a few days ago, we happened to be in berlin for a few hours. we did a small touristy tour and visited some famous places. here are some impressions.

railway, power and memory.

we started at the central railway station, crossed the spree and walked up to the german chancellery and the reichstag, and continued to the holocaust memorial.

global stone project.

after that, we continued into the direction of the tiergarten and found the global stone project.

tiergarten, composers and the soviet war memorial.

we continued through the tiergarten, were we saw, among a lot of beautiful nature, a memorial for beethoven, haydn and mozart and the soviet war memorial.

trash.

besides beautiful nature, the tiergarten also features: trash. both “real” trash, as well as intellectual trash (see the bench’s inscriptions).

the memorial church.

our trip ended at the memorial church, which was bombed during the second world war and not rebuild. unfortunately, they build a modern version of the church right next to it, which blocks the view on the old one and, in my opionion, is not exactly beautiful.

it is also possible to enter the ground floor of the ruins of the old church.

this friday, metallica held the release party for their newest album, death magnetic, in berlin. the concert was completely paid by metallica; the entrance fee, which was just 10 euros, was completely donated to the german heart center berlin. well, giving money to charity, listening to a good concert, meeting a friend and visiting berlin is always a good idea, so i was there ;-) the party took place in the new-built o₂ world arena, next to the ostbahnhof:

after waiting for a long time outside, we were let inside. we weren’t able to get tickets for the standing area, only seat tickets, but who says you have to stay seated during the concert? here’s a view on the stage including the technical equipment including the speakers, hanging from the top of the hall:

first, the hall seemed quite empty, but as it got later, it filled up. the concert started at 21:30, even though it said 20:00 on the tickets… and i’ve never heard music played soooo loud before the concert, you basically had to scream at each other to make yourself understood. that was a bit annoying. anyway. then the show began, with lots of light effects (though no pyro stuff), loud and heavy music; after some absence (on the album side), back to good old thrash metal.
the setlist was as follows:

1. that was just your life;
2. end of the line;
3. the thing that should not be;
4. of wolf of man;
5. one;
6. broken, beat, and scarred;
7. cyanide;
8. frantic;
9. until it sleeps;
10. wherever i may roam;
11. for whom the bells tolls;
12. the day that never comes;
13. master of puppets;
14. blackened.
    encore:
15. blitzkrieg;
16. jump in the fire;
17. seek and destroy.

my personal favorite from the new tracks is cyanide, as its best suited for head banging :) a cool part was when they released nets, installed at the roof, which contained big air-filled black balls with metallica written on them, which bounced around in the standing area on the hands of the fans. well, until they were more and more captured by some fans and tried to shrink, to make them easier to transport. well, here are some visual impressions: