archaiologie-blog

[archaiologie-blog]

Being crazy.

[archaiologie-blog]

A tourist or not a tourist?

If you’re going on a trip like MRH, do you still consider yourself a tourist? or is there another word that can capture the excitement of being in foreign cities, engaging in those carefree wild tourist-y activities yet also being steeped in the most utterly heartbreaking things every day? What a weird time it was, going drinking with friends at night while also crying  on each others’ shoulders during the day.

Perhaps you consider yourself a student instead. Or someone very good at compartmentalizing.

[archaiologie-blog]

Bus around Berlin - The minute we got on our bus, I just became obsessed with the architecture of the city. There was construction everywhere; cranes dotted the landscape, and the buildings were a motley of different colours, designs and materials. You  could see the difference in architectural styles though: certain buildings were industrial, boxy and very utilitarian while there were others painted a dainty pink and decorated with flowery stonework. I remember thinking about the history of these buildings; when were they built, who built them, who lived in them? Were they there during the war? I later found out this was unlikely as much Berlin was razed during the bombings and had to be rebuilt. Was the construction still happening in the city a continuation of this effort to rebuild? Architecturally, can you remake a city? How does this affect the way in which its inhabitants interact with the infrastructure around them? That again opens up a whole other can of worms does it not. When you’re rebuilding a city, you have to think about erasure, and the choices about what to keep and what not to. Bits of the fringes of the city still resembled the boxy grey Nazi-era buildings I had seen before in pictures, while nearer to the Central Square the buildings were more ornate and ‘European’. Because I don’t know the dates of these buildings, I’m not sure if this has any significance but it is something interesting to think about.

[archaiologie-blog]

Flight to Berlin; excitement, trepidation, and just pure bliss to know that I would be adventuring again.