The journey from Berlin airport to Magdeburg was proper rubbish, the coach was fine, but the weather was incredibly grey, it felt like being in Hull. The whole journey (about 3hours) seemed to be just one long road lined with really sinister woodland, with watch towers dotted about.
However, the workshops and conferences that we had in Magdeburg were amazing. We split into groups and designed games, now I know it doesn’t sound that exciting and at first I was a little apprehensive, but it was actually a really amazing experience; meeting people from allover Europe, some really interesting guest speakers &our Cindy all the way from Texas, she was a total babe!
Also, check out Ronen Kadushin (the tag is broken apparently???) [www.ronen-kadushin.com]- His open design concept is my favourite! &&he’s a beaut!
Ended up at some gallery/house party after the exhibition and presentations, which I really didn’t want to go to, but! I went armed with 1ltr of Pina Colada, turns out that was a bad idea. I enjoyed the party, thoroughly in fact, just not the huge gash I have in my leg from being ‘big and clever’ and robbing posters from the streets of magdeburg.
Berlin was a completely different story, not really managed to get a grip on how I feel about it to be honest, it was amazing and i loved every minute of it, even though i spent a lot of time confused about what kind of emotion i was feeling. The Jewish museum literally ripped out my heart, it is the most harrowing place. Daniel Libeskind has done such an astounding job with the building itself, it’s phenomenal. I felt so disorientated whilst i walked round, the floor bends and slopes and tilts all at the same time, the exterior is the interior and the only natural light comes through long 2/3 inch wide slit windows. It’s absolutely mind blowing.
The contents of the museum were too much to even describe, in particular the 10,000 iron faces that are laid out in commemoration of the lives lost for you to walk across, i managed about 3 steps. The sound is spine tingling, not one person uttered even a whisper, but the clanking of iron-on-iron was ghastly. I think the thing that hit me hardest was the realisation of the entirety of the Holocaust being run like a business, the way it was orchestrated was so precise and immaculate that it’s almost impossible to believe that it’s actually real. Yeah, basically I struggled with the museum.
Shortly after our heart wrenching visit to the museum we walked the Berlin Wall, which caused even more conflict of emotions, it’s possibly one of the most fascinating walls in the world with an even deeper history and to be there, staring at it was a weird feeling. It was overwhelming, both good and bad. The artwork on the wall is beautiful, there are some really strong pieces & the big gay kiss was blatez my fave <3!>
URM! What else??!?! The Memorial is beautiful, truly beautiful. So peaceful (apart from the group of kids playing hide n’ seek, who then collided and exploded onto the floor in a big juvenile heap - snigger) Yeah, really enjoyed being at the memorial, in fact i haven’t really stopped thinking about it since i got home.
gahgah, i’ve blatted for about 4 days now. piccies to follow!
