Berlin, Germany

Ich bin ein exhausted.

The city is a massive living machine, stretching over vast kilometers and breathing the voice of millions through its streets and corridors. It is an organism of stone and steel and steam, and it murmurs low in its brief sleepless nights.



Ventricles of the city's transit wind their way deep into the outer boroughs, thinning to wiry capillaries amongst those quiet lonely neighborhoods, and feeding back dense arteries to the ever-beating heart of the city center. Take a seat on the U-Bahn and you can feel its very pulse beneath you. Take a walk down any major road, and you'll see straight to the center of it all. Take a rest, and the city keeps going tirelessly.



The whole city works with a biological precision, seemingly effortless in its mechanical flow. Nothing exists frivolously or extraneously - superficiality and decoration are scarcely seen in this place. Facades feel wasteful here, all effort seemingly directed towards utilitarian functionality. Everything is hard and rough and edged. Everything has a purpose, else it is worn quickly and remorselessly away.



Wandering Berlin doesn't work. Not in the way that I've so far been approaching exploration. It's simply way too big. Successful wandering depends on two major elements - the nebulous promise of potential discovery, and an ability to abandon the current path if it fails to provide such discovery. Berlin has its wonders, to be sure, but they aren't really found accidentally. Moreso, if you insist on wandering as I have, you find yourself hours later with very few memorable landmarks and very sore feet.



Berlin museums were more interesting than inspiring - I guess they had to give all their good art back to the French. However, the Dali Museum was a highlight of the trip, featuring a spectacular collection of his ink and watercolor works, many of which I had never seen. It occupied much of an afternoon, and got me further excited for Barcelona.

Similarly, I had a blast exploring the tech museum - it's full of the kind of old computery things that I like to photograph, and stands as a grand testimony to German engineering. Perhaps most photogenic was the Holocaust Memorial - it's an enormously labyrinthine abstract apology, and makes for some great shots.



I am ready to depart, but glad that I came here. It is truly a city and a people like none I've ever seen. I suppose it comes from working hard, even from a very young age:



Now I have to try to learn some Czech. You know how they say "yes" in Prague? It sounds like "uh, no". This is going to get real comedic real quick.