A Finn in Berlin

Cinemania!

2012-01-31T23:53:00.001+01:00

The Oscar nominations are in, the Berlinale kicks off in ten days. Time to eat, live and breathe film for a few weeks. Last Friday we saw The Artist at Cinestar Original im Sony Center – the French, silent, black-and-white film that has enticed film critics everywhere. We, too, liked it: it was a great feel-good film that had us forget about everything else for 100 minutes. And the dog is fantastic! Today it was a whole different story as we viewed Kriegerin, a German film that came out in January, at Hackesche Höfe Kino in Mitte. It's the final project or thesis project by director David Wnendt, that describes the neo-nazi scene in Brandenburg, just outside Berlin. I found the film interesting, a little naive, and the cast of young actresses was amazing – definitively the German film to see this year. As a new Berliner and foreigner, it's indeed interesting to gain insight to the hate and violence brewing in the "suburbs" – something you luckily aren't faced with in central Berlin. The dialogue wasn't hard to follow and the story wasn't complicated, so Kriegerin can be viewed without having mad German skills.

The next film I'm looking forward to seeing is the Finnish film Iron Sky, about space nazis, that premieres at Berlinale 2012 in the Panorama Special series.

French vegan brunch in Friedrichshain

2012-01-14T17:52:00.000+01:00

Friedrichshain has finally gotten a vegan brunch option – to my knowledge its first one! French café Ohlàlà on Mainzer Straße began serving a weekly Saturday vegan brunch today: think croissants, crepes and mini quiches (€9.90). I emailed for a reservation and was lucky to get a cancellation spot for the one o'clock seating, and so L and I got the opportunity to try the novelty of French vegan cuisine ahead of the curve.

The difference to the typical Berliner breakfast is the multitude of sweet things and the lack of fresh greens – in one end of the counter I spotted a salad of fresh fruit and in the other end a bowl of carrots julienne. Our favourites were the mini crêpes, the cup cakes (the pink ones and the peanut butter ones) and the Pain Perdu (french toast). On the savoury side the seductive mini quiches in four different flavours stole my heart – no wonder that they kept running out! I pigged out on croissants, pain au chocolat, bread, crêpes and cup cakes, so by the time I made it to the other end of the counter I had very little appetite left for main courses. Maybe that's why I found the garlicky and vinegary bean salad the tastiest? For the shepherd's pie-like hachis parmentier and the two stews (ratatouille and creamy mushroom ragout, blanquette de "veax") were less interesting than any of the breakfast items.

With a bowl of café au lait (of soy milk), a big apfelschorle the brunch cost €14.10 – a reasonable price.

The vote is cast

2012-01-13T23:05:00.003+01:00

We had the privilege to vote in the Finnish Presidential election today. I had two excellent candidates to choose from, the Green party candidate and the Left party candidate. Hopefully one of them will make it to the second round! Then it's another trip to the Nordische Botschaften and another vote to cast in three weeks.

I've tried to make this week fun and sociable. On Monday I met with S at Kaufbar – or Weinbar, as I now like to call it – and we had a lovely chat about the holidays, about work and about them hopefully moving nearer to us, yay! On Tuesday I met the more and more pregnant S and hung-over C for breakfast before work: the best way to start any day is in good company with good coffee and a proper gossip at our favourite breakfast spot, Orange... On Wednesday I had a mozzarella baguette and a tandem meet with K, my colleague who's learning Finnish. We discussed her best friends' break-up, we read a Nora Roberts romance novel and I complained at length about how I'm dreading next week when we have to deal with a deadline simultaneously as a fashion fair. Finally, today, Friday the 13th, I picked up E from her shared office space for a little bite to eat, well deserved weinschorles and a good catching up session at Russian restaurant Datcha. Next week is going to be absolutely horrible. Now I'm prepared.

Happy New Year

2012-01-07T18:45:00.001+01:00

2012 was welcomed from our friends' balcony, watching the ceaseless fireworks around Frankfurter Tor.

We flew back to Berlin earlier on New Year's Eve, carrying overweight luggage and dodging fire crackers thrown carelessly to the street from balconies or passersby. We were welcomed home by R and E, who we staid at our's for a few days while we were away. They made us warm minttukaakaos (hot chocolate with mint liqueur). Risking our lives, it felt like, we ventured out to the streets of Friedrichshain to have pizza at S' flat before going to the New Year's party. Tired and happy to be home and see all of our friends, we didn't last longer than 3am before we walked home, feeling sorry for R and E who had a transatlantic flight to catch at 10 the next morning...

Tips for buying presents in Berlin

2012-01-07T18:30:00.000+01:00

Buying heaps of presents at once, like at Christmas, isn't always easy or fun. We got really excited to bring home carefully selected organic, fair trade and even raw chocolates from Bitterveld in Prenzlauer Berg. The most interesting – and delicious – chocolate we bought was their self manufactured goat's milk chocolate, flavoured with blood orange.

At Vom Fass you can buy oils, vinegars, wines and spirits "vom Fass", i.e. on tap. We chose cool, old fashioned looking bottles and wrapped up Scottish and Irish single malt whiskies as Christmas presents – they were a hit!

Christmas, and having survived it

2012-01-07T18:12:00.000+01:00

December was more eventful than my blogging would let on. Or my lack of writing really shows how little time I had to sit down and sort my head and my photo archives. After family visits from my dad and my best friend's parents, E's mom came to Berlin to celebrate her E's 30th birthday. We had an office Christmas party on December 8th – that got a bit out of hand on my part: I can't even remember A coming to walk me home – a work month from hell. I was super happy to get away from it all and go home to Finland for Christmas. Of course that wasn't so calm or relaxing either, but I didn't think about work, we didn't party much and we got to hang out with family and friends. We got so many Christmas presents that we had to leave a few things behind and collect them when we visit next time. A lot of books, mostly, and I got my eighth and ninth pair of knitted socks and unfortunately we got some useless crap too, like a pair of salt and pepper shakers shaped like a superhero cat and dog. And now we are really happy to be home :)

I don't buy wrapping paper but wrap my presents with recycled paper instead. This year I also learned a few origami foldings to make the presents a bit more fun.

Santa delivered our presents in person.

Berlin's best Christmas markets

2011-12-05T15:07:00.001+01:00

As we are coming up to our third Christmas in Berlin, we have had tens of cups of glühwein at different Christmas markets around Berlin and can with some expertise present our favourites:

Weihnachtsmarkt an Gendarmenmarkt – Perfect for tourists and parents! Entry costs one euro, but the market is surrounded by beautiful buildings and has the most magical, Christmassy atmosphere of all the markets. There's constant musical numbers being performed on the little stage, and the food and drink stands are all tempting. You can also purchase jewellery, crystal vases and fancy wines.

Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt – A great location in Prenzlauer Berg, near the U2 line. The market is in a courtyard sheltered from the wind and to warm up you can pop into the Rewe supermarket or you can sneak in to use the toilets in the cinema. The theme at the Lucia market is Nordic and you can buy Finnish, Swedish or even Austrian glühweins rather than the German kind that I don't like so much. Besides food items, glühwein and absinth you can buy Finnish honey, Swedish candy, hippie jewellery or Christmas lights.

Adventsmarkt auf der Domäne Dahlem – A bit outside central Berlin, but easily reached with the U3 train, this cute little market is less commercial and mass produced than most. Along with the necessary glühwein and roasted chestnuts stands, you can also buy horse meat salami or deer sausages, home-made spirits flavoured with blackberry or herbs, mustard seasoned with beer or whiskey and fresh organic vegetables. The Herrenhaus, the oldest residential building in Berlin, from 1560 and in the former stables you find little exhibitions like an old-fashioned shop that now sells hand-made hard candy or cute little pottery and knit shops.

Berlin with dad - Tadjiki tea and Tintin in 3D

2011-12-05T14:09:00.001+01:00

My dad was in Berlin for a visit over the weekend. He and his wife have been to Berlin only once before, precisely two years ago. For the life of me I can't understand why they keep coming to Berlin when it's cold and dark here! Despite some light rain and a few gusts of Siberian wind, we had a wonderful weekend and manage to do things that were new to A and me, as well.

On Saturday afternoon, after a cosy cup of tea and coffee in our kitchen, we took of to Dahlem to visit the Christmas market at Domäne Dahlem. It was rainy and cold, so the market wasn't crowded and we didn't have to queue for marzipans, glühwein, roasted chestnuts or mustard. For a meat-eater there were interesting things on offer, like horse and deer meat, or organic boar sausages. The museum and the little atelier shops around the market were open, so we could get warmth and shelter when we needed it. All in all, it was my favourite Berlin Christmas market and we had a lovely time.

On Sunday we visited the Tadschikische Teestube – a place we wanted to see already on dad's last visit. The little tearoom is hidden in plain sight on the second floor of the Palais am Festungsgraben, next to the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Since it appears in many guide books it's well known and very popular, so a reservation is advisable. We managed to get a table with cushioned floor seating by being there exactly when the Teestube opened, which is at 3pm on the weekends. Most of the tables were reserved but we could sit down at one that was reserved for 5pm. Almost immidiately a queue started forming at the doors. The tea selection at the the Tajik tearoom is extensive and ranges from smoky Russian tea to iced Japanese cherry tea. The kitchen prepares a few Russian dishes like pelmeni and blinis, both sweet and savory. Dad and M were really impressed and we realised that we now have to bring all our guests to the Tadschikische Teestube for a pot of tea.

Through work I tried to get us tickets to see Rigoletto at the Komische Oper, but had no luck. Instead we went to see The Adventures of Tintin in 3D at Cinestar Original im Sony Centre. My dad hadn't seen any modern 3D film before, so even if we ended up at the dubbed-into-German film version, we all enjoyed the experience and the film a lot. And we all understood almost all the German!

It was a fun weekend and now I feel geared up for shopping for Christmas presents, for the office Christmas party on Thursday and for the last deadline of the year at work.

Glühwein season uncorked

2011-11-27T21:27:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we had the first glühweins of the season at the Nordic Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt in Prenzlauer Berg. When we met D and S at the Kulturbrauerei it was crowded and it was raining. After having waited for them for almost 30 minutes I was in rotten mood. And the longest queue of the whole market? At the Finnish glühwein stand where we wanted to get a cup of glögi. We marched over to the Swedish punsch stand and after just a few sips, the world was a better place again. And even better when I realised that we were standing next to Herr Nilsson's stall – our favourite Swedish candy shop!

The guilty shopper

2011-11-23T19:36:00.001+01:00

After finishing my article on Berlin's new veggie restaurants and their ethics, I can't go into any shop without assessing the ethics of each product there. So, naturally, when I stepped in to the new 24colours shop on Alte Schönhauser Straße the first thing I wanted to know was where the clothes come from – knowing that the answer wasn't going to be nice, since the prices are so low. Sure enough, their cool clothes are made in China, but the sales girl assured me that no child labour is used. But what about employees rights and the chemicals used in the fabric dyes? Well, I shut my eyes tightly, pulled out seven items from the racks and bought them. Oh, the guilt. At least 24colours is a local, Berlin-based, design company. I don't know how I'll explain it to myself when I find myself there next time? Except by that I found myself a cotton sweater for €8.90 (on sale), skirts for €12.90 and €16.90, a casual cotton top for €15.90 and a sleeveless print top for €13.90...

New: Raw food in Berlin!

2011-11-16T20:13:00.001+01:00

As the weather is getting colder (only +5C now), it's natural to think of nothing but eating. I got the opportunity to write an article about new vegetarian restaurants in Berlin, so the past week and a half my life has revolved around food. 2011 has been a great year for vegetarians and vegans in the city: NINE veggie restaurants have opened since February. When my mom was here, I dragged her along to Lucky Leek and Kopps, and since then I've been exploring raw food with A. There are two new raw food restaurants in Berlin: Gesund & sündig in Wilmersdorf and café style LebensfRoh in Kreuzberg.

