Blog Archive

Wednesday 31 October 2007

Trick or Treat?

The following tickled me immensely today.

Hurry! Closing Down Sale! Up to 70% Off!

Then, at the bottom of the window – and painstakingly updated every day,

64 Days To Go!

Who says these Germans don’t enjoy a good laugh!

Elsewhere, as I was walking to pick up my newly acquired ‘Complete Works Of Shakespeare’ (20 euros - bargain!) I met a variety of monsters, ghouls and witches – all not very much taller than my knee.

The difference between trick or treating here and back home is that here, anywhere with a door is game. You aren’t confined to neighbours and acquaintances, but you can go to shops as well! I witnessed many a shoe shop being stormed by a walking pumpkin.

I feel for the owner of a sweetshop – he must be losing all profit made over the last month by being forced to give so much away.

Unless, and this would be so fitting for a country where shops seem to open when they feel like it, he closed early.

Tuesday 30 October 2007

Ha Ha Ha's and Starbucks

Today was a day of learning.

1 - Walking around Friedrichshein for half an hour does not mean that you will find the exact flavour of Häagen-Dazs that you are looking for.

2 - Louis XIV of France had all his teeth pulled out aged 23 (and lived to be 72) - according to my animated seminar tutor.

3 - I can be vaguely amusing in the German language! Hooray! When the very same seminar tutor discussed existentialism, (all of this, by the way, in a class on women in the middle ages - of which there was no mention) he proposed the possibility of there being a ghost in the room (of the friendly variety, named Casper). I promptly mentioned my name - and minor hilarity ensued.

4 – Your favourite radio DJ writing on your Facebook wall telling you he loves you is a really, really great feeling.

5 - Angela, my newly made friend, who works in Starbucks, will give you a bigger sized Chai Latte than you pay for - if you compliment her enough.

She does look young for her age, you see.

Monday 29 October 2007

Woof

It is sometimes said that their Berliners love their dogs as much as, if not more than, their children. Indeed, aside from the Prenzlauer Berg baby-factory, it is fair to say that the canine family is fairly dominant here. Not only are they man’s best friend, but also their therapist (having in-depth conversations with them is not uncommon in the park opposite my street) and of course they make invaluable Saturday morning power-walk partners.

Fine.

But why on earth do they let dogs on trains?! I spent the entire six hours on the train back from Holland in constant fear of the Labrador under the seat in front of me, so much so that I put my shoes on the luggage rack above my head, having had previous experience with munched moleskins. Added to this, on the way there, not only did our carriage have an aisle-blocking wolf-hound to contend with, but the same young woman to whom the thing belonged also had a baby in a shoulder sling and an oversized rucksack in tow. Not that her luggage or offspring aggravated me personally, but I did wonder how she did it all, really.

Friday 26 October 2007

Plague, Cholera, Mainstream

Every true Berliner I meet seems to be one of three things.

A DJ/Student deep into their twenties, a multi-media artist (specialising in nude pottery) who also sings opera, or a writer who funds their rap-poetry with a web-cam glamour modelling job.

A foreign exchange student seems positively tame in this city, where individualism is god. Unless of course your own unique tastes include a positive attitude towards 'mainstream' culture. So much is that word despised here, that on the U-Bahn today, Motor FM (a leading indie-rock radio station) decorated every carriage with 100's of 'do not disturb' style door hangers with the words - 'Pest, Cholera, Mainstream', literally meaning - Plague, Cholera, Mainstream.

I had been warned of this cultural attack by a new friend who works for the station, explaining that the campaign was launching precisely on the day that staff at the overground trains, the S-Bahn, were striking - meaning that the usually spacious carriages underground, felt very much like my old morning commute from Tooting Bec to Moorgate. I hope the old ladies, weren’t too bewildered.

Mind you, they’re probably creating post-minimal techno in their living room.

Tuesday 23 October 2007

Knuckling the desks - a German lecture

The first time it happened I thought it was some kind of small earthquake, or at least a student revolution - as at the end of a lecture everyone wraps their knuckles violently onto the desk. I'm still working out if its a form of thanks, or that everyone has lost their pencils and is simultaneously looking for them.

This is just one of the many exciting encounters I had today, as this week is the first week of lectures. Seminar sizes are at least 30, and most of the students seem to be grey/balding/sitting at the front and commenting on every three words the professor says.

I nodded off, twice during the ‘City Planning in Medieval Europe’ lecture, while the only thing that kept me awake during the ‘Aliens in Literature and Science’ seminar (which I ended up in because I thought it was something else) was because I practiced my autograph 300 times.

