#ichumarmeberlin

[ichumarmeberlin]

Today I hug cobble stones.

Before I lived in Berlin, I thought that cobble stoned sidewalks and streets were so 19th Century. But they are actually incredibly efficient and cost-effective. A water pipe bursts or a new fiber optic line needs to be put in, an entire block can be dug up, re-piped or re-cabled, and can be re-paved within 24 to 48 hours. And you would never know anything had ever even happened. Try that with asphalt or concrete! When they started laying a new sidewalk around the corner, I had to stop for a hug.

[ichumarmeberlin]

For 28 years, Bernauer Straße in Mitte played reluctant host to one of the most famous stretches of the Berlin Wall. Iconic images of Berliners trying to escape to the western section of the city by jumping out of apartment windows or by tunneling underground largely came from this area. Over the years, the densely packed urban apartment buildings along the Wall were demolished, and were replaced by a “Death Strip” which served as a buffer zone between an outer-wall and an inner-wall. 26 years after reunification, you can still see remnants of the Death Strip along Bernauer Straße. Much of this has been converted into parkland, but other stretches are being redeveloped as residential and commercial space. This block - now fenced off for impending construction - plays host merely to a single lonely sentinel of the commerce soon to arrive.

[ichumarmeberlin]

Kleingarten Hug on Flickr.

Today I hug a Kleingarten. As you travel throughout Berlin, you see many green areas called Kleingärten, like this one in the Park am Gleisdreieck in Kreuzberg. These are garden spaces, divided into small privately owned plots, where the owners will often build small cabins, plant fruits or vegetables, and perhaps even set up a small wading pool. These are lovely little patches of green, where denizens of the urban jungle can find peace and relative quiet without having to leave the city.

[ichumarmeberlin]

Köllnischer Park Hug on Flickr.

Today I hug Köllnischer Park. Back when Berlin was still two towns - Berlin and Cölln - what is now Köllnischer Park in Mitte was a damp and dank, low-lying area that was regularly flooded by the nearby Spree River. Unfortunately, it was also smack in the middle of the towns’ shared defensive wall. In the late 1600s, military engineers finally got around to draining the swamp - by which point the area was no longer needed for defensive purposes. So, like many other parts of Berlin that used to house obsolete military facilities, they planted trees on it and turned it into a feature. Now heavily bedecked with sculptures rescued from other parts of the city that no longer exist, Köllnischer Park perfectly embodies Berlin’s constant - and often successful - efforts to make something beautiful out the muck that they started with.

[ichumarmeberlin]

Santa Hug on Flickr.

Today I hug Santa. When I tell people that I am staying in Germany for Christmas, all of my American friends tell me that I have to go to Nuremberg or Köln or Rothenburg o.d. Tauber.  But I love Christmas in Berlin.  Every neighborhood seems to have its own Christmas market or festival, each with its own specialties and flavors.  Because I enjoy carnivals (if not necessarily the crowds that go with them), I like the Weihnachtsmarkt am Alexa, just adjacent to another Weihnachtsmarkt on Alexanderplatz in Mitte.  It has rides, games, lots of food, lots of Glühwein, and - I am told - the real Santa.  What is more festive than a Christmas hug?

[ichumarmeberlin]

Funkturm Hug on Flickr.

Today I hug the Funkturm. Paris thinks it is all that with the similarly designed Eiffel Tower. But while I am loath to get into a competition with the City of Light, I am pretty fond of the structure with the best name ever: the Funkturm. This broadcasting tower was built in Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf in 1926, and was the platform from which the world's first regular television program was broadcast in 1935. Now nestled inside a courtyard of the brutalist Internationales Congress Centrum, all the Funktum supports any more is a restaurant and an observation deck. But eating and observing aren't bad ways to spend retirement.

[ichumarmeberlin]

Pissoir Hug on Flickr.

Today I hug a pissoir. Sometimes, when you're walking around, you really need to go. Unfortunately, if you want to try to use a restaurant bathroom or one of the automated self-cleaning public bathrooms, you are often paying 50 cents or more for the privilege. Fortunately, some places like Senefelder Platz in Prenzlauer Berg still have free pissoirs. Originally brought to the city in 1863 from the trend-setting city of Paris, Berlin held three separate design competitions over the latter half of the 19th Century to come up with the most attractive designs. Fortunately, for those of us who don't carry around a lot of loose change, there are still a few around and in use.