green bridge waterfall.
these photos remind me of a wonderful day in mainz where i explored the city with my crush, not-yet boyfriend. looking at the city through his eyes was really memorable, and the time we spent together on that day consolidated our interest in each other. after this meeting we officially started dating a few days after. it was the beginning of a dream ( at least to me ). i entered the bubble of rose-coloured floating clouds and damn, did i enjoy it. throughout the whole romance i often stated that i couldn't quite believe that this was happening to me, me who gave up on romantic relationships. when you are single for 10 years and never really had someone express interest in you for almost the same amount of time you start to accept the notion that you are not meant to be in a relationship AT ALL. and i had actually made my freedom with it, sort of, after going through a little bit of a situation before i met him ( i had a huge crush on someone else on a long distance level prior to meeting 'the dude' and couldn't ever express how i am feeling about that someone, because i knew he wasn't interested in me at all ). it was a little heartbreaking for me, but i came out of it totally determined to drop every hope on every romance ever... and then the dude happened. for a little while i though that finally i was lucky in the department of romance. well, i was, but unfortunately it wasn't for long.
anyway, exploring places with the dude was amazing though, always, and that's what i loved about him and that fact made me decide to try expressing my feelings to him. because exploring is such a huge part of my life and i don't really have friends who are equally interested in my lust for exploration and long walks and those who are, live further away from me. i had also never encountered a guy who loved to explore as much as me and loved taking photos or who was interested in good music and had similar opinions about society and politics and it just felt like a wonderful match. it felt good to have someone with me and talk to and observe our surroundings with, taking photos, without feeling weird. i loved our dynamics and how we both felt so attracted to each other, there was a true tingly feeling between us, all the time. and i smiled and laughed so much! even my co-workers felt the change within me and expressed how they absolutely adored my serene and calm attitude, whereas i was always on high alert and stressed before meeting him.
i really did feel awesome and in love and happy. i felt recognized and embraced and desired, all feelings that had become unknown to me after i had my teenage break-up so long ago. i wanted to dive into this adventure and see where we would end up. and taking that risk felt so rewarding and genuine. there was a real hope in me that we might be able to lift each other up and support each other through our respective issues ( because who doesn't have any, right? and isn't that the purpose of a serious relationship, to work through things together and to support each other and be there for one another, whenever life throws lemons at you? to make juice out of it? i know this sounds horribly worn-out, but it brings across my idea of a relationship... ) i felt like, even though we both brought some personal baggage into the relationship, there was a real chance at handling it well and open-minded. i was willing to work on everything, i was eager to invest hard work to overcome my own shortcomings and to support him through his problems. and it didn't scare me! even when we had uncomfortable discussions, i did try my best to relay my feelings to him as honestly and raw as possible. looking back, i see that it didn't work out for him in the same way. he probably still felt misunderstood, despite my efforts. and i am sorry that i couldn't give him what he probably needed from me. that i couldn't sense what he felt deep inside him. maybe he thought the distance between us was unbreachable and i was too much aloof or reserved for him.
i could muse over these things again and again, and still come to no conclusion. but i am done. the conclusion is: it didn't work out. but the time we spent together, those short almost three months, that time is still precious to me. it was a time where everything felt good for once, and hopeful and fine.
okay, enough of unraveling, let's move forward and take a look at mainz.
the green bridge in mainz is one of my favourite places. it leads over one of the most busy streets in mainz-neustadt and provides a green oasis in the midst of all the hustle and bustle. plans to build it started in 1977 and it was actually completed in 1981 by dieter magnus, an environmental artist born in the region. i've visited this place earlier in the year of 2018 in winter ( click on the link to learn more ). this time the bridge was what the name promised: green and lush and BEAUTIFUL! truly made me fall in love with it even more!
little stencil fox hiding under some shrubbery.
someone held a photo shooting on the bridge, which shouldn't be a surprise because the bridge is an awesome location for these kind of things! these cages are perfect props for an interesting photo. i sneakily took one of this guy as well ;)
overgrown balustrades!
i just can't get enough of these geometric compositions.
when we were about to leave the bridge i turned around one more time to discover that the guy on top of the cage got rid of his shirt! well, my dears, now i REALLY couldn't resist taking two more photos! 🙈
close-up. how awesome are his tattoos, please? sometimes, when i am really fed up with myself for being a woman, i wish i would look like this, haha. no, really. i mean it. dude had mad style, y'all, even without a shirt on.
we continued our path through neustadt, but not before appreciating this little corner of the green bridge as well.
stuff out of the corner. the lanterns and lamps of the bridge are holding little secrets, too, like socialist symbols and typography stickers.
kita gabelsberger straße ( kindergarten / nursery school ) - built in 2015 by ALHO. it's built in the currently very popular modular design. it sits directly next to another architectural behemoth...
