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!

Feelin' Fine / Sunday Tour

My Chariot Awaits! (Diesel Fume Jalopy! I was sitting on the top, in the back, I was almost knocked-out by the Diesel FUMES from this rig! Only 15 euros, and guaranteed to get you "high!" P U !!)

A remaining section of the Berlin Wall - still standing.
"SAVE" ... and they did.

I woke up feeling about a thousand percent better, so I couldn't wait to head out and explore. Since it was raining (the weather here has been nuts; it rains for five minutes, then the sun for five minutes, then rain, then sun - Perfect RAINBOW weather - and Beautiful SKIES!) and I was just recently healed of my head-cold, I thought it might be a good idea to sit on a tour bus for an hour or two, instead of traipsing around in the rain. I walked to Brandenburg Gate and hopped a two hour tour bus for fifteen euros. It was a great way to see the city on a rainy day, and I became well versed on some historical sites and city history (although had a bit of difficulty deciphering all of it via the "English" narration in heavy Deutchland dialect!) The photos I took are in the Slide Show below.
Walked all around the historical neighborhood where I'm staying tonight and had an AMAZING pizza. I think it was "Turkish Pizza" or something. Wafer-thin crust and seasoned with ROSEMARY! Delicious! Tons of bars, cafes, ethnic restaurants, old churches, record stores, and a lot of old, BEAUTIFUL used bookshops.
The books are meticulously arranged, like works of ART. These bookshops seem more like museums. Lovingly presented. Great care and respect into the display and selling - "Typically European" from what I have garnered in my short four week tenure here. Beautiful. ;-)

BERLIN Tour!

These photos (except the Rainbows!) were taken through the window of the tour bus. So, anything that even half-way came out OK was a surprise!
(always best to Click on a Slide Show photo to move into Slide Show window and then Click "Original View" -upper right corner - to ENLARGE!! ;-)

Turning a Corner ;-) Yay!

Hallo! (German for "Hello!" - like you couldn't have guessed! haha!!)

After two days/nights of being cooped up in my Duetchland apartment with an intense migraine headache, I have finally turned a corner on this rainy Sunday morning! Sparrows, outside the windows of this light-filled, top-floor room in the German sky, are singing! When all I wanted to do was sleep away the headache, lying down caused my head "to split" so I tried with semi-success to sleep sitting up, just like Rembrandt used to do! (I learned this while visiting his home in Amsterdam; they'd sleep half-sitting up in their "box-beds" because they were afraid they would "expire" if they were to sleep prone, flat on their backs!) So, I slept, sitting (by osmosis??!!) Or, at least "half-slept" with eyes closed in the silent, darkened room.

So! Now it's time to venture out to take in as much Berlin as I can before my flight back to NYC on Wednesday.

LOVE xo LOVE xo LOVE xo You All!!!

Josef!