Gesund & sündig
Germany's first raw food restaurant opened in June. The location and the opening hours reveal that most of the diners at Gesund und sündig come from the sports centre that the restaurant is connected to. Luckily it's along the Ringbahn and thus within reach even for a Friedrichshainer. A more central location is under consideration for the new year, we were told. Everything on the menu here is raw and vegan. As a starter we share a plate of delicious "Sweet and sour sushi" (€7.90): a mixture of sunflower seeds and sauerkraut replace the rice, and the centre is carrot, zucchini and pineapple sticks – because of the seaweed, it still clearly tastes like sushi. In Pizza Crudo del la Casa (€7.90) the base is made with dried seeds and has a slightly bitter, nutty flavour which the tomato sauce and roasted vegetables balance with their mild and sweet taste. The "ricotta" on top is made of cashews. Pasta is replaced with sliced courgette in the "lasagna" (€8.50), and the side salad is instantly a new favourite: rucola and pear with a garlic dressing. Everything is as bright and colourful on the palate as on the plate. I tried a super healthy green smoothie (€2.80) while A played it safe with a fresh apple juice (€3) – we pretended to be health nuts and skipped beer and wine. Gesund & sündig is definitively not just for hippies, but dinner there was delicious, interesting and filling. If only it was a little closer to home: I'm certain we'd visit again and bring tons of adventurous friends with us!

LebensfRoh

This homely café opened next to Görlizer Park in August. They're not very busy on the Tuesday morning when we've decided to have breakfast there. The café is filled with sunlight and the lonely voice of Kurt Cobain singing from the Unplugged album – I had the song "Jesus don't want me for a Sunbeam" stuck in my head all day afterwards. For breakfast the choice is between raw müsli (€4) and chestnut porridge (€3), but a plate of raw food crackers with assorted spreads, olives and veggies sounds like Berlin breakfast to me (small plate, €5). The porridge is nice: slightly sweet, sticky and a little grainy. For another euro it comes with fresh fruit or warm fruit puree. The Hertzhafter Teller is simple: two crackers piled with different spreads, a salad, olives and some grapes. They're out of many items, and so I'm asked if it's ok to use a milk-based spread, too, rather than vegan. The plate is nice, but not exactly as filling as a Berliner might expect after having paid €5. If I'm around the area, I might want to pop by again to try their raw courgette pasta or one of their daily dinner specials to really make up my mind about LebensfRoh.

A city in the cloud - or - Vegetarian Dinner Club visit

2011-11-09T20:39:00.001+01:00

All of Berlin was covered in a beautiful cloud of fog today. I wanted to take photographs of everything I saw: the TV tower disappearing into whiteness, the windows of the Park Inn Hotel slowly fading into invisibility, the Volksbühne's outlines blending with the grey veil around it, the traffic lights glowing insistently, multiplied by reflections in the fog particles. It was a beautiful day, even if you couldn't see much more than a few buildings ahead.

Work was a hurried affair. Lately, I've been up reading all night and today I had turned off my alarm and slept until noon. And then I closed my eyes again and slept another hour. At work I noticed that I had double-booked myself by promising to sit in on a meeting at 2pm, as well as have a tandem lunch with K. Back in the office at 3.30, my colleague W reminds me that I made dinner plans with him only yesterday – for 5pm.

I've wanted to check out the Kurukshetra Vegetarian Dinner Club for over two years now: ever since I saw their flyer in Mauerpark. W and I lock our bikes outside an Indian shop that looks just like any other hippie store specialising in incenses and wooden pearl bracelets. A blond girl with markings painted between her eyebrows tells us that if we're here for dinner, it's through the backdoor. She opens it for us and points us in the right direction: take a left after the yoga hall. Luckily we get some help and we find the homely dining room decorated with a half of a straw hut and pillow strewn chill out corner.

The dinner club serves a vegetarian all-you-can-eat meal for €4.50 every work day between 5-8pm. Each day of the week has it's own menu that you find out there, or by signing up to the newsletter. As we take a seat, an older woman with long, gray hair comes to ask us if we want some of her own blend of magical herbal tea. We politely accept and I ask her if how long the Club has been around? She tells us that she's native American, a wold citizen who's travelled everywhere, teaching and uniting people in peace and love. I compliment her tea and ask her if there's licorice in it – there are six herbs in it, that's why it's magical, she replies. The conversation is interesting, but not very informative. We are brought a plate of pasta and tomato sauce each and dig in. The sauce has a great taste, but the pasta is watery and over cooked, so I leave most of it. We converse about Norwegian black metal bands and mass-murderers, as well as about work and ecstasy parties. Another plate appears in front of both, this time with a veggie burger and a stuffed bell pepper. The veggie burger is fantastic: it has great texture, great flavour and is completed by a slice of cheese, tomato and cucumber. I'm so stuffed that I can barely look at the bell pepper, but out of curiosity I have a bite anyway. Luckily I concentrated my efforts on the burger, because the pepper is really bland. We get a refill of the magical tea and dessert bowls with a generous cut of chocolate cake. Somehow, neither one of us has a problem with finishing the whole piece. Even if not every single component was to my liking, everything was all right – and when the dishes were good, they were fantastic. If we were only served the burgers, cake and tea I would have been happy to pay €4.50 for that alone! Surely this is one of the best dinner deals in Berlin.

Vegan restaurants with mom

2011-11-08T22:13:00.000+01:00

After a week-long visit I walked my mom to the TXL bus stop on Alexanderplatz. Depending on how you see it, my mom is a really easy or a really difficult guest: she doesn't want to do much and has no demands. She's been to Berlin four times and prefers to stay local and take it easy. For me it's really trying, because it means that we sit around our flat a lot and all the little things that annoy a daughter about her mother stew. But all in all I was a well behaved adult for the whole week – I found that a glass of wine worked wonders on the nerves!

We did do something; a visit to TK Maxx in Charlottenburg (the Neukölln shop is nicer and less crowded), coffees with my friends who are learning Finnish, watched Christiane F. – Kinder vom Banhof Zoo, spent a Sunday afternoon at Mauerpark... And I managed to lure my mom and A with me to try two new vegan restaurants in Berlin: Lucky Leek in Prenzlauer Berg and Kopps in Mitte.

Lucky Leek
Lucky Leek offers sophisticated vegan food in a cosy, candle-lit, basement. We arrived early and the only other diners were a tourist couple, seated in a candle-lit corner. I realised that they, too, are Finnish and they try to stay quiet as not to get caught. That's how I know, because that's how Finnish people react to meeting other Finns abroad. The menu is short and sweet: four starters (€4.90-7.90) and four mains (€11.90-12.50), two dessert options (€6.50 each) and the daily specials. Tofu, seitan and soy are given the spotlight in only one or two dishes. In order to sample as many dishes as we could, we went for starters, mains and desserts. My Balinese spiced tofu, topped with a chive pancake and apricot chutney, was refined and hit all the right notes in terms of balance and texture. A's essence of shitake mushroom turned out to be a bitter broth with root vegetables and pearls of barley – the only disappointment of the evening. The mains were all wonderful: linguine with zucchini mini-schnitzels, pumpkin maultaschen with fried mushrooms and a creamy (vegan!) hollandaise and a roasted aubergine and bell pepper picatta served with thick chestnut noodles and a flavourful ragout of tomato and orange. Our plates were practically licked clean when our waiter came to clear up. Asking if the amazing nougat-chocolate tiramisu really was made in-house was clearly an insult: all the desserts are home-made. My mom said the tiramisu was the best dessert she ever had. I would not recommend anyone to skip dessert at Lucky Leek!

Kopps
Yesterday we tried Kopps, a vegan restaurant and bar that opened in September. It's great that vegan restaurants don't settle for a homely or a hippie look: Kopps looks like a designer hotel bar with soothing dark wood tables, sleek blue walls and upholstery in sophisticated greens. The menu sounds generic, mid-range: tuna salad, schnitzel, goulasch, roulade, mashed potatoes, serviettenknödel and blaukraut. The difference is of course, that Kopps serves only vegan food – not even your milchkaffee will be made with cow's milk here – which means that the menu has a lot of soy in different forms. The service is prompt and comes with a smile from the healthy looking, tall, german guys, all clad in black. As our drinks arrive, we have already gotten a basket of bread and a bowl of an interesting, butter-like spread that tastes of eggs and fresh onion – but apparently made of chick peas and pasta. I went for the three-course evening menu of pumpkin soup, cordon bleu and a selection of desserts (€19.50). This time it was A who had the highlight of the meal: battered fresh field mushrooms with a dill-remoulade and lemon (€5.90) – the best battered mushrooms I ever had! I'll go back just for those, I think... And they set the tone for a rustic, hearty meal. The braised vegetables with polenta (€8.90) represented the vegetarian dish that you would find on the menu in many ordinary restaurants: not very exciting (except that the roasted polenta comes in slices cut to look like toast halves – fun!). To my joy the cordon bleu did not taste much like processed soy and the crispy breading together with the beefy mash made the dish into real comfort food. The goulash (€11.50) that had me so excited before our visit, had great flavour, but the soy pieces had an unpleasant texture and that distinct taste of cupboard that soy has. The trio of deserts was plenty for the three of us: a little bowl of cremé brulee, marinated pears and a chocolate-orange brownie. The cremé brulee was amazing, the other two were unnecessary: just get me another bowl of the brulee, please!

Paleo dining with the inlaws

2011-10-27T20:49:00.000+02:00

When we bought Blitzdeal vouchers for three course dinners at Sauvage, we decided to take A's parents out for a special dinner when they visit. The parents were here last week, with A's nieces in tow, but it was the middle of print week for me so I didn't get to see them much. But we did go for a paleolithic dinner, and I do think we gave them something to talk about at home!

Sauvage opened last spring in Neukölln and is the first paleo restaurant in Europe – probably even the only one. The concept is home-made, sugar-free, gluten and grain free, organic and transfat-free food, and nothing is processed, sprung from agriculture or a domesticated origin. Be prepared for a whole new dining experience!

The menu is short but sweet. On the night we visited, the mains ranged from about 12-19 euro and for a vegetarian option the rump-steak, chicken fillet and swine medallion could be swapped for fried mushrooms to accompany the inventive side dishes. This was a bit surprising since the portion became considerably less filling. Three of the four vegetarians among us instead opted for the large antipasti selection for a main dish, but that, too, had to be specially ordered as vegetarian. I didn't think cavemen had access to so much meat.

While we waited we curiously tasted and analysed the starter of crackers served with rucola and tomato dips and a tapenade. One of the most exciting things at Sauvage is really their breads: held together by vegetable puree, nuts and seeds replace the wheat and grain you'd usually bake with, and the taste is nutty and full. The main dishes were all delicious and I can warmly recommend the adventure that is the antipasti plate. The only disappointment was dessert – maybe we were just too full to appreciate our hefty slices of carrot, orange and ginger cake, but it tasted like cold baby food mash, spiced with cinnamon. Next time I'll order the intense, unsweetened, coconut-milk hot chocolate and share the big glass with A for a dessert instead.

The atmosphere is very cosy and we didn't even realise that we'd spent four hours at the restaurant until we had to hurry to the U-Bahn to make sure we caught the last train home.

Sunday at Stroke.Artfair 2011

2011-10-17T00:22:00.001+02:00

Today we had to admit that we need to turn on the heating in the apartment. Even for just a few hours per day. It's cold. I'm wearing mittens when I cycle to work. But the sun has been shining a lot and the trees still have most of their leaves, so it's not feeling too grim.

Today we slept in – it feels like we haven't seen each other for ages – so we just laid there and chatted and laughed until it was already well into the afternoon. A made us breakfast sandwiches from the insanely good carrot and walnut bread we ordered with our organic veggies.

The only goal of the day was to make it to the urban art fair, Stroke.Artfair 2011, at Postbahnhof. It was on the whole weekend, but since A is building a new studio space with T, he's been busy playing Bob the Builder. Probably because it was the last hours of the art fair, it was packed. I found it impossible to concentrate on any of the graffiti, illustrations, comics or graphic design pieces on display because of the bustle: people kept scurrying past between the paintings and me, and there was no space to step back and really look at anything. It was a pity, because there was a lot to look at. Maybe next year we should try to get out of bed a little earlier...

