Only in a big city like Berlin do you realize how small the world actually is.
For example, I met somebody who on August 2, 2009 was at the Palace Square in St. Petersburg when I was there for Madonna's concert (she was there for The Hermitage).
I met here somebody who knows somebody that I went on a weekend trip with as far as back in 2005.
I met somebody who I was supposed to meet in Prague, but now by pure chance met in Berlin.
All of these situations left me bewildered each time. It’s a nice feeling. And a nice way to impress somebody during a conversation that is about to get boring.
Some more things about Berlin that might be of interest:
If you want to get lost, go to Hauptbahnhof. Seriously. It’s so huge and so clumsily planned out, I thought, that in a short time it’s not possible to find your way around. I was there twice, both times I was a bit short on time, and twice I had the misfortune of getting completely disoriented. The second time I was about to go see a Berlinale movie and I was supposed to change means of transport at the station, but I never found where I was supposed to make it happen, so I had to walk/run as fast as I could.
Speaking of which, I have to run a lot here. Thanks to the schedules of all S-Bahn, U-bahn trains, buses, trams, etc. I have to run because I look up the schedule on BVG and each time I end of thinking I have loads of time left and each time I see myself running to the stop trying not to miss the ride. Without the schedule, I would just shower and get dressed at a regular pace and walk to the stop without any hurry, wait a bit and hop on the train or bus and be on time. But the schedule… the schedule had the opposite effect on me, I’m this close to being late most of the time.
Berlin made me start developing my cooking skills. This has to be the most surprising discovery of all! Me + cooking? It has never been a match. All my family members will tell you so. In fact, my mother will go on to add that whenever I fry potatoes, they’re raw on the inside and burned on the outside. Well, not anymore, mom! Two borschs, countless salads, mushroom stews and so on later I can safely say I’m on my way to being a decent home-based cook. It’s still a long way to being fantastic at it, but I kind of enjoy the process, on a good day.
Yet another great thing about Berlin is that there’s always something to do, always a party, always a gettogether, always an exhibition and people are most always ready for fun. Great free stuff as well! Recently I saw two great documentaries on different subjects: Catalonian human towers called castells (Castells) and gay life in Istanbul (Das Andere Istanbul). It doesn’t get more multi-culti than that, I think. Also great Q&A’s with directors afterwards.
What else is cool? No one gives a shit about Valentine’s day and lots of people (including yours truly with a friend and her friends) end up having a nice anti-Valentine dinner.
…Some Prenzlauer Berg pictures to start the week off:
4 comments:
Love the pics of Prenzlauer Berg.
I live at the other end of Berlin and used to be there very often, having a good friend who lived there. Now that she is out of town I consider it almost a kind of long trip (funny how distances change when aims change).
Feel the same about schedules...I'd rather not look at that, or I'll end up running like a mad ;-)
Nice post!
Good morning, Mari!
Yes, distances are a funny thing. And in Berlin especially. Sometimes people won't travel out of their Kiez for months, it seems. I like hopping from one district to another though, it's interesting to observe the change with every 5 minutes on the Ring-Bahn.
Cool great trip around Berlin, quite awhile since I visited and yes I would love to go on a pub crawl, gonna be my guide? :)
Iain Mallory
http://www.malloryontravel.com/
Hey, Iain!
I might as well be your guide.. Haven't you already booked tickets here after our #TTOT this morning?! ;)
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