Berlin is definately a place full of art, I may have said this already but after visiting the East Side Gallery, which is the largest preserved part of the original Berlin wall, it became even more apparent how art can reflect the feelings and political agendas of the time. The East Side Gallery was truely astonishing the art work revealed hidden messages and some rather obivious ones as well. We walked the entire length taking in all that we could in such a short amount of time and then it was on to explore what remained of the city.
Since it is summer in Europe, snowing at home in Canberra apparently, the days can get rather hot and walking around can become very tiring. We headed for our last stop of our time in Berlin - the Topography of Terror Museum. Now originally I had thought it would have had something to do with the natural landscape of Germany during the Nazi regime, although we were greeted with something entirely different. The focus of the museum was not natural landscape but rather man made buildings and the landscape they formed. The buildings in question were the main headquarters and Nazi operation points. We looked on many documents that recorded the terror of the Gestapo Headquarters, the SS, the Airforce and many others making up the central hub of the Nazi regime.
The museum had an interesting point of view and would have taken hours to read all the information. Our time in Berlin has definately been filled with Nazi information overload and it can get somewhat sombre, so instead of hanging around we headed off for some more amazing currywurst, some final happy snaps for my Berlin Bear collection and rested our weary legs in the amazing park overlooked by the Berlinadom. Berling has been an eye opening experience with some very talented homeless characters, a variety of street protests, a strong police presence and history, art and culture associated with almost every building.
We left Berlin satisfied with our stay and headed for the unknown at Dresden, unknown simply because I wasnt bothered reading up on what there is to do there. We arrived and it seemed like we had hit a ghost town, so rather than sit at the hostel and do nothing, we decided to get some sangria, snacks and head to the park to do nothing! We decided to venture out the following day to the old town of Dresden, we wandered along the river and found ourselves crossing a bridge into a completely different version of Dresden. On this side of the river there were hundreds of people, not to mention amozing buildings and museums galore. We checked out the museum of ceremonial weapons, some armour so intricate it makes you wonder how they did it in the 15th Century.
The procession of Princes, a massive tiled art peice on the side of a building was rather impressive, apart from the poor prince who only got to serve for less than a year. We headed back to the hostel, had some delicious soup on the way back and got ready to check out what is apparently a decent night life in Dresden. As we headed out it was obvious that this was the kind of town that picks up after dark, people filled the once empty cafes and resturants and the dance floors were always crowded. Dresden in the end, although very quite, was a nice stop to chill out for a bit and enjoy the once again prevalant street art. Off to our next stop and a whole other country ... Prague!!!
L&R