African food at Yaam

2011-10-10T23:00:00.000+02:00

Even if it's now apparent that the last days of indian summer are over, I hope we get another chance to go to Yaam and eat domoda again, the Gambian peanut stew we had there when A came to Berlin a week ago. Our friends tipped us off already ages ago that the food alone at Yaam is wort the visit, and especially this peanut sauce. I was very disappointed to not get to try any deep fried plantain, though, because they were out. But that alone is a good reason to eat there again!

Girls' visit

2011-10-10T22:47:00.001+02:00

It was ten days of coffee, cocktails and chuckles when the girls came to Berlin. A, my oldest, bestest friend came all the way from Lisbon; she staid five days with her brother and E and five days at ours. S came for the girls' trip from Helsinki and K all the way from Finnish Lappland.

We were so excited to see each other that things got a little bit out of hand once in a while, as it so easily does for us Finns. On Friday we were at my colleagues house party and I realised that this was the seventh day of drinking... But you could tell we're too old for that: we were all really tired and went home at one, after a midnight Halloumi in Brot.

We did not just go to bars and party, we had some dinners at home, too: a pancake party at E's and A's and an Indian dinner at ours. We did some shopping and on Thursday we even took our guests outside of Friedrichshain and went to see the Hokusai exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau. All in all, I was sad to see the girls go, even if it's now nice to rest a little. I slept until 1pm today...

Vegan weekend in Berlin

2011-09-27T00:30:00.000+02:00

Last weekend our mutual friend K was visiting E here in Berlin and since she's pretty much vegan, it turned into a vegetarian delight.

One of the best breakfasts Berlin has to offer is the Sunday vegan/vegetarian brunch at Morgenrot in Prenzlauer Berg. We sat down there at just after 11.30 – exactly the same time as everyone else seemed to have arrived. And by 1pm, when we were done, the place was all quiet again. Lesson learned!

We continued to Mauerpark, where I found a really pretty but useless hand made glass bowl for two euro. Unfortunately the park is so popular now that it's not a very relaxing Sunday afternoon spot – but you can always skip the market and just enjoy the sun on the grassy slopes.

Thanks to K I also tried a few new things this weekend. Since we were already in P'Berg, we walked a bit further up north and checked out the vegan supermarket Veganz that's opened on Schivelbeiner Straße – one of the first ones in Europe! It turned out that the shop actually isn't open on Sundays, only their café is, but the girls there were nice enough to let us shop a little anyway. I was happy to find gluten flour because we've been searching for it around Berlin's organic shops in order to attempt to make home made seitan.

For dinner we ended up at Yoyo in Friedrichshain, where we decided to finally try the vegan pizzas – we always say we will, but end up getting one of their amazing burgers instead. To get the full experience we all ordered different pizzas: one salami, one tuna and one with rucola. They were all ok, but the pizza without any processed fake meat was the best one (of course). Also, the tomato sauce was in need of some more love. Next time I'll order a burger.

After a late night with white wine yesterday, today we hung out for one last coffee before K had to fly back to Finland and managed to make that a vegan affair at Cupcake, the American cupcake café on Krossenerstraße in Friedrichshain. I must say that this pink raspberry cupcake was the best one I've ever had and the fact that it was vegan was just unbelievable! It was fluffy, moist, creamy... delicious. The frosting was on the hyper sweet side for us non-Americans and so the cupcake was perfect for sharing.

"The girls" are coming for a visit to Berlin next week and I'm hoping we'll get to try out a few other new veggie haunts then, like the newly opened Lucky Leek in Prenzlauer Berg, Vegikreuz near Ostkreuz, the legendary Cookies Cream restaurant/club and the much applauded Café Vux cake café in Neukölln... And, and, and... :)

Veggie delivery

2011-09-26T23:19:00.000+02:00

On Friday our doorbell rang at about 1.30 when our first Regionalkiste was delivered. A crate filled with fresh, regional, organic, fruit and veg from the company Märkische Kiste was handed over. How exciting it was to unpack and find incredible apples and plums, crisp lettuce, carrots, red cabbage, parsley and swiss chard (mangold). The smallest crate size costs about €12 and you can set up a standing order for a weekly delivery. The delivery day depends on what area you live in – Friedrichshain gets its produce on Fridays.

It's like being on Top Chef and getting a mystery box to cook with! I've never cooked with red cabbage or swiss chard before, so these were particularly exciting finds. I can't wait for it to be Friday again, so we get another delivery!

Vote!

2011-09-18T14:30:00.000+02:00

Today I woke up to the sound of rain pattering outside the window. We were supposed to go to our friend's house for a leaving-Berlin-sale at 11.30, but there was no way we could muster up strength to hurry to Rosenthaler Platz. Instead we gave ourselves more time to go voting in the local elections. I'm so impressed that we foreigners get to vote here, even if limitedly: just for the party and only for the district we live in – and it didn't require any special effort besides showing up. This probably only applies to us lucky EU citizens, I think. After proudly registering our vote, we strolled over to pick out breakfast supplies at the bakery.

Now A and S are in the bedroom/studio working on a pitch for a coffee commercial tune and I'm on my way to have election day cake at S and L's. A perfect Sunday will be topped off at the Indian vegetarian/vegan restaurant Satyam in Charlottenburg, where the brunch buffet is available until 8pm and we get to enjoy the ever so interesting company of K, with whom the conversation is always on a pretty intelligent level, but the laughs are constant.

ROA in Berlin

2011-09-13T21:44:00.001+02:00

Last week I was in a lot of pain and I went to the doctor again on Friday. I got prescribed more ibuprofen for what apparently was inflamed muscles over my ribs – from all the coughing. As a result I didn't use my free tickets to the annual Preview Berlin and I declined the opportunity to be sneaked in to Berlin Festival, but tried to take it easy and rest a bit. A decision I slightly regret.

On Sunday I, none the less, went to the finissage of the small Skalitzers Contemporary Art gallery in Kreuzberg who were showing an insanely cool collection of art from their 2011 artists. I wanted to see the incredible work by ROA, Belgian street artist extraordinaire. After the gallery visit we decided to go across the street to view some more of ROA's work: at the bottom of a sand pit, the very Pippi Longstocking-esque biergarten called Kjosk (at the corner of Oranienstraße and Skalitzer Straße), is defined by a white brick wall covered in large, black, hand-painted, dead animals. They're very impressive and make this makeshift biergarten worth a visit; we enjoyed a good chat and a cold OBC – Original Berlin Cidre.

Later I also ate at Yellow Sunshine on Wiener Straße for the first time, and in my slightly hung over state their Lappland Cheese Burger was just the best fake-meat burger I've ever had... Mmmm...

Betahaus

2011-09-06T23:36:00.002+02:00

Two weeks ago, at the Screen Print Festival 2011 in Stattbad Wedding, our new friend R told E and me about Open Design City, a space in Kreuzberg where you can rent tools and appliances and get help for your more ambitious design projects. We were particularly interested in screen printing possibilities, but also curious to know what other things can be made there, like with laser cutters or soldering equipment.

The ODC is a part of Betahaus, so to familiarise with ODC you have to go on a tour of Betahaus, a shared office space where you can rent a desk by the day or by the month. Tours are available twice a week and are free of charge. I now know three people who work there, so I was curious to see what it's like.

E and I were on time like proper Finns tend to be – R was nowhere to be seen. Later I saw her message on Facebook, saying she'd been held back at the office.

Betahaus is very impressive: it's big, it's airy, it's light. If it wouldn't sound so corny, I'd describe it as an inspiring environment. The Open Design City space, on the other hand, seemed small. There was no one there to explain precisely what tools are available and what the possibilities there are, so that part of the tour was very disappointing.

As we sat down in the downstairs café afterwards, an American girl who'd also been on the tour asked to join us. We had a nice chat among graphic designers and as we were leaving AS wanted us to reveal which guy from the guided tour we would date if we HAD to. She was quite taken with the amount of cute guys she spotted at the premises. We made diffuse plans to meet up at an art gallery later in the week – so if nothing else, I made another friend today!

Balcony efforts

2011-09-06T22:47:00.000+02:00

As a reward for our tenacious gardening we reaped 12 potatoes – a lunch together with a salad made with cherry tomatoes and chives, also from the balcony. All the sweet peas (all 20 of them) we ate in June, the courgettes refused to grow anything but pretty flowers and dusty leaves, and the chilies we are still waiting for. Let's hope that the sun is still kind on us this week!

Sweet was yesterday, sweet is the weekend

2011-09-01T22:30:00.001+02:00

On Tuesday we made beetroot soup and apple pie for E, who's still waiting for her Prince A to arrive in Berlin (tomorrow!). Yesterday I shared a cheese platter and later a glass of red wine at Süß war Gestern (photo) with AK, a Polish girl I've been introduced to by a mutual friend in Dublin. Today, I'm staying at home, wearing woollen socks and drinking tea. I need to rest up for a busy weekend: on Friday a new club, Der Geheime Garten, is opening in Friedrichshain, on Saturday it's Torstrassenfestival (I'm very excited to see Hush Hush perform in KaffeeBurger at 15.30) on Sunday it's an open doors day at the Nordische Botschaften, the Nordic Embassies (I interpret that as an opportunity to buy Finnish bread and cinnamon rolls). No rest then!

Culture at the pool

2011-08-29T14:18:00.000+02:00

Yesterday E and I popped by the Screenprint Festival in Stattbad Wedding. It was the second day of the festival and we arrived late, so there wasn't as much enthusiasm floating around as there probably was on Saturday. Some cool posters and printed items were on sale in the shop, we saw a live screen printing exhibit, there were dj's, pizza and drinks. The event will become annual, we were told, so next year we'll try to make it there earlier! While watching the printing at the bottom of the swimming pool and sipping on our (free!) Jägermeister cocktails (who knew Jägermeister can be made into a delicious drink?!) a German girl came up and started talking to us. She told us about other similar events going on and at the S-Bahn station, on our way home, we exchanged phone numbers. So it might be a very artsy and craftsy winter!

Gardens of the world

2011-08-27T18:37:00.000+02:00

Yesterday was HOT. Sticky. Berlin summer. Being the realist that I am, I figure it was the last day of summer this year, and wanted to make the most of it. My stupid cough and rib pains haven't completely given way yet, but if I would have staid buried at the bottom of the sofa for the whole duration of this illness, I would have now been stuck there for six weeks. Coincidentally, that's also how long I haven't smoked a single cigarette for!

Anyway, it was too hot to consider cycling to the Gärten der Welt in Marzahn, a trip I've been planning all summer. Instead we went by public transport; a U-Bahn and bus combo.

We spent a couple of hours walking through the different gardens, we had tea and biscuits in the Chinese tea house, we figured out the big labyrinth (eventually) and then laid down on the grass with our books for a while. A really good, summery day.

Maybe I shouldn't have finished it by getting drunk at Jägerklause...

Suppe & Mucke 2011

2011-08-20T13:00:00.001+02:00

It's Suppe & Mucke today – soup stands and live music on five different stages around Sonntagstrasse, Holteistrasse and Gryphiusstrasse. Last years event was in our Kiez and we sampled a lot of free soup, but the weather was rainy so we heard less music. Let's see how it works out today, we're off to pick up E in an hour or so!

Familiarising with the Ostkreuz Kiez

2011-08-16T23:55:00.004+02:00

Yesterday we helped move E into her new, big, empty apartment. It took us seven minutes to move her stuff and the furniture we donated downstairs, after another half hour it was all in the hallway of her building. Pretty efficient. We found Will, a man with a van, on Craigslist Berlin who charged €25 per hour for driving and a little lifting. He is from Wales, drives and old fire engine and seemed very sweet.

