Berlin Is Full of Things

Wow, it's been almost six months since I've been in Germany. I find this absolutely ridiculous. It feels neither like I've been here that long nor like I haven't, rather it's like I'm in some parallel universe where time doesn't feel quite the same. Things are settled and then they're not. Crazy.

Let's see. I went to Prague for Christmas and New Years. Spent New Years Eve at the Meet Factory at an event thrown by the Prague Couchsurfing Winter Camp, which was cool because it meant everyone was open to talking to strangers. I talked to a lot of people, got a lot of free things (ex: champagne) passed to me, danced with random people and rocked the fuck out.

Happy New Year! Andrea, me and Nicole.

I went to Prague really homesick for it and it was great being there, but also really sad that most of the people I made all my memories in that place with were gone. I could feel their ghosts all around. Was very nice to see my friends that still live there though and I ate very well. My Czech and Czech pronunciation became all but non-existent though. Oops. At least I ordered coffee successfully in Czech my last day without being Englished.

I really like my job and though I only work part-time, it's kept me pretty busy. Since I last posted, I've even successfully expanded my visa to allow me to legally be a Project Assistant for this job! It really is like when I go there my brain slips into super-productivity mode and I forget there is an outside world for 7 hours. It's sometimes nice when there are 100 things like paying taxes, handing in more paperwork I should have already, my social life and my inability to just chill out that would otherwise plague my mind. I could use maybe 5 or so hours more of work per week, just so I can earn extra money to spend on traveling and fun things, but I really don't want to go back to work for a big language school again after the kita-contract nightmare. I'd love to just do coat check or something easy like that one night a week.

I've done pretty well on my intention to develop traditions here, though it is too soon to call them "traditions". Have so far checked out two pub quizzes and a music quiz and it's been a good excuse to get my different friends together in one place…and drink on a weekday. Although honestly, it is all too easy to drink on weekdays in these parts. Besides the occasional hangover, drinking doesn't really impact my life in a negative way, but I'm thinking of doing a "cleanse" anyway just to give my body a rest because half the time it just makes me feel sleepy. Sometimes I feel like going to a bar with people and drinking is something I do just because I'm not sure what else to do. While that's fine I would prefer to be more enthusiastic about what I do with my time instead of drinking just because it's there. After my birthday. Maybe.

Two weeks ago I went to a vegan brunch at a couchsurfer's flat in Steglitz. She cooked about 15 of us strangers TONS of vegan food and it was super nice and I met a few cool people. I also discovered a FRENCH vegan brunch I've been meaning to check out and will hopefully be attending another new monthly vegan brunch this weekend besides the one at the housing collective in Wedding I usually go to. I love brunch.

Last weekend went to some art openings with a friend as part of this festival called Transmediale. I saw a force field! Also went into a crazy room where these speakers made it feel like things were whispering in my head, so maybe now I know what schizophrenia feels like. Most importantly, I discovered this exists:

C-Base

It's the entrance to a co-working space/bar/hangout for computer geeks! It's exactly what a place designed by computer people looks like in my head and reminds me of the vibe I got from any hacking movie I've ever seen, with coffee tables made from archaic computers and all. All of my computer geek friends would pee themselves, basically. I peed myself and don't even fall into that category since I can't make Excel do what I want. Apparently there is a basement that has space capsule like things and more hangout space for members downstairs and if a non-member goes down they ring an alarm to alert everyone. I love that this exists. As part of the transmediale fest they were hosting an event and there were DJs with thes cool visualizations projected all over the place. I also didn't pay for a drink the entire night. I love art.

Last weekend I also went on this sustainable eco-tour of Kreuzberg hosted by a couchsurfer. We walked all over Kreuzberg and Treptow, spending over 3 hours outside in the freezing cold, but it was still really interesting and worth it. I found out about Give-Boxes, which are spread throughout Berlin and basically just these little huts where people leave stuff they don't want and can take stuff for free. I got a really pretty jar that now has my sugar in it! We also saw some squats, co-working spaces and I learned there is an animal farm in the middle of Görlitzer Park! I got to pet donkeys and sheep and almost get bitten by a swan! Exciting! I also learned there are fruit trees planted in the same park and that they plan to expand it. Free fruit! Yesterday I bought a table and rug from a woman who helped plant them!

Give-Box in Kreuzberg

Swan! Wants to eat me! Still cute!

