It's been a very business-like week so far, getting to grips with the practicalities of Berlin life. I started my language course on Monday. It's an intensive two-week course, three hours a day Monday to Friday. The fantastic bakery across the road provides a welcome interlude at breaktime, and at less than two euros for coffee and a doughnut, it could prove a serious danger to my health. I'm hoping that the fact that I either walk or cycle (depending on the weather) to and from class will counteract the effects of the daily sugar overload.
On Tuesday afternoon we went down to the local Burgeramt to register as residents in the city. This was a fairly painless process and definitely not the nightmare of Kafka-esque bureaucracy I'd been led to expect.
Wednesday we had a problem with our internet availability. We have no Wi-Fi in the flat so we're renting a surfstick from the estate agents who we found the flat through. We have somehow exceeded our download limit and now have no internet (apart from on Alan's phone) until 4th December. This brought a couple of immediate problems to light. We are going to Mallorca on 5th December for a little pre-Christmas treat instead of buying each other presents. As it's online check-in, we took the laptop down to Wohnzimmer - one of my favourite bars - on Helmholtzplatz to do the checking-in and will go to one of the copy shops to print out the boarding passes.
Last night we went to the language exchange at the St Gaudy Café for the second time. It was very busy and lively but I got the chance to inflict my terrible grasp of the language on the two Germans I was sitting with. They were very kind though, and one gave me his e-mail address and said he'd be happy to meet us for more language exchanging.
As we've no internet at home, I'm writing this post in Beakers, which, I think I've said before, is my favourite bar in the city at the moment. It's so cosy, atmospheric and friendly. I've just had a smoked salmon and brie sandwich placed in front of me so that's my signal to sign off.
Until the next post. Tschuss!
Thursday 21 November 2013
Monday 18 November 2013
Another week has flown by. I'm getting more used to the bike and surprising myself at my fitness levels. On Wednesday we rode over to Pankow, to the park where the Soviet soldiers' cemetery is. It was chilly but gloriously sunny and the park looked beautiful covered in autumn leaves. Wednesday evening we went along to the language exchange at St Gaudy Café on Gaudystrasse. This was a lot of fun and I was quite reassured to find that I'm not the only person in Berlin with a terrible grasp of the German language. Friday was cold and dank and we did a 16 kilometre round trip down to the Turkish Market in Kreuzberg. The market is strung along the Maybachufer at the side of the Landwehr canal. It runs on a Tuesday and Friday afternoon and has a great atmosphere, especially on Fridays when it seems especially vibrant to me. Although the main focus is on the local Turkish community, it is well-visited by tourists and other locals keen to sample the delicious Middle-Eastern foods on sale, or shop for fresh fruit and veg, bread, meat and fish and other wares such as clothing and household goods. Before heading home we called in at Martkhalle Neun, an old market hall that is home to several stalls selling top-notch produce. We sat at one of the communal tables and had a coffee - most welcome after a very chilly wander around the Turkish Market - and a gargantuan portion of cranberry cake, which was heavenly. Thus fuelled we tackled the uphill climb back to Prenzlauer Berg. On Saturday we gave the bikes a rest and walked to the market at Kollwitzplatz - this blog could be solely about Berlin's fantastic markets. For me the area around Kollwitzplatz is one of the prettiest in the whole city, although it is thoroughly gentrified and maybe even a little smug. I still enjoy a Saturday morning stroll around here though, especially if I go via Wortherstrasse and while an hour away in St George's bookshop. A new exhibition opened in the museum in the Kulturbrauerei - Daily Life in the DDR. Entry is free and it's an agreeable way to spend an hour or so, although, if it's going to become a permanent fixture, I worry about the impact it might have on the excellent DDR Museum in Mitte. On the way home we called in for coffee and pastries at the lovely Portuguese/Greek Bekarei in Dunckerstrasse. Great coffee and a mouthwatering selection of baked goods on offer. We spent the evening at Beakers, also in Dunckerstrasse, a bar that we love so much we've practically lived there these last few weeks.
Sunday 17 November 2013
Tuesday 12 November 2013
New Life!!
Amazingly, it's now nearly three weeks since I quit my job in prison education and almost two weeks since I moved to Berlin with my husband Alan to fulfil a long-held dream.