After inaugurating the apartment with a few post-move beers, we met S and L for delicious Asian tapas at Transit on Sonntagstrasse. When we changed locations to next door bar So Frosch – a slightly creepy, frog-themed, whiskey bar – R and I joined us after a day of touristing. Despite the over-the-top theme it's a nice bar: the service was great, the whiskey list very impressive, the cocktails delicious and the prices fair. I got a bit envious of R and I's smoked salmon sandwiches (€2.10 each) that looked properly English and very fresh. Maybe this will become E's local pub and I'll get another go at a So Frosch cocktail (Bushmills, lime syrup and apple juice; €5) and a sandwich.

We ended up for one more drink at the nearby Tussi Lounge – the corner of Sonntagstrasse and Holteistrasse. If ever a bar could be described as retro style, then this is it. It's very cute, and the funny thing is that it's a hair salon, too, so you can get a blow dry while you sip on your cocktail. We didn't, though!

E sent me a text message this morning saying she survived her first night in her new home, even if it was pretty exciting. I'm glad, but not surprised.

So Frosch

Tussi Lounge

A doctor's visit in Berlin

2011-08-16T23:46:00.002+02:00

I've been coughing for over four weeks and have developed a pain somewhere in my ribs, so that EVERYTHING hurts, specially to cough. A week ago, on Monday, I waited for almost an hour at a practice on Rigaer Strasse to see a doctor who barely had time for me. After listening to my lungs he pretty much said it's all ok: I was in and out in three minutes. When my cough still hadn't gotten better after a week and the pain had gotten worse, I gave up and went to the doctor's office again. This time I wasn't confronted with an overcrowded room of sickly, elderly people: besides me there were only two pretty healthy looking women in the waiting room.

When you enter a doctor's office in Berlin, you enter the waiting room and you say a greet the people there with a nonchalant 'Hallo' or 'Tach'. You proceed to the receptionist's desk, where you greet her and present her with your health insurance card – there might be no one at the desk, only a little bowl or basket to put your card into. You might be expected to sit down while being processed and wait for being called up again to pay the administrative fee of €10 (mostly cash only, of course).

Yesterday, when the receptionist finally got around to processing my card, she called me up to her desk and told me very apologetically, that I was there at the wrong time. "Your doctor's hours don't start until after two o'clock, you could come back then?". "Can I not see the other doctor?" "No," she said confused "you have to wait for your own doctor." It was such an idiotic conversation that I decided to leave!

After desperately having trodden around the block, going into another doctor's office with only closed doors and cardiologists, I finally found a doctor in the old Stalinist building of Frankfurter Allee 27 who I was extremely happy with; an older man with not much hair, but a white rim around his head, glasses, kind eyes and a white lab coat. When I entered his office, he shook my hand. His German was pretty easy to understand, maybe he dumbed it down for the foreigner a bit. He put me on a nine day antibiotic regimen, wrote a prescription for painkillers and offered to give me a few days sick leave, which I declined, feeling too guilty about the workload for the coming seven days. But still, hopefully I'm on the mend now!

The Bermuda triangle & Pop shopping

2011-08-14T18:15:00.001+02:00

Summer.Pop.Shopping.

E returned to Berlin on Wednesday and I'm feeling a lot stronger, if not completely cured from my cough, so we've been wining and dining around Friedrichshain for the past few days. Also, the very entertaining R and I are visiting Berlin this week, so with them we drank even more.

Like in the Bermuda triangle, we seem to gravitate towards the same little area in Friedrichshain: we end up on Gärtnerstrasse because of Yoyo Foodworld (amazing vegan burgers!), Kaufbar (like having coffee and waffles at your grandmother's) and Szimpla (cheap drinks). We find ourselves on Wühlischstrasse because we eating at Spätzle & Knödel (delicious, heavy German fare) and Datscha (Russian cuisine, vodka and an amazing Sunday brunch) or bringing our guests to Hops & Barley (micro brewery for the beer-geeky tourists). Often we head down Simon-Dach-Strasse to have a vodka with rhubarb juice at Kpnt A.Müller (cosy, cheap drinks), and if Kapten is full the backup plan is that we continue walking south to the RAW Tempel area. This is where we have been bouncing around for the last few days.

Yesterday we broke the pattern by visiting Summer.Pop.Shopping at the Alte Münze in Mitte – a designer shopping event by the same people who organise the Holy.Shit.Shopping Christmas market. My biggest criticism is that the entry is three euro; I find it crazy to charge people to enter a market! Other than that, it was good fun – I came home one cool t-shirt richer, 15 euro poorer.

Sunday stroll

2011-08-08T23:43:00.001+02:00

Last night A convinced me that even if I wasn't feeling my best, to leave the house would make me feel a little bit better. He was right, because as we strolled along the Open Air Gallery lane on Oberbaumbrücke, we happened to catch another event happening in Berlin; Aquarella Berlin, floating on the Spree.

Art about waves and art on the bridge

2011-08-05T16:03:00.002+02:00

I got to take this really pretty poster home from the office, and I'm so inspired by it that I want to go to Martin-Gropius-Bau to see the whole Hokusai retrospective! Art is in the air: this Sunday is the second Open Air Gallery of the summer and the Oberbaumbrücke closes for traffic and opens for artists, galleries and music, and I'll definitively make my Sunday stroll go over the bridge!

Nice enough for a parental visit

2011-08-03T22:11:00.000+02:00

Not to miss any of the sunshine and heat today, we decided we were allowed to eat out again. After work we cycled to Holteistraße, to sit in the calm atmosphere of the garden at Turnhalle. It really is a hidden gem with Moroccan style loungey sofas, bubbling little water fountains and plenty of room. The building itself, a former school gymnasium, is historically protected being a prime example of socialist neoclassical architecture. The atmosphere at Trunhalle is fancier than in your usual Friedrichshain hang out, and so are the prices – by a little. I tried the Kartoffelgnocchi with sun dried tomatoes and parmesan, he had the salmon pizza (€7.50 each) and we were both really pleased with what was brought to us, and it was pretty to look at, too. This is the perfect place for a mini-vacation: it doesn't feel like Berlin, it feels like Potsdam or Portugal, depending on the day! I'd like to come here on the weekend to try the Saturday breakfast buffet (€6.50) or the Sunday brunch buffet (€9.50) next.

Sunshine, my only sunshine

2011-08-02T19:11:00.002+02:00

Today has been a sunny and beautiful day. How we've missed those! I'm feeling a lot better, and although I wouldn't say I'm completely well yet, I felt well enough to not want to spend yet another day indoors. At two o'clock I packed my Fisherman's Friends, my ibuprofen and my magazine, dusted the spiders off my cycle saddle (literally) and hopped on the bike in search of brunch and sun.

I ended up on a sunny bench at Datscha, ordered a plate of mixed Russian starters (Kollektiv, €11), a tall glass of rhubarb schorle and waited for A to come join me after work. I didn't have to wait alone: the yucky wasps are flying about like crazy this time of year and they are HUNGRY.

(No real news about A's brother-in-law yet. He's trying to wake up now and the signs are all good, so we're keeping fingers and toes crossed that he wakes up soon, as himself.)

Social starvation. Coughing.

2011-08-01T19:53:00.001+02:00

August. Still coughing. It still hurts.

I was supposed to go to work today, but felt really sore. When I called the office and found out that my bosses aren't going to be in the office before Wednesday, I decided to stay home until then, too. Most days I haven't even left the house, and when I have, it's been to go to the pharmacy or the supermarket – and once to go shopping: I got new leggings and a dress at Prachtmädchen and a pair of on sale jeans at Zartbitter. My social interactions have been pathetically few:
1. We had dinner with S and L at Seth. Excellent, cheap Indian food.
2. I had tapas with the girls, L and A at Tafelgold. Good girl talk, even though I was too tired to participate as much as I normally would – mediocre tapas: too greasy for my taste.
3. My cousin J and his "new" girlfriend were in Berlin and we met up for dinner and a tour-de-Friedrichshain's-bars.

I'm lucky that this has weather-wise been one crappy July – maybe I would have stayed in and watched the rain, sick or healthy? Who knows.

On top of it all we got some really bad news on Saturday morning. A's brother-in-law got into an accident where he hit his head. A's sister found him unconscious a few minutes later and R was rushed to hospital, where he during the next 24-hours had brain surgery twice and was put into a coma. We still don't know what's going to happen, except that R is now stable and out of the coma, just sleeping now.

Heavily self-medicating with Fisherman's Friend and ibuprofen.

Swedish candy

2011-07-22T12:42:00.000+02:00

Mmmm... E and I made a deliciously dangerous discovery a few weeks ago when innocently opening a bank account for her: Herr Nilsson (Wühlischstrasse 58) sells pick and mix candy from Sweden, Finland and Denmark for €1.60/100g. My favourite cola bottles and marshmallow mushrooms are there, only the selection of salmiakki (like salty liquorice) leaves a bit to be desired. The chocolate selection on the other hand is pretty terrific: Marabou, Fazer and Cloetta. The shop has only been open for about two months now, and I hope it does well.

When I took A there yesterday, he was delighted to realise that he can by his favourite chips in Berlin: Cheez Doodles, aka Ostbågar, aka Juustosnacks. I'm so glad we don't live any closer to Herr Nilsson, or we'd be in there every other day!

Great Indian restaurant

2011-07-21T13:36:00.003+02:00

or "How I missed the Berlin restaurant bills"

A's been working since we got back to Berlin on Monday. I've had a cough that just won't stop. We've kept a low profile, stayed at home, ate our Finnish chocolates and salmiakkis.

When S and L wanted to know if we'd have a quick dinner or drink with them last night, they didn't need to ask twice. It was about time to see other people again. We met at Seth, and Indian/Pakistani restaurant I just read about on Spotted by Locals. I'm not a huge fan of Indian restaurants – usually the food is not flavourful enough, only creamy and heavy. I ordered Alu Bengen (€3.90); aubergines and potatoes in a curry sauce, and A ordered Champignon Masala (€4.99) – both excellent. All four of us were very happy with our dishes, and it was the best Indian experience I've had in a long time! The only criticism I have was that my mango lassi wasn't much to brag about, and in typical Berlin fashion I had to ask for my tap water twice. Our waiter was super nice, the restaurant clean and cosy and the food delicious and price-worthy: our whole meal for two came to €15! I think you'll see us at Seth's quite often.

30

2011-07-19T13:37:00.002+02:00

Before we went to Finland I turned 30. Not so note-worthy, I find, but did we celebrate with a lovely picnic in our living room. Most of the guests didn't know it was a birthday picnic - I don't like to make a fuss. So without stress (but a bad hangover from staying at Rosi's until 7am) we lounged in our living room with a few good friends, drank sparkling wine and ate bulgur salad, Portuguese cheeses, turkish pastes, bread, spiced cashews and pea soup, with a side of fresh cherries and strawberries. The people in the know gifted me with bottles of organic sparkling wine and to practice my German M&M had picked out the book Herr Lehmann by Sven Regener for me.

During our holidays at home both A's and my birthdays were of course celebrated repeatedly. A's mom gave me a gorgeous pair of silver earrings and my dad got A a vintage microphone that he was over the moon about. I got books and gift cards, and I started to believe that maybe turning 30 was a big deal.

Finnish summer

2011-07-18T16:08:00.003+02:00

After a two week break from Berlin and from the internet, I'm excited to be home. Everyone who's lived abroad knows that a visit home is no vacation, it's work. You have to meet all the friends and family members you can, no one can be left out, because that would be unfair. You feel guilty and stressed a lot. Everyone also wants to offer coffee or a beer - either way, a lot of drinking is involved.

I shouldn't complain. Finland was so much fun and everyone showed us so much love! We got tons of birthday presents and we did a lot of fun stuff like go to the amusement park in Helsinki and chill out at A's family's summer house; swimming, boating, barbecuing, sauna-ing. I read two and a half books (two Swedish mystery novels and half of Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban). We also made sure we ate an insane amount of new potatoes with butter, fresh smoked salmon and locally grown sweet peas. Nothing quite compares to summer at home!

