Final resting place- and a paper story

Last week, I was walking around Berlin's Mitte district, with no real destination in mind. Actually, that is not true! I went to Mitte specifically to find a paper store. For those of you who don't know, I have a passion for paper, and all its derivatives, such as cards, envelopes, wrapping paper, note books, agendas, journals, calendars and tags, to name a few. I have an extensive paper collection and visiting a papeterie is one of my favorite things. While reading through a Time Out guide for Berlin, I came across a few addresses for paper stores that I did not know yet, and so last week I set out to find these little treasures. One of the two stores was quite disappointing, with nothing new, but the other one!!!!!!!!! Let me tell you! It was a very small store, but once again it goes to show that size doesn't matter, because the shelves were full of beautifully hand printed cards, funky letter sets, delicate notebooks, and so much more. It was hard for me to concentrate and to control the urging need to buy everything! i was, so to say, like a kid in a candy store! I kept on telling the girl working there that there were so many nice things in her store, and I think she found me *special*. I left with a nice loot, some of which will end up in some of my reader's mailboxes!

But I digress. The point I wanted to make was that the store only opened at noon, and as I was there at 11:30, I had some time to spare. So I decided to walk down a small street and ended up in a cemetery. Actually, I ended up in one of Berlin's oldest cemeteries, and of course, I did not have my camera with me. So today I went back to this cemetery, and took some pictures. My beloved paper store was on the way to the cemetery, and it took all that I had not to go in!

The Friedhof der Garnisonkirche was built in 1722, thus making it more than 300 years old. It is a military cemetery, where soldiers who fought in all the battles that Berlin took part in, including the First and Second World Wars, are buried. Some of the headstones have been there for so long that the writing on them is illegible due to all the moss that has now established itself on them.

There is something about cemeteries that I love. Although of course the existence of a cemetery is related to death and sadness, there is also something really peaceful and serene about wandering in a cemetery. Doing so helps to put everything in perspective about one's life, and that's always a good thing.

"Soldiers are murderers" written on an abandoned house, right next to the cemetery.