Berlin on Sunday

After an extended lie-in for Adam, I got up and attempted to clean the appartment and erase any evidence of the pukefest that happened after Friday night at The Bird.

Both of us were nackered from E-Tropolis(the industrial music festival i was dragged to on the Saturday - love the music, don’t love standing for 13 hours) - so we decided to keep our sightseeing to a minimum. Checkpoint Charlie, and Brandenburger Tor.

Walking out onto Pappelallee, people were in the full throes of Brunch(which they take very seriously in Berlin), cafes were full to the gunnels, and the sun was beating down a hefty 28 degrees. But the cool breeze that came with it made it all worthwhile. And bareable.

We headed down towards Ebenswalder Str. U-Bahn, or at least we tried to. Within about 5 minutes we were a bit lost - we looked at each other and thought - fuck it. Then kept walking.

People started walking past with assorted bric-a-brac. The more we walked, the more people walked past with vintage goods and secondhand housewares - you only get bric-a-brac in one place on Sunday in Prenzlauer Berg - The Frohmarkt! At last we were in my territory! I adore fleamarkets, thrive on the second hand and vintage - so this was mana from heaven for me and it was entirely accidental!

We took a quick turn round the mauerpark - getting in a wee bit of sightseeing by looking at one of the last remaining bits of the Berlin wall. Well I found that out after the fact - I was in a grump because The Dude was walking us further and further away from the Frohmarkt.

So we doubled back, and finally got in the middle of the hot and sweaty crowds of people all on the same mission I was - to shop.

There were so many stalls - old furniture, second hand clothes, jewellery, leftovers from the Russian Occupation of the East, and amazing finds from students selling their arts, crafts and bleeding edge fashion.

Being the tubby cow I am, I didn’t even bother going near the clothes, but found a fantastic wallet and bag design collective called Jiab Prachathul - amazing workmanship and a wonderful sense of the quirky. The Dude treated me to a wallet, which I now show off at every opportunity!

I treated him to a print by a german artist whose name escapes me for the moment - but he’s at the Mauerpark every Sunday if you want to check him out.

Time was marching on, so we headed out of the Frohmarkt and hailed a taxi to get to Checkpoint Charlie.

I have never really understood the word ‘tourist-y’ until we got there. It was surrounded by 5 souvenir shops, a MacDonalds(insert irony here) and a throng of people taking photos. We managed to steal a couple of decent shots and ask for directions from a lovely German shop assistant, then headed down to the KochStr. u-bahn so we could find the Brandenburger Tor.

Thanks to the directions, we found it in 5 minutes - and sat a spell taking in the sights. Lots of patriotic people cheering and being good natured as the world cup game was on - some beautiful horses who in my opinion should have been getting watered since it was so hot, and the Tor itself.

It was actually really peaceful, and we reflected on our weekend, all the planning, the buildup and now we were here! Berlin seemed to click into place for me. I realised it’s where I am supposed to be - I took to german life again very quickly, and The Dude even thought he could easily live here(language barrier notwithstanding).

We headed back to The Bird for our last meal in Berlin, after another lost spell which involved me having a meltdown because we were late!

The Bird was virtually deserted as the game was on - so we sat down to a nice quiet meal. The owners dog was wandering about and occasionally let me pet him which I was told was a great honour. They didn’t realise I was feeding him part of my burger which although some people like, was raw in the middle. My already delicate tummy wasn’t going to handle that so the dog got some gourmet steak mince :)

The Crown Royal bourbon I had bought on the Friday was untouched - so we thought it would be a nice gesture to give them the full bottle as a thanks for a great welcome to Berlin. What I didn’t know was that Bret(one of the owners) and actually went out and bought us a gift too - Bifi Rolls(he’d recommended them on the Friday)! Adam decided he wanted to go back to the apartment and have a lazy night, and we had to leave before saying bye to them all which I was a bit miffed about. I hate seeming ignorant, especially to people who I really like, so doing this kind of ticked me off. I emailed them when I got back - no reply but at least they know I wasn’t being rude on purpose.

Back at the apartment, we packed and then had a really quiet night in watching german tv. Then, at 6 the next morning, we woke, dressed, and said goodbye to our little piece of heaven in Pappelallee.

Next morning in Prenzlauer Berg, we’re both rough. Really, horribly rough.

But we manage to get out of the flat to buy some groceries and head out to the E-Tropolis Festival.

The trams in Berlin are fantastic, on time, clean, hardly any nutters apart from the wizened old bitches who stamp their walking sticks on your toe even though you are no where near them!

The one we took was supposed to drop us off outside the Naturmuseaum but it stopped halfway through the route - we wandered round lost for about 10 minutes, managing to take some great photos of the amazing architecture as we walked. The Dude actually agreed to taking a taxi the rest of the way which was a first :) So the taxi driver pointed out some great sights for us to go see the next day, and dropped us off right outside.

The overriding colour scheme was black, which wasn’t surprising, but since I was wearing my Wyld Stallyns baseball t shirt (white and black) I got a few stares. Everyone looked amazing though! Cyber goths, and military goths and bears oh my!

The music was just amazing - KMFDM ripped up the crowd, as did Leather Strip - then Deutsch Americanische Freundshaft came on and I was happy as Larry!

The Dude was in his element as he loves industrial music - but the poor fella was still a bit delicate from the night before so he only drank orange juice and couldn’t face any food!

We had a bit of a rest when Feindflug came on - though I spent the majority of it waiting in line for a rost(sausage) while Adam got accosted by drunk German chicks :)

Then after that - Combichrist! They got the entire room packed out and had the whole place jumping :) I had never heard them before, but it was a great baptism of fire :)

We left three songs into Covenant - apparently they were completely wasted and fell about the stage, so in hindsight kind of good we left!

Got back to the apartment, and crashed until the next day…

So later on, after having some kip, we finally surfaced and went for dinner at The Bird in Prenzlauer Berg - a great steak and burger joint owned by a couple of New Yorkers. The Dude went for his cheeseburger, myself - a big thick-ass bloody steak :)

My intention was to take it easy because we had a big day ahead - reallllly didn’t work out like that…

We got talking to one of the owners, Bret, and he started us on this Blutroot - kind of like Jager but way more lethal! He was a pretty kick ass host - attentive, funny and made us feel really welcome! I unfortunately did what I always end up doing when I get drunk - doing the aspie and forget myself and start talking pish! From what I can remember I didn’t do too much damage - but enough to make the staff a little wary when I turned up for dinner on the Sunday. C’est La Vie - happens too often for me to tear myself up over it for too long or otherwise I’d be in a ball on the floor…

We somehow managed to leave the place and make it back to the apartment - well we woke up there so that was good hehe

What wasn’t good was the hangover The Dude and I endured for the next two days…more to come…

Ich kommt aus Schottland

So Thursday night (25th June) we left for Edinburgh to get the really, stupidly early flight to Berlin.

I hadn’t flown since I was a little girl, and Adam - he hadn’t flown ever. So watching him get excited, it excited me!

We got a litre bottle of Crown Royal, a bourbon I have been trying to buy for years - with the intent of drinking it aus Berlin :)

So the flight takes 2 hours, during which time I watch The Dude crane his neck looking out the window at how high we are, the sea from 33,000 ft and then finally the German landscape.

We get to the apartment pretty easily - stunning place on Pappelallee - and The Dude collapses for 7 hours. I go out and get my hair cut by Eva at Cuts and Cocktails, losing 7 inches and gaining a lot of hair dye :) I got back to the apartment, and also collapsed…more later!