The one class I take outside the Technical University is 'Art and Architecture in Renaissance Italy' where I feel at home amongst all the other non-engineers. I take pleasure in noting that I am no longer wearing the skinniest jeans and am decidly mainstream once more.

Monday 22 October 2007

No melting

It is getting bitterly cold in Berlin.

I've bought myself a very manly winter coat, and I'm beginning to think I might need gloves too...

Its the kind of cold which makes you dig your chin into your scarf, and stick your hands deep into your pockets, hoping that the biting wind won't find you there. The wind has much more of a free reign in Berlin than it does in, say London, and I think its because of the wide streets. On the Karl Marx Allee, for example, which runs two minutes away from my front door, and leads on to what used to be called the Stalin Allee, there are no obstacles at all. The wind speeds up like the bicycles which scare the tourists on pedestrian crossings. This enormous street was built for the Soviet parades, but now is lined with trees turning brown and off-white mercedes taxis rushing past me.

I like the cold, though. It makes walking into a local cafe even more cosy, and the hot chocolate with sahne (whipped cream) even more tasty. They say it gets even too cold for snow. Is that possible? All I know is that it was chilly enough for me to walk home with my Ben & Jerry's ice cream to watch the best movie of all time 'You've Got Mail', without it melting.

Yummy.

Sunday 14 October 2007

Meet Nicolas

Berlin is full of unexpected pleasures.

Today, as everything else closes (as things should!) on Sunday, many Berliners head off to the Flohmarkts which are dotted around the city. Having heard that those wanting bikes should head of to Mauerpark in Prenzlauer Berg, I dutifully met up with an American friend to browse. Perhaps its because I overspent at Ikea yesterday or want my entire life to look like some kind of Patek Phillipe advert, that the 4th/5th-hand (or more likely stolen) old pieces of tat selling way beyond their worth, just didn't cut it with me.

No worries, I thought. I'll get one in Holland. I met up with a fellow Erasmus student from France a little later, who happened to tell me about her salt and pepper pots named Segolene and Nicolas (obviously named during the election fever in France earlier this year). We were walking towards Kastanienallee, one of the main thoroughfares, and took a random wrong turn. Two minutes later, we walk past 'De Fietsfabriek' - which means 'The Bike Factory' in Dutch. Now that is serindipity.

Needless to say, 20 minutes later I was walking away with the best used bike in the world, and feeling like a King. A Dutchman isn't complete without his bike...

Its only fair that his name is Nicolas - he's a winner, you see.

Wednesday 10 October 2007

Panini Heaven

I've moved in! Already I feel very much at home, which is great. The one joy of living abroad is that I don't have the endless titbits and random belongings which clutter my room most of the time! However, one trip to Ikea can't do any harm...

This afternoon I went for a long walk around my 'kiez' which is the German word for your 'hood' but in the non-ghetto sense... The area of Friedrichshein is in the east of the city - and where I am is pretty residential, nearly quiet. However, once I get my bike (to send over from England? to buy in Holland in 2 weeks time? to buy in a fleamarket? oh the questions!) I will be 10-15 minutes from the best places in Berlin - I can't wait!

The area where I spent the afternoon is called Prenzlauer Berg - with the highest percentage of babies in the whole of Germany. Love it. Best panini ever - seriously, I'm not missing UK food and prices....

Elke, whose room I am now living in, told me this evening that there is a German saying that you should pay careful attention to what you dream on the first night in a new house - so I shall hope the dreams are good!

Bis bald!

Saturday 6 October 2007

First Few Days In Berlin

Berlin is absolutely amazing - I am constantly questioning whether I
am cool enough to live here. Unless you're dressed up as a pirate,
into 'minimal techno' or create conceptual art, it seems that you are
abnormal here.

So far my favourite thing about Berlin is the the fact that everyone
shouts 'fuck the police', yet they all politely wait to cross the
road until the traffic lights are green. Me being a general busy-body,
I always cross as soon as the traffic is clear, drawing general looks
of shock and disgust from elderly ladies and green-haired punks alike.

What I'm loving - mandel hoernchen (marzipan-filled pastry in the shape of a horse-shoe, and dipped in chocolate), finding a beautiful room with views over the centre of berlin and a roof terrace, staying with wonderful friends until I move to my place on Wednesday

What I'm not loving - my macbook's battery deciding it wants to end its life and german bureaucracy

My address is Auerstrasse 18, 10249, Berlin - for those inspired to write postcards!

Bis bald!

Casper