Week 9, Day 1

last Thursday, I flew to Staufen (nr. Freiburg, actually to be more accurate I flew to Basel because you can't actually land in Staufen) for the wedding of Florian's mum and her boyfriend Hermann. On the Friday, Florian and I enjoyed a wonderful day at the Vita Classica Spa in Bad Krozingen, the village next to Staufen. I luuurve the spa. Not for the prudish mind, bathing clothes are strictly verboten, but as everyone else is in the same boat there's no embarrassment incurred or purving involved (except, that is, if you're gay / or you were the 2 unattractive french guys who spent their entire time ogling the attractive french woman, who incidentally stole my dressing gown, who was sunbathing naked). Yes - it was so warm on Friday that you could sunbathe next to the outdoor pool - absolute bliss. On Saturday morning the wedding of Bärbel (Florian's mum) and Hermann took place at the town hall - now more famous for its disastrous renovation works which have caused the ground in Staufen to swell and rise and produce huge cracks in its historic buildings than for being the place were Faust's 'Mephisto' went to ground (you can find out more about this humanitarian crisis and pledge your help to 'Hold Staufen Together' here - no joke). Anyway, I digress, The wedding was a very small, intimate affair with only 8 guests present, including the 2 witnesses, which was followed by a small, delicious brunch and a trip to the design museum just outside Basel. Then in the evening we went to Hirschen, a Michelin starred restaurant in Sulzburg, another village close to Staufen. Possibly the best meal I have ever eaten in my life. The menu is pictured, although hard to read.

Yesterday I visited a friend in Dresden. Pretty city with the old town on one side of the river Elbe (I believe) and the new town on the other side. Amazing to think that the buildings in the old town were all rebuilt after WWII, as to look at the colour of their brickwork you'd think they'd withstood centuries of pollution. Above is one of the views that Canaletto painted minus the traffic, and the safety handrail.


Actually this picture doesn't do justice to the weather yesterday. It was so sunny and warm in the late morning and early afternoon that my friend and I sat outside with our coats off to have coffee and then lunch. You just wouldn't think that December is less than a week away.


Today I visited the medical history museum at Charité. As medical museums go it was ok, although I was annoyed by the fact that I'd paid my 5 Euros and then couldn't go into one of the exhibit rooms because some camera crew were filming. I'll know when my german's really good when I can go and complain about these things. There was a special exhibition on dentistry, which left me feeling somewhat uneasy about the state my molars but very pleased that I was born in the second half of the 20th century.

My german is improving slowly, but I have a serious problem now responding to people who don't follow the script. If I walk into a shop and perform the usual greetings (hallo; guten tag) I appreciate it if shopkeepers don't then try and engage me in conversation which I cannot follow. Can they not see that I am happy just browsing? I did have a very successful trip to the shoe repairers last week though - asked him to mend the zips on my boots, re-heel and re-sole them, and sew the strap on my handbag all in German. An A+ for Emma.

Week 7, Day 3

A bit of sightseeing this week:

Wednesday: Jüdisches Museum. Excellent museum. The Nazis and the Holocaust make up only a fraction of the museum, although there is also much discussion about their early-modern persecution and of the rise of anti-Semitism in the modern era. But there are also nice sections on the Jewish influence on Berlin culture at the turn of the twentieth century and on people born into Jewish families since 1945. You start the tour of the museum however on the basement level of the Libeskind Building which is entirely given over to the Holocaust. Within 2 mins I already felt like sobbing.

The Libeskind Building (interior bottom right; exterior right) is both architecturally amazing and sensorially unsettling at every turn.









This is especially true for the Holocaust Tower, a cold, dark, deep and echoing chamber with a skylight at the top) and the Garden of Exile, with its sloping ground and columns (left).


I travelled there by bike. It wasn't far - about 10 mins. This was my first attempt at cycling in Berlin, and I have to say it was actually a very pleasant experience. Determined to fit in, I did as all good Berliners do, I occasionally cycled on the pavement even when cycle lanes were provided on the road, and tinkled the bell to warn erstwhile pedestrians that I was hurtling past.




Thursday: Inspired by the new-found freedom of the road, I decided to take the bike out again and navigate Berlin, or at least some parts of it. I cycled, via the canal and Görlitzer Park, to the Eastside Gallery. The gallery basically consists of a long stretch of the Berlin Wall on which artists do their thing. I have to say I wasn't that impressed with the art work on show. I guess I shouldn't complain. I imagine I would find it quite hard to fill a huge, vertical slab of concrete. But then I don't admit to being an artist of any description. Most of the displays were in celebration of the fall of the wall/eastern borders so there was plenty of the obligatory 'peace' symbolism. But there's only so many doves, trees, group-hugs and mother-earths one can take.















The pics are of a few of the more interesting or amusing bits.

After leaving the Wall I rode to Alexander Platz and then home, basically completing a biggish circle. The nice thing about central Berlin, there are practically no hills. I can't be doing with hills (and by my definition, hills include minor inclines), especially on a bike. Will definitely give cycling a go in Manchester. Wait... are there any hills in Manchester????




Saturday: Potsdam. One time home of the Prussian Royal Family and the place where Germany's fate was decided after WWII. Walked around the old town (right: one of the city gates - the Brandenburger, I think) and then into the Sanssouci park and palace.







The whole site is an example of Rococo par excellence. Took an audio tour around Schloss Sanssouci - the summer residence built by Frederick the Great. I have to say, while it was nice to see the chair upon which old Freddy died, I think Schloss Charlottenburg in Berlin is much more breathtaking. What look like grey oversized bird boxes/viewing huts are I think protection for sculptures while they're being restored.


Today: 'Behind the Iron Curtain. The Art of Socialist Realism'.

This is an exhibit of 300 works from the former Soviet Union produced between the 1930s and the 1980s. Plenty of idyllic rural scenes, marches, and historical moments. Women feature quite heavily in a lot of the paintings, as does Lenin, or at least someone who looks a lot like him. Not entirely sure it's my cup of tea, especially when you start thinking of the probable harsh realities behind many of the 'happy' scenes, and of those artists whose work was banned during this period, but it was interesting to view it close up.


This one reminds me a bit of the shot of the milkman making his way through blitzed London.





















The Observer reviewed the exhibition in October: http://www.guardian.co.uk/artanddesign/2009/oct/25/soviet-art-painting-berlin-exhibition

On the domestic front: The flat appears to be falling apart. First, on Thursday, the neighbour below comes up to tell us that water from our bathroom is pouring through his ceiling. This gets fixed by lunchtime the next day. Then on Friday, the heating packs up. This is ostensibly fixed by the man who oversees the entire apartment building (a big, round, grumpy Berliner with a dislike of English men it appears, so it's a good job I'm a woman he says). The problem, a lack of water in the system and a blown fuse. However, the next morning I wake to find the fuse blown again. I reset the switch only to then discover a distinct electrical hissing noise and smell of burning plastic emanating from below the kitchen sink. Fuse is switched back off again promptly. I left my flatmates (who speak very good German) to sort this out. I had a trip planned to Potsdam afterall, and I can't very well communicate with an electrician. I'm tired of having to smile and explain "Ich spreche nur ein bisschen deutsch". I returned in the evening to find them both out and the boiler still broken. Brrrrrr!!! Oh yes, the fuse for the boiler is also the one for the fridge and the washing machine! This morning we investigated a little further and found that the socket extension in which all the necessary plugs sit was completely burnt out. Extension socket now replaced and all seems to working fine, touch wood.

Week 6, Day 6

The last week and a bit has been busy. I had German classes all last week from 9am till 12.30, which is tough if you're out till 2 the previous evening. The classes were fun and it was good revision for me. Und jetzt, kann ich gut Deutsch sprechen - well, sort of.

There's also been many friends arriving and departing this past week, which has inevitably involved lots of socialising, and socialising late. Been to 1 or 2 art exhibitions - one at which our friend Marte was showing. She's very good. Click HERE to see for yourself.

Also saw Neoangin perform. He's a super 'pop' artist. It was the finale of a street art exhibition in celebration of the anniversary of the fall of the Wall - Wallbreakers. There's a short clip below. Great tracks and fun performance, including a link up via skype with a friend called Jon in Nottingham who did live drawing.





Yesterday was the Mauerfall 2009 celebrations. I was at the Brandenburger Tor and watched the final dominoes fall. I would like to say it was emotional (and there were segments of the programme which pulled at your heart) but on the whole it was just extremely wet and cold, the whole programme was far too long, and the fireworks weren't that impressive owing to the fog. Brown's speech was o.t.t. (his wasn't the only one). 'The UK will always be at the heart of Europe'. Yeah, right!



Coming-up this week: museums and a bike ride (if the weather stays nice).

Week 5, Day 4

Still having a good time! Saturday consisted of a leisurely breakfast, followed by a food shop because my £100 budget won't last long if I eat out everyday (even with Manchester's best efforts to pay me without contract!). Spent the afternoon in Mitte having coffee and wandering around Berlin's enormous bookshop Dussmann. This place has just about everything if you can read German. Had dinner at the Spätzle Express. As I've just discovered, it has a rather grander website than its food would suggest, which is extremely cheap but delicious and filling. The only downside was our fellow group of diners made up of Italians - why are they always so loud?! Then it was off to a couple of bars. The first, near Görlitzer Bahnhof, involved an embarrassing incidence. I was stood on some steps which separated the 2 rooms which made up the bar. As I moved to get to a recently vacated seat my foot missed the bottom step and I almost ended up lying flat across the coffee table and the 4 Germans sat around it. The only way I could save myself was to kneel at the foot of the table (prayer-like). And this was all prior to any alcohol having even passed my lips.

Nothing so embarrassing happened at the next bar, somewhere in Kreuzköln, except I made the barman very happy by inflating his tip. Tipping here is much cheaper than in the UK. There's none of this 12% business. More like 5%. This bar was a little quieter than the last (playing up to stereotype with 1980s/90s soft rock rather than 1990s Britpop) and also had a more varied mix of clientele. The previous one was a young crowd. Here, there were some 20-30 some-things seated around the 3-4 tables, 3 seemingly lonely men propped-up one side of the bar, a group of 4 middle-aged friends, consisting of 2 couples (Woman A and Man B, according to Florian, on a possible swingers outing), propped up the other, and in between there was us. The waiter, judging by his meticulous attention to the cleaning of the glasses, clearly thought he was destined for a better class of establishment some day soon.

5 Things I love about Berlin:

1. The space - there's so much room on its wide, leafy streets. And the flats are palatial and cheap.
2. The bars - the best ones are the small, cosy ones, preferably not in Mitte. Downside is the smoking. The smoking ban here was short-lived so its back to smelling like an ashtray, and feeling like you've smoked the damn things yourself. Favourites: Minibar
3. The cafe culture - something that is sorely missing in the UK. Favourites: Goldmarie; Kaffeehaus Brandauer,
4. The long breakfasts - OK, so this isn't something particular to Berlin, but breakfast is generally sold here until 4pm (someplaces till 5), which tells you something about the pace of life.
5. The cold - not like English damp cold, it's lovely and crisp.