Wednesday 7 December 2011

Wall piece #1

Receipt for Teeshirt, Berlin 2011

After being recommended by every guidebook, blog and website, we followed the advice and headed to Kreuzberg in southern Berlin. A place that was said to have plenty of urban charm, various ethnicities, large markets and still 'underground' enough for it to be considered a cool place to head for the day. It didn't disappoint;but before locating the 'centre' of Kreuzberg, we headed into a beautiful park first, as you have to check out everything that looks remotely interesting when you're travelling, especially if it's in Berlin. I believe the park was called Viktoriapark, and had an exquisite waterfall leading up to a memorial. While we dipped our tired feet in the cold water, the blazing sun kept us warm as we scribbled in our notebooks.

Eventually we found what we were looking for; the markets in Kreuzberg, where we happened upon many little stalls selling literally everything; car stereos, badges, books, jewellery.

This receipt brings back memories of the 2 or 3 bustling streets, with strange scents filling the air, people rushing to and fro and a pleasantly surprising ratio of Kreuzbergers to tourists. I feel that sometimes when tourists outnumber the 'locals' its a strange scenario; an unplanned takeover without consequence.

Feeling as cheapskate as usual I haggled the woman behind the desk of the tiny 2nd hand shop (or vintage shop if you want to be picky) down to 2 Euro's for a t-shirt that suited neither me nor the neighbourhood where it was bought; a 90's 3/4 sleeve Jamaican football shirt.

No comments:

Post a Comment