berlin, bremen, and beyond

so i/we went to berlin for 4 days, bremen for two and hamburg another 2. we includes my brother, murray, and his wife, meg. and for the berlin part, my andreas. i met m+m at the airport in berlin on thursday for an extended weekend. they are in europe for an art fellowship in finland, and were able to visit me on the way.

so berlin. wow. it's a great city anyway, and i was excited to share it with three great people. i know my way around berlin pretty well, so we were able to get the majority of the "must see" things in.... even though i really dislike the "musts" of vacation, some people (Aaaaa) like them. M+M did ALL the museums and galleries.. and then convinced a few artists to open new ones, so they could visit them too.

the highlights were.. you got me.. was the food. i know berlin too well to be really excited by the attractions, except the huge aquarium which i had never seen before (which we unfortunately decided against paying to go up through the center of..next time, cate..) and the holocaust memorial, which i don't know how i missed before (ok, it's only been there a few years). it was also a very interesting mix of people.. ;-) but yeah, anyone going to berlin, please ask me about the where- to-eats.. although its hard to go wrong (unless you end up at the guide-book recommended pizza place). and kate- yes, we ate at QBA again. :-D

in bremen we got to go to the modern museum.. which had a very cool video installation. but more interesting to me was going for brunch with karo and ben, my best friend and her husband. they are both very creative, and have a unique style. and since karo studies at the art school, she took us over there to meet her professor and see the studios and participate in a critique.

in hamburg we spent the days going seperat ways (will it surprise anyone to hear m+m did museums and i hung out with street people?) and the evenings again with... good food! (yeah, i am easy to please.. eating out is still a big treat. the first night we took along stefan korth (at whose house i was staying) and had some lively discussion. the second night it was just us... but i ran into a friend from convoy, wiebke called liebke, who recognized me. i love those little surprises! that afternoon i had actually run into janika (from my days in kassel) at the cafe, as well.

so..here the photos of berlin..