Category Archives: Cats Worldwide

Aparatus of the State

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On a further visit to the incredible city of Berlin it was time to focus more time on the old east side.

Visiting the DDR museum gives a general picture of daily life under a dictatorship, particularly shortages of what we in the west saw as basics of good old consumerism.

Then there were the ‘incentives’ of such things as artificially cheap housing. But nothing came without at least a subliminal message of menace.

But it’s the Stasi Museum that truly brings home that chilling effect of the ‘Aparatus of the State‘.

Who’d have known that a job with the Government came with essential perks such as snitching on your neighbours, listening in on phone calls, bugging apartments. Even breaking in to apartments just to move items of furniture around… well, how else is paranoia going to foment.

Special departments were even set up to check on the loyalties of fellow employees.

In the end certain freedoms became too much to resist and contain. The greatest emblem of the aparatus… the Berlin Wall also needed to come down. Though fortunately, a lengthy strip remains as the East Side Gallery… the largest outdoor art gallery in the world.

Until we speak again, the Wall conveys many important messages that we’ll do well to remember… particularly in the deranged times of Trump trampling over basic civil liberties at home and across the world.

Berlin remembers, do we?

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100 years on from the Weimar Republic, Berlin has much to remember. From Weimar to Third Reich to a divided city to the Fall of the Wall. Has any other city witnessed, experienced, suffered, and emerged from so much in such a relatively short time?

One woman immortalises the changes in a statue that is calling out for peace before the Brandenburg Gate.

The most significant remembrance surrounds the plight of Jews, in Berlin and across Europe. The Jewish Museum in the West Kreuzberg district is a Daniel Libeskind design, most disorientating in architecture, as its floors and walls disobey the builders spirit level. But its content is a creatively laid out history of Jewish faith, culture, and history.

For a particularly deep chill, spend a minute or two in the dark and claustrophobic Holocaust Tower…

However, for heightened emotion the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe provides a space for reflection and imagination. The undulating topography accommodates a dense array of grey concrete pillars of differing heights…

Walk deep into the sculpture and be immersed in your own thoughts. Then visit the enclosed museum beneath the sculture for heartbreaking personal accounts of the effect of the Third Reich across Europe.

On the site of the former Gestapo Headquarters now stands an open air monument to the history of division in the city, running alongside a remaining fragment of the infamous Berlin Wall. Known as the Topography of Terror, it depicts the major changes of the last 100 years, and horrific consequences of those changes.

The division of the city is particularly well represented in the Friedrichshain district of old East Berlin. Here is the longest fragment of the former wall. At 1 mile in length it’s considered to be the world’s largest open air gallery. East Side Gallery is a feast of modern art. What better way to democratise a former harsh symbol of division…

Until we speak again, Berliners have shown a remarkable capacity to remember its tragic recent history with vibrancy and humour. 100 years on from the ugly emergence of the Nazi Party in Germany, is the rest of the world once again failing to learn the lessons of history?

With the Chief Narcissist of Dumbfuckistan in Washington buddying up to Psychopath One in the Kremlin, and the rise of populism in every western nation, we need the current day messages from Berlin more than ever before.

All that Jazz!

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So, my lovely reader, you now know Berlin has a penchant for the Christmas Market… or Weihnachten Markt, as the locals say. Is that all you think I spent my precious time doing? Drinking Glugwein (inc. a Weiss beer version), eating Bratwurst and that lovely smoked salmon?

So, the sound of Berlin has always had that underground bohemian vibe (or perhaps that’s just me). Think the Sally Bowles character in Cabaret (or perhaps that’s just me). The challenge… should I accept it (or perhaps that’s… forget that bit)… is to see if the modern Berlin lives up to its historic reputation.

First stop… A-Trane. Well, I’ve only just arrived a few hours ago. How’s a guy supposed to hit the ‘bohemia’ ground running (or, perhaps that’s just me)?

