After brunch a few people left and the rest of us were set to head to the flea market, but just a couple doors down from the cafe there was a block of flats that had some really cool art inside the entrance and courtyard so we went to have a quick look:
This picture has a very similar style to Banksy.
Once we got to the Flea market we split up and arranged to meet after an hour and a half. Some of the things being sold were just so random; one stall we saw had a rough pile of clothes with the man behind them shouting 'Ein Euro' with a look that he knew he wasn't going to sell anything and wasn't really trying. Melissa bought a Soviet cigarette case and lighter for €10 which the man then offered to me also, when I said I didn't smoke he said "Ah, but you drink" whilst holding up a hip flask, great salesmanship but I politely declined. One stall did catch my eye though, it was selling cool looking urban canvas art which I was very tempted by. We finished looking round early so we decided to go on some nearby swings. Suffice to say, my inner child enjoyed it thoroughly.
We then walked to a Thai restaurant which was rather expensive and the service was a bit off. There were 5 of us at this point and for some reason we weren't allowed to sit at one of the long tables as they were reserved for couples. So they bustled into a small space next to the door. Laura recommended one of the teas, and what arrived was nice but wasn't exactly what I'd call a tea:
Most of us ordered a desert only and on this front they succeeded in making something rather delicious:
On the way to the Thai place we'd seen a shop selling Ben & Jerry's ice cream so after the bad service and on receiving no change from the bill we felt no guilt in stealing the small spoons to have with some Ben & Jerry's ice cream.
After buying the ice cream we took a pleasant stroll through Prenzlauerberg on what was a very mild evening (for Berlin) and it was still early when we arrived at the Shisha bar. For those of you who don't know, a Shisha (Shicha in German) is a large tobacco smoking contraption with a tube attached that you suck the smoke through. You choose from a selection of sweet flavoured tobacco. We ordered a shisha between us and a few drinks then spent the next hour or so chatting and playing cards.
Surprised at how early it still was (around 9pm) we walked to Alexanderplatz to look at the Festival of Lights which was ending the next day. From there we slowly walked to the Brandenburg Gates stopping frequently to look and take photographs of various things. Katy had a Digital SLR camera with her and is going to host her photographs online so I may be able to post some of them up here at a later date. But for the time being, here's some of the ones I took with my compact:
Part of a large clock projected on the ground by a company called Fossil.
The actual clock-face itself was projected onto the ground.
These ruins used to be the East Berlin government offices, but they are now being torn down. I quite liked how they looked behind the fence.
This building is part of Humbolt University. I was leaning against a tree trying to take this and wasn't able to keep it steady.
I had a small tripod perched on top of a bollard to take this and despite the movement of the people the 2 second exposure has really brought out the detail in the trees.
By the time we got to Brandenburg Tor it was around 11pm so we decided to call it a night and when I finally got back to the apartment it was coming up on midnight. I'd spent 12 hours out of the house and I was knackered but it was an awesome day.
No comments:
Post a Comment