Relocating to Berlin

2011-07-01T00:08:00.002+02:00

It has been a very exciting week for me - one of my best friends moved to Berlin last Wednesday. E's staying with us until August, when she and A will get their own apartment. We won't live together the whole time, though: we'll be on holidays for two weeks and when we come back, E's going to Finland for two weeks, too. We have been getting along really well in close quarters, and I'm almost sad to leave for our holiday in Finland on Sunday. We've been taking it easy and have just been sitting in cafés, biergartens, parks or at home, chatting and catching up.

When escorting E to get registered at the Bürgeramt, to get a prepaid sim-card and to open a bank account I've realised just how easy it is for an EU-citizen to move around Europe. At work I hear the horror stories of Americans and Australians having to go plead their cases at the Ausländerbehörde. The only thing an EU-citizen HAS to do when moving to Berlin is to register their residency and address at the Bürgeramt. This took E about ten minutes: upon arrival to the Amt I realized that it was crowded and asked if we could make an appointment - a Termin - instead of just waiting for our number to come up. We got an appointment that was three minutes away. "Termin" seems to be the magic word around here! It can also be booked online.

Now I feel really guilty for leaving E alone in Berlin for two weeks... Luckily she's an independent girl and will go on a language course, bike shopping and on photo walks and will be just fine on her own. Plus some of our friends have offered to keep her company!

Happy at the office

2011-06-15T21:16:00.000+02:00

"Ooooo, heeeeey, puppy-puppy-puppy! Oh, and good morning to the rest of you, too." Since last week, Luzie has been keeping us company – or we've been keeping her company – at the office and her little grunts and gruffs make my day so much better!

A new friend and a trip to Spreepark

2011-06-14T00:45:00.004+02:00

Today was a really great Monday – not only because it was Pfingstmontag and we didn't have to go to work – but I did so many nice things that it felt like a day and a half.

First we had breakfast on the balcony, with some cherries as dessert. I rushed off to meet A, a friend of a friend from Dublin, who's moving to Berlin to do her PhD in autumn. She is very interesting and we had a lot of fun comparing notes on Ireland and the Irish while having coffees and Club Mates – first at Strudel Manufaktur, then Cassiopeia. A has studied architecture and so it was extra fun to walk her around Friedrichshain a little bit – she was very excited about Berlin.

In the afternoon we cycled to Plänterwald where the formerly abandoned amusement park had a "Pfingstfest". When we got there, our friends F and A had just joined the two-hour walking tour (€15, in German only, two tours daily: 1 and 4 pm), and the only other way for us to pass the time was to queue for the little train that takes you around the perimeters of the park in about 10 minutes (€2). A man in a yellow vest told us that the Spreepark will now be open every Saturday, Sunday and holiday, with tours twice a day, so it definitively isn't abandoned anymore. It also has lost it's magic: the area where you are allowed to walk around without paying is tiny, and it's taken over by a biergarten filled with plastic chairs, a children's hoppety-bouncy-gadget and a few amusement park toys dragged to the middle. The staff is bored and slightly annoyed by the guests. The two ways of exploring the grounds are to take the little train where you don't see much, or two pay €15 for a two hour guided walk with up to 50 other participants – nothing in between. Pay or go home.

We walked back to F'hain with F and A (who hadn't brought their bikes) and had a well deserved beer, dinner and an ice-cream. Now I go to bed, also well deserved. The next seven days will be really tough at work.

Trödeln und Strudel

2011-06-12T18:36:00.000+02:00

After a lap around our favourite Berlin flea market, the RAW Flohmarkt in the yard of the former train repair yards along Revaler Strasse, and finding a set of five 70's tea cups, we sat down at Wiener Strudel Manufaktur. I noticed in May that a cosy looking terrace café had opened next to the flea market, and I recognized the logo from the Mauerpark market where my Austrian friend, S, always bought her strudels, explaining to me that these people sold the best strudels in Berlin.

The generous pieces of strudel come with a variety of sweet or savoury fillings, they are heated up and topped with vanilla sauce or Kräuterschmand, and cost €3.50. The drinks are pretty inexpensive at €2 for a cappuccino or €2.50 for a glass of Sekt on crushed ice – guess which one we chose?

It was a perfect Sunday afternoon, sitting in the shade with my feet hot in the sun, sipping on a glass of cold sparkling wine and watching people come and go from the market.

Crops

2011-06-10T11:24:00.001+02:00

Even if this EHEC madness hasn't affected our eating habits – we've been eating at restaurants and making salads and everything – it's super exciting to eat something you've grown yourself. Two days ago we tasted our first balcony grown sweet peas and lettuce, and I suspect we'll be having new potatoes in a few weeks and courgettes (zucchinis) in maybe a month!

Second wind (more guests)

2011-06-09T13:10:00.002+02:00

Just after my brother and his girlfriend left Berlin we got a second guest. K cycled all the way from Copenhagen to Berlin in an organised cycling event to support libraries. She used to live in Berlin, but now lives in Lapland, in the very north of Finland, so she was very excited to be back in a real city. Both nights she was here we accidentally ended up getting pretty drunk – A always left before us, since the poor thing had to go to work in the mornings.

Since it was K's last night yesterday, we wanted to go out for dinner. We circled around Ostkreuz in the area where our mutual friends will move next autumn, and decided to try the restaurant that's pretty literally behind their house, Transit. Our Berlin friends eat there often and are excited about it, so we decided it must be good. When we got there we couldn't decide where to sit, and after a minute, a grumpy German man said to us "Can you please not just sit down!" which made me hate him and ruined the first impression I got of the restaurant. After a while I managed to sneak the guy a "did you seriously tell US off" -look when his kid was misbehaving, and felt much better.

The idea in Transit is that you order Thai and Indonesian style dishes as little tapas plates at €3 each – a few bigger portions come at €7. Almost all the dishes can be ordered as with tofu instead of meat, but the downside is that you end up eating a lot of just tofu. We ordered three dishes each, but if you're on a budget you could order one of the heavy coconut milk curries with a side of noodles or rice (€1), and be pretty content. Everything we sampled was really good, even if my "Party Girl" papaya salad was almost too spicy to finish. The "Little Swimmer" fish soup was the best dish I tried and I'll go back just to get a bowl of it, and lick it clean. If you're hungry and want a lot of drinks, Transit will set you back more than your average Asian restaurant in Berlin, but the gimmick with tapas and writing down your own order doesn't feel too gimmicky when you realize how good the food is.

Jägerklause weekend

2011-06-09T12:42:00.001+02:00

On Saturday we were all tired and hung over – A and M wanted to go play in the studio and make some recordings. K went back to TK Maxx for a second time and I stayed home, reading on the balcony, feeling slightly abandoned. We couldn't muster up much energy and when everyone got back, we just had a quick bite in our downstairs restaurant, an ice cream in our neighbouring ice cream shop and then settled in our favourite biergarten, Jägerklause, for the whole evening. It's a pretty good place to be stuck at, though!

On Sunday we had a full day planned: posh, Russian brunch at Datcha, then flee-marketing at RAW, Boxhagener Platz and Mauerpark. It was a really hot day, almost +30°C, and after stuffing ourselves at Datcha, we were weak. K came about some really good bargains at RAW, M bought a cool briefcase for his base pedal on Boxi... and then we were exhausted.

After a strengthening beer at Jägerklause we had Maultaschen at Hirsch – so good, so affordable – and headed to the Freiluftkino Insel in Cassiopeia. The King's Speech was the only English original version film playing on Sunday, so we got a chance to try a new Freiluftkino venue. It was pretty small and cosy, but almost all the chairs were plastic garden chairs, so I wouldn't go see a very long film there. The King's Speech, on the other hand, was really good and we left for bed with a smile on our faces. That was M's and K's last evening in Berlin.

HBC party for rich people

2011-06-09T12:16:00.001+02:00

You're Only Massive

On Friday we were invited to see our friends from Berlin band You're Only Massive perform as a warm-up for, and later on with, Hanin Elias for her record release party at .HBC on Karl-Liebknecht-Strasse. To my great surprise my rock'n'roll/metal/hard core brother was really excited to see Hanin – I think he had a little mini-crush on her. She was insanely charismatic on stage, so no surprise. The gigs were good, but the room got insanely warm and everyone was sweating and smelly. There was not much comfort in drink, because a small Pilsner Urquell cost €3, and to a Friedrichshainer that is just unforgivable. A vodka mix drink cost €7. We won't be going there for a drink any time soon!

After the gig we hung out with our friends for a few hours, using up their drink tickets. My party-fit brother and I agreed that we still wanted to go somewhere else for drinks, and arranged to meet up with a few guys in Friedrichshain; they'd go by taxi, we'd come by bike. This was at maybe 5 am. On the way M and K got really tired and I could see that they just wanted to go to sleep – but on Frankfurter Tor the two guys were waiting. We ended up in Paule's Metal Eck on Simon-Dach-Strasse and as the sun was coming up we forced ourselves to drink one more beer... We were home at about 7am.

A day trip to Müggelsee

2011-06-09T11:51:00.001+02:00

My brother left Berlin on Monday after almost a week's visit. His girlfriend, K, was new to Berlin, and sneakily A and I pretended to have to go to work and so we let them do the shopping and the sightseeing on their own. The weather was fantastic except for on one day out of six: it rained on Wednesday when M and K were emptying their wallets at TK Maxx Charlottenburg. We did get stuck in a thunderstorm in Treptower Park on Tuesday, too, but we had a great time sitting under the roof of at an outdoor café, drinking Krombacher and waiting it out.

Thursday was Christi Himmelfahrt and M&K's third day in Berlin. I had to do a work assignment that took us to the Müggelsee in Köpenick – a lake I've wanted to visit since last summer when I read about a floating wooden house in the middle of the water, the Spreearche restaurant. The four of us packed sun screen, bathing-suits and bicycles on board the S3 train (which involved a lot of carrying the bikes up and down the stairs) and rode for about 15 minutes until we got off in Friedrichshagen. After cycling south along Bölschestrasse for about 1,5 kilometres we reached the Müggelsee shore. It was crowded with middle-aged people spilling over from the loud biergartens and teenies carrying crates of beer and barbecue equipment around, trying to impress each-other with the loudest music or the biggest amount of drink.

We carried on and crossed the river through the Spreetunnel. The other side was less crowded and noisy. A little bit further from the tunnel (to the right) we found a grassy little plot that was the beach. We had no problem in finding space to sit down, and later we took over the jetty where no one else was sitting. The views toward Friedrichshagen and the old Berliner Bürger Bräu brewery were beautiful and the river was busy with rented motorboats and proud sailboats. The water was pretty cold, but seemed very clean. We all went for a little swim – except for M, who didn't bring a dry pair of shorts to change to.

When we finished our swim we found that the natives had joined us on the jetty: four tattooed 20-something guys. That would never happen at home in Finland – people just don't want to impose on strangers and would find it awkward to have to interact at all. These tattooed Köpenicker boys were there to drink and barbecue, and I have to admit that I was a little intimidated and thought that they might not take kindly to tourists and foreigners. Quatsch! They made friendly chitchat in their restricted English and said they were happy to see tourists visit Köpenick, because it's "the most beautiful part of Berlin".

After drying up a little we started to feel hungry and made our way even further on, towards a little jetty just after the beach. On the jetty we found a big sign saying "Bitte hier klingeln!" with an arrow pointing towards a doorbell. The doorbell sends an alert to the floating restaurant, and they send a wooden raft to collect their guests. Just a few minutes after ringing the doorbell we were on board the Spreearche. We boarded with a big group of twenty middle-aged Germans, but they were escorted upstairs to the roof terrace, and so it was pretty peaceful downstairs and we got one of the four bigger tables without a problem. We started to get really hungry and ran back and forth between our table and the menu written on a blackboard indoors, translating the different food options. The menu didn't have a single vegetarian dish and only two meat dishes, but us flexitarians were happy about the selection of fish: butterfish, plaice, scampi, shrimp, smoked salmon and Matjes herring, all fresh. The cuisine represented a typical German, straightforward style and most dishes came with potatoes in different forms. The plates weren't pretty, but the food was absolutely delicious, and I'd go back to Spreearche in a heartbeat just for those Schwenkkartoffeln and the Frühlingsquark my butterfish was served with. I'm getting hungry just thinking about it!