This Friday I plan to finally check out the Dickes Bee food co-op after thinking about it and ogling the website for months. You work for three hours a month and in exchange get to order with them for cheaper prices for food, which has all been checked out for it's ethical and environmental implications. I think I even read something about oil cold-pressed in Kreuzberg, which is where I live! Yay local things for cheap prices! My mind was blown by the Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn ever since I went with Brian and ever since I've wanted something like that in my life. I miss having a farm share, so hopefully this will solve my problem once the weather warms up a bit. They also have social events and such. I'm heading over there this Friday for their meeting, we'll see!

I'm planning on finally starting German classes up again because I've been sort of emo and feeling like my German is stagnant and not improving at all. I could study myself for free, but I really just need someone to force me to learn vocabulary and use grammar concepts I avoid, so I think this will be good. Two evenings a week C1 course. I'm excited to have an excuse to sit in cafes and do my homework again, honestly. I justify the cost by thinking if I'm going to spend money, it might as well be for something productive like school, yeah? Yeah. This is also going to lead to more money spent on coffee. I need to buy a coffee grinder here. Fuck instant.

Still working on making friends. I know a lot of people, a lot of really cool people, but sometimes I still feel like I need to build a more solid group of MY people, who I have a lot in common with and a sense of us just  *getting* each other. This involves getting to know some of the people in my life better and reaching out to other ones. Since my life was so stressful and crazy in the beginning, my social life sort of got put on the back-burner, thus it's time. I'm sick of being drunk and clubbing all the time (I say that, and I'll probably end up out dancing tomorrow, so ist das Leben). Regardless, it'd be nice to have more friends I could just chill with, without having to make all these formal plans because lately I just feel like doing silly nerdy things or drinking at someone's house and rolling around on the floor. This is the first time I've moved somewhere without a social network already in place. Most of my life it was school or university that provided a network of friends and in Prague it was my TEFL course that connected me to my first friends and their connections, so here I am really building up my life from scratch.

Our house-warming party is this weekend and it will be interesting. For one, I've never had all of my friends in one place together. My housemates and I also all seem pretty different, so it will be interesting to see our friends all combined with alcohol. You're officially invited if you're in Berlin!

Oh, and yesterday I was FINALLY successful with the German post and got my FIRST Christmas present from my parents. The first time they ALL got sent back. This time my Mom sent a smaller package to my job. When I got to work there was a letter saying I needed to go to the Zollamt (customs office) to collect it and that I'd have to pay for them storing it. I was super pissed and thought I'd have to go pay tax on it. I got to the office after work, which was way out of my way in Schoeneberg, and had to wait an hour and a half in a PACKED waiting room. Once I got in they made me open the box, then poked and unwrapped everything and asked me what it was. Not the way I expected to open my gifts. Luckily, I got to take everything home with me, even the sourdough starter that looked really sketchy and they didn't make me pay anything. When I asked them what the problem was, they said I was probably just a random spot check. I asked them, "So I'm just unlucky?" "Yeah, we apologize for that." Ugh.

Tomorrow I get to work from home, which is great because I can sleep late. For someone who only works 20-25 hours a week, I don't know how I manage to never have enough time to sleep. There is just so much more interesting stuff to do while I'm awake!

I'm (not) From Barcelona, get it?

On the morning of May 5th, I woke up bright and early at the wonderful hour of 6 am to catch a train from Bilbao to Barcelona. With directions that managed to be vague and quite in depth at the same time, taking up an entire page of my little travel notebook, I got to the hostel around 14:30 and checked in to plug into my much missed internet. My first thought was that Barcelona was freaking huge, so I needed a few hours to lock myself away inside and get over being overwhelmed before venturing out and exploring. As my months of traveling go on, I'm beginning to turn into a horrible tourist, but it's okay!

Crazy awesome building near my hostel!

Plaça de Catalunya

The first night I met up with Marlen's friend Maria from Germany whose studying in Barcelona for the year, who I ended up stealing and seeing every night of my trip. That night Maria, her friend Christina and I went to two bars, one called Oveja Negra and the other whose name I forget, before I had to go home and pass out around 2 due to my early wake up that morning.

On Saturday I got up and headed to the Boqueria, which is a massive market that pretty much had be jizzing myself. I immediately proceeded to spend €5 on delicious chocolates, then bought some fresh pineapple-coconut juices, a pepper and an onion and wandered around for at least an hour. It was basically the best hour of my life. I love food. And vegetables. And chocolates. I saw vegetables I'd never seen before in my life and crazy mushrooms. If I was in Barcelona longer and had more money, all of it would definitely be spent on food from there! So--if you're ever in Barcelona and enjoy eating...go to the Boqueria!

The entrance to the Boqueria! Noms!

Very wrinkly tomatoes in the Boqueria!

In the Boqueria, I really wanted to try one of the pitahaya's (I think it was cactus flower, but not sure), but I didn't because I didn't want to spend 2 euro. I sort of regret that now.

