Lisa Dietrich
below,Toronto: Little Italy as seen from the 506 Carlton streetcar
above, Hamburg: Looking towards the new Opera House from Landungsbrücken station, 2 storeys above street level
Lisa Dietrich
had caught my eye. My walk was more or less an extension of what I had already experienced from my window seat. When I had just moved to Hamburg, I had no understanding of my route at street level when I left a train station.This was the case even if I had only travelled above ground. My pedestrian knowledge spread more or less centrically around the station as a starting point. It took weeks or even months until two of these areas overlapped. Suddenly relationships I had previously known only theoretically were manifested in reality and filled with images and realtime connections. My mental map of Hamburg grew into an agglomeration of places, each with their distinguished character, but blended into one another, forming a complex
In other parts, such as around the Altona train station, you may find yourself in the midst of a vast old railway yard, passing water towers, derelict storage buildings and crumbling garages as well as long distance trains waiting for departure – a view inaccessible to a cyclist, pedestrian or driver. In Toronto, many of my travels happened by streetcar, always following the street grid, rarely changing directions. Just by looking out of the window I quickly became acquainted with long stretches of those streets which bear streetcar tracks. I loved exploring new areas in this easy, comfortable manner: automated urban window shopping. After being shepherded past a display of interesting shops, cafés and parks, I would get off and backtrack to whatever
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