photo: Maximilian Streich
My infatuation with Berlin knows no boundaries. If all else fails, I plan to become like one of these viral stories ladies who marry Eiffel Tower or something, and be officially Mrs. Berlin. Its unpretentious coolness, its chilled vibe and inclusive, tolerant attitude, makes it #citycrusheveryday. There’s only one instance when Berlin poops right inside my soul: those grey, rainy days when Berlin experiences an identity crisis, raining cats and dogs for hours at a time, forgetting completely what season it’s supposed to be.
First of all, this is not even a season. I mean in winter you look out the window, grey, wet: you process this information and dress accordingly. With this mess of a weather you don’t know what to wear anymore, because even if it’s pouring it’s 25 degrees, so you’re both cold and sweating, ending up in a fur coat flip flops and an umbrella, looking like a pimp in the middle of Kotti. Setting aside the constant headache from the humidity, this weather also messes with your general will to exist: suddenly the outside of your house feels so hostile, the slightest relocation is certain to have you drenched, so there goes your motivation to go to work, to the supermarket, to your friend, anywhere.
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by Stella | Stories
Berliners really like to cycle, no matter the temperature you will always see people using their bikes in the city. Obviously they will be less in the Winter, but not gone completely. The only time you will encounter them much less is when it rains. And well, let’s face it, it can rain quite a lot here in Berlin, and always when it’s most inconvenient.
I personally don’t like to use the bike when I know it might rain later that day. Simply because I don’t want to be burdened with a raincoat that I have to carry around with me. These coats never look very good and they will become annoying at some point once the rain is over and you have to carry that big wet piece of clothing around with you.
The Berlin-based fashion label Chance of Rain by Antoniya Ivanova is offering a smart solution here. Her garments combine style with functionality and make the life of cyclists in Berlin a lot easier. Not only does she use breathable and water repellent high-tech textiles for her jackets, coats and capes, she also incorporates reflecting stripes to ensure the safety of the cyclist in the dark. There are a lot of details in her pieces that show that she put a lot of time and evaluation in the usefulness of the pieces, and on top the designs look really cool and timeless.
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by Frank | Fashion
photo: Christian Schirrmacher / CC
Every year around the same time – yes, let’s say, every year in November – the darkness is creeping up on us. Sometimes slow, sometimes fast, sometimes without us even realizing – until it’s to late. First the time goes away, almost unnoticed: only one little hour, one hour of light, one hour of Summer. When the Summer sun leaves us and the November nights become longer, never-ending – you slowly take our breath away. Your grey covers are like a thick blanket, ready to tuck us in and push us down. You are ready to rest, but are we ready yet?
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by Kate | Stories
All Photos:Eylül Aslan
Berlin is probably most quiet in Winter, most happy in Spring, most sexy in Summer and most beautiful in Autumn.
I feel like a Japanese tourist with an astonished gaze on my face while walking in the parks and streets of Berlin full of colorful trees. My city walks are in no way diminished by the typical meteorological events of Autumn: wind and rain. Quite the contrary, I am particularly in love with the days where the wind swirls the leaves around and I feel the drops landing on my head.
Together with photographer and friend Eylül Aslan and one of her beautiful models we took a rain boot walk testing the new rain boots collection of Brazilian brand Havaianas through cloudy Berlin and created some pictures in our favorite spots for a rainy day. Our Autumn day recommendations and more photos after the jump.
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by Claudio | Photos
Last evening, after a couple of beautiful sunny and warm days, the rain came and sucked the summer out of the city within a heartbeat. Not only did the sky turn grey, also the temperatures dropped so quickly, it felt like a reminder that the past weeks have been a paradise and we’re about to return the the reality now. By chance I found this stunning short film that captures one night and one day in Berlin. It starts off with some moody impressions of a stormy and rainy night at Kottbusser Tor and I this was exactly what I walked through after seeing the film, it was really haunting.
Gladly the film shows a beautiful and sunny day after this rainy night and I hope we do have a couple of those ones left this year. Enjoy this amazing video by Timon de Graaf Boele with a soundtrack by Apparat that will give you goosebumps after the jump.
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by Frank | Videos
Saturday night the sky fell down over Berlin. Protected under the awning of a falafel place at Rosa-Luxemburger-Platz we watched the quite impressive natural spectacle. In front of us a wall of water and behind us the smell of oil and men sweat. Unable and somehow unwilling to leave this strange prison I became the secret voyeur and photographer of people running through the urban ocean. Electric lights reflecting infinite times in the falling drops and the thousands of puddles on the streets. Some questions kept me awake the rest of the night. Why did all the people passing by run as if they were running for their life? Why didn’t any of them just accepted the fact that they will become wet and walked around normally? Were they running to arrive at home as early as possible? Did they search for a safe place? Or were they just running because if it rains you have to run? Running in the rain: a rational or an emotional thing to do? A pleasure or a casualty? Are we trying to flee the wet mass, or are we enjoying it and hoping it will never end? Are we running in or from the rain? Sometimes there are no answers. You just have to wait! The rain is over and you go home as if nothing happened.
People running from/in the rain after the jump.
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by Claudio | Art, Stories
