Closing time

Today was the opening of the last show at MMX, one of my favourite (= they have a bar) Berlin galleries. Apparently it was always just going to be a one year project, and now a year has passed. The art itself was a bit random, except for a funny video piece of Germans telling jokes and a video installation featuring Katharine Hepburn making coffee, but the atmosphere was great. Another thing that drew me to MMX tonight was the Taco Truck, that I had hear great things about, but never managed to catch. I had a good veggie taco, my friend P a chicken one – but is two euro a bit much for such a tiny thing? I don't know, but it sure was tasty!

The flatmate experiment is going pretty well, albeit it's only day 2. P and I have been seeing a lot of each other, but how could I go off gallivanting and not invite her to come along? I do have to confess that I find it great that she has her own plans for the whole weekend... Me too: tomorrow's I'm checking out the monthly midnight flea market (€3 entry) with "the Finns" and on Sunday it's Irish Halloween with traditional apple bobbing, a scary film and pumpkin soup at D&M's house. Ich freu mich!

Flatmate

It's been hectic at work again, but now another issue is being printed and I get to exhale. A little. On my day off today, I've been sprucing up our home a little. For instance, I unpacked the third to last moving box: the books that finally have a book shelf to live in! We get a flatmate on Wednesday.

P, who I met in my German class last autumn, is moving in with us for a few weeks while she's looking for a room to rent. I'm a little nervous about how my poor nerves will deal with someone else sharing our home, but also I know from experience that it keeps the house clean and it keeps us more organized. And she's Swedish, so we don't have to explain the whole no-shoes-indoors thing to her, or why we eat dinner so early, or why you don't wash dishes with the kitchen rag. It will be fine.

Lonely no more

A is coming home tomorrow, yay! We get to have breakfast together, then I have to hurry to work... And he'll go to bed, I reckon. His bands gig at the festival went well and I think he got to see pretty much every friend and relative that needs to be seen. It's never really a holiday to visit at home, is it?

I must say that this week has flown by, I have hardly been at home – unfortunately a little bit because of work, too. I only ate maybe one or two meals at home, and so today, too, I had dinner with S, D and their friend at one of our favourite restaurants, Wok Show in P'berg.

Home alone

I have no camera and no boyfriend for almost a week. A is in Finland to play a gig with his old band at a festival in our home town. I wish I was there too, but alas, it's too busy at work right now.

The weather was pretty nice today, I cycled around a bit because I met S in P'berg for a Sprachtandem in our favourite café, Slörm. Unfortunately the weather forecast suggests a miserable, rainy weekend. I'm invited to a party on Saturday night, and I would finally like to go check out the monthly Homeless Veggie Dinners (terrible name!) in Kreuzberg: you receive a vegetarian meal for a small donation that goes towards helping the homeless in Berlin.

When will I have time for all the Grey's Anatomy marathons I planned? ;)

Cool Kino

Oh my, original language films in a cinema close to home! Wohoo!

We went to see the preview of The Road at Kino International on Karl-Marx-Allee last week, and I was really taken by the old, funky building. Very GDR, very fancy. The film, on the other hand, was depressing...

Today, I've mostly been eating...

...apple pie!

October: Art month

I'm lucky because occasionally I get freebies through work and today we got to check out one of Berlin's October art fairs, Preview Berlin without having to pay the €10 entrance fee. This weekend there are six simultaneous art fairs in Berlin (!): Art Forum, Art Berlin Contemporary, Preview Berlin, Kunstsalon, Berliner Liste and Stroke.Artfair.

After a lovely Austrian breakfast with S and D in Marketta's Greisslerei we cycled to Kreuzberg in the lovely autumn weather. I enjoy passing through the touristy areas of Berlin (Museum Sinsel, Unter den Linden, Friedrichstraße...) once in a while to remind myself of the grandeur and beauty of the city, and to watch the tourists as they are experiencing their own version of Berlin. We very rarely have a reason to be in that part of town and I always get the same feeling: "I can't believe this is the city that I live in!".

Preview Berlin is held in Hangar 2 in Tempelhof, a former airport, and calls itself "the emerging art fair". There were some pretty cool things, some pretty weird things and some pretty boring things on display. I'm not sure if ten euro would have been very good value for us non-art-connoisseurs for a one hour stroll around the hangar....

There is a house in New Orleans...

You know how someone tells you a film is amazing and you get really excited, and then when you finally see the film you are really disappointed? That's what happened to us with New Orleans Haus. Everyone and their mother recommended this little restaurant north of Görlitzer Park to us: "You have to go there!", "The food is so good!", "Best cheesecake in Berlin!".

My Crawfish Étouffée (€8,90) tasted mostly of celery, the crawfish was tough and it was obvious that the broth wasn't made with any seafood. It reminded me of some of my least favourite dishes in school. The Macaroni and Cheese Cake (€6,40) on the other hand was delicious: of course very cheesy and greasy. I wish it would have been served with a slightly acidic side dish, like a tomato salsa maybe, to cut the fat a little. We used the Louisiana "Original Louisiana Brand" hot sauce as a condiment, and that helped.

Out of curiosity we also ordered Corn Maque Choux (€2,80) and a piece of cornbread (€1,70) as sides. The corn salad felt very strange to our taste buds and we left most of in uneaten. But the cornbread! Then cornbread was delicious! I had never tasted any before and was totally taken by the distinct corn flavour and the sweetness – a happy surprise. It's just a pity that a small piece of baked goods was the highlight of our meal.

I'm sure the desserts would have redeemed New Orleans Haus, but after all these heavy dishes, we simply couldn't fit anything else in. Maybe I'll go back for the cornbread and a Lemon Bar.

Tag der Deutschen Einheit

Today the weather was iiiiincredibly nice for October: +18 and warm sunshine. It's so unpredictable here in Berlin! We celebrated the German Unity Day by visiting the annual "Riesenflohmarkt zum Tag der Deutschen Einheit": a giant market/flea market just north of Ostbahnhof in Friedrichshain. The market wasn't super interesting, we enjoyed the sunshine, the dog watching and the food. The weather is meant to keep nice at least until Wednesday, so fingers crossed!