Make Time: Modern Art in Berlin

I got up at the Grand Hostel, and unlike the day before, I went straight to my new hostel, Jetpack Alternative, and checked in right at 11:30am. As I was getting off the subway in my new neighborhood, Kreuzberg, I immediately knew I was in a more funky and grungy hood. Lots of tattoos and alternative dress, as well as a ton of immigrants (mostly looked Turkish or Middle Eastern). The restaurants and the entire vibe seemed completely without XXXX, which was a nice change of pace for me. The hostel is only about a quarter mile from the subway station, but it managed to start raining pretty hard on me halfway through, and so that didn't make me too happy. I just kept saying to myself, "This isn't good". Eventually I got to the hostel, which is on a very chill cobblestone street directly across from a little park. Loved the street immediately, and when I walked into the hostel it was a refreshing change of pace to be in a small place with a very nice and cordial host (James, who I described yesterday). As I described yesterday, I grabbed some breakfast and then after a nice Vietnamese lunch, I headed to the Museum of Modern Art here in Berlin. Oh - wait - first I went to the Apple store. My computer is nearing a dangerous point of "too full" so I wanted to discuss this with a pro, so I took the subway downtown to the Apple store and tried to setup an appointment at the "genius bar". Yeah - the next appointment was for this SATURDAY. Yikes. Ok, so I got back on the subway and then headed to the Modern Art Museum, which is actually called Berlinische Galerie. As I walk up to the museum I see a beautiful outside piece with letters and a big silver sculpture - very engaging right away (pic below). I get into the museum and there is a very cool interactive exhibit to begin, where there is a robot moving around the middle of the room recording what you do and say on a microphone, and then projecting this onto a huge system of speakers on either side of the room. Very cool way of showing how we are intertwined with robots and machines these days. I dug it. Then I moved onto another exhibit by a woman from the 60's and 70's and I cannot tell you how I much I did NOT like it. The meaning was fair enough - women power and the movement away from a penis-centric society, but the art and the way she did it was just not that impressive. I think the important aspect about the art was the timing of when she did it, which was at a time when people weren't thinking enough about this. Oh well. The problem is that this was the main exhibit, so I had to get by it before seeing some things I really enjoyed. Pics below - hope you enjoy. After that I took the subway back to the hostel, grabbed a kebab on the way (shocker), and then chilled in my room. I'm in a 4-bed room but I'm the only one, which is heavenly. So chill. The rooms are very nice too, so this hasn't been a let down from the Grand Hostel in anyway. Didn't do too much after that last night. It was raining most of the day so it was a good day to just be lazy and do my own thing, which was a nice change. For dinner I grabbed some Indian, but mostly just tried to plan out some more of my trip. OH! Bought a plane ticket to Zurich for this Friday morning. I'm getting picked up by a guy named Gaston, who I met in Munich this past fall at Octoberfest. He's a funny guy - should be good times staying with him and seeing Zurich for the weekend. Also, I'm thinking of doing a day trip on Thursday to a smaller town about an hour south of Berlin called Spreewald. Check it out here - super random but could be nice. That's about it for yesterday.

Today I'm up and ready to get out of here now around 10am, and I'm planning to hit a few museums which my friend Karen told me about, based on recommendations from her friends who've lived here for years. Excited! Then tonight I'm going to see some live local hip hop, based on a recommendation from the guys I saw in the park the other day.

The sun is out for now but it's chilly - love this weather. Off we go!!!