Müggelsee was a huge success and I can't wait to go back. Coming with our bikes was definitively an advantage, but there's a tram running between the S-Bahn and the shore, too, so you could do without. Maybe next time at Müggelsee we'll rent a boat and dock on to the Spreearche with our own little vessel!

Balcony battle

2011-05-21T21:34:00.001+02:00

Today felt like a perfect summer day!

Without an alarm clock I got up at nine, which is a feat for me. The mission, after some shuffling around the apartment, amazed at how early it was, was to go shopping for plants. About a week ago I realized, that my dear forget-me-nots were infested with aphids. First I just thought it was disgusting. Then I realized they were harming the plant. Then I realized that they will probably spread to all of our balcony plants.

After trawling around the internet for advice, I decided on my first plan of aphid-attack: I combined 100ml vegetable oil and a teaspoon of dish washing liquid (organic) and added one teaspoon to every cup of water I filled my spray bottle with. When an aphid gets sprayed with this, he should be suffocated: the soap breaks up the oil, which then makes the water stick. This helped a little bit, when there were hoards of bugs and they were easy to see. Then I trimmed the forget-me-nots, in hopes of getting rid of the badly affected leaves. After a few days of hunting aphids with a spray bottle, I realized I was never going to get rid of them all like this. More googling suggested that there are herbs and flowers with scents that repel aphids: sage, spearmint, coriander, anise, chives, radishes, tagetes and petunias, for instance. I also found mentions of tomato plants repelling aphids, and then entries about aphid-infested tomatoes.

So today my mission was to go to the Boxhagener Platz farmer's market to shop for plants. I found mini-tomatoes for the balcony (€2 each) and I bought orange tagetes (€0,60/each) and something that looks like a nettle with white rimmed leaves, that the saleswoman said gets rid of aphids. After a gözleme at Boxi and a Milchkaffee at Intimes (Boxhagener Strasse 107) with A, I headed home to pot the plants and clean the balcony. I trimmed the forget-me-nots until they were practically bald. We also bought a bright yellow plastic cup at the Euro store, because aphids love yellow, and if I fill it with water there's apparently a chance they're stupid enough to just kill themselves.

I'm terribly excited to see if any of the tricks work. Finger's crossed the aphids don't eat all our sweet peas or kill our courgette plants by next week!

The Blossom Festival revisited

2011-05-09T21:47:00.001+02:00

The Baumblütenfest in Werder, Brandenburg, is one of my favourite annual festivities around Berlin. Werder is a little town about 40 minutes south of Berlin, known for it's orchards and it's fruit wine. Last year our friend S, who's from close by, was our travel guide and made sure we got the optimal experience. I was so impressed and had such a good time that and told everyone that they HAVE to go there next year. As a result, this year friends, and friends of friends, wanted to come along and in the end a group of 15 boarded the train at Alexanderplatz.

The fruit wine from Werder is reputed to be particularly strong – and is probably the reason this Volksfest is so popular. Avoid the crowded main festival area and schlager fever on the island, and take the Panoramaweg to the top of the hill. Along a stretch of village road there are endless rows of food and home made fruit wine stalls. Private residents set up beer gardens in their yards and the atmosphere is great. To make the most of it you should buy a bottle of local rhubarb wine (about €6), get plastic cups, find a seat with a view over the river Havel and get tipsy!

Summer enough for Freiluftkino

2011-05-09T21:27:00.001+02:00

Freiluftkino is one of my favourite things about Berlin summer, and now the season has kicked off!

A was sure it wouldn't be too cold to FINALLY see the 2010 Banksy film, Exit Through the Gift Shop as it was the opening film of the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg season last Friday. When we found our way in between the buildings on Mariannenplatz we were warm from cycling and it was still not completely dark. We could see rows of beach chairs parked in front of a hoard of green, plastic, garden chairs. The outdoor cinema in Kreuzberg is definitively smaller than Freiluftkino Friedrichshain! We grabbed fold-up beach chairs and found a nice spot in the centre. Typically for Berlin, people arrived late and when the announcer finally got to introduce the film it was already dark. Smartly we'd brought a blanket, but it didn't stop the cold air beneath the chair from soaking through the fabrics and onto my back. By the end of the film I was pretty cold, but hadn't even considered leaving: the film was funny and good, poignantly asking the question: "what is art?" – depth that I hadn't expected.

A chilly May first

2011-05-09T21:00:00.002+02:00

I've suffered another spell of unwillingness to write. From the beginning I wanted to keep a blog about how we are settling in Berlin and what new, lovely things we discover about life here. When we moved to Ireland five years ago I never jotted down a single thought or epiphany I experienced in my new country. But lately it has felt like I'm not stumbling across new things in Berlin anymore, but rather like I'm happy with what I have already discovered. This is my life now.

Still, life has not stopped. Since Easter, when I last updated the blog, summer has arrived. At least for a Finn this is summer – it has been over +20°C most days and we haven't seen rain in weeks.

First of May was chilly and the riots were sparse. I guess all the commotion around closing down Liebig14 and Kunsthaus Tacheles has kept the activists busy and when May came around, they too wanted to take it easy. For the first time we dared venture to the annual MyFest in Kreuzberg, but the icy wind and the hoards of people put a damper on our spirits. We went home and waited for warmer weather!

Boxhagener Platz prepared for rioters on April 29th.

MyFest is not about rioting, it's about eating and drinking in the streets of Kreuzberg!

Easter Sunday brunch

2011-04-25T19:15:00.001+02:00

Our first ever Easter Sunday brunch was yesterday, and we had such a great time. Today we keep having a great time by doing absolutely nothing, ignoring the sunshine and eating leftovers: rhubarb pie for breakfast, chocolate biscotti and mac'n'cheese for dinner :) What else can you do on a Monday, when everything is closed? Maybe plan next year's brunch! Or what we're going to do the next time it's sunny again, and we have nothing to do... Maybe go to Teufelsberg or Müggelsee... One day.

Easter sun waisted

2011-04-23T20:09:00.000+02:00

It's been insanely sunny and warm in Berlin for the past week. Today was +22°C and full-on sun! I, on the other hand, was baking biscotti.

On our last Easter in Dublin we got invited to a traditional Polish Easter Sunday breakfast with our friends. Not knowing what to expect, we were so impressed by this tradition: a four course meal with mimosas, wine, beer and vodka in the morning! The sun was shining, there was plenty to eat, the company was good – we had a great time. Ever since then I've wanted to have a similar Easter tradition, so we'll try to launch it this year by doing a super chilled Easter Sunday Brunch: mimosas, brunch, music - and sun on the balcony.

However chilled I always plan our parties to be, I can't help but stress a little. I want to make all these great dishes, have a lot of food, enough to drink, and a respectably tidy house – somehow this is not as easy as it sounds. But tomorrow should actually be under control, as long as we keep cooking tonight; egg salad with chili (!), tomato and asparagus quiche, mac'n'cheese, bulgur salad, lemon squares...

I'm looking forward to having those mimosas, for sure!

Chocolate pistachio biscotti (makes about 35)
500ml organic wheat flour
4 tbsp dark Fair Trade cocoa powder
1 tsp baking soda + 1 teaspoon salt
OR 2 tsp baking powder (soda is hard to find in the shops here, or I'm looking in the wrong places...)
200g Fair Trade dark chocolate, chopped; half finely, half chunky
200-300ml peeled pistachios, chopped
4 eggs
350ml granulated sugar
+1 egg white

Preheat the oven to 175°C. Mix flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, pistachios and the finely chopped half of the chocolate together. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they're light and fluffy: when ready, the whisk should leave a trail on the surface for a few seconds when lifted. Add the other ingredients, also the chunky chocolate, and beat until they're properly combined – try not to overwork the dough.

The original recipe suggests you turn out the dough on a lightly floured surface to divide it into three equally sized pieces and shape them into logs. I found that there was no way I could work the sticky, gooey dough into anything, so I spooned the dough to the shape of logs onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper. It really doesn't have to be that pretty – just not too flat, since the dough will melt in the oven. Brush the logs with egg white and sprinkle with sugar, if you like.

The Latin origin of the name 'biscotti' means "twice baked", so these biscuits literally are baked twice. First round for about 20 minutes, or until the logs are just firm to the touch. Take the logs out of the oven and let cool for another 20 minutes. When cooled off, cut the logs into 2 centimetre thick slices. Arrange the slices, laying down, on the a baking tray and bake them for another 10-12 minuter, until the biscotti are firm and dry, then let them cool off again.

Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the biscotti will keep for about a week.

Obsession

2011-04-21T15:01:00.000+02:00

I have developed a new obsession – I suspect it is to counter-balance all the excessive partying and beer-drinking I've been doing lately.

Last week we sowed the seeds of sweet peas, courgettes and garlic chives to grow on the balcony this summer. Now I'm obsessed. It's been a week and tiny little heads of green are beginning to sprout. When I get up in the morning it's the first thing on my mind, I have to go and look. I can sit and stare for minutes, sure of changes and growth.

I still want to buy a few strawberry plants and flowers, and was promised a few chili plants by friends who over planted. I am hoping to give them a few courgette plants in exchange.

I think this grandma hobby allows me to party and act like a teenager for a few more weeks, while the sun is shining and we're waiting for the crops...

April 13th – sowing.

Six days later things are finally happening!

Today, eight days later.

Barbecue season opening

2011-04-10T22:15:00.000+02:00

S and D suggested the first barbecue of the season. The weather was great today, especially considering it's not even mid-April yet: +15°C and full on sunshine. After the rough weekend we had, we took the lazy approach to vegetarian bbq: Halloumi in Brot. A also made a bulgur salad, quick and easy. We only brought two beers, to be on the safe side...

When we got to Treptower Park it took us forever to find our friends: everyone and their aunt was there today! Well, except for the hipsters who were at Mauerpark or Görli. When we'd cycled throught most of the park and still hadn't seen anyone familiar setting up a grill, I realised I'd gotten an sms explaining their whereabouts: not on the Insel, but on the left side of the bridge – what? We hadn't even cycled through half of the park yet! We rode along the Spree a bit further still and saw the pretty bridge and the pretty island and found our friends. How come we had never known Treptower Park is so nice? Shame on us! It was such a nice afternoon and evening that I want to bbq every day now!

Insel der Jugend.

The shoestring budget

2011-04-10T13:54:00.000+02:00

After a trip to London we decided to tighten our belts and spend less money. On Monday we went to our local Bio Company branch and bought ingredients for pita breads (with hummous, tomato, avocado and smoked tofu), a miso soup, a potato salad with salmon, and a bulgur salad. No more shopping needed this week, we decided. But what happened budget-wise? On Wednesday I went for a coffee, that turned into beers, with S. On Thursday I drank posh blueberry smoothies over a Sprachtandem in Prenzlauer Berg. On Friday we had invited friends over for dinner, and as the last two girls standing, M and I spontaneously decided to go clubbing at 4am! I suspect that it's not the occasional sushi from downstairs, or midnight pizzas that use up the money. But a good social life is worth paying for :)

Kaffee und Tee on Frankfurter Allee.

London revisited

2011-04-04T15:54:00.001+02:00

We got home from London late last night. It was our third time there and this time around we loved it! When we visited London from Dublin it was just too similar. This time around, too, it almost felt like being back in Dublin, so we got super nostalgic about everything: left-side-traffic, narrow streets, low buildings, Marks & Spencer's food hall, sandwiches, fry-ups, pubs, cidre and friendly people who smile and say 'sorry' a lot (even if not as much as the Irish!).