La Rambla, the main street in Barcelona.

Cool street with lots of laundry hanging out the windows in el Raval and a guy carrying an orange tree.

In the courtyard of a medical hospital research something (I think) in el Raval, as I was trying to find a specific vegan restaurant, and failing. But! I found orange trees and pretties!

On my wander around el Raval, I found an orgasmic store. No, literally. See? Apparently organic food = orgasms. I think so.

That night I met up with Maria again and her friend Sina, who was also German and studies dance in the city. I am apparently collecting Germans, yes. We went to a bar sort of by the water and then on to a lesbian party at a place called Lolitas, which was definitely the poshest lesbian club I've ever been to, but it was fun. Maybe I'm just a big stereotyping asshole, but I'm not used to lesbians looking so...straight.

Sina and Maria, I'm not sure what's going on with the spotlight effect.

My drunk face and Maria.

After Lolitas, Maria and I went on an epic drunk bike ride to Sagrada Familia on one bike. I'm still not sure how we got there or how we didn't die, but it happened! Wir können es schaffen! I think my ass is still bruised from sitting on the metal frame of the bike though, oops. Unfortunately I don't really have any good pictures since it was dark, but it was super intricate and pretty! Here's a picture I stole from the interwebz, though:

My last day in Barcelona was Sunday and everything was closed, which was silly. So until later in the afternoon I only ventured out on a quest for pasta sauce. At night I attended part of a harpsichord concert with Maria and her friend Albert, key word...part. One guy started clapping before it was time and everyone gave him a death look...including the harpsichordist, which sent us into a fit of laughter that we couldn't stop. However much I tried to hold it back, I ended up bursting out laughing in the very quiet filled auditorium. The worst part was when the harpsichordist STOPPED in the middle of a song to scold the audience and say, "I can't go on...please be quiet and cover your mouths." I hope it wasn't just us he was scolding, but at the break we definitely scurried away from there. I think I shat myself.


As for the rest of the night, it involved watching a couple have some intense sex in the back of a bar and this picture, which pretty much sums it up:


I give Barcelona two thumbs up except for the freakish snow storm that delayed my flight back to Berlin by over 3 hours. Wtf was that, anyway? It was so sunny and nice, otherwise!

Berlin, Germany: Part II (February 1st-7th)

Well, you saw the places I visited, now for what I actually did! I wasn’t even supposed to go to Berlin, but instead, to Stuttgart to visit Amy at her flat. Last minute change in plans and I ended up there for a week! I checked into the Raise a Little Smile hostel in Friedrichshain for the first 4 nights. With less than 18 beds at the time, it was sort of like hanging out at a friend’s house, which ended up being awesome. For too much of the time, I admit, I sat in the kitchen eating instant tomato soup (my new favorite variety of travel food) and sat on the internet. It was okay though, because I had a lot of planning to do for the section of my trip in Spain, hostels to book, trains to figure out, etc.

I came to Berlin alone, so my first night was a bit lonely and I was afraid the rest of my week would me more of the same. I was definitely wrong. By the end of my week, all of my 10 euros of credit on my phone was gone! My first night I got very lost trying to find a vegan fast food restaurant called Yoyo’s food world in Friedrichshain, but ended up getting lost for at least 30 minutes and taking the tram illegally. Tuesday morning I meant to catch the Alternative Berlin tour, but ended up missing it, so I wandered around by myself for awhile instead and hit up this massive second-hand shop called Humana where I got a pair of jeans for 8 euro. Then it got too cold and started snowing (the theme of my life lately). At night I went out for delicious Mexican food with Gray, Esther and Linus. Gray, from England and Esther from Germany own the hostel and Linus works there. I think that night we played a rousing game of Dutch Blitz, which I pretty much can never get enough of.

Wednesday I finally made it to the Alternative Berlin tour, which was amazing (you can read my last post for more on it). At night I met up with a guy from Berlin from couchsurfing named Patryk, his friend and another girl named Sarah from Malaysia whose currently living in Moscow. He took us to a Volksküchen, translated “People’s Kitchen”, where I got a three course vegan meal for 2.50 euro. Basically, the night before, they go to the grocery store and boy whatever’s cheapest and then whip up a meal. Everyone eats the same thing, but you get appetizer, meal and dessert for super cheap. There’s a website at http://stressfaktor.squat.net/vokue.php, where you can search for Volksküchen based on what day it is in Berlin. The night we went I had some type of broccoli cream soup, potatoes with beans and veggies and apple-almond something delicious. It was awesome.

