Sonderzug nach Pankow
I think I’ll go to Berlin. They understand me there.Archive for Sweden
Slouching past the East Side Gallery
What was that wild snarl of yarn in my last post to become? When we were in Sweden the other weekend, I spotted so many girls wearing adorable slouchy hats. I’ve seen hats like this around Berlin, but nowhere here have I seen as many, and in so many wonderful colours. I couldn’t resist making one for myself.
I’m terrible at keeping up with celebrity fashion, but when I googled around for a pattern, I discovered that Lindsay Lohan inspired this trend. It wasn’t something uniquely and adorably Swedish, but the latest from the world’s favourite tabloid fodder.
I knit slomoeknits’ slouchy copy-cat hat, but to a slightly larger gauge for slouchier effect. Originally I planned to improvise, adding elements from other patterns to get the effect I was looking for (super extra slouchy), but this hat knit up so nicely that I ended up sticking to the pattern the whole way. It’s so cozy, and was perfect for a visit to the East Side Gallery, which, oh shame, I hadn’t been to see before.
The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall, reaching from the Oberbaumbrucke, the gorgeous bridge pictured below, to the Ostbahnhof, the eastern train station which was Berlin’s central station until quite recently. The most famous paintings on the Berlin Wall are along this strip.
The Oberbaumbrucke links the Friedrichshain and Kreuzberg districts of Berlin.
After the wall came down, artists from all over the world came together to paint the eastern side of the Berlin wall, which had been untouchable. The paintings on the side of the wall facing the street are by these artists, and on the other side, facing the river, in the so-called ‘death-strip’, the paintings are by local graffiti artists.
The ‘death-strip’ separating the two walls. There’s a wonderful representation of this space in Wim Wender’s Wings of Desire (der Himmel uber Berlin) in which Cassiel realizes that Damiel is finally falling, becoming like humankind, when he sees his human footsteps in the untouched sand that separates these two pure-white walls. An escapee leaves a trail behind in the sand, when he passes between the walls, making it easier for the guards to catch him and murder him for his treason. The sand captures the traces of life. Now, the wall is covered with the signs of life, and the sand has disappeared under the tread of thousands of footsteps.
The paintings that cover the wall speak of Berlin’s history, of a divided and unified city, of peace and of understanding. The gallery calls itself a monument to freedom.
No more wars. No more walls. A united world.
All the best walls have doors in them.
“Stockholm? In February?!”
The waiter at the Greek restaurant we stopped at for dinner wasn’t the only one to question our sanity, but the numbers speak for themselves: nearly every youth hostel bed in the city was booked last weekend, when we were there. Februrary is a fantastic time to go to Sweden.
Tim’s having a great time at Skansen, Stockholm’s Open Air Museum.
In fact, February is a pretty amazing time to go just about anywhere. Last February, Veronica and I went to New York City, and it was so quiet and clean that I felt like I was in some alternate-reality movie set New York. Locals might have been kept indoors by the weather, but we flew out of Toronto in a blizzard, and found the temperatures positively balmy.
Toronto Pearson Airport, Flight Cancelled
Coat? Who needs a coat?
I’ve been thinking about off-season travel, why I love it so much, and how to make it work. If you’re not prepared for the weather, a trip to somewhere cold can be miserable, but if you’re comfortably bundled, it might be the best time to go. Cheaper prices, shorter lines…
I’m glad I didn’t have to wait around in this weather!
The New York Times is catching on. Under Wintry Skies, a City Revealed explains why you should visit Prague this winter. Rag’s got a point: when we were there in October, you could have body-surfed the crowds.
Does anyone know where the Charles Bridge is? I can’t see past these @&#$ tourists!
So, go to Prague, or Stockholm, or New York, or Quebec City in February. My coat’s a completely ingenious custom job, designed for winter travel, but if your mother isn’t as cool and handy with a sewing machine as mine is, you can always dress in layers. It works.
