Berlin

lines
Originally uploaded by crunchcandy.

Next week I am going back to Berlin!

I'm going along with a group of students from the college, and meeting up with my friend Kate when I get there. For complicated reasons me Kate and I will be staying in totally different places, and that's filling me with fear at the moment. I know we are both sensible women in our 30s, but I'm terrified we are going to spend a week narrowly missing each other as we try and arrange to meet up!

This photo is also the inspiration for a screen printed skirt I have just finished making ( photos as soon as I can borrow a camera).

So, if you have any suggestions or recommendations for places to go, people to see, in Berlin then let me know in the comments.

Here are the recommendations i've gathered so far:

From Nicole:
For veggie food there's Yellow Sunshine
For shopping there's Supalife
For Stitch n Bitch Linkle


From Jodie:

There’s also an old cinema set in a tiled courtyard, which becomes about 10 courtyards all linked together, and a cool little gallery in there too!(sorry, I cant remember the name, but its old and a landmark type place that'll be in a timeout guide!)


From Gunilla:
a drawing exhibition where everyone may sent his drawing. It is worth a visit!


From Bugs:
For music-y stuff do check the Goldmund people -He's been well into the Bristol music so has visited a few times and had a load of Bristols over at his festival last year..

From Francois:
There's a place a bit like the Here shop called SupaLife on Raumur Strasse.

From Ellen:
I really liked 8MM, in Prenzlauer Berg,
177B Schönhauser Allee, Prenzlauer Berg.
Tel. 030 4050 0624
The DJ there is amazing...the only person I've met in Europe who likes the Shaggs!

From Lucy:
I spent a lot of time around senfelder platz, schwedter strasse, kastanien allee, helmholtz platz - that area. lots of nice bars, cafes and a couple of great record shops.

From Kate herself:
for food

And from April (who spent the last few years living in Berlin):
Feed vegans/vegetarians-Around Weinmeister Strasse U-bahn.. Kuchi (sushi), Kashba ( Morrocan) on GippStrasse- Loads of Falafel and Pizza for cheap around Hackescher Markt,
great ice cream and cake on Kastienallee (prenzl'berg) and bar upon bar upon bar.
Zionkirchstrasse for a lovely mediterannian place where you pay
1euro for your glass, and then drink and order what you would like, and pay what you think it is worth at the end. Local secret and great atmosphere.
FANTASTIC place for Breakfast on Oranienburger Strasse. Look for an over grown balcony, dark bar you go down steps into. Humourous menu full of fruit, pastries, cheeses, musili, bowls of coffee, sausages, stews and soups, single cigarettes and you can sit for hours with your overflowing plates.

interesting shopping/galleries- Sparvasser on Tor Strasse, Auguststrasse for restaurant, bar gallery one after the other (home of the Bienalle) and for
KunstWerk, (berlin's ICA), Isabella Bortolozzi near Schilling Strasse,
Karl-MarxAllee, big museums are free on Thursday afternoons,
(Kulturforum and museum island for those), Reichtstag, and TV tower for great views. Big food hall and Dept store west in KaDeWe, nice designer shops in Hackescher markt and up into Prenzlauerberg. Flea markets are FAB and mainly on Sunday.

Studio Friday Saturday: Travels

This week's topic for Friday January 12th suggested by Hanne: TRAVELS!

"Travelling is a wonderful possibility to open for new inspiration and ideas. I´ll say it´s actually one of the greatest advantages to travelling!

A lot of new impressions and probably also new materials to bring home for future artwork. Maybe new friends - who knows? Anyway, I thought it could be very interesting to know where other bloggers travel. And if you don´t travel right now because of limited econonomy or other restrictions - I think we always travel in our mind: dreaming of somewhere in the countryside - or maybe a big city loaded with museums, galleries and flea markeds for new "input" for our studios and art."

~ Hanne


Well i'm a day late but better late than never, and perhaps i'll combine it with some delurking while i'm here.

Like Janet my travels have been somewhat curtailed since I became a home owner, or rather since I became an unemployed homeowner, and as such my plans for far flung adventures have been put on hold over the last few years. However, I have been very lucky to be able to go on some trips a little closer to home over the last few years so how about I share some of those with you?

For the last two years I have taken advantage of the fact I live in a seaside town and chosen to holiday at home.


(click on the image to see a slideshow)

Living on a small budget, and with a natural inclination to treat each day as a holiday, I am lucky to live in a shabby seaside town that is full of charity shops, tea rooms and a long long beach. I admit I get a little disgruntled when the holiday season is upon us and the town fills up with other people, but the fact is that holiday season doesn't last long, and for most of the year I get the beach to myself, oh and the donkeys.



It's not all holidays at home for me though- I'm not sure how I managed it but last year I was able to go on three holidays outside of my home town! In February I went on a short, and cold, trip to Berlin with my art school: (click photo for slideshow)

in the summer I joined friends for a weekend camping on Herm and I ended the summer with a week in rainy old Cornwall, where I delighted in taking polaroid photos of giant ice cream cones:

a collection of puffers:

and tiny drawers filled with seeds:


This year I am heading back to Berlin with college and i'd love to go back to Herm. The word on the street is that perhaps instead of Herm we will be camping in Cornwall, so I need to make sure I stock up on polaroid film and hope for sunshine.

I'd love to travel further afield again soon- my trips to California were personal highlights and now I have even more friends out there (hello Jenny, Alika, Marci, Deth and Gabby) i'd love to go back. I'd love to visit other parts of the US as well and hang out with some of the people i've met online, and of course i'd have to hop north of the border to meet up with Mel and Jeannette amongst others.

Closer to home, I fell in love with Stockholm a few years ago and can't wait to make another trip there (maybe take a detour to Göteborg and see that other, more famous, Camilla) and i'd love to spend more time visiting London with my trusty friends the spinsters.

Now...on to delurking. I know not many people read this journal, but if you do- why not drop a comment in the box so I know i'm not talking totally to myself! And in the interests of exposing myself I have just added a whole bunch of links to various crafty and arty blogs that I try and get the chance to read. I think I shall start to write a little bit about why I read the blogs I do, so if you have any great suggestions for me then let me know (my list is very incomplete as I am a recent convert to blog blogs, having spent the last four years over at livejournal)