Patryk's friend, Patryk and Sarah at the Volksküche

Afterwards the guy who took us to dinner wanted to go home, so Sarah and I wandered over to a pace called Winerei, where a couchsurfing meet-up was taking place. This was also a really cool concept. You go pay 2 euro and get a glass. After that you drink as much wine as you want from all the bottles on the table. At the end you pay as much as you think it was worth, or as much as you have, and give back the glass. Thus, I had about 5 glasses of wine for 4 euro. Win.

Sarah and I

Couchsurfers at Winerei meetup

Thursday I went on a mission to buy jeans since my others that I wore all the time developed a giant hole in the crotch. This mission I succeeded, 49 euro light and a couple hours later, although the blue dye in them is still turning me blue now. That morning I had talked to Linus about this Anti-Pub crawl that goes to some weird bars in Berlin so after a delicious dinner with everyone from the hostel me and two American girls from the hostel met up with Linus and another Australian guy from the hostel named Gavin at the first pub, Yesterday Bar, around 9:30pm.

There was a good variety of places. The first was 60s, 70s and 80s themed. The next was a goth club that used to be owned by Rammstein where Marilyn Manson apparently frequents in Berlin, an place called the King Kong Club, which was cool, an absinth bar (yes, I got to light it on fire and everything!) a place called Dr. Pong’s where the entire room plays ping-pong with each other while walking around the table and last, an indie-electro club called Magnet, that was super fun. By the end of the night, around 3-4am or so, Linus, Gavin and I were the only ones left we could find, so we went home together, trying not to die on the ice and passed the fuck out.

Linus , Geraldine and Gavin

There were the stamps for the pub crawl, obnoxiously large, but sort of hilarious.

Thursday Amy arrived in Berlin to move into her new flat, so I checked out of the hostel and headed over. I was a jerk and missed most of the moving, however. We went out with two of her friends from Stuttgart for delicious Vietnamese food and then to a really cool super queer bar called Silver Future in Neukölln, the area of Berlin where Amy lives.

My last full day I met up with Sarah again to go to the medical museum and see weird shit. Then we tried to go to an Irish bar to see a rugby game with some other people from couchsurfing, but it was too full so we ended up just wandering around Tacheles again and going to a bar/café called Zapata. We met up with the other couchsurfers after the game and all went for dinner together in Friedrichshain—to a place that had like 800 types of burgers, fries and sauces (and vegan ones!). It was sort of like Local Burger, for all of my readers from Northampton. After dinner I went up to their flat with Sarah for some tea and biscuits, then caught the U-Bahn back to Amy’s to go with them to sushi and head out for the night.

At the burger place for dinner

First Amy, her friends and I went out to a bar for a couple beers and then headed to this party at a club. It was a big lesbian night at this club, in a warehouse, called Female Attacken and it was amazing. It’s also where I met Marlen, which is the reason I ended up in Berlin again a week later, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. We danced until 7:30am, tried to go to another club that was just closing and then got some drunk munchies as the sun came up. By the time Amy and I got back to hers it was completely bright out and I had to get up in an hour and a half to catch a 5+ hour train back to Prague. I was definitely tired the next day, but it was worth it.

Amy and Susii

Me and Marlen

Berlin ist arm, aber sexy. (Berlin is poor, but sexy.)

A bit of delayed post, but I had so many cool pictures from Berlin that I needed time to sort through them. I'm going to break this into two posts: One of places and street art and one of people and what I actually did. I have to say Berlin was probably my favorite city thus far. The picture above is the outside of Tacheles, which is a former department store which now houses a self-organized collective of artists on Oranienburger Straße.

I went on an "Alternative Tour" of Berlin and it was amazing. Basically we went to Tacheles, wandered around Berlin and looked at street art, went to the East Side Gallery (Berlin wall) and saw a few strange clubs and bars. This is me inside Tacheles.

Outside of Tacheles, I liked the girl with the backpack in the top right of the photo.

There were these barcodes all over the city. This one didn't work, but apparently if you take a clear picture and then hold it up to your webcam or something it will open a website and you can track who else has seen it.

Stencil Art by famous street artist Xoooox in Berlin.

These were inside some art gallery, but I don't remember the name of it. Oops!

Mande une poutine avec moi! (Eat a poutine with me!). This was in the archway of an independent movie theatre.

Also near the cinema. "I don't wanna be u're friend on Facebook". Ouch.

This was the best bathroom setup ever. Whenever the toilets didn't say "Damen" or "Herren" I never had any idea which bathroom I was supposed to go in. Usually I just peeked in to see if there were urinals and if there weren't, I figured I was safe. This made it pretty obvious though. The female equivalent was a lazy bit of lingerie.

