Berlin is an interesting place. We spent all of last night at Fischladen where I left off last night. When we left it was morning. While Aki worked furiously on her work for Johnson Creek; Vanessa, Mouse and I discussed the merits of Wi-Fi, Twitter and technology in general in political movements, in particular the leftist “Anarchist” movement here in Berlin.

The German leftist movement has a fear and misunderstanding of technology. Wi-Fi in many places is not allowed and approached angrily. While 78 is legally owned and inhabited many individuals here are very much afraid of being identified for their political actions. Their fears, of course, are justified, many could and would be arrested if identified. However the group fails to mobilize and grow beyond it’s existing circles from what I can tell, most don’t even have cell phones either because they can’t afford them, or they believe them to be the tools of the establishment. Their numbers, while supported internationally are not as strong as they were right after the wall fell, and they likely won’t be again unless this group embraces technology. Aki and I cited examples of Mumbai and Iran to explain the values of it but the consensus is that it will fall on deaf ears.

Now please, do not interpret this as an endorsement of the actions of this movement or their beliefs, nor do I mean disrespect to their beliefs either. I am merely a guest here and these people are putting me up and treating me as one of their own. I believe that nearly any political movement has merits and from what I can tell, these are good people who want to life their lives free of political oppression and generally mind their own business, I cannot speak for all of their beliefs, only that I can say they feel very justified in them and truly believe themselves to be doing good to help society, as they see it. It’s sad to me to see their message and beliefs get lost or downed out because they refuse to adapt to modern technology.

An interesting side note, you’ll see that most of my photos from this trip do not contain people… weird seeing as I tend to focus on portraits quite often. This is because the men and women of “78″ refuse to be photographed and the ones who don’t know me react angrily to me walking about with my camera at all. While I respect and understand this concern it saddens me as many of them are amazing, beautiful, interesting people who should have their voices heard and choose to hide their face so that they can fight another day, a concern that I’m not entirely sure how realistic it is.

New photos are up, check them out…

Until tomorrow.

We actually woke up at a sane hour today… If you call 2:30 pm a sane hour. Aki and I decided to venture put and explore, we started with the Alexanderplatz and took the U-Bahn (underground train) from there in a few different areas. Eventually we found ourselves resting in a park by the German history museum. In this area there were a ton of photo opportunities and many historic buildings, which of course I know nothing about. From there we walked west towards the setting sun and on to the Brandenburg Gate. As we got there the sub was hiring it perfectly and I was able to take some phenomenal pictures that really excited me. Also by the gate where a group of protestors putting on a hunger strike. All of their signs and fliers were in German so we were unable to follow their message. Aki pushed further until we found one of the representatives who spoke English.

He told us of a group of Iranian exiles living in Iraq who previously were recieving protection from the American government in Iraq, but as the turnover of power has progressed they have found themselves at the mercy of the an Iraqi government increasingly bowing to Iranian pressure to turn them over. This to them means certain doom. I haven’t had time to read over the necessary info as of yet but it sounds pretty legit. These people and their supporters hunger striking for the same protection from the Iraqi government that they recieved from the Americans. Interesting to say the least and not the kind of thing you find out about in the US. More info can be found at http://www.ncr-iran.org. Please take this with caution, this is not an endorsement or a reccomendation at this point, merely linked for curiousity. I have not been to the site myself yet.

So if you read my Twitter account today you might know that 78 is without internet at the moment and this post has been delayed because of it. Well I am writing this from Fischladen (translates to Fish Store but it’s bar that Mouse works at… no they don’t serve fish.) we managed to get in tonight to use the internet with Mouse’s keys. We’ve set up my MacBook Air as an ad-hoc wireless network so that Aki and I can both do our respective work. We are hoping the situation is remedied tomorrow.

We went to a party at another collective tonight, 84 Boxhagnerstraße, not much to discuss, biers were drank, franks were eaten, jokes were told & good times were had. I met some good people who hopefully will remember me next June when I plan to return. Anyway, I’m going to go, I’m being rude, the three of us are sitting in Fischladen drinking Tyskie and Vanessa just arrived to hang out with us. Tschüss!

Today was simple but great. We didn’t get to bed last night until 5 am and I didn’t get up till 5 pm. We went to the park again and made dinner (pizza and ramen… awesome.) We are now sitting around Mouse’s place drinking and watching Battlestar Galactica. (Germans love Battlestar Galactica… well at least ex-pats do).

Tonight we’re going to meet up with some people for a party and hopefully stay out till dawn again. I’m hoping to get on the roof and catch some shots of the sunrise.

I am posting a few more shots today as well, including Mouse’s room at 78 and a few more from the park. I’m going to try and document 78 a little more in the coming days.

For those reading this and finding it uneventful… you’re right, but this is exactly how we wanted today, I haven’t been this relaxed in ages.

We arrived in Berlin at around 9 am and luckily Mouse found us almost immediately. We traveled around a bit and attempted to find a SIM card to use in the unlocked iPhone I acquired before leaving. Turns about it’s just about impossible to get a prepaid data plan that will work with the iPhone, so it looks like I might be forced to use AT&T’s exorbitant rates.

The place we are staying at is pretty awesome. “78″ is a legally owned collective house with approximately 50 inhabitants. Each tenant seems to take pride in their home and respects eachother, that said the place is this beautiful mix of disaster and work in progress. Every corner screams potential.

After an extended nap we head over to Forki park, rested and conversed with Mouse’s friends. Finally we got ahold of Tex and agreed to meet up at the Alexanderplatz. Here I ventured off to take some pictures and eventually met up with Tex and his girlfriend Porsche.

From there we grabbed a taxi and went to dinner. After dinner we went out bar hopping. Tex being the local that he is took us to a few of his favorite watering holes including a few bars that he played at with his old band The Roughnecks. Aki and Porsche got along famously and a good time was had by all.

Check out the my Flickr page for more images from today. More tomorrow.

so far we’ve been flying almost 4 hours. (But of course this won’t be posted until after we land.) It’s 8:48 pm Chicago time which makes it 3:48 am Berlin time.

The flight thus far has been excellent. I am very impressed with Lufthansa (aside from them not letting Aki smoke her e-cig.) All of the seats have monitors built in with movies on demand. I started off by watching “I Love You Man” which was actually pretty good, after that I opted to watch Star Trek… in German. I gave up about halfway through though. I took 3 years of German in high school and parts are coming back to me but sadly most of it has been forgotten.

Not a lot on the agenda for when we land but lots of ideas. My co-worker, Tex (a native Berliner) is going to be in town coincidentally at the same time, so we are meeting up with him in the evening for a bier. Should be fun. Aki and I have already discussed the possibilty of taking a train to Munich for a day. I’m really excited at the possibility, I was in Munich once before shortly in high school and would love to go back.

If we do hit Munich we plan on stopping at the Apple Store while there as well. I brought a spare shirt from work. I’m hoping I can convince an employee to trade me a German one for it.

Already missing friends at home but really excited at what lies ahead. Can’t wait to start taking pictures!