As straight as a die

Here's an ode to German precision

BBaP (Berlin Bits and Pieces)

These are just a couple of pictures of details or pretty things that I took around Berlin. Without further ado here are a couple of images that I had no separate category for.

The picture above shows the Berlin victory column a monument in the middle of one of the main roundabouts. Curiously enough the bronze (yeah, apparently it is bronze, not gold - fools!) angel statue was added later to commemorate further victories of the prussian empire which raises the question of who put the guy in charge that thought a plain grey column would be a good thing to stand by itself in the middle of a roundabout).

The horses on top of the Brandenburger Tor, who has not seen these? (On a side note, the horses are also bronze like the angel in the one before, so if you ask me it is pretty clear what statues get the special treatment in this city…)

Those are some helmets decorating the facade of a building which I particularly enjoyed.

Just like these horses (/frogs/sarah jessica parker mermaids?) that are holding the triton on the railing of a bridge. They are so cute though!

So majestic! This kind of style clearly clashes with this very typical German one:

I found the clock very funny, it reminded me of a swimming pool clock for some reason… Very eighties/nineties (because I was so aware of what was going on then, let me tell you).

Very interesting city, so these won't be the last Berliner bits you'll see from me.

Hands off the wall

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about Berlin is usually the wall. Most of it has been removed, but there are some short bits that were left standing and can be visited today. 

As it is only a ~3 m grey concrete wall it would not be much of an interesting tourist attraction if it wasn't for the graffitis that cover every inch of this 

Some of them are really famous, like the one in the picture above (artist: Birgit Kinder) or this one from Thierry Noir:

I think it is a pity that most of them get overwritten by ugly signatures or comments. If at least they put in some effort, but just covering this historic heritage with some cheap tags is a real waste.

These historic heritages tend to be a bit psychedelic by the way and often display political messages:

Probably the most famous one (by Dimitrij Vrubel) is this:

I was a bit disappointed to find out that this is just a copy of an actual image (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Breznev-Honecker_1979.jpg). Who on earth would have thought that is how the politicians greet each other? (for more about this Google "social fraternal kiss" and go from there).

Some more creepy nazi-kid graffitis...

And last but not least a view of both sides (if I am not mistaken the right one should be the west and the left the east). Don't get fooled by the amazing sun. It was super windy and for some reason that wall was no wind protection whatsoever. Thanks a lot, wall.

Detour

Today I am very busy but I will take the chance to quickly introduce the city that I will be showing you these following days. I went there for a winter school a couple of weeks ago (for the third time in my life) and I loved it as much as ever.

Can you guess which one it is?

Here is another (more obvious) tip:

That's right! Prepare to be BERLINed!

TEDxIC

This weekend Imperial College hosted the annual Imperial College TEDx conference. I don't know how many of you know the TED talks, but they are quite famous and really, really interesting.

For those of you who are new to this concept: TED (Technology Entertainment Design) is a series of conferences with the slogan "ideas worth spreading". Even though it has gained a lot of fame over the last years, probably due to the easy propagation over the internet (through Youtube and their web-site), TED has been around for a while (the first conference being held in 1984 in California featuring a demonstration of the first macintosh computer). And as it usually is, these events are impossible to get access to. To be part of the audience you have to be INVITED by TED and then pay a ticket that usually costs around 6000 USD. This is where TEDx comes in handy for the rest of us mortals (for those of you who had forgotten about the little x at the beginning and were wondering how the hell I got in). TEDx are independently organised events from TED, which basically means that any institution that gets a licence from them can host them. And Imperial happens to have one. 

One of the main characteristics of TED/TEDx speakers is their excellence in giving a talk and this was the case at TEDx Imperial College, too. Despite the fact that we did not get to see the worlds macintosh premiere, the speakers were really good and covered a variety of topics ranging from bottom-up social change to emotional artificial intelligence. 

I recommend that you check out some other talks from this series, as they are quite educative and also mostly very interesting!

£50 Toilet Paper

In case you are not able to spend all of your money on regular London prices there is still a chance for you to get your regular groceries and shoppings while spending ALL of your (dad's) salary on it. It is one of London's biggest icons and definitely worth a visit: Harrods.

Harrods has been around for a while (it was founded in 1834, so we will get to witness the 200th anniversary soon) and while it is admittedly very pricy it is beautiful up to the tiniest detail. It is organised in sections and each room is decorated in a different theme, which makes it really interesting to walk around. This, for example is the fish section:

It is truly impressive. The workers, of course are dressed appropriately.

And look at all the sweets!

The motto of this place (Harrods that is, not the confectionery section) is "Omnia Omnibus Ubique"which means something along the lines of "All Things for All People, Everywhere". A motto that does indeed suit this place as is sells electronics, food, clothing and all kinds of wishes that an oil sheikh can have.

Beautiful ceilings and very impressive fruit section:

It was really amusing to see how they sold these spiky fruits (official name) for £35 a kilo while in Singapore I got two huge bags for about £0.5 (I agree that it must be a bit more expensive given that it is a tropical fruit, but this might be a bit too much).

Everything is so proper! At this point I want to refer you to the "Dress code" section of the Wikipedia article about Harrods (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harrods). Apparently quite a number of people have been denied entry, because of their improper looks (mohawks, tracksuits, apparently even big people…). 

I am sorry for the tilted picture, but it is the last shot I could get before the door closed. That right there are the elevators. Not bad, huh?

Of course the staircase is decorated in egyptian style.

It is overall really beautiful and really big. It is like a posh version of Singapore's Mustafa (the huge mall, fans will know).

This is the old Harrods building (the new is shown on the first picture). 

These people must be tired of getting tourist all around the clock. To be honest most of the people there probably just go to see what it looks like (who can blame them, the place is quite stunning), but I guess that is good advertising, too. I'll make sure I get all my groceries from here once I marry into the royal family.

Back in the game

When I moved to London I decided to stop writing the blog, because I thought it might be harder to get exotic pictures in a modern city to be able to post everyday. This last week I clicked on the images of my Google+ account by chance and a wall of pictures from Singapore and Cambridge (and Cambodia and Thailand, Germany, Spain, USA, Japan...) popped up. Just by scrolling down these images I was reminded of all the amazing moments that were behind them and that is when I realised just how valuable these memories are. This was the last push that I needed to go back to writing this.

Updates: I am currently at Imperial College in London and I am busy. Very busy. But I will try to blog every couple of days and give you a flavor of what it is like to live in Europe's capital. 

PS:The building above is the Royal Albert Hall, but I'll tell you about this one soon enough. 

Feels good to be back.