The flat in P'berg

The new place in Berlin. Classic Berlin style flat with wood floors and a green courtyard out back. The local neighbourhood organic street market is about 20 metres away on Thursdays and right out front on Saturdays.

My room. Rent includes furniture and art on the walls.

Ute and Roberts room

Roberts study/work room

Classic Berlin bathroom, long and narrow. Some are MUCH thinner.

Kitchen and the common room.

 Not as cool a neighbourhood as Kreuzberg or Neukolln but its convenient to Mauer Park and Mitte. Prenzlauer Berg has become quite gentrified and is FULL of baby strollers and young professionals. As such its hard to find a loaf of bread at a decent price. It takes a bit of investigation but a good bakery with fair prices does exist. However if you need new shoes hats bags or baby clothes just go down stairs...

Abandoned Beelitz Hospital

  Beelitz Heilstätten hospital was built between 1898 and 1902 so it has some of that old world attention to detail and craftsmanship in the architecture. The buildings are in bad shape but there's still beauty to see. It's had a long history with the likes of Hitler and Eric Honecker staying as patients but its been rather quiet for the last few years. After WWII, the Russians took it over and it became the largest Soviet Military hospital outside of the USSR.

  So now this vast collection of buildings is silent and eerie. It's been the location for US films like "The Pianist" and "Valkyrie". When we were there we bumped into a film crew shooting a new video for Rammstein. The shots being filmed were in a very large room full of beds with lamps next to each. I think the video may have a WWI style about it. So if you're a fan, look for it soon assuming the guy we spoke with was legit.

  Most of the buildings are sealed up but it is possible to get inside if you're lucky to find an open window. There are surgical lights and beds somewhere in one of the buildings but I haven't found that yet.

This building was fire bombed in WWII so that forest roof has had about 70 years to grow.

What it lacks in privacy it makes up for in the view.

The furnace house from down in the coal pit.

The boilers haven't seen much heat recently.

So how many years ago did those bricks crack in half and just how rusted is that beam...

Some hints of the past or the last urban explorer.

Clearly some floors are failing...

Ghostly inhabitant.

  An amazing and beautiful place well worth a visit. There are plans to renovate this place and one building has been done. I hope they leave it alone as a memorial to the past. More photo's on the Flickr page here:
www.flickr.com/photos/nouveauvoyages/sets/72157624957459080/
More info on the history here (in German):
www.beelitzer-heilstaetten.de/

Cheers
Andy

Lange Nacht der Museen (Long night of Museums)

  Back on January 28th, I went to The Long Night of Museums which happens twice a year. About 70 Museum's and galleries are open from 6 pm til 2 am, one ticket covers everything and transport on the U-Bahn, all for 15 Euro's! There are also performances happening at various locations.
  I hadn't been to the National art gallery before so this was an opportunity to get a preview of the collection and decide if it was worth a second look later. Its worth another visit :)

The national gallery entrance has this amazing life size sculpture.

  After that I went to the National Museum which I visited last year. It was busy but not too bad and I found a few items I didn't see last time.

A great sculpt of a stylized Octopus.

I came out of the museum to find a new layer of snow falling.

  Next up was an installation of photographs in an old bunker. Annoyingly they don't want pictures taken so you will be more inclined to buy a book. But those books never do a building justice.

The exterior of this amazing place

The front door. Rather thick walls!

Deeper inside you find a reconstruction of a check-in desk (on the left) and floor guide on the right.

Maze like hallways and rooms.

  Since I had to sneak a few pictures I couldn't get a shot of the exhibition of photographs. They were in light boxes mounted in these small rooms. The black and white photos were on one layer with a colour transparency mounted in front. The effect was similar to a Lenticular 3d image. My photo's aren't the best but it is a great building and worth a visit via the local tour website:
www.berliner-unterwelten.de/

All the hallways look like this, very disorienting.

  Next up was the Museum for German Film and Television. I didn't have time to do this justice so I went through the film side to see if it was worth visiting again. It is.

Life size robot Maria.

Not the originals but a good reproduction of these amazing designs from "Metropolis".

Maquette's of death and the seven deadly sins from "Metropolis".

The death mask of F.W. Murnau.

A fantastic way to suggest the epic scale of the futuristic cityscape, two story tall mirrors:)

  After the film museum, I met some friends at the Museum of Musical Instruments. They were playing the 1926 version of "Faust" by Murnau with live organ accompaniment. That is a stunning film, no surprise as it came a few years after "Nosferatu".
  If you find yourself in Berlin in January or August look for this event, really worth the effort. But have a plan as there is LOTS to see.
www.lange-nacht-der-museen.de

Cheers
Andy

Art of the Bar

I met with the director of the film I'm working on at this bar a few weeks ago. Zwiebelfisch is on the west side but doesn't have that glitz feel, more a comfortable feeling full of respect for creative people. Its a place that celebrates the arts in all its forms. The walls are covered in posters for films, theatre, gallery shows, photographs etc.

The locals come in many colours

Nosferatu!

 Zwiebelfisch is in Savignyplatz near Zoologischer Garten. If you come to Berlin check it out.
www.zwiebelfisch-berlin.de

New Years in Berlin

Stole this from Manuel's FB album as I didn't have a camera. This looks rather serene compared to where I was.

This city knows how to celebrate. Fireworks are EVERYWHERE, it was battle of Berlin 2.0. The Brandenburg Gate official fireworks and entertainment are for the tourists really. It's when you get into the various Keiz (Neighbourhoods) that you find the really good party. I went to a friends place for a pre-party and then we all piled into the Ubahn to go to a bar in Prenzlauer Berg which was open for all. The place is called Soupanova, a cafe/bar/restaurant during the day and bar hangout at night. There were two DJ's in opposing rooms with the bar in the middle. At midnight everyone poured into the street to toast the new year and set off fireworks. And so did everyone else in the city it seems. The bar is on a corner so there were rockets launching all around for 40 minutes. Down the street two opposing bars were battling it out across the intersection with rockets, screamers and crackers. Apparently the Brandenburg show had bands like Scorpion playing and the fireworks lasted 12 minutes... You choose which to take in next year :)

Cheers
Andy