Perhaps not underground, exactly. But, the overground version provided a great intro to the local jazz scene with Andreas Schmidt and friends doing a regular Monday night slot. Something of the avant garde style to welcome me to the sound of Berlin.

Getting genuinely down underground you need to shift along the alphabet a space. B-Flat, is a club in the Hackescher Markt area. An unassuming entrance and staircase leads you into more traditional jazz territory… subterranean (or perhaps that’s just me).

Nothing traditional about KRiSPER, an electric jazz ensemble. Playing just their own compositions, with superb musicianship. There was a definite wow factor to the atmospheric style of their music (or perhaps that’s just me).

Then, keeping that overground-underground feel… The Hat Club feels like it belongs in that Cabaret-era of 1930’s kind of thing, competing with the sound of trains overhead (or perhaps that’s just me)…

It’s a nightly jam session in one of those rare places that permits smoking throughout 😷 Initially very lounge sounding (or perhaps that’s just me). But as the Vieux Carre cocktails slipped down the sound distinctly blocked out the rumbling of trains overhead (or… well, no not that… it does occupy a railway arch… ah, you didn’t see that one coming).

Until we speak again, falling off the chair, after too many local beers and fab cocktails, is permitted (or perhaps that’s just me!!!!!!).

Frohe Weihnachten

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Berlin in December… I wonder what’s occurring? It seems they take their Christmas Markets very seriously. You can hardly move for stumbling across a Weihnachten Markt!

Staying close to the famous Potsdamer Platz, it’s where the world’s first traffic light confused people… and still does:

Only now it’s surrounded by, you guessed it, a Weihnachten Markt…

So I drifted towards the equally famous Alexanderplatz, to find???

But, before I could even get there I navigate the famous Gendarmenmarkt square with its…

And the potentially famous Humboldt Forum with its…

The grand setting of Schloss Charlottenburg hasn’t been spared…

Neither has the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedachtnis Kirche, it would seem…

Until we speak again, apparently, I’ve only scratched the surface. So, when in Berlin do what the Berliners do (I wonder if they do anything the rest of the year, or just recover until its Weihnachten Markt time all over again?)…

The wonders of Tunisia

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For a whistlestop tour Tunis and surrounding area provided a great insight to the history and culture of this fascinating country… the most liberal of Arabic nations. Independent since 1956 and more recently experiencing the Jasmin Revolution of 2011, Tunisia is an open and very welcoming country.

It does plenty of very old. From the Medina…

… to Carthage…

Then there’s the hustle and bustle. From the Tunis souks (but so deserted at night)…

… to the attraction of Sidi Bou Said blue & white village…

Indigenous fresh street food often panders to those with a sweet tooth. From dates or almond Makroud in the Souks…

… to fresh and extremely light Bambalouni donuts in Sidi Bou Said…

And, of course, they do the sea big time: fresh calamari as well as fish and chips (red snapper) with a twist. Not forgetting options for roof terrace fine dining (duck & lamb dishes at Dar El Jeld)…

Until we speak again, a few days sampling the delights of Tunisia might well result in you declaring…

Man-made trees

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Nature may well provide us with the most awe-inspiring beauty (woke apologies to the right wing bigots who simply don’t understand such concepts). It also provides the influence for breathtaking man-made inspiration.

Gaudi is known for a particular style of architecture as seen dotted liberally around the fine city of Barcelona. But, do we recognise the influence nature has as a central feature of his designs?

In the still incomplete La Sagrada Familia, the tree influences the dominant strength of the whole structure…

The playing with light also provides a constantly shifting natural life within the ongoing construction. Gaudi demonstrates a distinct sensitivity not only to the religious aspects of constructing an iconic cathedral, but also to our relationship to nature…

However, even in Park Guell, a truly nature inspired creation, the presence of trees within the design of structures is abundant. As seen in the viaduct structures at points around the park…

Until we speak again, if you must go to Barcelona as a tourist don’t forget your umbrella… but not because of the likelihood of rain. The locals are in rebellious mood these days. The focus of their ire has shifted from the interesting concept of Catalan independence to acting against over-tourism by squirting water over tourists. Now, if they would only learn to throw some of that lovely wine, I might linger around a little longer!

