A wintry Prenzlauer Allee
I always find it a bit of a shock when the first ‘normal’
day of the year comes around, the decorations are taken down and the season of
goodwill finally comes to an end. I love
the festive period and in Berlin it feels extra special to me, from the last
week in November when the Christmas markets open until the mayhem of New
Year’s Eve.
Our seasonal preparations began the day the markets opened when we travelled to Poland with a
couple of friends, catching a train from Alexanderplatz for the hour-long
journey to Frankfurt (Oder). We walked through
the town and across the river to Slubice where the shops were stocked with
Christmas treats. It was midday when we
arrived so we settled in for a long, lazy lunch in the Ramzes restaurant. On the ground floor of a hotel, the
restaurant has an Egyptian theme but an international menu with gigantic
portions. A starter of bruschetta was
enough for three of us and the fish burger main course I’d ordered came with
two burgers and a mountain of chips. By
the time we left it was already beginning to get dark so, warmed by the couple
of bottles of Rioja we’d drunk, we gravitated towards the shops where we stocked up with
vodka, sausages, lebkuchen, and smoked cheese.
The falling snow as we walked back over the river gave the evening an
atmospheric ‘Cold War’ feel, and provided the perfect ending to a memorable day. Back at Alexanderplatz, the market was in full
swing but we were sleepy from travelling and a heavy lunch so we took the tram
home.
I then had a couple of insanely busy weeks completing
batches of writing for the travel website.
Once the last batch had been submitted, I made the dreaded trip to the
Finanzamt to apply for my freelance tax number.
In the event the two members of staff who dealt with my application were
friendly and helpful and I left feeling very upbeat and ready to devote myself to
Christmas-related activities (visiting the markets, shopping for gifts, and decorating
the flat).
The Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt in the Kulturbrauerei
On the second Sunday of the month we went to see a film
called Mietrebellen (Rent Rebels) in Karl Liebknecht Haus, the headquarters of
Die Linke. We’d heard about it through a
Facebook group called Linke International, for Berlin-based Ausländer of a
left-wing persuasion. The film began
by highlighting the case of a 67-year-old woman who had been forcibly evicted from her
flat and died two days later of cold. It
then followed the activities of various tenants’ rights groups as they
protested against rent increases and attempted to disrupt forced
evictions. After the screening there was
a discussion with one of the filmmakers, Matthias Coers who rejected the
gentrification argument, blaming property speculators for Berlin’s current
housing problems.
The following evening I met up with some of the group again
at the Berliner Ensemble to see the legendary Nina Hagen singing the songs of
Bertolt Brecht. I’d never seen a
performance here, even though I’d visited the theatre the very first time I came
to Berlin, so it was a long
overdue experience. We met before the
concert in the Kantine just behind the theatre.
It’s a basement café which resembles a social club but with a theatrical
clientele (standing next to me at the
bar was an actor I’ve seen in a couple of German TV programmes, including
Tatort). Inside the theatre, images of
Brecht were projected onto a screen over the stage and Hagen performed her own
musical arrangements of his poetry over two hour-long sets.
On the last Sunday before the holidays we caught up with our
friends Abby and Albert at a festive edition of the Breakfast and Vinyl Market
at Markthalle Neun. We had drinks and
tapas before settling in at the bar in the corner to listen to the music
and enjoy an excellent Bloody Mary. Two days later we flew to England to spend a
cosy Christmas at my sister’s house, returning in time for a New Year’s Eve
party with friends at the Mauersegler.
Christmas Lunch
No comments:
Post a Comment