13.04.2016

As of yet this was my favorite of the various tours we have taken as a group since arriving in Berlin. Our guide, Evelyn, was an incredibly intuitive wealth of information. Her ability to point out specific tags and posters beyond the stops that were planned by our other guide, Rachel, astonished and inspired me. I could feel the connections she held with each piece she inspected and tackled in the emotion in her voice and the excitement in her face. Her anecdotes about her various experiences with some of the artists whose works we saw opened my eyes to a side of Berlin I had yet to be able to visualize on my own–running from the cops, partying at squats, and assisting different artists with major pieces were just some of the many stories told that day.

The very best part of the tour took place after the group dispersed when I was able to walk around Berlin with Evelyn and Gabby as a group of three. She told us about her experiences as a foreigner (originally from Finland) in Berlin, her encounters with various authority figures in Germany and other European countries, and the dystopia she had found in this strange city we have come to know for the past few weeks. While sitting in a park in front of one of Berlin’s many churches, Evelyn told us she had found it to be an unfortunately true cliché that Berliners seemed to have a gaping hole in their souls. Her uncannily relevant words still echo in my ears, “it’s all a spiral.”