Karneval, Art and Toys, etc

June '12...ish 
Now that I've finally taken the time to organise all my photos from the past month, I've finally realised. WTF. I was busy this month! I feel like I did nothing throughout most of it and then rushed through the end. Turns out I kept busy whole month!

The first major event was Karneval. It was at the beginning of June on a super hot summer day, and all I remember is it being busy, loud, colourful and full of energy. I also remember getting phone signal was actually just not possible. It caused so much trouble throughout the day.

I met up with my tandem partner, his gf and some of their friends. But later in the day I was joined by Nicole, Marlene and Emil.

During the month I had some lazy days as well. At one point Marlene made Lasagne for Nicole and myself while Sowon was in Italy and we watched Tarzan. Another day I had Emma over and we had a massive LOTR marathon. Good times. 

And lastly (for now at least), Sowon, Daniel, Myself, Max and Marlene went to an exhibition in Mitte called "Art and Toys" on recommendation by Nicole. It definitely exceeded expectations. It was much bigger than I thought, considering it's a private collection. It had a really ecclectic mix of things, a whole heap of anti-capitalist, anti-american posters etc, some banksy, but also some artwork I recognised from Japan and from the internet. Plus a huge load of toys, posters etc from Japan, mainstream, pop culture etc. It was very cool. 

Sowon, Marlene and I also went to Tacheles at some point. It smelt like urine, but it was super busy and quite cool. It was just so unique. For those who don't know, it's a communal art house in Mitte. It's this horribly derelict, grungy building which a group of artists use to squat in and have set it up. It's quite famous in Berlin as it's very controversial, the government has been trying to close it down for a long time but the public and the artists keep fighting against it.

Anyway, I found it very weird. You could actually walk into these people's bedrooms and see them work, it honestly felt a bit like a zoo. "And here we have the artist in his natural habitat..." etc. We were asked not to take photos inside, so best I could do were the neighbouring buildings from a balcony.

I will post the rest of the pictures from these various outings under the cut.