READY FOR THIS ADVENTURE?
Tomorrow I will explore Berlin for the first time in my life and the first thing I packed is a bunch of prints. I will leave them in random places around the city, hoping that someone will enjoy a free "visual travel" around the world.
THE STREET ART POWER
Every city should be more painted, more blank spaces should be filled, more stories needs to be told and more people should be free to express themselves.
THE TOWER OVER THE CITY
The Berliner Fernsehturm is a television tower in central Berlin, with its height of 368 meters it is the tallest structure in Germany and one of the tallest structure in Europe. Love it.
FROM THE OLD CITY
The Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial church was designed by Franz Schwechten and it was commissioned by the last German emperor and king of Prussia Keiser Wilhelm II. He built the church in honor of his grandfather Wilhelm I and the foundation stone was laid on March 22 1891, which was Wilhelm I's birthday.
NIGHT WALKING IN BERILN
Every time I'm in a big city, rainy weather, late at night walking next to a sexy shop, I smell the dystopian Los Angeles of Blade Runner and my cameras are always looking for Leeloo from the Fifth Element.
A RONDOM FACT
The Berlin Cathedral it's an amazing place to explore but has never been a cathedral in the actual sense of that term since it has never been a seat of a bishop.
EXPERIENCING THE CITY
City of contrasts, old & new, bad & good, ugly & gorgeous this is a place where you can experience different realities and interesting minds. This is Berlin without the sun.
CITY OF THE ARTS
With more than 180 museums, attracting around 15 million visitors a year, Berlin is said to have more museums than rainy days. Of course it's raining for all my time here.
THE BERLIN WALL TODAY
The East Side Gallery consist of 105 pieces painted in 1990 on a 1.3km section of the Berlin Wall. It's the largest and longest-lasting open air gallery in the world and it gathers artists from all over the globe.
A WORLD RECORD
I don't know how but I'm inside a fancy hotel in Berlin looking at the world largest cylindrical aquarium. See that hole in the middle ? That's where a glass elevator goes thru.
THE GERMAN PARLIAMENT
At the top of the Reichstag there is this gorgeous glass dome finished in 1999. With an amazing 360 degrees view over Berlin, a robotic sun shield that tracks the movements of the sun and an interesting view over the parliament, this is one of the most visited place of the city.
FREE PRINTS IN BERLIN
Publishing around 94,000 titles every year Germany is one of the worlds leading book nation and its also where the modern printing process started in Europe.
I left one book with three prints in it around this park.
THE CHRISTMAS TREE BIRTHPLACE
The Christmas tree tradition, as we know it today, started in Germany in the 16th century when devout Christians brought decorated trees into their homes. The first record of one being on display in America was in the 1830s, and of course by a German settler.
GOODBYE BERLIN
& THANK YOU
This is my last night in Berlin and the city has so many more interesting things & minds to be explored. Hope to see you soon again and thank you so much for your hospitality Berlin.
A SEE THROUGH ELEVATOR
The aquarium was completed in 2004, it's 25 meters tall, it's filled with 1,000,000 liters of water and it contains over 1,500 fish of 50 different species. Every day a bunch of divers jump into that for the feeding of the fish and the cleaning of the tank.
FREE PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHY
Cruising down the streets looking for some interesting place to leave some free prints. Music is pumping into my headphones, German beer is flowing into my veins and a light rain is making the city wet. Hello Berlin nights!
One of my many favorites things to do is hanging around train stations with a camera and a notebook. It's a great way to explore new faces, interesting minds or just to see the city try to work. Whatever work means.
WHILE IN BERLIN
FREE PRINTS IN ALEXANDERPLATZ
How are you folks? If you are walking around this building watch where you go carefully, you may found one of the nine free prints that I left here tonight.
ARTS & CRAFTS EVERYWHERE
Germany hosts around 8,900 libraries, 6,200 museums, 820 theaters, 130 professional orchestras and art galleries at every corner making the country one of the most cultural place on earth. Here more people go to exhibitions than to football matches.