The first week was largely spent catching up on sleep - I can't remember the last time I slept for eight hours a night and after eight years in a great but demanding job I had been feeling pretty burned out. We also spent our first week finding our feet here - even though the flat we're renting is in a part of Berlin that we know well, it's different being here as a resident as opposed to being a holidaymaker.
I love our flat. It's right on Prenzlauer Allee, across the road from the S-Bahn station and next door to the planetarium and the Ernst Thalmann Park. I love watching the street life from our little balcony and the fact that I can glimpse the Fernsehturm through the half-naked branches of the tree outside.
Last Friday we bought a pushbike each. I haven't ridden a bike in decades and was surprised at how bad I was at it. However, a quick pedal around the park and it all came back to me. I must say that having a bike really opens the city up. Even though I love walking and can happily spend hours on foot here, there is so much ground that you can cover by pedal power. I am desperately unfit though and certainly no Victoria Pendleton.
On Saturday we biked up to the station at Bornholmer Strasse, a former checkpoint on the border between East and West Berlin. It was the 24th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and this was the place where the first people entered West Berlin. To ride over the bridge now from Prenzlauer Berg into Wedding you wouldn't even register that it had once been an international frontier, and not only that, but the dividing line between the two dominant political ideologies of the twentieth century.
Saturday was also the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht - the night during which the Nazis smashed up Jewish owned businesses across the city. In remembrance of this shops in the main shopping areas displayed' broken window' overlays.
On Sunday we had more Berlin Wall. We cycled down to Friedrichshain where we had a stroll around the flea markets at Boxhagener Platz and Revaler Strasse before riding down to the magnificent East Side Gallery. This is a stretch of the Berlin Wall which is supposed to be a protected monument but there doesn't seem to be that much protection going on. A chunk has already been sacrificed for the monstrous 02 Arena and further sections are under threat because rapacious property developers insist on trying to build yuppie apartments where they are least wanted.
After a bracing ride down the length of the gallery, we began the climb back up to Prenzlauer Berg and a well-deserved coffee and cake break at Atopia on Prenzlauer Allee, which is so cozy and laid-back inside, I almost fell asleep.
The first week was largely spent catching up on sleep - I can't remember the last time I slept for eight hours a night and after eight years in a great but demanding job I had been feeling pretty burned out. We also spent our first week finding our feet here - even though the flat we're renting is in a part of Berlin that we know well, it's different being here as a resident as opposed to being a holidaymaker.
I love our flat. It's right on Prenzlauer Allee, across the road from the S-Bahn station and next door to the planetarium and the Ernst Thalmann Park. I love watching the street life from our little balcony and the fact that I can glimpse the Fernsehturm through the half-naked branches of the tree outside.
Last Friday we bought a pushbike each. I haven't ridden a bike in decades and was surprised at how bad I was at it. However, a quick pedal around the park and it all came back to me. I must say that having a bike really opens the city up. Even though I love walking and can happily spend hours on foot here, there is so much ground that you can cover by pedal power. I am desperately unfit though and certainly no Victoria Pendleton.
On Saturday we biked up to the station at Bornholmer Strasse, a former checkpoint on the border between East and West Berlin. It was the 24th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall and this was the place where the first people entered West Berlin. To ride over the bridge now from Prenzlauer Berg into Wedding you wouldn't even register that it had once been an international frontier, and not only that, but the dividing line between the two dominant political ideologies of the twentieth century.
Saturday was also the 75th anniversary of Kristallnacht - the night during which the Nazis smashed up Jewish owned businesses across the city. In remembrance of this shops in the main shopping areas displayed' broken window' overlays.
On Sunday we had more Berlin Wall. We cycled down to Friedrichshain where we had a stroll around the flea markets at Boxhagener Platz and Revaler Strasse before riding down to the magnificent East Side Gallery. This is a stretch of the Berlin Wall which is supposed to be a protected monument but there doesn't seem to be that much protection going on. A chunk has already been sacrificed for the monstrous 02 Arena and further sections are under threat because rapacious property developers insist on trying to build yuppie apartments where they are least wanted.
After a bracing ride down the length of the gallery, we began the climb back up to Prenzlauer Berg and a well-deserved coffee and cake break at Atopia on Prenzlauer Allee, which is so cozy and laid-back inside, I almost fell asleep.
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