Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Graffiti Art and the U-Bahn: Berlin

Arrived in Berlin by bus yesterday morning at 9:00am (we left at 11:30pm) and am happy to be here where the weather is a bit warmer and hostels are half the price. The bus was not a sleeper bus, but luckily there weren't too many people on it so we could stretch out.  We were dropped off on the complete opposite end of the city from my hostel, forcing me to navigate the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn (Berlin's subway system). 

I liked the smiley face

Went on an amazing tour today called the 'Alternative City Tour' and we explored graffiti art, squats (there are a number of quasi-legal self sustaining squats in Berlin), and subcultures. There is graffiti everywhere in the city and most of it is pretty cool. There's this one guy who rides his bike around and paints the number 6 everywhere (walls, construction sites, cans, pieces of garbage, etc.) and apparently he does it for six hours per day...they are everywhere...

Met a nice Australian and might head up to Hamburg for a music festival tomorrow with him. Then probably back to Berlin and Prague after that.

5 comments:

  1. interesting .. happy and surprised to hear that Berlin is much cheaper

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  2. I keep trying to post a comment and it never shows up ... I hope this one works!
    How amazing that you may just POP over to Hamburg for a music festival ... Fun! ( who is this guy you met? ) love, Mom

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  3. Don't forget to have a beer on the S-Bahn :)

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  4. Haha will do Alex. Although I did see a Neo-Nazi on the S-Bahn...didn't know it was one until after we got off and the tour guide pointed him out.

    Still haven't decided about Hamburg yet...looks like its kind of expensive to get there and I don't really want to leave Berlin!

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  5. Yeah, I saw a lot of skinhead characters in Germany. Not cool.

    If you do go to Hamburg, make sure you visit Reeperbahn area. Very fun!

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