The reason I got yet another holiday was H&C's wedding in London. Our flights with easyJet were about €170 (two return flights, one check-in bag), and booked a room at the City Road branch of Travelodge – near the chapel where our friends were getting married. From comparing experiences with the other guests at the wedding, it sounded like we got a really good deal on the hotel: the room cost about €64 per night.

We took it really easy the whole weekend, which might of also have contributed to why we liked London so much this time around. We skipped breakfast every morning and slept in. Then we'd go out to find a pub or a café to eat at. All we managed in four days was pretty much to take a stroll around Camden on Friday, attend the wedding on Saturday and walk through a few markets around Brick Lane on Sunday (foodie heaven!) – and to eat and shop at M&S's Foodhall.

Our room at the City Road Travelodge: simple but adequate.

Camden High Street in Camden Town.

Ordnung muss sein, oder?

A vegetarian fry for breakfast at The Master Gunner on Old City Road, where we got amazingly nice service from a bar maid who looked a lot like Phoebe from Friends.

Brick Lane on Sunday.

A shopping and beer drinking weekend

2011-03-29T20:56:00.000+02:00

It was another rough weekend. Nice, too: my friend K was visiting Berlin and we got to catch up a bit: she's getting a divorce, is planning to move to Melbourne and has a new romance going on. I felt really dull in comparison.

Straight from the airport we headed for Kaufbar for coffee and breakfast that instead turned into four beers and a pack of cigarettes. Like I said, there was a lot of catching up to do! On our way to Kaufbar we took a detour to the lovely Broke & Schön shop on Krossener straße and did some unplanned shopping. I've wanted to go there for a while because I was told it's a great new shop where everything is really cheap and cute, which it was.

In the evening we attended the goodbye-dinner for the clever Dr. R, who had to head back to Finland after almost two weeks of celebrating getting her degree. Somehow she always ends up in Paule's Metal Eck and Rosi's, so it was only fitting that that's how her last night in Berlin ended, too. From Rosi's we walked her to the S-bahn: she was pretty drunk and we were seriously concerned that she wouldn't make it to the airport in time for her 7am flight – but she did. Yesterday she did confess to me on Facebook that it had been a bit tricky, since she was falling asleep everywhere!

After a night of very little sleep, we weren't able to do much on Saturday. We had breakfast/brunch at one of our Friedrichshain favourites, the book shop and organic café, Cafe Tasso, on Frankfurter Allee. That's pretty much it. In the evening we tried to go for drinks, but only got as far as to drink one "Bauernhochzeit" drink at Szimpla before feeling overwhelmingly tired.

I was almost glad when Sunday came along and we could just chill at Mauerpark in the sun, until it was time to take K back to the airport...

Party monster (spring in the air)

2011-03-25T00:38:00.000+01:00

This past week I have been celebrating way too much. I've had good reasons, of course: Friday was R's dissertation party at my favourite crazy bar, Zyankali (home at 4am). On Saturday we celebrated S' 30th birthday (home at 6am). On Tuesday we had deadline drinks with colleagues (home at 10pm), and on Wednesday we had a work party – that got seriously weird and crazy with English writers proposing and with friends hooking up with male nannies (home at 6am). On the bright side, I now know that spring is so far along now that at 6 am it's bright and the birds are chirping! This has meant that I have been eating mostly crap, sleeping at odd hours and not checking my emails. Sorry.

Today I was a nice between-parties-day, and A and I got some veggie hang-over food at Vöner – a vegan döner restaurant on Boxhagenerstraße 56. Best french fries in Berlin!!! Good seitan döner, too, really fresh and with great sauces, but slightly let down by the dry dürum bread.

K arrives to Berlin for a weekend of fun tomorrow: she's getting divorced and needs to be cheered up – and Finnish girls like to drink. So after Sunday I can finally try to say: 'I'm never drinking alcohol again!' and pretend to mean it.

A night at the theatre

2011-03-12T14:13:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we felt very adult as we were going to the theatre. Schaubühne in Charlottenburg is hosting an international theatre festival, F.I.N.D (Festival Internationale Neue Dramatik), until the 13th. By chance I came about a press ticket for Hilda, a play by a French writer and performed by a Finnish cast.

Since we're rarely in Charlottenburg, we wanted to go for dinner in the area. Just across the street from Schaubühne is a traditional Italian restaurant, Frantucci (Kufürstendamm 90), known for their big pizzas and great atmosphere. The first thing we saw when we walked in was a huge display filled with different kinds of home made pastas. Frantucci's is also a wine bar. For a Friedrichshainer the prices were on the higher side, but I bet that for Ku'damm €37 for a meal for two isn't too bad. I had a focaccia with mascarpone, mozzarella, scampini and pine nuts, A had a pasta with mozzarella, spicy tomatoes, garlic and pine nuts. Both were excellent. For dessert we shared a panna cotta with fresh fruit and I had an espresso, so that I'd stay awake in case the theatre piece was boring.

The play was not boring, but in fact really good: experienced actress Minna Haapkylä portraid a desperately unhappy Madame Lemarchand who manipulates her handyman, Franck, into giving his wife, Hilda, to her employment as a housemaid. Franck squanders all the advance payments Madame Lemarchand gives him, he looses his job and so his family is in the hands of the domineering housewife who has a greedy, unhealthy obsession with Hilda. I really liked the visual aspect of the play: the colours were slightly surreal and plastic and the actors movements were jumpy and doll-like. I'd love to see this play again, to get another chance to understand the complicated nature of Madame Lemarchand.

Basteln

2011-03-10T22:15:00.001+01:00

Basteln basically means to do arts and crafts, which usually I hate. I don't have the patience: I concentrate, I try, I'm ambitious, but in the end something always goes wrong and it all looks like crap and I loose it! The project (whether knitting, sewing, card-making or cake-baking) goes in the bin and I'm in a terrible mood for the rest of the day. So when my friends invited me to go along to a pearl shop where you can make your own jewellery, I wasn't sure I should go. I thought I'd just tag along and buy some pearls as presents for my more talented friends who love that kind of stuff.

When I walked in the shop, I realized my friend A was there to make jewellery, not just shop and then go for coffee. I strolled aimlessly around, staring at the endless rows of pearls and materials. Not a single good idea of what I wanted to make came to me. Meanwhile A had already picked out her pearls into a little dessert bowl, had sat down and started to chop pieces of wire into earrings. I had to decide on something, and saw a pre-made pair of earrings that I could copy the idea from: with a hook, a piece of chain and a pearl dangling at the end. I'd be out of there in no-time, hahaa!

But once I sat down, something happened. It was fun! It was really fun! The girl who works in the shop helped me to make little links to attach pearls to the chain with, and to attach the chain to the hooks. I went back to the rows of pearls with my little bowl and picked out more colours, more sizes. I could have sat there all day, making earrings for all my friends. Unfortunately the shop is really popular and we had to give up our seats at three o'clock. My earrings cost €6: that included all the pearls, materials and the help I got. And they didn't look home-made, either! On my way home I ran a few errands, and when I got home and proudly showed off my earrings, A pointed out that some of the pearls had fallen off. Typical! So much for my talent at crafts! But I liked it so much this time, that I'll go back and fix them, make more earrings, too – but be sure to ask the pros to check my links and loops before I go!

I promised A and A, who showed me this great little gem, that I wouldn't share it's location. If you do want to know where it is you can ask and I can send it to you via email.

Lisbon. Pause.

2011-03-10T21:48:00.000+01:00

So, after Lisbon I have failed to muster up any inspiration to write. Probably because my weekend visiting the besties was so great: filled with late nights in the Bairro Alto district and morning mojitos. I was wrecked when I got back. Now I'm sufficiently recovered and can put together a sentence or two again :)

Adamastor: hippie hang out with a view

Morning mojitos by the jug

Buying Ginja-liqueur at a traditional Ginja kiosk

I flew to Lisbon with KLM via Amsterdam, because the airlines who fly directly (AirBerlin and EasyJet) only do so on a few days per week and would have cost me about €240, where as KLM could take me there for €170. Transfers are of course an extra-hassle, but just in case I only packed hand-luggage and in the end there was no stress at all; on the way to Lisbon the transfer was 1h 45 minutes and on the way home only 45 min. KLM also serves sandwiches, snacks and free drinks, which is nice!

This must have been my fourth time in Lisbon, so there was no need to visit museums or see sights. We could concentrate on the essentials. I love eating at the local tascas (traditional Portuguese restaurants) like Restaurante Estrela, where food is simple, affordable and the salads are served with plenty of olive oil, vinegar and salt. Yum! Also before dinner one of my favourite things to do is to have a glass of Ginja from one of the tiny little shops that sell it by the glass or by the bottle, while deciding on our plans for the night. Every night ended up in Bairro Alto, the party quarters.

I regret that I didn't take a single photo of A's little bunny rabbit! I got addicted to petting her, and got a serious case of should-we-get-a-bunny-fever while staying at her's. It passed pretty quickly once I got home, hehe.

It's already spring somewhere

2011-02-24T18:29:00.000+01:00

I'm off to bask in the sunlight and spring (+15-20°C) in Lisbon for the weekend. I have been quite patient and have not complained too much about the winter here in Berlin, because in fairness it has been pretty mild and un-extreme: not too much snow, not too much ice, not too cold, not too rainy. But the recent cold spell (-2-5°C) has me feeling that I've already been here, done this. Time for spring, ok?

Making friends

2011-02-13T20:32:00.002+01:00

Kaufbar, in Friedrichshain, where everything is for sale. Their breakfasts are fairly priced and their waffles home-made and delicious.

Yesterday I made a new friend.

I had a coffee at Kaufbar on Gärtnerstraße with bubbly A. We keep meeting at our mutual friends' occasional parties and have always gotten on really well. When she sent me a message on Facebook and we said we'd go for coffee I was really scared that it would be awkward and that we would sit in silence for an hour before thinking of polite excuses to leave. To my surprise we could have chatted away the whole day: films, food, friends-with-babies, jobs, gossip... I hope we get around to meeting up more often! Sometimes it's worth getting out of your comfort zone to make strangers into friends.

And then last night we celebrated K's visa. (She has had to cry, beg, jump through hoops and wait forever to get it. In a year she'll have to go through the same process again. It's difficult to remember how easy things in Germany are for us EU-citizens!) She'd invited the most random mix of people to her flat in Wedding, and we had a great time. I ate a half a bowl of guacamole with carrot sticks, and was overjoyed that K had invited the woman who makes cinnamon rolls again! I also got a lesson in not judging people by their looks: K's new flatmate-to-be was invited – he looks like the biggest, most annoying nerd ever. You know the type of arrogant nerd who is insecure and is rude to make himself feel smart and good? J comes from the former Soviet Union and speaks with a Russian accent and has a lisp. He wears big but un-hip glasses. His dancing was so bad, it wasn't even funny. And he's really nice and interesting and got along with everyone at the party. I can't wait to get to know him better. Slap on the wrists to me for judging people by how they look! Shame on me!

A glimpse of the Berlinale

2011-02-13T19:56:00.000+01:00

FriedrichstadtPalast, Mitte

Next week will be a hard working one, again. I'm still hoping to make it to a few more Berlinale things, like a Berlinale Shorts screening (I'm super eager to see Swedish zombie film "Återfödelsen" ("The Unliving") and later I want to take advantage of the Berlinale Kinotag on Sunday the 20th when all films are only €6.

On Friday we saw the Cohen brothers' True Grit at the FriedrichstadPalast. It was a pretty cool venue since it gets converted to a cinema only once a year, for the Berlinale. It seats almost 2000 people so festival atmosphere and buzz are a guarantee. True Grit itself was nothing special: a very true-to-its-genre western with good actors. No Country for Old Men was far better.

After the film we had tapas at the Spanish Barcelona restaurant in Mitte – we bought a voucher for a €14 tapas plate for €7,25 on Blitzdeals.de and were eager to use it. The tapas were really good, but the plate wasn't really enough of a dinner for two... And the atmosphere was slightly lacking, but that might have been because we got there at 6pm, which is pretty early.