ALONG THE RIVER
The wind is cold and it tastes like winter, the water is freezing and it smells like a wet city but in the meanwhile this day feels like victory. Exploring Berlin waterways.
WALKING IN BERLIN
THE MOST POPULATED
EU COUNTRY
With more than 81 million souls Germany has the largest population in the European Union. However, Berlin is so wide that you forget that you are walking in a busy capital.
I'm shooting some street photography around this place, looking for some freckles, and I also left ten more free prints. Good hunt.
STRATEGIC GEOGRAPHY
Roughly 31% of Germany has been kept with wild forest and woodlands, the city host the largest train station in Europe and the country borders with nine different places, giving you the opportunity to explore France, Denmark, Holland, Poland, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium, Luxembourg and Czech Republic.
Berlin it's mostly flat and it's hard to get a nice view of the city but engineering and architecture fixed the problem. Go explore one of the many rooftops over this gorgeous place.
THE TEST ROOFTOP
WET STREETS & VIBES
A MASSIVE EUROPEAN CITY
Berlin numbers are very surprising. The city is around nine times bigger than Paris, even if the metropolitan area of Paris is way more populated, and the city also has more kebab shops than Instanbul !
I don't have enough time in this city, and the rain it's not helping at all, but Berlin is an incredible place to just sit around with a notebook and start drawing. So many different views and vibes.
EXPERIENCING CHANGES
One of my favorite things to explore is construction sites. The views that we always watch can change at any moment and most of the times we don't even notice. Berlin knows something about it.
DESIGN & ENGINEERING
If you love architecture you should definitely visit Berlin. The city is a great mix full of interesting designs, amazing prospective, weird stuff and awful buildings. All choices, all tastes.
Walking around the city wearing a trash bag as a rain shield, Thumbs by Busdriver in my headphones, two Franziskaner in the backpack and tons of places to discover. How are you Germany ?
LIVE CITYVIBES
QUICK HISTORY PILLS
HUMAN NUMBERS
The city host around 3.5 million registered inhabitants but the entire Berlin-Brandenburg metropolitan area exceed 5.8 million human souls.
THE BERLIN WALL
Inside the Berliner Dom you can find an amazing organ designed by Wilhelm Sauer, it has 7269 pipes and 113 registers and at the time of its dedication in 1905 was the largest in all Germany.
THE NIGHT OF
THE ATTACKS
Watching Berlin from the parliament rooftop. The entire city is full of police lights, the France embassy is surrounded by flowers and La Marseillaise is in the air. A hug to all of you.
In 1989 the Berlin Wall extended for 155 kilometers, it had 302 observation towers, 259 dog runs and 20 bunkers guarded by more than 11,000 soldiers, but one side of the wall was very different than the other one. The west side of the wall was covered in graffiti, the east side was not.
BRIDGES & WATERWAYS
Berlin is full of bridges, with a number around four times bigger than Venice, and the city has more than 180 kilometers of navigable waterways all ready to be explored.
OVERLOOKING THE CITY
Berlin is completely different from what I expected. That's why you always need to experience things on your skin to really understand, feel and have an opinion about things. Anythings.
DAILY STREET PHOTOGRAPHY
Walking around Berlin under a constant rain, soaking wet, tipsy and with many kinds of food in my belly. Let's explore this city.
BACK ONLINE AGAIN
Hello Berlin! Sorry for the late post folks but Germany didn't gave me is best welcome. My main camera (canon 550d) seems to be completely dead and all the lenses and gear in my backpack is now completely useless, I can't afford a new one and I will spend the rest of my journey under a constant rain. Let's try to work with this little one to find a smile again.
AN ESSENTIAL DAILY TOOL
I always go out with some paper tape and a black marker, why ? I use it to stick free prints around the city, easy way to add real life descriptions or titles, fixing things or building an emergency small bag. It saved my day so many times.
Berlin and his soul is still under construction. The war destroyed a big part of the city and most of the big buildings have less then twenty years.