bold berlin

12/04/2020

Berlin is one tasty city. This being my third time there I knew roughly what to expect and it did not disappoint. To me Berlin as an architectural city is very tame in comparison to the other so called “beautiful” cities like Paris, Prague etc. A perfect shitness as I’d describe it, like my own Limerick City. Something about its lack of cleanliness and its people is so close to home that it draws me back on a regular basis. Might even get to return in the summer if the situation reduces…

As I write this Germany is at 125,452 total cases which is a stark contrast to the 1,040 cases that existed at the day of my arrival to the place. For many of classmates and UL as a whole those 1040 were enough to cancel and incredible trip. Only about a third of us made it to Berlin in the end but it was nothing short of brilliant (if you don’t count the hangovers).

Public transport is unfortunately something Ireland has not quite got down with pricey trains that go nowhere and pricey buses that go everywhere but you’d get there quicker with your own two legs. Even if that destination were Killary Harbour!! Berlin as a contrast has the U-Bahn, the S-Bahn and of course the tram, beautiful feats of design and engineering. It just felt so relaxing going miles and miles away to a museum or a Bauhaus Design Tour to just casually get a train back, waiting a maximum of 10 minutes during the day. The fact that the longest we had to wait was about 30 minutes and this was at 5.30am. I love my home but Leo, come on, I know you can do better. Think for a second about getting a train to Cratloe forest, just think about that. It sounds ridiculous and yet there was Berlin giving us a trip to the entrance of a vast forest by the name of Grunewald.

Grunewald is a 22.3 km² forest of beautiful walking. The forestry design is something to behold, prioritising native tree species and wildlife over the logging business, cough cough Coillte. Of course you will find regularly cut trees, a way of protection if a fire did begin more than anything and also design for humans. An old mansion on the top of the hill, walkways, roads and even mountain/dirt bike tracks. It shows how humans and other wildlife can coexist without the other being decimated. The fact that there were bird calls upon bird calls that I could not pinpoint and even seeing my first nuthatch and great spotted woodpecker should be some sort of clue. Woodpeckers are generally difficult to spot but there I was looking at this beautifully designed creature that somehow doesn’t go brain dead based on its lifestyle