Catchup: The First of May

The first of May is a festival/protest day here. I was told that during the day is a festival, and during the night they start rioting and burn cars etc. Sounded intriguing. I had packed everything up already so Floh and I went down to the festival part during the day! I was interested in music and dancing, but wanted to get out before riots. I've never seen a car get burnt up, but I didn't want to get burnt up myself. Either way, we headed down and walked towards the party.

This was taken on the way there - Berlin sure is pretty :)



We got there and there were indeed people dancing. A lot of people were just standing though...



cool tree thing



german punk singing in a wheelchair



dancing, or the department of silly walks?



leftists + anarchists = 1st May



spongebob!!



"you gentrify we occupy"



interesting car



well there was a lot of beer floating around, and after some beers and dancing it started to get dark. By this point I'd had enough beers that instead of going home I decided to stay to see if things got rioty. Police were very dressed up for the occasion. If it's one thing lefties and righties both don't like it's police.



It was strange, the police would walk around then randomly run together for no reason at all. Occasionally one or two would run at some random person just standing there then someone would start yelling.

This video is very dark but you can hear random people screaming


There were a LOT of people around, and between the closed off streets (where music was being performed) and the U-bahn there were a line of police and trucks to try and stop people from bringing their glass beer bottles out.

Someone made some fire, but it was put out


Eventually there were so many people they closed the U-bahn. They pushed people out of the underground pretty forcefully, then raided upstairs to close that and kick us out of the fenced street level area. I have a video of this happening but Flickr is being a bastard and is not letting me upload it at the moment. I've tried several times but it just won't load for now. Ugh.



In this next video you can hear everyone chanting at the police. This was from when we were still in the street level fenced part. At this point the cops were like a herd of animals. All they did was walk/run/lunge together in circles while people chanted that they were swine. Nothing was really happening other than the odd bottle blowing up. You can hear Florian talking about their use of words:




Now I have another video also not being uploaded for some reason, and you can hear a bottle thing blowing up close by. Also a good one. Grrrrr. Well I have a couple blurry photos for the end of the story...





I saw a couple people cut up from the bottles exploding, one on the hand and one on the face. One went off surprisingly close to us at one point, but not close enough to hit us at all. The noise was the biggest surprise. 



Once we were on the street again, we realized that nothing more was going to happen. This was it. Everyone we were talking to were doing the same thing as us - watching people and waiting to see if something more was going to happen. We felt kind of foolish so we took the metro home.

Catchup: Wansee and Peacock Island

The next day was so nice I wanted to continue being outdoors exploring. Erin and I had decided on which ticket to buy for our trip, so I went down to the nearest train station. I stepped out of the door and noticed how much nicer the street looked with leaves on the trees!



I bought our tickets, which was very exciting! I bought them at Zoologischer Garten, so once they were purchased (only 3 left! I took the last pair!) I thought "hey why not see Bellevue, where the President lives". It was supposed to be in Tiergarten, but it took a little while to find.



These are in the middle of the park





I ended up at the S-bahn again, where I then spontaneously decided to go to Wansee. I had heard that it was nice. I took the train down and looked around. I wasn't aware that I was supposed to get out at the station before Wansee to get to the Wansee beach... so there are no beach shots...















It was still alright, but not a lot to do. I had walked a little far, and I wanted to take a bus to somewhere new. I was thinking of going to a place near Potsdam, but the bus went right by me because I stepped back when it approached. Whoops! I walked back but saw another bus, but it was different.

This bus was old. I read the direction and it said "Peacock Island" in German. I had also read about this online, so I hopped on! It took me into the forest, and then I could walk onto a little ferry. They gave out maps of the island and some history (which I forget sorry!) so off I went!

There was a kitty at the ferry!





The island was aptly named


There were a few buildings on it


but a lot more nature than buildings


















Upside of SLR: more versatility. Downside of SLR: Way less Zoom. Had to get right up to it.






I went over to this building and there was some sort of gathering. Everyone was dressed fancy, and there was catering. I managed to walk straight into the building :)










I was admiring the pirate boat on my way back!


Unfortunately the bus going back was not coming for almost two hours!! That was way too long to wait. I was starving, so I just started walking. It was a nice forest, but it was a long-ass road. I had a paper and pen so I wrote the name of the S-bahn station in hopes that all the rich people would be driving by with space in the car for me. Time for some in-city hitchhiking!

Or so I thought. I walked and walked, and didn't see a single car go by!! I got to a bus station FINALLY and took it to zoo! By the time I finally got home, I was dying for food! I had put a twix bar in the fridge before I left and I had forgot it... so I was really hoping nobody had ate it.

After eating said twix bar I had to help pack up my stuff since we were moving on Sunday!

Catchup: Museums and Köpenik

The next day I decided it was time to go in some free museums. Every Thursday a lot of places are free entrance, so I thought it would be cool to check out some art. My first stop was a contemporary art museum (it was closest to my house and easiest to get to) so I went there...









this one had sound


























this was near the restaurant... not so contemporary!




After the museum, I felt like checking out another place people had recommended. This area is called Köpenik. It used to be a separate town, like Tegel and Neuköln, but also was swallowed up into Berlin. I went across the city to check it out!










I got here just in time! I was happy to get in since it was a palace!


this was really nice!


I thought Dad would be impressed by this door...


ceiling


kinda scary


more ceiling


another impressive door




so you can see the foreground better








wooden table!


very fancy ceiling!


this is made from porcelain. I was impressed.




the dining area. The security guy in this picture actually came up to me after this picture and asked if he was in it, then started chatting with me.


fireplace




this is frightening as well..


hahahaha


They were actually closing the Palace at this time, so I left and walked in the grounds which were still open.



here is a little center area. Pretty charming.




This is the inside of that building, don't know what it was!



I got a little lost, and ended up at the water..



 



stupid sign kinda ruined it



After this I was tired and hungry. I walked a lot, and had to make my way back home eventually. I really can't remember what I did or how I got back at the moment, so I will think on it and leave it like this for now.