Blog Archive

Wednesday 23 April 2008

Sauerkraut and Mandelhörnchen

I just nipped downstairs to the large deli in our office building, to get me the tastiest version of the yummiest German baked good - the undefeatable, utterly delicious, king of bakery items - the Mandelhörnchen.


To make this little adventure even more German, guess what smell drifted up my nostrils as I came down the stairs...Priceless.

Monday 21 April 2008

Karl Marx

I had to rush home in my lunch hour to pick up my passport.

No, no, not to jet off for the afternoon (who wants to sit in a metal sausage anyway?!), I was just helping complete the German love for bureaucracy.

What struck me was how many places I recognised seeing from the film 'Das Leben der Anderen' which I saw last night. Especially the Karl Marx book shop on a street which also bares his name. I pass this at least four times a day - and for the first time, I went in.

Not a life changing experience, but nice nonetheless!


Monday 14 April 2008

Arctic Adventure

Over the past weekends I’ve had some wonderful friends to visit, and have walked around the city as I did when I first arrived here. The wonderful thing is, that you look at your everyday surroundings with new eyes, notice what people wear, the fact the train line runs through the centre of the city, and that the roads are so wide and quiet! And each visitor brings his or her own view of the city.

It also reminds me why I love Berlin.

As I look at people, I feel that just about everyone is someone I’d like to be friends with. That’s not something I’ve had in many places! You overhear conversations about politics in the hairdressers, impromptu late-night U-Bahn jokes amongst strangers, and restaurant tables mixing as if they were life-long friends. There’s an attitude in this city that takes getting used to – but when you do, you wouldn’t want to change back.

Elsewhere in my life, this week I found out that I have been accepted onto WWF’s Voyage for the Future program, as one of two young people representing the UK. The ship is going to the Arctic for ten days with climatologists and experts in how to communicate climate change. I’m going to learn about the science of climate change, help take scientific measurements and witness the supreme beauty of the Arctic. Easy to understand then, why I can’t wait to go!

If you’d like to follow my voyage to the Arctic, my time there, and the campaigning journey afterwards – check out my blog www.caspersarcticvoyage.wordpress.com.

Wednesday 2 April 2008

Summertime...and the livin' is easy

It finally feels like summer is here.

Because of the leap through time this weekend and huddles of wooden tables appearing outside café’s it really seems like winter is over. And about time. The novelty of arriving at work looking like a snowman and drying myself with toilet paper wore off pretty quickly after the second time - all because there were strikes on trams, busses, u-bahn, s-bahn, trains AND airport workers.*

It is great to see the city changing around me. After a short Easter holiday, I returned to find the Dom with multiple gold globes adorning the four corners – and the central cross is being reinstated this week.

It’s significant because during the Soviet era, all crosses were taken off churches to reduce the cities’ overt symbols of religiosity. Ironically, with the building of the famous TV tower, and the way the sun reflects on the central sphere at sunrise and sunset, a golden cross appears on the tallest of all the East’s buildings! (I learned that on a walking tour. Where I pretended to be a tourist. Which I'm not.)

* that’s not to say that I need an airport to get to work.