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Monday, November 3, 2014

Expectation vs. reality - the truth about sketching and traveling in Berlin

Last week my kids had their autumnholiday so we went on a trip to...



Of course I had planned to sketch on the trip. I packed a journal and some pens, a fountain pen and a set of watercolors.

In my mind I had anticipated to fill up my almost new journal completely. I saw myself sketching at museums while my kids explored. Drawing street life and people at cafés and restaurants.

In reality I only did about a handfull of drawings. Beer glasses and soft drinks at restaurants.




A few boats at the huge Museum of Technology.



The hotell lobby.


And people in the tax free shop at the Tegel airport.


What went wrong?

One reason is that sketching actually is quite time consuming, at least for me. If I whip out my journal and a pen at a museum to start drawing something my family don't want to hang around and wait for me. Instead they they move on and I'm left behind. That is no fun. I too want to explore and see the exhibitions.

I found that situations when we were forced to wait was the most suitable to work in my journal. Like at restaurants, at the airport etc. The drawback is that you don't get to choose what to draw, but more or less have to settle for what is in front of you.

So much for the romantic idea of drawing beatiful sceneries and lively street life when travelling with small (-ish) kids.

Well, Berlin is great, for sure. It is huge. We walked and walked and still we only saw a small part of it. I need to go back to explore more.

I didn't realize this when booking the trip but now in November it is 25 years since the fall of the Berlin wall. We visited Bornholmer Strasse where there are still some remains of the wall. It was very interesting to see it in real life and to read about it's history.

Eventhough the wall was a reality when I grew up and after actually seen some of it now, it is still hard to grasp that one of the biggest cities in Europe was divided.


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