Best street art ever. A drunk girl peeing. This was in a parking lot across from a squat.

The other side of the Berlin Wall. The following are paintings drawn on the reverse by the people on the East. They just completely restored everything and even contacted all 80-something artists who originally painting on it and had them make exact replicas of their work.



I'm not sure what the story behind this was, but they are definitely sexy babies. Weird.

This relates to the photo below, which is "Dreams" written out in post-its notes for people to write on.




This is near the bridge between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. Across from this building they recently put up some big corporate buildings, so this is supposed to symbolize the employees being chained to the corporation.

On the bridge between Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain. They have sort of a rivalry. These two hands are playing rock, paper scissors between them all day and night. During the summer there's a big vegetable fight between the two sides on the bridge and during the winter a snowball fight.

Last, but not least, after you cross the bridge into Kreuzberg this is street art of a baby, made out of babies...eating a baby. It's pretty much the best thing I've ever seen in my life. I have about 8 billion more pictures of Berlin, but it would be ridiculous if I posted all of them. What an amazing city though, and it seems I may even go back in March!

Hamburg, Germany and the Adventures Within

On Tuesday the 12th of January, Kassia had class so I was off to explore Hamburg on my own. Without much of an idea where I was going, I hopped on 2 buses in search of a vegetarian restaurant called Hin & Veg. I texted someone from couchsurfing, Torben, a guy originally from Berlin who had moved to Hamburg in October, who met up with me for lunch. We talked about ourselves over veggie hamburgers (in Hamburg!), went to another place for tea and coffee and then boarded the U-Bahn so he could show me a bit of downtown Hamburg, including the Town Hall and the River Elbe. Did I mention how awesome couchsurfing is? It’s basically a great excuse to meet and hangout with people from whatever city you’re in, anywhere in the world. It’s definitely nice to hangout with someone who knows the area rather than doing the tourist thing, and Torben was a great host! Regardless, anything that makes it socially acceptable to hangout with strangers and make new friends is fine by me.

Me outside of the Hamburg town hall (Rathaus)

Torben and I

I just had to take a picture of this because I think it's hilarious. This is apparently the most liberal party in Germany. Does anyone else see a large proportion of The Gay?

After Torben left, I got myself a German SIM card from Vodafone and met back up with Kassia, Stephanie and another Smithie studying in Hamburg named Liz at Hin & Veg again. It was definitely strange spending time with Smithies after so long. It honestly feels like I graduated 10 years ago sometimes! I enjoyed some delicious tomato soup this time and a vegetarian currywurst.

In the evening, we headed to a bar I heard about from Gulliver called 3 Zimmer Wohnung (3 room flat). This place was set up like it was somebody’s flat, bed, fride and all! It’s now up there on my list of favorite bars. Once there we met up with Torben again and another couchsurfer named Misha who’s a student from Jordan doing an internship in Germany for his degree. We chatted for a bit about life, visas and our travels and once Misha and I discovered our mutual love of hummus and falafel, he mentioned a place in Hamburg that had amazing versions of both. Convinced, we layered up and set off on a walk through the freezing Hamburg streets back to the Schanze area for falafel. He did not let us down. That night I consumed the best falafel of my life, and it had all sorts of goodies included in the pita, including beets, my newfound love! We all hungout until after midnight and then parted ways. Rock on couchsurfing.

Torben, Kassia, Stephanie and Misha on the bed at 3 Zimmer Wohnung

Having a little cat nap at the bar

Okay, so on the way to the bar we had to walk through the red light district, but this was especially funny to me, if you can see, because on one side it says "Gay Kino, Sex Kino" and on the other it says "Jesus Lebt (Lives)".

Stephanie and I set out to take the U-Bahn home, but unfortunately only made it halfway before it shut for the night due to our internet addictions, leaving us to take an epic trek home through an unfamiliar city without a good map, having been guided slightly by a very friendly construction worker in the U-Bahn tunnel. At least I got to use my small amount of German, (“Wo ist?”or “Where is?”) before getting horribly lost near Kassia’s street and making her come and get us at 1 am. Oops.

Stephanie in the U-Bahn tunnel waiting for the train

I only had one full day in Hamburg, but good times were had and I hope to go back eventually for more exploration. It was great to see Kassia, however briefly, and chill in this pretty rockin’ city to start off my German adventures. Speaking of, it’s always crazy to hear a friend bust out language skills I didn’t even know they had in front of me. I am always so impressed by this. Mostly I think of other languages as passwords to get the things you want.

There's a Christmas tree floating in the middle of the water and I think that's pretty nifty.