The Berlin Journals: The Streets, Maur Park, and more

It's taken a little while to put it all together and I thought that a street post would be a solid kick off to the Berlin Journals, besides the taste I threw together last November. If you're going to Berlin, I'd suggest the former east side, it's relatively cheap,  and not so prepackaged. Lot's of street vendors and open markets, fresh fruit & vegetable spots, and shwarma huts, and a healthy variety of small stores, thrift shops, and the like. Well, at least that's what it was around Leopoldplatz minus a general department store or two on the corner. Generally though, it was a good spot to set up camp for the two weeks we were there, it felt grounded and tangible, the people were nice to talk to and for the most part not dismissing, and the outdoor markets coupled with the shwarma spots combined to create an olfactory cornucopia not much unlike that experienced back home on St Lau or along St Caths at times. Hell, I was hanging out with random people, homeless war vet amputees and other vagrants on my first day in waiting for Meor to arrive from his connect in Paris. Good times slugging back some tall boy local pilsners trying to get my basic German correct so I could at least survive until I hooked up with homeboy. Suffice it to day I made it out alive my first day in, slightly tanked after slamming back a bunch of beer in the sun and causing shit that I didn't even understand with the gutter crowd. Good start.

Getting around is relatively easy and there is a lot of activity on the streets so this is really just a drop to what's out there. Maur Park is a pretty chill spot. We stopped to paint and chill at the semi legal wall during our first full day in. It's a long ass wall that sits atop a hill that overlooks the rest of the massive grounds the park covers bordering a soccer field. There's a market and a bar in it and at night folks come out to play music and drink. That night these three guys just set up a traveling band from out of a trailer they towed with their bikes, lights and all.

 Stolen memories.

  

 More to come soon. I got some fresh stuff from Montreal streets to post soon too including some shots from the mural fest happening on St Laurent in the plateau. Stay posted.

Streets April 2013

Took a trip through the Griff the other week to check out some old haunts. With all the construction going on in the area I was curious to see what kind of activity there has been on the walls below Notre-Dame. And as it appears there is not much happening east of Guy, but I was able to flick a few shots here and there. At least five new condo complexes are going up in the area, the towering silhouettes of construction cranes have become familiar additions to the sky line looking out towards Five Roses. And as these new developments continue to go up, so to will the efforts of the building management, and in turn the borough offices, to remove any undesirable or non marketable individual or group from the area that may impede on the living conditions of the newly established occupant population. And so it goes.

Some of these efforts can already be seen with the fencing up of areas underneath the highway on/off rampsand the installation of new video surveillance cameras in ans around the construction sites. Wellington Tunnel is directly across the street from one of the development projects. Besides the continued pad locking of the gates to tunnels and the wielding of additional plates and bars to the gate area to impede the entrance into the tunnels, nothing has been done to keep anyone from the area. It is also out of sight, next to and below Notre-Dame street. There seemed to be a bit of smoldering smoke coming from out of the main tunnel so I did not go in. It was also pad locked. There was some guy squatting in one of the adjacent tunnels. I asked him what was going in the tunnel, if there was a fire burning in there. He didn't seem concerned, and said that he knew nothing of it. I told him to watch himself and be careful and went on my way.

 

The old switch house is still closed up too. I think there is someone squatting in that area too. I saw several others squatting under the area right across the street from the spot that was fenced up leaving me to question what criteria is used to determine what area is controlled over another. Anyway, not much there anymore except a dusty parking lot and a lot of fence. I used to live in the Griff a little before all of this development started, and although I can appreciate the need to develop older areas of the city, I guess I just miss my old Griffintown.Not many flicks of the area so I through in a few from elsewhere I grabbed recently. More to come.

Stay posted.