Berlin: Take 2

Now I have been in Berlin for a while I am able to count the days that are left more easily than the days that I have been here. Time has flown by and the city has become my cosy home. It is a funny process indeed. You arrive in a place, everything is new, you discover small things, curious things maybe boring things, but everywhere you go, you keep on discovering. However one day you wake up and you go out and you look at things and they are familiar. The same U-bahn station, the same guy selling the homeless people's magazine, the same kind of people on the train, the same street corners and so on.  Of course I keep seeing new things but a homyness has set in my Berlin. I think it's a pity to have lived and not to have called Berlin your home at least once. I know when I'll leave it won't be a farewell but an 'Au revoir'.

I'll stop all this embarassing melancholy and tell you more about the odds and ends of the city, or maybe just about some mainstream experiences...

I can't help but compare Berlin to London or Paris, which are my capital references. Although these two metropoles are both unique it their genre, they have many common points they don't share with Berlin. When you get on the Tube or the Metro, or simply when you walk on the street, you should stop and look at how fast people are walking. When you arrive in these cities, you adapt to the rhythm, and as everybody seems to be in a hurry, so are you, even if you are not going anywhere precise, all you know is that you should walk fast. This is totally different in Berlin. The genral pace is calm. Everybody is relaxed and walks with tranquility. You would think people don't get stressed here. Well I don't and I love it.

I also want to report from a little trip I undertook last weekend. We went to Rostock and Warnemünde in the North, about two and a half hours by car. I'm an absolute sea-lover and when we crossed the dunes, looked the kind of wide horizon you only get over the sea, I realised how much I had missed it. Swimming in the sea, running in the sand, watching the sun set, I don't know what else you need for a perfect weekend. The bad weather the next day only made the sea look rough and deep, ok who am I kidding, as my experienced guide Alex explained it, the average depth of the Baltic Sea is about 55m.

But the place is terribly perfect if you want to get away from the crowd in Berlin. Tourist are a recurrent infection there as well, but you can actually find some air to breathe and some space to be.

But let's go back to urbanity...

There is one thing you have to do, if you want to be a real hype Berlin-visitor, you go for brunch on weekends. Indeed the cafés and restaurants of the famous Simon-Dach-Str in Friedrichshain are overcrowded with people enjoying open buffets for less than 10 Euros. When you say Brunch in Germany, they actually mean breakfast and lunch, so that the varieties of food include english breakfast, sweet puddings, fruits, waffle dough (up to you to make the waffles), bread roles, all sorts of salads and to my big astonishment, actual dishes, may it be pasta, curry or some potato bake.

Another thing that makes a stay in Berlin a really enjoyable experience, is the proximity of many lakes. Apart from the famous Wannsee, you can take a swim in the Müggelsee, the Schlachtensee, the Weißensee and many more. You can reach all these very easily with public transport and in certain places you even find sand beaches! It's probably the best option on days when the temperatures rise up to 37°C... we've seen that.

I will go back to enjoying the moments I have left to spend in Berlin, as I have miles to go before I sleep...

More on Berlin: Take 1 and Take 3.

Berlin: Take 1

Yes, I landed in Berlin. Now the summer could begin. And indeed an incredible heat welcomed me.

I first crashed at my aunt's place, and I actually mean crash with my 40 kg of luggage (don't judge, I'm a girl!). It was now time to find a flat... in Berlin, people don't look for a flatmate, no, they look for a friend. I didn't quite grasp that concept when I visited the first flat. Indeed, I found ten people crowding around me asking me not only about my studies, my hobbies, my kind of music or my origins, but also about the situation in the Middle East and its future outcomes. I was slightly taken aback. Obviously this one hadn't gone that well... It took a few attempts until I found a nice flat, with a guy from Chile in the East of Berlin. It might be far from my work place, but the flat, my flatmate and his frequent guests are awesome. So I don't mind the many hours I spend on the S-and U-bahn.

My variable working shifts allow me to do quite a bit of sight-seeing as well as to have good nights out. And I haven't found a more amazing sensation than coming out of a club in daylight. Maybe for most of you this is not such uncommon a thing, but for us, doomed to party life in the UK, this was an extraordinary feeling. In Berlin every night is special and unique in its genre: be it a Russian Disco, Latino moves in La Havanna, a Balkan Party or some mainstream in an old factory building, you know you can have fun anywhere. I have as yet avoided the ultimate tourist experience, called The Weekend, situated on a high building, showing off a terrace with view on the famous TV Tower... the shameless price, the electro music and the fairly arrogant party-goers have kept me away from that place and hopefully will do so in the future.

In my weeks here, I have realised one thing about Berlin. It's all about making new from old, about recycling... and I don't mean the nearly maniac German habit of sorting the rubbish. So many places here have served as other things before. Let me quote some examples. The Kulturbrauerei used to be a huge brewery, now there are loads of bars, a few clubs and all sorts of things in there. Tempelhof used to be an airport, it now is an enormous park. Old factory buildings are frequently used as clubs, such as Postbahnhof and other places around Warschauer Straße. The old Mail Building has become a museum for contemporary art. Berlin's most famous squat Tacheles used to be part of a huge Shopping Mall. I am discovering more and more examples every day. I love this feeling that something has had a different function before, it gives places and buildings a soul...

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These were my first impressions of Berlin, but as you know: I have miles to go before I sleep...

More on Berlin: Take 2 and Take 3.