Five days in Berlin. This time, I saw the pale face of Berlin. When I arrived on saturday Schoenefeld was covered by a fluffy coat of snow, reinforced during the night…white streets, frozen lakes, silent pace of the town during the weekend. Cold but glowing pearl white. Rabbits moving swiftly from the Volkspark to the gardens and viceversa…the blackbirds were precise decoupage silhouettes on the snow.
The baltic icy drizzle took over on monday, the snow turned into muddy slush and the whole town was swallowed by a dirty brand of grey. The city showed its melancholic and sad face. No bikes around. It seemed as if some giant hand had slowly reached for the nozzle and selected “soviet mood” on a boxy black and white TV set.
But it’s when it gets really gray and un-sexy that you really discover the assets of the city. The warmth of the Wohnzimmer on a sunday afternoon. Sitting nearby strangers at the counter at KaDeWe, enjoying an impromptu saturday dinner at 6.30 in the evening, geez it’s cold outside, no way we trek up to Prenzl’berg…The gemuetliche Kneipe, with good company sharing views about what Berlin means to each of us…Converging to “our local”, the best pasta joint in the Kiez, with our neighbour A. and talking about Berlin and its golden age of couture…
It’s pale, but it’s a shelter…
I discovered today Edward B.Gordon’s paintings and actually thera are two snowy ones depicting the Volkspark in Schoeneberg…
http://edwardbgordon.blogspot.com/2009/02/snow-in-park.html
http://edwardbgordon.blogspot.com/2009/02/snow-in-park-2.html