I met Bilal El Soussi this morning, looking for the Berlin Wall, or something! My way of touring Berlin involves wandering around expecting to bump into something interesting. He was in the park near his flat trying to get the perfect shot of some swans in the morning, with the light behind him. He has an impressive telephoto lens which he carries around with him everywhere he goes. He saw me taking photos and offered to shoot with me around Berlin. That was worth more to me than visiting the art museums. It was a perfect day, it was warm, the sky was clear blue and families were out with their children and pets. I saw so many lovely children with their parents on bikes, playing in parks, chasing bubbles.
Bilal is a serious photographer from Lebanon, who is doing an internship at the German Parliament, kind of a country exchange program. There are people from 32 countries from around the world in his group. We took some amazing shots. He has a keen eye and sees things I don't notice right away, like this old building that produces honey from bees. There were bees buzzing around a top window and some flowers in unusual places.
I learned a lot about photography today just by watching him and learning about composition. We went to Alexander Platz, which is a famous square, great for people watching, wandered around Museum Island and ate lunch by the river while observing some bronze statues of three girls and a boy sitting on a wall. Each figure is unique and lifelike. When you really sit and look at them you can get a sense of what they're feeling or might be thinking by their body language. We saw children chasing after bubbles created by string, sticks and soapy water while a native American man dressed in traditional clothes sang ethereal music. Bubbles of all shapes, long, large and small floated in the air like a dream. We went to an artist market and I found a vintage wool hat in a 20's style which I really wanted but didn't buy. We looked at photography, unique paintings and crafts then spoke to the artists and craftsmen.
We went to Mauer, which means wall in German, a place where the Berlin Wall used to be and now displays a kind of memorial piece that looks like tall rebar lined up where the wall used to be, dividing East and West Berlin. It's hard to believe the horror and fear inflicted on people in the past. Now it's a peaceful place full of life and memories from the past so people do not forget what happened and don't repeat it. There are memorials and reminders everywhere in Berlin, bullet holes in pillars, memorial plaques by the sidewalk of someone that was killed by the wall, perhaps trying to escape from the East. Then we went to Mauer Park because Bilal needed to rest and so did my feet. A gigantic blister developed on my right foot, but it didn't matter because all I wanted to do was to keep walking, fascinated by everything around me.
Then Bilal had to take care of some business and I wandered around Berlin some more, quite exhausted from walking everywhere. I'm starting to understand the underground trains, but not the trams and buses on the streets. They have an excellent public transportation system in Germany, really impressive.
I went back to the Tiergarten. It's an beautiful park, right in the middle of the city. Yesterday, my Swedish friend and I saw a fox emerge from some bushes near the Tiergarten. We were all so surprised to see a wild creature in the city. It came really close to me, looked bewildered, then scurried off.
Berlin really is an unforgettable city, the architecture is modern and very well designed, but is integrated into their historical buildings and monuments. I noticed that it seems like Berliners love spending time with their children, their pets, I saw dogs on the train, and they have a fondness for flowers. I think they are very proud people, friendly and helpful to visitors. I wandered around Potsdamer Platz for quite some time this evening, frustrated and not sure where to go for information. I finally met a man with a bike who said he would walk with me to show me where to find the underground station because it was too confusing to explain and he could tell I was distressed and utterly lost.
I'm pretty sure I will return to Berlin one day. It seems like Spring is a great season to visit Berlin, when the leaves on trees are just starting to emerge and it's not crowded with hoards of tourists. It was a gorgeous day and I'm grateful to Bilal for showing me around Berlin and teaching me some important things about photography.