... the synagogue of mainz! this building is absolutely freaking amazing! it was erected on the location of the old synagogue that was destroyed in 1938 during the night of broken glass. mainz has a long jewish history, dating back to the 11th century and during all that time the community had to suffer a lot of pogroms until they were only very few jews left ( especially after world war 2 ). after the fall of the wall a lot of eastern european jews came to west germany and helped create a new healthy community that needed space for their religious practice. in 1999 a competition was opened for designers and architects to plan a new synagogue. the architect they chose was manuel herz ( here's his website, he really built some truly amazing stuff over the years ) who then proceeded to build a deconstructivist modern synagogue with a lot of symbolic meaning. it was opened in 2010 after 2 years of construction.
its ceramic facade that glows green in the light is certainly one of the details that make me swoon, but the whole building is just remarkable in its design! it represents the the hebrew word kedushah, which means holiness and it can be refered to the building itself, meaning that the building is holiness in itself. the 5 letters of kedushah ( קְדוּשָּׁה ) articulate the profile of the building and create a structure that looks like it is a written object coming to life.
a closer look at the ceramic tile facade. can you imagine my inner self screaming in delight upon seeing it? i know, i think i might sound a bit crazy there.
and even more close.
directly on the plaza in front of the new synagogue was this remnant of the old one.
oh, by the way, this is what the building's most prominent facade looks like. if a sight like that doesn't get your attention, then what the eff is? the funnel-shaped ground plan is supposed to depict the shofar ( directed to the east towards jerusalem ), a horn which is used to call the community to prayer gatherings. you can see it best from above.
the very gorgeous main entry greets you with the hebrew words: meor hagola - beth knesset magenza. which is the official title of the church and can be translated to: light of the exile - synagogue of mainz.
the 26 meter high depiction of the letter qof ( קְ - spoken as ke ). it is the first letter of the word kedusha ( hebrew is read from right to left ).
the main entrance stands for the letter dalet (ד - d in the latin alphabet ). and so it moves on, there's a part of the building that stands for the letter vav ( וּ - spell it like u here ) , another one for the letter shin ( שָּׁ - for the sh sound) and one more for the letter he ( ה - spoken as ah - but it's basically a silent h ). the ה part is on the other side of the building ( have a look at the first picture of this series - here you can also see the שָּׁ ). ( yes, i indeed spent like an hour to research the meaning of the building and what letters the actual word of kedushah is made of 😅 ) of course all the parts that make up the word aren't actually readable per se, they were abstracted for the synagogue construction and only with a schematic rendering it can be seen - without the shofar layout, though.
a better look at the entrance. those letters look so incredibly magical.
a better look at the tower roof.
and a different perspective again. it's so cool how the whole building changes its appearance immediately, even if you only move a few meters forward or backward. it seems so versatile and flexible. and those green ceramic tiles... i have mentioned i fell in love with the facade, right? it bears a double mention!
the grounds of the plaza in front of the synagogue was made out of little pebbles and glass, a fact that i only discovered by accident ( because of the fire bug, duh ) and let me tell you, i think that's a really cool way to reference the night of broken glass. the realization blew my mind!
there's also a garden attached to the building on the other side, which is not open for the public, but is more of recreational and celebrational purpose.
all in all, this building is exceptional! it is a fascinating and very well-thought-out construction and even has deeper meanings hidden on the inside of it, too ( which i did not delve into, because that would probably be a little bit too much for the layman's heart ;P and besides, we never entered it, so maybe i will keep that stuff to a time when i actually manage to get inside - maybe on open house days or on a guided tour ). i never really truly engaged with jewish culture before, even though we learn as kids that jewish people were murdered all the time in history ( and most cruelly in world war II ). one might assume that learning these things will also bring you to learn more about judaism in general, but we never really got that deep into it, only learned about the religion on a skin deep level. that's why judaism always seemed like a magical practice to me, so totally different from christianity, especially with the 'exotic' alphabet and the mystical rituals performed in it. and also, the fact that it is even older than christianity, that alone always made me sort of reverential towards it. to come into contact with a religion via architecture is something that i find very enticing and alluring, in my case it is a very educational interest ( since i don't believe in any gods, i still love to learn about what people's beliefs are ).
after quite a while of documenting the synagogue we moved onwards, the dude wanted to show me some sad girls in the city, something i had also discovered on my initial visit to mainz in february.
the sad girls can be found everywhere in and around the city of mainz ( and even in other cities close to mainz! ). they are the product of maria m. fantasma ( a pseudonym - as graffitis are officially forbidden and are punishable by law here in germany - unless you get a permission to create something for the public ). because of the creator's name, people also call the sad girls 'maria'. it's fun to discover these girls from time to time. i think by now, there are probably around 70 maria graffitis in mainz alone, so you could even go on a 'search maria' trip, if you wanted to! i think that idea is pretty cute, and maybe i'm gonna search for more of them myself someday. i have found quite a few marias already ( some with the help of my former paramour - oh the sweet memories made on those discoveries! ). whenever i now find them, it somehow creates an image that conjures up these memories. it is strangely fitting that they are such melancholic creatures, because yes, they are linked to bittersweet foretimes. i still love finding them, it's kind of like i recognize myself in them.
