hate going out alone, but I enjoyed my beer (St Bernardus Tripel. Recommended if you like tripels.)
I went to the Berliner Unterwelten tour today, just in time for the noon trip thanks to a quick check of BVG and a dash to the Bahnhof to make a train in 5 minutes. It was really interesting, though you're not allowed to photograph inside. The area was built as an air raid shelter during WW2, then the S-bahn line was built above it. They knew the structure wasn't sound enough to withstand a bomb impact (the ground wasn't very far above it, and the concrete wasn't super thick), but they built it anyway. They put in some impact wave break walls to decrease the force as it traveled from the impact site, though I have no idea how successful it would be.
During the Cold War, it was used as a storage facility for canned goods and such, because they learned during the Blockade of 48-49 that they could suffer easily from a lack of goods. They also stored TP and other such things. The Allies expanded it a bit and firmed up the structure for use during a nuclear attack.
Then we took a short train ride to a neighboring station, which had a very well-planned bomb shelter, with doors to flight tunnels that lined up precisely to the BVG U-bahn-train doors, and airlocks into the shelter itself and decontamination rooms and stored bunk beds ... very well planned, except that people would have nothing to do for two weeks (which is how long they could stay there) except worry about the outside world.
I should write a story about something like that.
Then after that, since I was sort of in the area, I took the U8 up to Bernauer Strasse and walked to the Mauerpark, where I ran into a huge flea market. I wandered through the aisles, and there were so many things, but all I bought were some photo prints of abandoned or ruined buildings (6 for 5 E.) Well, and a veggie burger and a 0,4L cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice. (I really only like OJ if it's fresh. Its taste changes somehow when it's packed.)
I ran into Carlos, a guy from Venezuela who I met at the Stammtisch on Wednesday, and he was with a friend from Venezuela, Anabel. I talked with her a bit while he went off to buy a guitar (?). They were going to the Dali exhibit, and they invited me along, but I had vague other plans, so I declined. (I like Dali. He's very surreal. Maybe I'll go later.)
My other plans involved going to some of the Geisterbahnhoefe and the Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer. They're expanding the Gedenkstaette, and it's going to take up most of that section of street. I want to see it when they finish. Then I walked up Bernauer Strasse to Nordbahnhof, where there's an exhibition on the Geisterbahnhoefe (that I didn't know about until I got there, actually.) I took some pictures into the station, and they turned out delightfully creepy with the flash (and bad without it).
My main goal for Nordbahnhof had been to take pictures of the stripes with name placards that represent the stations of the trains that used to stop there (back when it was the Stettiner Bahnhof (trains went from there to Stettin/Sczecin), but there's this bloede Neubauten there which destroyed some of them. But some still exist, so I took pictures of them.
Then I walked back to the U6 station by where Ben & I stayed 2 years ago (they changed the name from Zinnowiter Strasse to Naturkundemuseum), took it a few stations, changed to U2, and came home. My feet, ankles, and knees ache, so I'm going to not walk for a while, I think.
Going places alone is kind of melancholy, I think, especially if you're visiting melancholy places. Sometimes that's the feeling I want, though.
I should eat some dinner, too. Thankfully I have some stuff I can cook.
I went to the Berliner Unterwelten tour today, just in time for the noon trip thanks to a quick check of BVG and a dash to the Bahnhof to make a train in 5 minutes. It was really interesting, though you're not allowed to photograph inside. The area was built as an air raid shelter during WW2, then the S-bahn line was built above it. They knew the structure wasn't sound enough to withstand a bomb impact (the ground wasn't very far above it, and the concrete wasn't super thick), but they built it anyway. They put in some impact wave break walls to decrease the force as it traveled from the impact site, though I have no idea how successful it would be.
During the Cold War, it was used as a storage facility for canned goods and such, because they learned during the Blockade of 48-49 that they could suffer easily from a lack of goods. They also stored TP and other such things. The Allies expanded it a bit and firmed up the structure for use during a nuclear attack.
Then we took a short train ride to a neighboring station, which had a very well-planned bomb shelter, with doors to flight tunnels that lined up precisely to the BVG U-bahn-train doors, and airlocks into the shelter itself and decontamination rooms and stored bunk beds ... very well planned, except that people would have nothing to do for two weeks (which is how long they could stay there) except worry about the outside world.
I should write a story about something like that.
Then after that, since I was sort of in the area, I took the U8 up to Bernauer Strasse and walked to the Mauerpark, where I ran into a huge flea market. I wandered through the aisles, and there were so many things, but all I bought were some photo prints of abandoned or ruined buildings (6 for 5 E.) Well, and a veggie burger and a 0,4L cup of fresh-squeezed orange juice. (I really only like OJ if it's fresh. Its taste changes somehow when it's packed.)
I ran into Carlos, a guy from Venezuela who I met at the Stammtisch on Wednesday, and he was with a friend from Venezuela, Anabel. I talked with her a bit while he went off to buy a guitar (?). They were going to the Dali exhibit, and they invited me along, but I had vague other plans, so I declined. (I like Dali. He's very surreal. Maybe I'll go later.)
My other plans involved going to some of the Geisterbahnhoefe and the Gedenkstaette Berliner Mauer. They're expanding the Gedenkstaette, and it's going to take up most of that section of street. I want to see it when they finish. Then I walked up Bernauer Strasse to Nordbahnhof, where there's an exhibition on the Geisterbahnhoefe (that I didn't know about until I got there, actually.) I took some pictures into the station, and they turned out delightfully creepy with the flash (and bad without it).
My main goal for Nordbahnhof had been to take pictures of the stripes with name placards that represent the stations of the trains that used to stop there (back when it was the Stettiner Bahnhof (trains went from there to Stettin/Sczecin), but there's this bloede Neubauten there which destroyed some of them. But some still exist, so I took pictures of them.
Then I walked back to the U6 station by where Ben & I stayed 2 years ago (they changed the name from Zinnowiter Strasse to Naturkundemuseum), took it a few stations, changed to U2, and came home. My feet, ankles, and knees ache, so I'm going to not walk for a while, I think.
Going places alone is kind of melancholy, I think, especially if you're visiting melancholy places. Sometimes that's the feeling I want, though.
I should eat some dinner, too. Thankfully I have some stuff I can cook.
