Berlining (verb)- a type of chilling specific to Berlin

I feel like it's coming together here. Even Lewis said I looked happy and settled, and I reckon that is pretty true. Work has been going well- a copyediting job I worked on was approved by a new client, I've learnt about SEO marketing (I know, what the hell) and I'm writing emails that make sense. As for a social life, Jean and I went to a bar called Das Gift (The Poison) down the road from me for a few drinks last week, which was fun. Jean and I have decided that we will go to a different bar every wednesday night, which will be so good- not just for language, but for my knowledge of Berlin. I also discovered they do a beef and ale pie- it's owned by Scottish people- which nearly brought tears to my eyes. Sadly, I'd already had my tea, but I believe I will be stuffing my face there this Sunday.


On the subject of food, I also found a ridiculously good falafel place near where I work. The peppermint tea was also insanely tasty.

It's been going well with Lionel as well- Thursday evening, he took me on a night tour of Kreuzberg. We trekked to the peak of Viktoriapark and had a gorgeous starry view of the city, before going for a coffee.

boulder painted like an eyeball?

Lewis arrived Friday night and it was a very cute reunion, where we actually ran towards each other. Soppy bastards. Saturday, we headed to Charlottenburg, where I hadn't been yet, and had a butchers at the palace there. It was a gorgeous day and so sunny and warm so we walked through the Tiergarten onto Unter den Linden. We turned off down one of the side streets and had a wander around Mitte, before taking a seat in a deckchair on a lawn facing the Berliner Dom. There we listened to some buskers, drinking Berliner Pilsner (which Lewis has decided he adores), soaking up the afternoon sunshine and honestly just loving our lives.

Street market currywurst with onions and so much mayo. Lecker!

Charlottenburg Palace- look how blue the sky is!

a fascinating concept

I love this

 We stumbled into a bar near Görly with pink furry walls but it was so small and crowded so we decided to move on. We found a place called the Havana Bar, which was quite quiet but cheap, you could smoke there and like, most places, gave you prezel sticks with every drink.  It was no really crazy place but it was perfect for me and Lewis to natter like old biddies, and we've decided it's our Berlin eqivalent to a bar we've frequented for a few years in Covent Garden. We stayed until 2am, U-Bahned it home where we continued to drink, watching King Kong and eating half raw pizza. Needless to say, Sunday started off slowly but we fully exhausted the coffee machine before heading out to Potsdamer Platz. I took Lewis to the Holocaust Memorial and the Gay Memorial, before we sought out a MacDonalds and headed to Ostkreuz for no apparent reason. We had a coffee in a little cafe before going to Warschauer Strasse and the East Side Gallery, and sat outside an off-license where the tables were graffitied and the ashtrays were sweetcorn tins. Oh Berlin. 

View from Ostkreuz Station...

Today was just a walk into Kreuzberg, just off Admiralsbrücke, where we sat outside a cafe and chilled in the sun. It was an enjoyable walk and if this weather keeps up, I won't be taking the U-Bahn very often, as it was only a 25 minute walk.

Cuties

It was so good to have Lewis here and I miss him already, but hopefully he'll be back, and if not, I'll go and harass him in London in August. 

Now, soup, tv and an early night.

Tschau! xx

p.s Lewis coined the term 'Berlining', credit where credit is due

Berlin: 10 Little Things

I've been here just over a month, so what I have noticed about Berlin so far?

1) Sparkling water

When I first arrived, I was horrified by it's popularity, and accidentally bought it more than once. On my first day of work, my boss brought me a glass and I kinda just had to suck it up. Since then it's not too bad, I still prefer still water, but my face doesn't contort as much. 

2) U-Bahn 

The U-Bahn is so much cleaner and friendlier than the Paris metro, and I haven't smelt human waste yet. Touch wood. There are beggars and buskers, yes, but not hundreds, and most of the ones I've seen have been quite delightful (the buskers, that is). If Paris was about looking out of the metro at the Eiffel Tower while a bloke played the accordion, then Berlin is about looking at graffiti while a man plays a guitar. The Berliners also seem to understand train etiquette- they always stand aside to let people off the train before piling on. It's a miracle! Saying that, they seem to have no concept of standing on the right hand side on escalators. I still do though, and hope to God I don't pick up the habit of not, otherwise I might just be lynched in England.

No Navigo-style pass here, just a paper ticket!

3) Jaywalking

You're really not supposed to cross on a red man, but I forgot this a few times at the beginning. It's a bit painful sometimes, but if you leg it, you're more than likely going to get very disapproving looks and mutters. Cars will show no mercy. I feel I am obliged to mention the Ampelmann here, as he is very famous and even has his own shop on Unter den Linden (you can even buy Ampelman soaps...)

4) Bikes

GET A BELL. The amount of times I have nearly been knocked over by a cyclist, who then swears at me. Oh, well, I do apologise for not having eyes in the back of my head.

5) Bakeries

The bakeries are out of this world. I recently discovered the Nougat Croissant which was gorgeous. Cherry filled Pfannkuchen, Rosinenschnecke, Brezel, a ridiculous array of doughnuts, and Quark filled pastries...whatever that is. I have cheese and bell pepper bread sometimes for lunch and most mornings I find myself in the bakery for a coffee and something tasty. This is a habit I should probably kick.

Also, in Berlin Pfannkuchen means doughnut (the filled ones, ring ones are just Donuts). Everywhere else it means pancake. I know right.

6) Berlinerisch

Before I got here, I looked up the Berlin dialect and panicked a bit, as it looked utterly incomprehensible. It turns out that I probably don't hang around with proper Berliners, as I haven't heard that much of it and the accent is usually clear, if a little harsh sometimes. People say 'icK' more than 'iCH' which upsets me a bit. I have noticed though, that Tschüssi is very common as a goodbye and I've also heard 'was' pronounced as 'wat'. 'Kiez' means like, district or borough e.g. Kreuzberg is a Kiez. Then there's the nicknames- Kottbusser Tor is known as Kotti, Görlitzer Bahnhof as Görly, Ku'damm is Kurfurstendamm and Alexanderplatz is just Alex. I hope Jean teaches me more!

Edit: I've since learnt that 'Kiez' is a lot smaller than a neighbourhood. People use it to describe the streets where they live, do their food shopping, drink etc. In that sense, it's more of a community thing.

7) The Cinema

I've been to the cinema twice now and I love it, mainly because they do sell salty popcorn, you can drink a beer during the film and the particular cinema I like doesn't show dubbed films, rather the originals with subtitles. I find dubbing really hard to get on with- most of the time, the speech is too fast, monotonous and I find myself watching the actor's mouths trying to work out what they are actually saying or is that just me? It's 9 euros even with a student discount, which is cheaper than Paris, but I really miss The Savoy in Nottingham! 

8) Recycling
They LOVE it. They really do. You think it's stressful having a green box and a black bin? Pah. It was one of the first things my flatmate explained to me, and when I accidentally forgot and put a milk carton in the bin, she literally got it right out again and put it in the correct bag. Now I know.

9) Smoking
I nearly fell over when I first bought 38g of Pall Mall. It cost 5 euros! Insane. You can also buy cigarettes from little machines in the supermarket by the conveyor belts, I'm yet to try. There are quite a lot of bars where smoking is allowed inside, which I find a little gross, and by the time you get outside you've forgotten what oxygen feels like. Though, when they are separate smoking lounges in a bar it reminds me of like, 1995 and pub lunches with the fam. A lot of people smoke in the U-Bahn stations as well and flick the butts onto the tracks, which sets my nerves off!

10) Gesundheit
Okay, so I have sneezed about 1000 times in the office and neither my boss or Marit have EVER said Gesundheit to me. I was bristling at this rudeness, until I asked the other day about it and they said that Germans don't really say it....really? OK. I don't say it to them now either. Small talk doesn't really work here either- I said to my boss 'Oh it's a really nice day isn't it!' and he just looked at me a bit quizzically before saying 'Ja...stimmt'.

I'll leave it here, with this advert which is a real Ohrwurm (song that gets stuck in your head)

tschüssi!
xx