and another one. this time with a dancing putin.
yup. it's putin bitch.
somehow we had the sudden idea to visit a cemetery. i know, for some of you this might be a strange dating site, but you know what? here i am giving zero fucks. everyone who's up to visit graveyards with me is someone who gets a 10 out of 10 in my 'amazing people' book. that's why my crush on the dude deepened even more when we started talking about green city places and ended up on the topic of cemeteries. he suggested to visit the waldfriedhof in mainz-mombach, which apparently captivates you with its park-like structures near the protected landscape of the mainzer sand and lennebergwald. i told him i LOVED cemeteries and thus it was decided to drive there and take a stroll. and this place surely has a special quality to it, sitting in the midst of conifer woods, pines and firs towering high above the ground, building a protective marquee above the graveyard. it was a wonderful place and i think it had a special effect on each of us, a quiet and solemn one, a feeling of ease and sense of being.
the conifer woods of the cemetery.
the graveyard is fairly new, i think they opened it up in the 1920ies, so you don't find a lot of super old burial vaults around here, but there are occasional interesting designs of old times left. but also a lot of very artistic ones, like this one. seemingly formed out of clay this remembrance statue gave off a very earthy vibe, but transcendental at the same time.
the pine trees everywhere were so lovely! their crowns are a mishmash of snarly branches. pine tree woods always feel so alien to me, as they are actually not very common in our region. but mainz and some of the surrounding communities sport a few woods of these trees, as the grounds there are always very sandy ( and they love arenaceous soil ).
it was quite a surprise to see pumpkins growing on various graves! what an unusual plant to decorate graves with!
there's a pretty neat installation in the graveyard where they put up several mirrors in such a way that it creates visual doubles of yourself when you're inside and also showcases the nature warped and contorted from the outside. i don't know who is accountable for this installation, there's NOTHING online about it. i like the abstractness of it, though, a breaking-up of traditional graveyard landscaping.
peekaboo. ( decided this will be the only picture with the dude on here )
and from the inside. when photographed well, this could be a super neat way to portrait people! it's like you can photograph a dozen of perspectives in one shot. a little bit mind-startling, aye? i imagine a futuristic scenery with space suits or something.
several columbaria were overgrown with lovely ivy chains.
granular cement.
the columbaria up front. this was such a nice spot.
totally stoked about this inscription. someone called themselves wiss dohm and while i rolled my eyes about it at first because, what kind of name is that? i suddenly realized that it was an abstraction of the english word 'wisdom'. discovering that, it turned my eye-roll into a thrilled internal scream of: yes, yes, yes, this is so fucking brilliant!!!
uhm, yes i get excited over the tiniest things.
more of the columbaria district.
the light was truly gorgeous that day.
a plant wall.
protector.
this one was so cute! loved the stylized embrace of these figures.
and the blue waves carved into this block of stone. i am always searching for exceptional gravestone designs, they probably excite me way too much.
the veins of leaves. gosh, this picture is so pretty!
we stepped outside of the graveyard for a bit, and walked on the periphery of the mainzer sand for a few minutes.
but soon ended up inside again. this draw well reflected the fading sun so nicely! there were lots of bees flying around it and drinking from the water, so it also was a very lively little spot.
😍
hidden behind the doors of this slightly kitschy gravestone, was a statue of a madonna. she didn't photograph so well, though. i really loved the marble ground stone! it was a little sad that a big grave like this was not kept in shape very nicely.
the beautiful marbled stone in some more detail.
looked like a neptune landscape to me. or maybe even a galaxy cloud?
the mourning hall from 1958 is an amazing piece of modern cemetery architecture! love the jesus sgraffito and the steep roof of the building. and brickstones!
the war burial grounds in the midst of many pine trees and planted with red flowers gave off a very serene feeling.
leaning towards each other these trees felt like a wonderful analogy to our budding romance.
i couldn't get enough of the pine trees ❤🌲
light shining through.
a ruined shelter.
we left the cemetery reluctantly ( at least i did! ) and soon said goodbye to each other. after our date here i felt really wistful and yearning and it was 1 or 2 days later even that we met up again because there was obviously something going on between us and we both felt it and wanted more out of it. the whole walk through the cemetery made me realize that this guy was the company i was always kind of on the look-out for, someone who loved nature and landscapes and graveyards and architecture and quiet places as much as i did. it was a small revelation to me and helped me with taking a step forward and let him into my life, a first step of opening up my single walls that i kept building quite sturdy over the years. he could crack these walls pretty fast, because i kept tossing stone by stone away from me, in hope of finally having found someone i could share my life with. and it felt right, and good and unbelievably awesome. isn't it strange, falling in love, not knowing what will come of it? looking back now, i still am pretty sure that my feelings were honest and i didn't deceive myself, it just felt right and perfect. but love is subjective and you never know truly what the other party really feels like, even if you yourself feel good about it.
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