What I've been up to: (continued):

So. The Gay Museum in Berlin. Really small, interesting little place that operates completely independently without any government funding. According to my tour guide, Melissa, it is one of only a few gay museums in the world. I liked it because it was mostly photograph-based, showing 1800s photographs of gay couples, just two men in top hats standing side by side, to fabulous, colorful 1980s drag queens.

Our next museum after the Gay Museum was the Berlin Gallery of Contemporary Art which I really liked because it was all art made in Berlin by German artists. I like it when museums have a very specific range of coverage like that. I also loved this museum because it was about 60% photographs, including one really interesting exhibit where they displayed hundreds of panoramas of Berlin taken after WWII to document the damage done to the city and to figure out what needed to be rebuilt first.

By the time we were done in that gallery, it was already twelve thirty and we were kind of exhausted of museums, so we went to a Turkish café and had pastry and carbonated apple juice and then Melissa & I took the Berlin metro (the "U-bahn") home and my mind basically exploded as I tried to comprehend how this turnstyle-free "honor system" metro could function. I tried to imagine something like that in Russia and all I could picture was complete chaos and anarchy and violence. I don't think anyone in St. Petersburg would ever buy a ticket for the metro if you only got occassionally checked.

On my second day in Berlin, I began to get more of an overall impression of the place. I liked Berlin a lot because it was the first place where I didn't feel like I stuck out as a foreigner. I mean, I certainly could pass for German, but also I wasn't under or over dressed, I just blended, which was kind of a nice relief after Russia and Paris where they see me coming as a foreigner a mile away. As for the city itself, Berlin definitely is not the most attractive city I've been in, and I much prefer claustrophobic small cobblestone streets like in Paris, but the history is so interesting.... I felt like such a dumbass as a Russian major not knowing really anything about the Berlin Wall and the Soviet vs. American power struggle and all that. Berlin was really educational in that sense. I was also just obsessed with how clean and environmentally friendly the city is. So many of the trash cans have four bins -- paper, packaging (plastic), glass & waste -- and Melissa's apartment does those four plus compost as well. Saving water and recycling and such is just a natural part of everyone's lifestyle there, and it made me feel like a horrible person for being so out of my good habits from living in Russia for over half a year.

On this Sunday, Melissa took me on a tour of the most typical touristy places in Berlin because everyone needs to see the good touristy stuff. First she took me to the "Mount Everest of Berlin," which is this tiny little hill in the middle of a park near her house. It was quite beautiful and you had a pretty great view as Berlin is so flat even though the hill is only about 30 feet tall. What was completely ridiculous though was coming down from this hill that had a little slick layer of ice covered and snow on it -- the only icy/snowy place in all of Berlin, as the rest of it is so manicured, after naviagted un-plowed, messy, hazardous streets in St. Petersburg and Moscow and Kiev for months -- I fell completely and 100% on my ass. This resulted in a bruised tail bone which is still a little stiff and sore at times. Thanks a lot, Berlin.

Melissa then took me to the center of the city and showed me all the main stuff: where the Berlin Wall used to be, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate, from afar the statue on top of which the angels in Wings of Desire sit, the Holocaust Memorial which is extremely effective and scary, in my opinion, the U.S. and the Russian embassies, and then we went to the top of the TV Tower for another night time look at a city from high above. All this also included a brief coffee and donut break at..... Dunkin Donuts?? They don't have them in Los Angeles or Washington DC but they have several all over Berlin...??? Melissa and I had hot chocolate and two donuts -- a Boston Creme and a Berliner (you know, a powdered jelly donut), which we felt were appropriate.

That Sunday night, I got to meet some of Melissa's German friends, the son of her mom's college roommate (who now lives in Berlin) and his girlfriend, and we had a little dinner party of sorts where Melissa taught me how to make this really good carrot-ginger-peanut butter soup.

As for my Monday in Berlin, my last full day, Melissa had class for most of the day, so I entertained myself. I first went to the Martin-Gropius-Bau which specializes mostly in having retrospective exhibits of famous photographers. Apparently I just missed their show on Avedon, but I got to see the Robert Lebeck retrospective which was unbelievable. Lebeck is a German photographer who worked for many newspapers, photographing both East and West Berlin and also being hired to travel to many countries in the world to photograph momentous events. He is the shit. He basically does what I want to do with my life. Mad jealous.

I then tried to go to the other main photography museum of Berlin, but it was closed on Mondays, so instead I went to one of the Berlin Wall museums which was kind of too touristy and cluttered and chaotic with stuff (though they did have cars in the museum that people used to escape from the East to the West in and talked about how selling diving equipment was illegal in East Berlin because of fear people would use it to escape), and I went to the Berlin Aquarium. I photographed fishes for a while, saw some rattlesnakes mating, and then headed back to Melissa's neighborhood where I bought school supplies ("If you're going to buy school supplies, do it in Germany," -- Melissa), went into an antique store and made friends with the older woman who worked there and purchased some little black and white photos of dancers and actresses that used to come in cigarette packs, including a couple of Marlene Dietrich, and then sat in Café Bilder Buch a little on my own, doodling with my new markers and waiting for Melissa, and then finally us going back to the apartment and just talking and hanging out and such until all hours of the morning.

BERLIN ----> KRAKOW..................

