G R A T E F U L: an Epilogue

What a brilliant, beautiful, incredible time I had.
What could I possibly say to sum up this experience?
Four weeks, four capital cities, four European countries.
What I saw. Where I went. What I did. Who I met.
Humbled. Grateful. Overwhelmed.

Like Alice through the Looking Glass.
Like Dorothy down the Yellow Brick Road.
Little me. (went. saw. did.) Lived.

My final night in Berlin, I sat in an Indian restaurant in Mitte;
gazed out the glass toward the cafe across the street where I had sat and drank several nights before. Windows lit-up, and inside, silhouetted shapes of people drinking, talking, laughing.
The rain-wet street, splashed with reflected neon; a yellow tram swooshed by. Boy and girl hand in hand, getting wet; walking by. Thinking about my time. Musing over my month of meandering.
I wondered; how did I get so lucky?

PHOTOS: Neue National Galerie - Cafe' Berio - etc.

PHOTOS: Potsdammerplatz - Mitte

"Joyous Journey"

Exhausted and Elated. I am Home.
The photo above is one that I took on the last day of my journey while visiting the Neue National Galerie. The Painting is by Asger Jorn, and titled "Joyous Journey." One more beautiful "coincidence?" Perfectly befitting, like everything else for and of this journey.
More photos to post and stories to tell, after I have slept a spell. ;-)

Love & Gratitude,

Joseph

Beautiful Books & Neon

These photos are from the neighborhood where I am staying called "Schoenberg." It's in old West Berlin and has been the "gay neighborhood" since the 1920's. Christopher Isherwood lived here and set his novels here ("Cabaret.") There are tons of beautiful old book shops, antique shops, cafes' and restaurants, as well as, well...the "seamier side of things" (in which I did NOT indulge, thank you ;-)
As always, you can read the captions that I wrote for some of the photos; if you run the mouse over the photo, the text will appear.

BERLIN - Mitte Monday!

Well, SOMEBODY is fluent in English here! (A "sage," no less.)

Are we sure they're getting their photo taken in there???
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The "Mitte" district of Berlin is similar to New York's "East Village." (And, also the neighboring Prenzlauerberg) It's the trendy, artsy community and where (I am told) the burgeoning Berlin Art Scene has been happening for the past several years. I spent the day there today tooling around and stopping in cafes for lattes' to soak up some of the scene. Of course I pick MONDAY to go and check-out the "Gallery Scene," the ONE day of the week they are CLOSED! Haha! I still had a great time discovering the funky neighborhood (with CHEAP rents!) and I'm going to head back tomorrow when I can actually get INSIDE the galleries! xoxo - jo!

Slide Show: BERLIN - Mitte Monday!

Berlin - Mitte - Monday
The reason most of my photos stink is because I can't see a damn thing in that LCD screen or LED screen or whatever the heck it's called. In the daylight it is just an opaque black rectangle. I just point at something and hope it's in the frame!