Segways, DMs and Zappa

More rain!

However, me and the Baby Canon went looking for photos anyway.

I found some interesting street art which I've added to my blipfolio:Ich sehe dich
Street art
My favourite and was going to be my blip for today

Travelling on my own, especially now that I come to Berlin without maps or guidebook and I'm more likely to get spoken to. I'm always wary, but enjoyed a brief chat today with a young punk in one of the S-bahn stations who was very impressed by my metallic purple DM boots. I went down in his estimations though when, in answer to his question about the number of holes they had, I said "nur acht" - just 8.

I did also take refuge from the rain today in my favourite bar, with Zappa, the huge tabby cat. He must be getting old now, but is lovely - if not very interactive ;-)

Berlin is an odd place and in many ways, can be whatever you want. You can ignore the history and just focus on the shops, the cafes and bars etc or you can notice the little brass plaques outside houses that tell you the names of the people who once lived there before being shipped to concentration camps. You can notice the the gap where a building used to be, until it was destroyed by a direct hit from an allied bomb - plaques on the walls of the other houses listing the names of those who died.
You can notice the bullet holes and missing chunks in some of the older buildings, see the new stone with which the Reichstag and countless other buildings have been repaired. You can notice how the walk-don't walk lights differ depending on whether you're in the east or west of the city. You can see the stones in the roads and pavement marking the path of Die Mauer.

Or, you can notice the Bugatti Veyron and smile with other pedestrians at the group of tourists on a segway tour of the city.