Berlin Street Photography & Writing | Sean P Durham

Berlin Notes

  • Home
    • Contact Sean P. Durham
    • About
      • Content & Copywriting by Sean P. Durham
        • Content Marketing Creation & Blogging
      • Blogging Ideas that Fire-up Your Blogging Adventure
  • Street Photography in Berlin 2023 Gallery
  • Street Photography Articles
  • Portrait Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Short Stories
    • Kind Hearts and a Kind of Loving — Taxi Stories
    • Midnight At the Bus Stop | Story
    • A Tapestry of Thoughts
Home » How to Make Blogging Your Entrepreneurial Start » Fallen Lovers and Two Shots, a short read

Fallen Lovers and Two Shots

November 17, 2020 by SeanPatrick Leave a Comment

The city is like a forest, when I want it to be. Other times, it can be a maze of dark and dangerous streets. It is always intriguing, it doesn’t have to be “nice” to be intriguing.

Woman standing and waiting at a level crossing in the street

A place is always as much as you want it to be, it is a mixture of experience, connections you make, and thoughts, all of which taint what you hear and see. We create our own ideas about the places where we dwell. People’s paths cross all the time, new friends are made, and new love is found.

The magic of a city is found in your heart, not in its bright lights. The part of town I live in is full with the spices and salts of life. Musicians wander along the street, stop and play a few tunes for guests outside a restaurant, beggars sit in their everyday spots and smile with an outstretched hand. I often see people open a shopping bag and give a beggar food, showing them which foods have the vitamins and protein they need. Actions like this remind me of who my neighbours are.

A few years ago I lived in a different part of town, the middle-class neighbourhood where people parked their BMWs along the street, the council serviced the roads often, and people wore smart and expensive business clothes — like living on a film set.

Up in the posh part of town, people believed that the part of the city I live in now, was a dangerous place. Go down to Kreuzberg and you’ll get mugged, or murdered. “They have knives and guns, and they’re all thieves and blagards down there”.

Back in the Berlin Wall days, Kreuzberg was a part of the “American Sector”, US troops would patrol through Kreuzberg in a jeep — with a light machine gun stacked on the back. Sometimes, they’d train the gun muzzle on the hippie-types in the street. They got in big trouble for that, the gun was locked and loaded with a belt of ammunition.

Kreuzberg has always been working class, it’s full of artists, creatives, and people who are still trying to figure out what they might want to do in life. It’s a place where a beggar has more chance of getting a few coins put in his hand, a bag of food handed to him, and a smile from a passer-by.

When I was a taxi driver, I used to drive the night shift. I loved sweeping through the city, picking up the tired and drunk, the lonely, and occasionally, the confused in need of help. I always told myself, I have time for all these people. A cab driver meets a lot of sad people, broken people, spurned lovers, so often full of beer and tears.

In the posh part of town at 6. AM, waiting at a taxi rank alone, the sun rising, the night-life all gone home. I was waiting for the stragglers to stumble out of a bar called “Zwiebelfisch”, a well known artists bar. A place where slightly famous artists, could get drunk. Artists do that, it fires their imagination when they’re tired.

I was half listening to the calm midnight-voice on my taxi radio, and half eyeing the street in front of me; a man stood at the traffic lights. He wasn’t moving, he just stood with both hands in his pockets and stared across the street at the bar called Zwiebelfisch.

I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a well-dressed couple walk out of the bar, they moved towards my cab, but passed and kept on towards the main street, where the man was waiting. He seemed to perk up, his hands shifted in his pockets, and he looked about himself for a moment. I could tell he was interested in the young couple, I didn’t know why. They were now standing at the traffic lights.

The pedestrian lights turned green, the couple stepped out into the street, and from their stride I could tell they were both pretty drunk. They leaned against each other as they walked, straightened up, laughed for a short moment. They didn’t seem to care for anything but each other. And then it happened.

I wasn’t sure what it was at first, I’d heard a noise, two noises in fact. I needed a moment to process it before my brain connected it with a quick metallic slide, and the snap-crack of a small handgun being fired, twice.

The man who had been waiting, shot them both in the heart. They fell together, and died quickly.

My taxi radio crackled with the voices of other cab drivers who had seen what happened. I jumped out of my cab and ran towards the two dead lovers.

The police and an ambulance were called. The man who killed the young couple had immediately run away. This was the posh part of town and nobody expects to witness a killing on the streets. Nobody chased him.

The police pushed everybody away, there was nothing we could do to help.

A day later, I read in the Berlin papers that a man had killed his wife and her lover.

That’s all I know. She fell in love with somebody else. He felt the pain of being left alone.

Cities are full with people crossing paths. Sometimes a passer-by will stop, and they become a friend, sometimes they fall in love with you.

More articles and Stories on Berlin Notes

Articles on Medium dot com

Filed Under: Berlin Notes, Reading, Writing Tagged With: Berlin in the 1990s, Berlin Notes short reads, Berlin Stories, Stories of murder in Berlin

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

You must be logged in to post a comment.

Berlin Street Photography

Street Photography in Berlin, Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
A perfect moment, a combination of events quickly go into a spiked crescendo and culminate into a small but significant moment of life on the street.
Street Photography in Berlin. Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
Berlin Street Photography of Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
street-photography-in-berlin/street photography-in-berlin-2023-gallery/
Creativity and Intentions for Artists and Makers
Berlin Street Photography, Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023
Berlin Street Photography. Urban scenes in Mitte Berlin, Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023

Ricoh GR III Street Edition

Recent Posts

  • Photography – Filling Time and Space with Your Camera
  • Spring Time Urban Street Photography in Berlin with the Canon 5D and 24 mm-105 mm L-Lens 2023
  • Rescue Cats That Moved into My Home
  • Midnight At the Bus Stop | Story
  • Street Photography Secrets Discovered Along the Way

Pages

  • Blogging Ideas that Fire-up Your Blogging Adventure
  • Contact Sean P. Durham
  • Content & Copywriting by Sean P. Durham
  • Cookie Policy
  • Cookie Policy
  • Disclosure Policy of Sean P Durham | Photography & Writing
  • Kind Hearts and a Kind of Loving — Taxi Stories
  • Online Englisch Sprachunterricht in Berlin Privat
    • English Language Lessons in Berlin Private
    • Lernen der Englischen Sprache als Zweite Sprache und Motivation
  • Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Portrait Photography by Sean P. Durham
  • Street Photography in Berlin
    • Street Photography in Berlin 2023 Gallery
  • What Berlin Notes is About?

All image on this blog and pages belong to Sean P. Durham unless otherwise stated as belonging to another writer or artist. Blog Copyright; Sean P. Durham, Berlin, 2023. Includes images and text.

GDPR - Privay Policy
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies.
Do not sell my personal information.
Cookie SettingsAccept
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT