Bicycle for sale

My last week starts tomorrow! Berlin has been dear to me. I think I would like to live here. Maybe in Prenzlauer Berg. Even though it's not supposed to be "the place" anymore after Kreuzberg and Neukölln. Most of all I will miss the moments of not knowing what will come after the next corner when I'm on my bike. Or which kind of nice nook for having brunch, lunch, café or dinner will I ran into today. Or the wind that blows to your face when you get out of the U-Bahn. Or the big broad-leaved trees and almost withered roses in the graffiti filled parks. Or the sound "Einsteigen bitte. Zurükbleiben bitte”, when you’ve managed to slip into the metro in the last minute. Or the Trödelmarkts.Or my favourite chocolate müsli. Or the overgrown flower beds. Or the beaten political posters on the walls. My little Möhrenkuchen, I will miss you.  

In the grounds of the mysterious Spree Park. An abandoned Ferris wheel in the background.

Wildflowers

Since I came to Berlin I have noticed that there are weed, nettles and mugwort growing everywhere in the city. The street corners are full of weed, the yards are full of weed, the unkempt flower beds are full of weed – even the vases in the bars and coffee shops have weed. This is something very Berlin to me. Weed and wild flowers seem to be in fashion.  They are everywhere, both in East and West Berlin, although the East is probably become little more overgrown. I guess, that the flower beds are the first thing to be cut off from the city budget. On the other hand, this creative "Let all the flowers bloom" mentality of the city can be seen in the city landscape - along with the ubiquitous graffiti and tags.
 

I went cycling to the forest not too far from where I live. People who know me know that I have a tendency to forget, drop and leave stuff around. After an hour of biking in the forest I was already on my way home when I suddenly noticed that the rubber ball of my funny bike horn had dropped somewhere. I turned my bike around and went searching for the little nuisance. I followed all the little cobblestone and earth paths that I had been following a little bit earlier but this time the missing part didn’t want to be found. As I was circling around in the forest I started to feel attracted by the yellow and purple autumn flowers I hadn’t paid much attention to before. I started picking them to make a pretty bunch.  Suddenly I felt an urge, searched for a good place behind a tree in the bushes when I heard noises around me. A nun was walking her dog pass the place where I was about to crouch. She saw my bouquet and said “Guten Tag” very politely. I decided to do save my urge for later.  I continued happily collecting the flowers for my bunch in the sunny and shadowy woods.
 

My stay in the woods was stretched to a two hour trip because of the missing rubber ball of my bike horn. I didn’t find it. But I found a lovely bunch of German wildflowers, a nun, a boat and two lovers on the boat at the lake, a snail, horse chestnuts and hearts carved on a tree.

Kartoffelpuffer und Schmand

German cuisine is extremely meaty. That’s one of the reasons why I haven’t really been to a real German restaurant yet. Currywurst (sausage with currytomato sauce) can Döner be found in every other street corner. It’s no wonder that Germany has over 1500 different types of sausages.

My focus is directed elsewhere from the pork chops. German groceries are normally very well equipped and one cannot avoid grabbing bio products on the way since there isn’t much price difference between the bio and the “normal” products. Kaisers and Karlstad’s food section are the super markets I most often buy my food from but LPG BioMarkt and Bio Company are also at times on my shopping list.

Today Kira wanted to cook some German food with me so we decided to make Kartoffelbuffer – potato pancakes. This dish is typically Central European and is served often with Apfelmus (apple sauce) and crème fraîche or sour cream. Here’s what we did:

• Grate approx. 1kg peeled potatoes and an onion finely with a grater. Add two eggs, flour, salt and pepper. Fry golden from both sides with little oil. 
  

• Enjoy with Apfelmus, schmand, Rotekohl (red cabbage in vinegar), green salad and Apfelschorle (apple juice mixed with mineral water).

 

 

At the fountains of the Ottomans

The fascinating thing about Berlin and other big cities is that you can have plenty of intercultural experiences within a one country. Looking from this point of view, globalisation can be seen as a positive, mind-opening phenomenon. When there is so much choice available, one cannot but help herself a couple of sushi or a sizzling falafel every now and then. A part from German, I hear a lot of French, Italian, English and Turkish been spoken all around me. It’s not rare to spot Finnish when walking in a busy crowd. Germany has also a big Turkish minority and that shows on the streets of Berlin.

Kira, Caterina and I spent our Sunday evening at the Turkish sauna, Hamam. The spa was only for women and was meant to be a luxury relaxation experience for those people who had little money to spare on a day in a spa - splashing around with water playing nymphs. The main room of the spa had marble floors, with a large marble stone in the middle to lie on. There were porcelain water basins around the room you would fill with warm and cold water and afterwards use golden bowls to pour the water on top of you. The soft heat of the room surrounded us and the rooms were lightly scented. 

There was also a Finnish sauna which was heated properly but had little space for all women who wanted to lie on their backs quietly. In Finland people often have an amicable conversation in the sauna but there the sauna and the spa in general were for individual or at least for quiet experience. Caterina was even told to be quieter after she got a little bit too excited about a story she was telling.

We washed ourselves with soap from head to toe and even put some coconut oil, which I had brought, into our hair. No wonder that the Hamams have a spiritual atmosphere since in Turkey they used to be an annex for the mosques.

Regen der Gedichte

Today letters, words and phrases fell down from the sky in fluttering whirls, like a flock of lost falling butterflies. A helicopter was sent into the sky above Lustgarten* to bombard the waiting crowds. It was the Lange Nacht der Museen and the park was full of enthusiastic museum visitors. I walked towards the park when the first flying pieces of paper started whirling in the air. At first, I didn't like the idea of a noisy helicopter delivering some art for people. But when more and more poems kept pouring down from the sky and people were fishing them almost in a frantic but playful way I started laughing by myself. The delivery of the art was this time even better than the art itself. I catched three poems from the poem rain.

*(Lust=Amusement)  

Alternative what..?

Now I’m more or less in the middle of my stay here in Berlin and by now I should have formed some kind of idea of the spirit of the place. To me Paris was elegant, beautiful and impudent. People where in general groomed and had natural, even minimalistic style. But the Parisian style was not axiomatic: it was a product of careful calculation. The days of Marie Antoinette flounce and frill were over. The idea was to look and seem sophisticated.  

Berlin lacks that kind of orderliness. Ask anyone abroad the question “How is a typical German?” and you’ll probably get an answer saying something like: “Organized, rich, industrious, professional and confident.” What comes to Berlin, I would leave everything else out of the definition except for perhaps confident. Even people abroad, especially young people, might already have an image of Berlin as a hip and trendy place. But for sure it is not rich or industrious. Even the Former Governing Mayor Willy Brandt said in the eighties that Berlin ist arm, aber sexy.”  Berlin has no significant industry. The unemployment is much bigger than in the rest of the Germany (Berlin 14%, German average 8%)). It is not the capital of finance, like Frankfurt or London. It is neither a place for business like Hamburg, Munich or Stuttgart. But Berlin is hip - there is no doubt about that.

Berlin is an absolute place for young (partying) adults. It’s almost like a paradise for groups of friends: you can take your beer bottle to the metro and sit there going around the ring (the S-Bahn train which goes around the whole city) if you feel like it. You can have picnic in one of the many parks in Berlin. Tiergarten itself covers 210 hectares of the whole city. You can pick up a bar from hundreds of different choices or go to Warschauer Strasse, where people often tend to end (for some reason). And when you come back, there is always a Currywurst or falafel kiosk open.

A word, which keeps popping into my head here, is ‘alternative’. Berlin is also supposed to be alternative. You have bio food shops and vegan restaurants all around. You will find cool design shops and graffiti walls überall. You may spend your Sunday at the hippy neighbourhood Prenzlauerberg (somebody at our work said that she managed to live in Prenzlauerberg without getting pregnant this being a little miracle since the place has a reputation of being the place for young adults) or go to the present ‘it’ place Kreuzberg in search for alternative new. And (what I loooove) you can do your shopping at flea markets and second hand shops. So Berlin seems very alternative, doesn’t it?

 Not.

In fact, when you take a closer look at things you’ll find out that actually being alternative seems to start becoming a norm here, at least for young people. In Mauerpark, for instance, people are searching for similar kind of stuff that makes the prices either go up (e.g. vintage leather bags) or produce mass production of cheep goodies (e.g. geeky glasses). The geek look (see Buddy Holly) is, for that matter, also hip in Berlin. You can’t simply go to a metro without meeting a hipster listening to some hipster music with his/her hipster iPod and carrying his/her hipster camera. I thought that I had found the coolest and most original bike from Mauerpark but when I look around I see billions of these bikes, yet again, everywhere (mine is perhaps a little bit more worn-out than the rest). The intelligence factor is part of this all alternative movement and you can definitely find a political group in Berlin to sign up for. But, like before, also the kind of thinking here has a certain trend factor: the more leftist and anti-capitalistic the ideology is, the better.

As a conclusion, I might proclaim that yes, Berlin is indeed alternative but within the norms of trendiness. Well, now that it’s all said and done I don’t actually care that much. As long as I have my veggie burger, can enjoy my Sunday flea markets and feel like I’m here and not some other capital in Europe, the Berlin sun keeps shining.

 

Night at the Pergamon Museum

Last night I paid a visit to one of the most famous museums in Berlin - the Pergamon museum. The name to the museum comes from the monumental altar at the very beginnig of the tour. The treasures of three ancient worlds were present: Classical Antiquities, Ancient Near East and Medieval Islamic World.  

Did you know that Babylonia used to flourish in the lands of the present Iraq?

Sometimes museums might be a bore but this is what I do to make the visits more agreeable:

- The basic needs need to be fulfilled. Don't even think of going to museum if you are either hungry, tired, nauseous etc. Otherwise you'll regret it. 
-Preferably go alone, if you don't especially want to discuss the art with someone (which is also nice). Often people are interested in different things and thus have different paces. 
-Take the audio guide and listen to the stories behind the works of art. If you aren't particularly interested in some piece of art, you can ruthlessly skip it. It also covers the noise of the crowded museum.
-Go to a museum when you know it's going to be more or less empty. Or do like I did and queue for half an hour to get into a crammed museum on Thursday nights for free. Patience and good humour is needed but perhaps with the saved money you can buy a nice poster from the museum shop. 
-Take some no-flash photos from the most exciting pieces, if it's allowed. But only from the most exciting.
-Get inspired (if you can). This time I wasn't so much drawn towards the Classics but for some reason all the bright blue and red things catched my attention.

These are a few of my favourite treats...

Bretzel

Apfelstrudel

Johannisbeere Eis

Möhrenkuchen

Five intriguing things about the Reichstag

Today on the seminar program at work we had a visit to the Reichstagsgebäude, which is the German Parliament building. I had seen people making long queues in the hot weather in front of the majestic building before so I didn’t even think I would want to go in. This time we slid through the back door and up to a congress room to listen a lecture about EU’s politics. After the yawning experience we got to visit the balcony and that’s when I started to get more interested. A spiral staircase rose up inside a modern glass cupola. The audio guide led me all the way up and the panorama view of Berlin was surrounding me.

Five interesting things about the Reichstagsgebäude:

• The cupola of the Parliament building got burned in the 1933 after Hitler acceded to the “throne” and the Nazis blamed (who else than) the communists for the misdeed thus having an excuse to start smothering the leftist fire.
• In the II World War the maternity ward of the bombed but famous clinic Charité worked in the building.
• During the cold war the GDR fighter planes often disturbed the sessions inside the building, which at that time was narrowly on the West German side. Michael Jackson performed on the stage outside the Reichstag in 1988. The pop concerts must have irritated the GDR folks.
• The official ceremony of the unification of the Germans was held 3.10.1990 in the Reichstag, not in Bonn, which used to be the capital of West Germany.    
• The new glass cupola collects water to funnels and sun light is reflected through the mirrors in to the main floor of the parliament.  

(Sources: Wikipedia and Eyewitness Travel Berlin 2009)

Daniel Schwen 2007

Brunch at Prenzlauer Berg

The breakfast collective of the year has been exposed!

I had the most amazing brunch at one o'clock today at Kastanienallee 85. It seems that Berliners are fond of having brunch outdoors on Sundays.

A big glass of juice, different types of buns and tartins (Streichkäse), differently seasoned tofu, bean salad, berry joghurt and much much more.

The place is very fair and sympathetic. The rules of market economy aren't valid anymore when the customer can decide on the price according to her/his wealth circumstances. I decided to pay 4,50€ + the drink today. And of course you can eat as much as you like.

What a lovely way to start the day!

Believe me, the food tasted so much better than it looks in this piture

Sanssouci, ohne Sorge

Neues Palais

A trellized gazebo

Chinesisches Teehaus

Orangerie where the guests stayed

Today we had a day off, so we went to see Potsdam, the town of the Prussian King Friedrich der Große who used to live in the rococo castle Sanssouci in the years 1745–1747. The castle and the whole park Sanssouci was amazingly beautiful. Apparently the king loved his small castle so much that he wanted to be buried there with his greyhounds. He was, nevertheless, buried in Potsdam until only in 1991 his will was fulfilled.

The pavilion Chinese Tee House was almost like from some sugary Disney dream. The Orangery, where the royal guests were accommodated, and the solaro-ice cream orange Sanssouci castle with its turquoise roof were, on the other hand, as though they had belonged to some wealthy and exotic Southern country. The statues, fountains, kaleidoscopic flowers and the grand trees crowned the noble grounds.

The town of Potsdam with its Dutch quarter and small cafés made the open-air day perfect.

Möhrenkuchen Tag, again

Today was another Sunday for new Flohmarkt findings. I went to explore the Boxhagener Platz flee market. This time the market was much easier to grasp due to its small size and more organised structure (compared to Mauerpark). I only bought a tiny English-German dictionary that I can have all the time in my bag. I had my bike with me so I went around the Viertel and found a sweet artistic café called Alice Gryphius. Apparently she was some kind of an anthropologist and an author but I didn’t manage to find out much about here, apart from the information on the web site. There was a small gallery for art exhibitions in the next room. The ethereal and quiet atmosphere of the café enchanted me. I had fresh ginger tea from a big glass and carrot cake (once again).  

Night out

We held a PR event for the NPR Berlin Radio at the ICD (Institute for Cultural Diplomacy - the place where I do my internship). We interns had to wear cocktail dresses and suits and be soignée. That was a good excuse to continue the evening to some other place. 

First I went to drop of my laptop (the heavy thing) at Caterina’s place, and then we met the others and left to the “Far East” again. This time we went to explore the Friedrichshain streets, which were full of small bars and pubs. Later, a little bit further there was a hip club/biergarten called Rosi’s. What I loved about the place was the garden like atmosphere outside (even though the weather was a bit moist), the ping pong table and the cheap drinks (beer 2€) and entrance (5€). When buying a drink in Berlin Biergartnes, you get a chip (or in this case a pin), and when you return the bottle inside to the counter you'll get 50c back. I saved my pin but found two other on the floor, returned two bottles and got 1€ back. The music was danceable (the Killers, Blondie, Bloc Party, Nirvana, Yelle...) although it (and the whole place actually) was very much hipster-like. But these kind of places are still difficult to find elsewhere than in Berlin. 

The people go and stay out very late in general. On the way home, while waiting the trains, people might eat Currywurst (sausage in red currytomatosauce) or sandwhiches. We did that as well. Wurst is one of the most distinguishable smells in Berlin.  Since East is east and I live in the North, I was home at around 5 a.m. Fortunately the S-Bahn and the U-Bahn have people going to places day and night. This way you feel relatively secure alone in the train even during the night.

Mauerpark adventures

Sunday was bliss. I went to discover the treasures of the Mauerpark Flohmarkt (flea market) and spent literally the whole day there. Mauerpark is situated in Prenzlauer Berg in North-East Berlin. When you enter the fenced are you will find mountains and mountains of stuff: Flowers, fruit, honey, fresh juices, Middle Eastern pastries, jewellery, kitsch, junk, cameras, records, paintings, broken, new, fancy, faded objects, anything, everything  and more. You find piles of jewellery but in the end you don’t buy anything because there’s too much choice. I could stay there the whole day because of the good facilities. There is a toilet (highly appreciated) and many food stalls to fill up your stomach. I had a feta spinach wrap for lunch with an English girl Marie-Claire, to whom I strolled into randomly. Later I also had a piece of walnut carrot cake and fruit salad, yum.

At around one o’clock I was already about to leave, when I happened to discover the actual park next to the market. A karaoke afternoon was about to start in the park and it wasn’t just any karaoke. The singer would be performing to at least 300 people in the amphitheatre looking graffiti styled stage. We stayed there in the sunny stand with some friends, Caterina, Felicitas and Aurelia, from work and thanks to that (and the delusion that the day was going to be cloudy) my nose was red in the evening. 


As I was walking around I came across with a small, white outworn, collapsible bicycle. I immediately fell in love with it and it got the name Mahti (the Might). The man who sold it to me was very nice. Using my poor German I managed to bargain the bike to 55€ and the man gave me the keys so that I could cycle to the nearest cash point. On the way there I met a girl, who asked where I got the cool bike and already wanted to buy the thing. I gave her my number, although it’s already difficult to think about giving up on the bike. The bike seller was also ready to buy the thing back for 20€ if I would go back to Mauerpark before going back. 

Before leaving I went to sit on the burned grass in the shadows of trees, and listened to the band Stitch Craft among others, which was making their European Tour with a collective called the Pleasant Revolution. They asked people to come and cycle bikes around the band to generate electricity for the sound system. There was a juggler fooling around on the grass and too many people were smoking. Hippy feeling. And then a ride home with my mighty vehicle. 

At the lake

It felt as though the whole Berlin went to the lake on Sunday

Heat and Disappoinments

It is hot also here in Germany. Today we had over 30 degrees. The heated atmosphere got a little calmer yesterday after Germany lost the football match to Spain. I quite new the result – didn’t Paul the psychic Octopus say so. Me and two other Finns watched the game in a Latino Bar. Other Biergarten terraces were crowded, natürlich. Most of the faces of the people in the metro on the way home were somewhat dull and bored.

Today, after work, I stepped outside to explore my surroundings. The neighbourhood of Wedding is not as boring as I thought it would be. It’s actually quite lively and lush. The metro takes me from our door to work at Ku’damm in less than 20 minutes. A walk by the classically beautiful school of medicine took me to the river bank where I spotted some illegal grilling in the bushes. The Germans love grilling, I heard. 

New home

I have now settled down to a room, which has happy airplane posters on the walls and teddy bears on the shelves. I cleared out some own space, managed to swap the basket sofa to a big and comfy sofa i.e. bed. And yet again do I have IKEA fittings.

There’s no way I can complain now, though. I have two wonderful roommates, Charlotte und Kira, to whom I blabber elemental German. Even though I must sound like a baby, I feel proud that I have managed to avoid the temptation of speaking in English and actually explaining myself clearly. Well, at least for now there haven’t been bigger misunderstandings. Not that I know. I don’t always understand what they tell me but either I ask “Wie (bitte)?” or "Was" and look enquiring or just let it pass. The girls don’t exactly speak slowly to me, which I perhaps start to appreciate a little bit later. Most of the things are easy to understand but forming clauses is difficult. Compound(?) verbs such as aus/packen (= to unpack), vocabulary and inflexion of words (“Ich gebe den Kater ein Fisch”) are the hardest.

Now I’m preparing myself for tomorrow’s work. I feel like an adult. I have work and I am going there tomorrow by metro in my new black leather shoes and airy pants which I just ironed. I hope that I will get a good night sleep. Last night I woke up to a huge bang and in the morning I found 3 kilos of sugar on the floor. The two black cats were rampaging at the darkest hours of the night. Gute Nacht sagt der Sandmännchen.

Ernie wanted to drink some water and managed to drop the vase.