I left early in the morning on Tuesday 2/3 to ride the train all day from Berlin to Krakow. It was a long ride, but the scenery was quite nice. Snow and fields and such. What was ridiculous though was how the train actually travels half as fast in Poland as it did in Germany. Melissa said this has to do with coal mines below the tracks or something, but for me it was just logical as I was moving closer back to Russia.

KRAKOW..................

By the time I arrived in Krakow it was about 8:00PM and Emma greeted me at the station. We decided simply to get some pizza and talk and sleep and go out the next night.

In the morning, I went out on my own to explore Krakow as Emma had class. Krakow is so small it is ridiculous, ridiculous, you can walk everywhere and the longest it will take you is 20 minutes. I took myself to the main town square, which I liked a lot, in its Medevial style and cobblestoned-ness. I saw the famous DaVinci "Lady with an Ermine" at the Cazartoryski Gallery, and met Emma for coffee inbetween her classes. During Emma's second class, I made my way in the drizzle to the Wawel Hill area which is a castle and famous and stuff, took some photos, and met up with Emma again to go back to their apartment slash hotel. Her program puts up the eight students in the group in this apartment-style hotel place during the time they are living in Krakow and it was homey and clean and had an awesome shower. I certainly enjoyed my naps there.

True to our previous decision, Emma, her friend Ellen, and I went out to a Krakow microbrewery that night called CK Browar. We had a beer that was made right there on the premeises, but what makes Krakow completely different from St. Petersburg in every way is how early things close. By 11pm our waitress was asking us to pay our check. So we left the brewery and had a kebab (Polish version of schwarma) and stood in the main square in the mist and ate it.

So, my Thursday morning, my last day in Krakow, I got up early to try to go to the Polish Museum of Insurance, which is only open Tuesday through Friday from 9AM to 11AM. I felt I had an obligation to go to this museum, considering my steady career back at home, but there was slightly awkward miscommunication involving this museum which seemed all too appropriate. I found the place, but the door was locked, I tried to open it, and was about to turn away when a woman inside opened it and spoke to me in Polish and I told her I spoke Russia and English and she shrugged and told me to go to the courtyard or something.... I thought that maybe that was where the real entrance was..... but all that was there was an actual insurance company.....? So I gave up. But I got a picture of the locked door.

Instead I went to the National Museum which I really liked. They have a whole big huge collection of old knives and pocketwatches and other objects d'art and such, but they also have a ton of 20th century Polish art and they had a temporary exhibit which included Andy Warhol's work "Ten Jews of the 20th Century." I made my way back to Emma's place, napped for a bit, and then we went out to dinner and saw Milk at what is basically the Polish version of the Waltham Embassy Theatre. Milk was really good, the first time I cried at a movie in over a year, and I highly recommend it, but that's off the subject. After that Emma and I just headed back to her place to pack and talk and nap briefly before my cab came to pick me up at 4:00AM to get me to the airport for my 6:00AM flight from Krakow to Warsaw on Friday morning 2/6/09.

KRAKOW ----> WARSAW ----> ST. PETERSBURG ..................

This is where things get tricky.

Initally, back in the fall when I had been planning this trip, I wanted to take trains all the way back to St. Petersburg from Paris. I changed my mind and decided to fly the last leg of the trip from Krakow to St. Petersburg because in order to not go through Belarus (for which you need a visa which I do not have), I would have had to change trains about 4 or 5 times and it would have taken about 30 to 40 hours, so I decided, oh, flying will be so much simpler.

The cab driver picked me up at Emma's place, he was very nice, helped me with my luggage, Mom, and I was impressed by his driving skills as we made through very thick fog to the Krakow airport. Not really sure why I didn't make this connection, but, of course, upon arriving at the airport, paying the guy, getting my luggae, going inside, there are huge signs everywhere saying the 6:00AM flight from Krakow to Warsaw has been canceled due to the fog. Great. The LOT Polish Airlines ladies claimed they sent me an email at midnight that night, but I had definitely checked my email at 3:30AM before leaving Emma's and hadn't recieved anything and still have yet to receive anything from them. So, what to do. At first the only options they gave me where to wait at the airport until 1PM for a flight to Frankfurt from which I could probably get a connection to St. Petersburg or for a 3:40PM flight to Munich from which I could probably get a connection to St. Petersburg. None of this sounded appealing as it was 4:20AM when I was having this conversation. When the LOT office opened though at 5:00AM, the woman suggested I take a 6:00AM train from Krakow to Warsaw, arriving in at 9:00AM, just enough time to get a cab to the airport to make my original 10:45AM flight to St. Petersburg. And so, in a way, I got to enjoy trains one more time (though I slept solidly for the whole three hours I was on that train). What worked out really well though was a Belgium woman trying to make an 11:00AM flight from Warsaw to Sofia, Bulgaria, was in the same position as me, so we were able to share cabs and go on the train together from the Krakow airport to the Krakow train station to the Warsaw train station to the Warsaw airport and make our flights just in time. She was really helpful -- speaking English, French and Polish -- and looked almost exactly like Auntie Christine. I didn't even learn her name until we said good bye to go to our different gates. It was all quite a surreal experience, especially when I was back in my Petersburg apartment, eating banana bread made by my roommate, right on time at 4:00PM like I had supposed to be all along.

And so, I am back in Russia.

Clearly there are a shit-ton of photographs from all these activities, there are also a ton from my two weeks at home, and I am severely, severely behind on uploading, but don't worry. I have internet in the apartment. I'll be working on it.

Until then, here are the self portraits at least.