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General Photography Travels

Berlin – Day 1

Alexanderplatz

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.

Categories
General Travels

So here we go…

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!

Categories
General Photography Travels

Adventure Awaits…

I have to make this quick as I’m about to hit the road to O’Hare. For the next week I’ll be in Berlin, followed by a 26 hour layover in Paris before returning home. The sole purpose of this excursion for me is to take pictures and get exposure to different culture.  I will be traveling with one of my oldest and dearest friends, miss Aki Braun and we will be spending our time in Berlin living in a collective house with her brother Mouse and his associates.

I will be leaving Berlin earlier than Aki however for my trip to France on the 28th. I arrive in Paris at 9am and I am there until 11 the next morning. I have no place to stay, no contacts in Paris and I don’t speak a word of the native tongue. My hope is to connect with some expatriates in Berlin who, in turn, can connect me with some in France.

Of course i will be chronicling all of this on my twitter and flickr pages.

Gotta run, see you soon!