The former Narva-Turm, is a striking glass tower located on Warschauer Straße in Berlin-Friedrichshain. The colorful, illuminated glass cube was designed by the architects Schweger und Partner and completed in 2000. The cube itself is 21 meters high, while the entire Narva-Turm rises 63 meters above the city. Originally, this site was home to the Narva factory, which produced light bulbs for the DDR and much of the former Eastern Bloc. The factory closed in 1992, resulting in the loss of 5,000 jobs -a significant moment in Berlin’s post-reunification economic history.

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.” ― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

I can’t remember when I first got aware of the Milky Way and the sheer unimaginable amount of stars in it but there is this hazy image i have as a kid, when i was in a small harbor village in Turkey during a vacation. My mother and I were on a small street promenade with street vendors. She went ahead and looked at some wares from one of the street vendors. I walked to the street border and looked to the sea. My eyes landed on a small pumpkin field near the shore. It was a curious sight for me because at that time I only knew big pumpkins from movies. After a while, a local approached me but i didn’t understand him. He gesticulated towards the sky. I looked up and there were some shooting stars. The local was happy that i saw it and we looked towards the milky way together in hope to see more.