Memories of Krakow

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It’s difficult to address the subject of Krakow without a mention of Auschwitz Birkenau…

Or even the Wieliczka Salt Mines…

But an abiding memory of my recent visit is of Kazimierz… the vibrant Jewish quarter before everyone was either murdered or herded into the smaller neighbouring Podgorze ghetto. All that remains of the ghetto walls is the tombstone-like section in Podgorze…

As for Kazimierz, it’s now once again a thriving area of young people and tourists enjoying cafes, restaurants, and music venues.

However, many signs of its Jewish history haunt the atmospheric streets…

As for eating, the choice is abundant. My recommendation goes for some traditional fine Polish cuisine at Zalewajka. The pork knuckle terrine, potato cakes with wild boar goulash, and house Polish red wine provided a fine feast to mark my visit.

Until we speak again, Kazimierz offers a warm welcome… but don’t forget an umbrella!

History reborn

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Current day Stag & Hen do’s have nothing on the Nazi’s when it comes to leaving a place wrecked after a visit…

On a recent visit to Warsaw, I was so happy to have visited both the Museum of Warsaw and the Warsaw Museum of Uprising. Combined, they provide a chilling reflection on the scale of shear destruction inflicted on this city.

However, they also provide the beacon of hope when we see what can be achieved in reconstruction using remaining photographs and plans the evil occupiers failed to destroy.

The Old Town in Warsaw may look a little shinier than say that in Krakow, but there is a renewed sense that history shouldn’t be obliterated and then simply left forgotten.

Sensitive reconstruction can be so much better than bland modernism (though wider Warsaw can claim both). It may well be more tourist orientated today, but that shouldn’t detract from the economic value that brings to the World Heritage site. Planners and architects the world over could learn a lot of positive messages from the instruction provided by Warsaw.

Until we speak again, I recommend you come support and enjoy the thriving reconstruction of a devastated city. But, be wary… the spectre of Russian surveillance may never be far away!

Stalin’s gift to Poland

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Go to Warsaw… yes, it’s definitely recommended. Go to Warsaw. But remember that its most striking building on a fast rising skyline remains…

This apparently was Stalin’s gift to Poland after WWII… The Palace of Culture and Science (Palac Kultury) built in the early 1950’s. On reflection, I suspect it was very much a box for bureaucrats, and locally, it’s understandably more likely to be thought of as a Monument to Soviet Oppression.

Whatever your political view on the history and meaning of this building, its vision of granduer and solidity are unmistakable and still manage to draw attention from the more recent steel and glass offerings to the sky. It also happens to have a great viewing platform for views around the city…

Until we speak again, Stalin’s statement of occupation to Poland serves as a reminder that we can successfully repurpose gifts we hate and see them from a different perspective… eventually.

Conspiracy theorists nightmare

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I can’t say there was much I didn’t already know as I took a guided tour of Auschwitz Birkenau… but wow, does being there pack an emotional punch to the gut.

It’s been almost 50 years since it was first suggested to me that if the chance comes along, I should make the visit. The nearest thing we will know to the gates of hell.

In all of those years, I’ve been dumbfounded when I hear of holocaust deniers and the unbelievable nonsense perpetrated by conspiracy theorists. The Nazis tried and failed to cover up their own evil…

There is no way conspiracy nut jobs should be given any space for their lies and disinformation to cover over the truth. I’m more convinced that conspiracy theorists were deliberately created so that those of us who have a brain shouldn’t become complacent! The right wing thugeratti just happen to be their main way of communicating their message of fear. Sometimes… the truth is far more terrifying.

Until we speak again, today’s visit only showed me even more strongly what happens when you ride roughshod over diversity, equity, and inclusion. Wake up, world, the lesson has yet to be learned!