A Different Way of Seeing. Helping You Make Sense of the Overwhelm
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It’s essentially an art gallery. But in this gallery the paintings aren’t hanging on the wall, they’re painted on it. And the gallery is outside on a busy sidewalk of an equally busy road. Sounds unlikely? Well, read on… I’d imagine that most people will at least have heard of the Berlin Wall – the …
One of the most unexpected sites we visited in Berlin was the headquarters of the GDR Ministry for State Security, a building of which has been converted into the Stasi Museum. The museum has exhibitions showing how the Stasi, the secret police, controlled almost all aspects of life in the DDR, the German Democratic Republic. …
One of the most charming icons of Berlin I discovered on our trip were the Ampelmännchen – the “little walking men”. Originally designed in 1961 in East Berlin, these charming pedestrian traffic signals are one of the few East German symbols to have survived German reunification. Not only can these charming walking men be seen …
The Reichstag is one of Berlin’s most well-known sites. It’s synonymous with a whole lot of history, having been the seat of German government from 1894 until it was seriously damaged in a mysterious fire in 1933, an act that has historically been linked to the rise of Hitler and the Nazi Party in Germany. …
As I’ve said before, I like to gain a sense of what a city’s like before I visit, by researching on the web, and by reading both fiction and non-fiction books set there. But somehow all the information becomes a whole lot more real when I’m actually there. And I try to supplement what I’ve …
A little while back I read “The City & the City” by China Mieville. It’s a story about a city that, for some inexplicable (or in my case forgotten) reason has been divided into two totally separate cities. As a citizen of one city you are not permitted to acknowledge the existence of the other …
When I was in high school I went through a protracted phase of devouring any novel or movie I could lay my hands on that was set during WWII. Even now, every now and then I’ll settle down to enjoy a book that’ll take me back to this period in history. So it’s no surprise …
I’ve mentioned them in my previous articles about Wroclaw but felt they were such a charming idea that they deserved an article all of their own. They are, of course, the Wroclaw Dwarves. Back before the Soviet Union fell, when Poland was under Soviet domination, various anti-communist groups began in Poland. Among them was the …
I usually try to find out about a city before going there. Learning a city’s story helps me build an impression of what I might find when I arrive. And then I use my experiences in that city, and all that I learn from my other senses, to build a more complete picture. That wasn’t …
I’d planned to write an article about some of the wonderful restaurants we visited in Gorlitz, but somehow this was the article that landed up writing itself instead… My first impressions of our next destination weren’t great. We were exhausted by the time we climbed off the train in Wroclaw, Poland. , Somehow, despite numerous …