Appreciate the falafel

Tomorrow is international falafel appreciation day! Celebrate with style! We will definitively give ourselves a day off in the kitchen and go to our local kebaberia for a freshly fried falafel instead.

Two days of summer

Not only did we get spring to Berlin, we already had two days of summer! Thursday and Friday were both +20°C and we were out, out, out! I had my first ice cream, my first dinner outside, my first picnic, my first beer garden beer and got my first sun burn of the year... Now it's back to reality with +10°C and rain :)

Yesterday A had to work all day and didn't get to enjoy the weather, so I made us a salmon and potato salad to go and we had a dinner picnic in Mauerpark, with wine and all. Our friends then joined us and we had a few drinks while looking in amazement at the hoards of teenagers and blasts of bonfires, music, shouting and fireworks. We were expecting the police to come at any minute, but they never did. Something was definitively going on last night, we just didn't know what and why!


We made a really happy discovery last weekend when we finally tried St. Gaudy Café that opened on our street already in December: it's all vegetarian! It was the easiest thing to pick something to eat, such luxury. My continental breakfast cost €3,50 and it included a glass of orange juice. Besides being so affordable, the coffee is good – so we'll be going back to St. Gaudy's again!

Spring, revisited

We had beautiful weather today, but I was stuck in front of the computer and Photoshop all day. We should have a cover for the next issue by tomorrow, I'm so relieved! I'm a stressed, though, because we haven't gotten much designed yet... it means we have to work all weekend. Tomorrow I need to tackle something I haven't dealt with before: placing ads. I am responsible for them all going in and being in the right places – yikes! Anyway, I did manage to steal a nice, long lunch in YamYam on Alte Schönhauser straße with A today, so it isn't all bad.


It's been a while since I've had Korean food, and wasn't sure what to order. We ended up sharing a bowl of noodles with black bean, potato and onion sauce, a Kimbap roll and a home made lemonade. The lemonade was my favourite part of the meal, I'm going to make those at home all summer long! It's as simple as water, lemon, brown sugar and fresh mint leaves, served with ice. The black bean sauce was... weird :)

Happy Paddy's Day!

It's time for me to prove I'm the right person for the job: it's my first issue that's going to print this week. I feel stressed: I've been trying to find a cover image, I'm looking for interns, I'm doing illustrations, designing ads... And this week we are in design, so it will get busier and busier. Then, next Wednesday, it's all over – until next month. Such is the cycle of life in the publishing world.


The weather has been absolutely horrible and cold. I learned the German expression for it: April Wetter. That's when you thought it was nice and sunny and spring was coming – and then it starts to snow.

Tomorrow is St Patrick's Day, which will have to be celebrated somehow, preferably in an Irish pub in Berlin. The word on the street is that you better turn up early to get a seat tomorrow. I have no doubt, as there is a shitload of Irish people living here and it should be good craic. I wonder if I can get Bulmers cider (known on the continent as Magners) on tap here?

Coffee substitute

I learned something new (again) last week. Many cafés in Berlin sell something called getreidekaffee; a coffee substitute made of roasted cereals such as wheat, malt or rye (Wikipedia article in German). It has no caffeine, but tastes like ordinary coffee without that bitterness, that many so dislike. I have tried getreidekaffee in three different cafés now, and the best experience so far was the getreidemilchkaffee in Morgenrot on Kastanienallee.

Flower delivery

Yesterday at work I got a flower for international women's day, but I forgot to bring it home. I felt like a proper hippie bringing it home :) Now it sits on our window sill, making it a little brighter in there.

Today was a nice sunny day, I had a nice meeting with a nice photographer at work, and I met with a nice friend, who returned to Berlin after three months in Sweden. And I'm home in time for dinner!

Waiting for the sun

Waiting for warmth, actually. We did have breakfast (maybe more like lunch) outside in the sun again today, but with our winter coats firmly buttoned and our scarves tightly tied.

I have another good reason to wait for warmer times: last Friday we celebrated A's and our friend M's new jobs, first by eating dumplings at Yumcha Heroes on Weinbergsweg, then with a beer and cake at cosy St Oberholz café on Rosenthaler Platz. We might have once again ended up in BR101, and possibly in absinth bar Druide, too... Anyway, to cut to the chase: You know how you can order a Berliner Weisse beer "mit rot" or "mit grün" syrup? Here you can order it with rhubarb flavour – soooo yummy! I have a feeling I will drink many of these this summer.

Funky shop discovery (by bike)

A finally got around to buying new bike and so we could open the cycling season on Wednesday. On Thursday my bum was really sore, but it was so worth it! I love that feeling of spring when you are back on your bike, gliding along, able to go wherever you want to, with the wind in your hair. Unfortunately, spring wasn't here yet and gave way to the cold air and even snow, so the bikes were only out for two days... My weather widget promises +7°C by next Wednesday, though, so I have faith.

On Thursday I found myself in a wonky design store called Designpanoptikum, Torstrasse 201, in work related matters. The Russian owner collects and sells all things crazy and cool, and the shop is like a big rummage sale: you never know what you might find. I'll keep this place in mind if we ever move to our "own" apartment instead of the furnished sub-let we occupy now.

Blaue Stunde

At the weekend it made me so happy to see all the snow gone and the streets swept clean that, like an idiot, I had to stop and take pictures of pavement on Schönhauser Allee!

No sugar, please

I decided to try not to eat sugar this week, to ease my addiction a little. I'm off to a rocky start, though; I stopped by the office, where I saw cookies and accidentally ate one. We had a meeting across the street in a café and I ordered a chai latte (it came with one of those tiny amaretto cookies, that taste like nothing but amaretto and sugar). I got home and found some of my Swedish marzipan pastries next to my computer and had one for dessert. Maybe I'll do better tomorrow.

The weekend was long and humid, filled with junk food. We celebrated my job and drank so many cheap cocktails on Friday, that we didn't even want to change bars, but stayed in BR101 until 4 o'clock... It was a great night, almost all of our friends made it and even a new Italian one. On Sunday we were invited to a free screening of the star filled musical Nine (trailer here) – very confusing to see dubbed films in the cinema! I think we were lucky though, I think the thick, fake Italian accents would have driven us crazy in English! After the film we cured our hangovers at the famous Kreuzburger, that surprisingly also does an impressive array of veggie burgers!