This was already Sunday and as in Germany most museums are closed on Mondays, it was long overdue for my date with Tristan. The plan was to meet my Berlin friend in the early afternoon, to walk along Dircksenstraße and visit Haus Schwarzenberg, to have a look at a number of new murals there. To fill the time in between, was easy in Friedrichshain.

Tristan was the trigger for this visit of Berlin and as I had already stated, Tristan isn’t the name of my Berlin friend, who delivers me with news from the province frequently. It’s the nick name of one of the best preserved examples of a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the world. The approximately 66-million-year-old, about 12-meter-long skeleton was found in 2012 in the Hell Creek Formation in Montana, USA and is temporarily exhibited at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. The morning at the museum with a predator, which seemed to be on the hunt for his next lunch, reminded me that it was time for a short break and so I decided to look for lunch in Friedrichshain. Cafe Intimes was a good occasion to combine business and pleasure. To take pictures of that extraordinary wall at Cinema Intimes at Niederbarnimstraße was at my schedule. This wall is covered with pieces of local, national and international street artists. KARTOFFELTIERCHEN, MARINI, MARYCULA, MEIN LIEBER PROST, MIMI THE CLOWN, LES ENFANTS TERRIBLES, CHINAGIRL TILE. To name them all is absolutely impossible. The neighbouring flower shop is surprising and fascinating too. It is covered with curiosities and street art inside and outside. Absolutely worth to risk a look. Not long after my lunch break I had to leave Frirdrichshain and meet my Berlin friend at Alexanderplatz. When I arrived he was already there and so we could start our walk immediately. To walk Dircksenstraße is always pure fun. Starting from Alexanderplatz it runs about 400m parallel to the railway line, which runs high above the heads. The retaining walls are covered with advertising posters for events or products and are the playgrounds for street artists with their stickers, stencils, paste-ups and installations too. I was eager to see the current score in the game STICKERMAIDBERLIN vs. Cheeky Thief. This story started in January, when my Berlin friend sent me pictures of a collaboration work between PLANETSELFIE, STICKERMAIDBERLIN and SOSCHÖN. Someone had beheaded the work, but STICKERMAIDBERLIN took pity on the piece and donated a new head. Since January the game continued to gather momentum and up to now the work has got a new head again and again. The latest score in the match STICKERMAIDBERLIN vs. CHEEKY THIEF is 6 : 5. Who knows when this match will hear the final whistle. STICKERMAIDBERLIN seems to have an inexhaustible stock of heads in her armory. The day ended at Haus Schwarzenberg with a number of new murals of LIZ ART, Otto Schade aka OSCH, GOGOPLATA, CARO PEPE and AGE AGE.

More pictures of

Tristan, Friedrichshain & Berlin Mitte