Waiting for the Berlinale

2011-02-08T22:18:00.000+01:00

It's high season for film freaks: the Berlinale kicks off this Thursday and goes on for ten days and a week later it's the Oscars.

Just tonight I saw Black Swan at Kino International and wouldn't be surprised if Natalie Portman wins the best actress trophy. The next Oscar nominee I'm planning on catching is True Grit – also the opening film of this years Berlinale festival. Berlinale program here. Oscar nominees here.

Crazy pottery and fair t-shirts

2011-02-04T18:15:00.002+01:00

I actually wanted to go see crazy tea cups and teapots at the Strychnin Gallery on Boxhagener Straße, but it turned out that the Mad Potter's Tea Party only opens tonight and so they didn't really appreciate us strolling in mid-opening night preparations. R, who's visiting her old home town this weekend, and I were kindly invited to come by tonight instead, when the exhibition is set up and free drinks are served.

So we went for a coffee instead.

When strolling homeward along Simon-Dach-Straße, I noticed a new (?), interesting shop: Simonuno (boring website alert!). I thought it was called "Du bist schön", because that's the biggest text on the shop window. Anyway, they sell Fair Trade and organic t-shirts, hoodies and sneakers for pretty fair prices. The plain t-shirts are €16 and the ones with a print are €26. I see myself buying the cool, Berlin-themed prints as presents, for sure! I always think that Fair Trade and organic cotton feels much softer and nicer than regular cotton, too.

The safest part of town

2011-02-02T20:47:00.000+01:00

Friedrichshain must be the safest district in Berlin today: after the enforced emptying of housing project Liebig14 and the eviction of the residents of Liebigstrasse 14 the streets are still crowded with police and all sorts of dramatic crowd controlling vehicles. The official number of police present: 2500. I guess this is a taste of what May 1st will be like!

Read more on the events for instance here.

Gegen Gentrifizierung - leave Liebig 14 be

2011-02-01T20:49:00.002+01:00

23.1.2011. Demonstration against the shutting down of Liebig14

We are living in exciting and important times here in Friedrichshain. The inhabitants of Liebig14, one of the oldest housing projects in Berlin – a former squat turned into an autonomous, political and social living collective – are being evicted. There have been protests against the eviction all around Berlin for weeks now, and tomorrow is D-day. I sincerely hope that Liebig14 will get to stay as it is and fight gentrification, monoculturism and discrimination on behalf of all of us.

There might be mayhem in Friedrichshain tomorrow night!

The bicycle is back

2011-02-01T19:43:00.000+01:00

Mostly because my monthly pass ran out, I decided that it's time to cycle again. There's no snow, no ice – no excuse anymore. It was pretty fun, but my precious "blue angel" definitively needs some lovin' after a long two months in the basement. As long as the lights work, I guess...

Sprouting toward spring

2011-01-30T23:25:00.000+01:00

It's starting to look a lot like spring in our kitchen! Unfortunately January is still a little early for all the icy pots of dirt on our balcony to melt and let us start planting courgettes... But at least we can enjoy the little bit of green that these yummy pea shoots bring to the table. They are he only fresh and nutritious option around: the pale tomatoes and the tasteless cucumbers in the supermarket this time of the year are just too depressing!

Berlin moments, 29.1.2011

2011-01-29T21:29:00.000+01:00

K and I had a walk around Mariannenplatz in Kreuzberg and stumbled upon this cool community in a corner of Bethanien: everything is built from old vans and trailors. Not sure who lives here and why.

The sun was shining today, but it still sets early, around 4pm.

All the ugly makes Berlin beautiful. Every time I pass this lot on Revaler Straße I feel I should go to RAW, Cassiopeia, Suicide Circus and the Sunday fleamarket here more often...

...finally, the time for Vietnamese coffee

2011-01-28T00:54:00.000+01:00

It was really bad at work the last few weeks. Really bad. I didn't have time to reply to my best friends email until 12 days after she sent it to me – that's how busy and tired I was. Now the deadline has been reached and I get to exhale.

The weather is getting colder again, and there was even a thin layer of powdery, white snow on the ground today when I left the house. Still, when I left the office after a long meeting followed by a nice lunch, I felt carefree and happy. I rang A, who also just finished his work day, and I talked him into going out for lunch so that I could go for coffee – he doesn't drink coffee and therefore does not see the point in hanging out in cafés, so I make up excuses.

We met outside Chi Ly on Niederbarnimstraße because I wanted to lure A into a Vietnamese restaurant. I have read about special Vietnamese coffee a while back in the Friedrichshain blog, and wanted to finally try it. It wasn't really that amazing: filtered coffee with sweet condensed milk – it was to sweet for my liking and grains of coffee floated around in it. But I've tried. And I did something else besides work and sit in front of the computer today!

Work - someone has to do it

2011-01-22T23:34:00.000+01:00

Sometimes my job really sucks. Like now. I've been working until late and have to work on Sunday, but not because I'm behind, but because everyone else is. That means that I can't do my job well; I have to do it in a hurry and don't have enough time to think about what I want from the end-product. I'm thinking that I should start language classes again to see what the chances are for me to work in German and get paid properly :)

Rant over. Had a lovely day of doing nothing today, really, except for having a nice cup of coffee with friends. And sushi for dinner!

Funny Germans

2011-01-19T23:51:00.000+01:00

Sometimes English and German get mixed up and I'm not sure which is which... I almost laughed out loud when I spotted this ad from the U-bahn!

Unlucky visitor

2011-01-19T23:49:00.000+01:00

We had a very unlucky guest last weekend. L was here from Ireland just as both A and I both were at the hight of a nasty flu; I had a fever for two days and A was home from work still on Monday. Miraculously we still managed to make it a decent weekend; on Friday we had Korean dinner at our F'hain favourite, Maru, A took her sightseeing and we went to a dinner party on Saturday, we were shopping in Mauerpark on Sunday and later managed to meet up with mutual friends for dinner and then finished the visit with some girly gossip at Kptn. A.Müller's. On Monday we said our goodbyes over a lovely organic breakfast in Café Tasso on Frankfurter Allee... Maybe it wasn't the worst trip of L's life!

22-Pistepirkko in Berlin

2011-01-11T21:44:00.001+01:00

22-Pistepirkko – one of my favourite Finnish bands that I haven't listened to in years, is playing at Festsaal Kreuzberg tomorrow! And I'm ON THE LIST, haha!

Cocooning

2011-01-10T01:49:00.001+01:00

On Friday we visited Exberliner magazines 24 hour bed-in party in the Noodles Noodles & Noodles shop on Schönhauser Allee. It was really cool: really cheap drinks and people lounging in bed. Unfortunately we missed the stand-up comedy, but we did get to see a few minutes of "political trash burlesque". Maybe the most memorable part was the mass pillow fight that broke loose just before we left: the whole bar was slinging pillows across the room at each other!

After that the whole weekend has been quite the hibernation. Today we haven't even left the house, but instead have been eating tons of Finnish candy and watched a bunch of CSI episodes... and I don't even feel guilty. Hooray to winter!

Berlin, January 8th, +8°C.

2011-01-08T21:51:00.000+01:00

Incredible weather; we had our first outdoors coffee in the sun today. Well, to be honest, the sun disappeared behind a building before I got my coffee, but still. As the optimist I am it feels like spring is already here; as a realist I know that there's still over a month left of winter...

Back in Berlin

2011-01-08T21:23:00.013+01:00

We flew home on December 23rd and had to have all our presents with us.

Anticipating Christmas dinner.

There was a record amount of snow in Southern Finland: there's a plastic terrace table somewhere under there...

It made for beautiful scenery, if nothing else.

The Berlin-style brunch trend has now spread to Helsinki where all the hipsters find it the most important meal of the week. This was our New Year's brunch at Siltanen, a reasonable €12 including drinks and free refills of coffee, tea, juice and bread.

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Fine, we've been back for three days already... we landed in Berlin on Wednesday after spending almost two weeks in Finland. We are now very well fed, not-so-well rested, and slightly nostalgic about home. People who think expats get long, nice holidays when they visit their home countries are dead wrong; we run around trying to meet as many friends and family members as we can while we try to not offend anyone by not having enough time to see them. This leads to too many cups of coffee per day, too many missed phone calls and too many polite pieces of cake forced down. The only time we had to ourselves was in the evenings, and so we staid up until 4 or 5am most nights... But it's still all nice: these are the people we miss and wish we could see more, anyway.

It's nice to be back in Berlin, though, and back to reasonable prices for drinks :)

Wrapping it up

2010-12-23T17:45:00.000+01:00

So off to Finland we go! There's no "Schneekaos" – it's raining and it's +2°C – so we should have no problems with our flight.

I bought the last Christmas present yesterday, got a haircut, stopped by the office for a few hours and started to wrap presents. There are still a few to be wrapped, and I need to go buy a few bottles of organic red wine to bring home for the Christmas table. And then: Christmas peace!

Bis zum nächsten Jahr und guten Rutsch!

"Happy Christmas, see you next year!"

2010-12-21T21:37:00.001+01:00

The spirit of Christmas is stress, yes? To get evereything done at work, to find presents, over how much money it all costs – and for us expats; stress over managing to see everyone one more time before we all fly off to our respective home countrys.

I can tick all those boxes: I finished work yesterday, but had been working pretty much 24/7 before then. I still have to buy a present for my best friend, we just emptied our bank accounts at TK Maxx and we've been meeting up with friends for "happy christmas, see you next year"-dinners every few days. At least we have gotten some excellent meals out of it :)

On Wednesday last week we met M and N at Spaghetti Western on Torstraße (it's a lot nicer than the website looks!). Just a few weeks ago they revealed that they are having a baby, so this was also kind of an celebratory meal. I must confess that all I could think was: "it was nice knowing you, see you again in three years". But the restaurant was excellent! Everything cost about an euro or two more than I thought it should, but: when in Mitte... I ordered spaghetti with tomato sauce, mozzarella and fresh basil (€5,50) – a simple dish it was everything you could hope for. I'm already craving another visit! For dessert (all €3,90) we wanted panna cotta, but it was out, so we chose cremè brulées instead. They were tiny and the sugar crust was really thick and tasted burned, so the meal didn't have the great ending it deserved.

On Saturday we had a Prenzlauer Berg breakfast in German with S, D and S. Schwarze Pumpe is an old favourite, but we have only tried their Sunday brunch before. On a Sunday you need a reservation, but this Saturday at 11 o'clock the place was empty. We enjoyed our veggie plates, several milchcafés and some Heiße Zitrone. Afterwards we visited the Trendmafia Christmas market on Brunnenstraße. Before I had to run off to work we managed to pick out a cool t-shirt for my brother. This market is definitively worth a visit, it's on every first weekend of the month outside of the holiday season, too.

Today we emptied our wallets at TK Maxx Neukölln, found pressies for my dad (he wished for a plain black t-shirt), for A's dad and loads of other tricky people. And I got winter shoes, finally (two pairs, I don't know if I will have to be reasonable and return one pair...). Then we met M, M and little J for gift exchanges and Thai food in Mitte. Thai Inside seems like a place that I'd be suspicious of: too chic, too polished, too close to Alexanderplatz and higher-than-average prices. It turns out it's quite the popular spot; I think we were the only English speakers in the room! Our dishes were all good and beautifully plated and the service was terribly friendly – so 27 euro for a starter, a soup, a main dish and two drinks isn't that terrible, is it?

Now I only need to buy two more presents, wrap them all, buy wine to bring home, get a hair-cut and then it's Christmas bliss!

No shopping, just brunching

2010-12-12T16:14:00.000+01:00

Brunch buffet at Morgenrot, Prenzlauer Berg

On Thursday A's friends from Finland were going to fly to Berlin to see Suicide Commando at K-17. Their flight was cancelled, because the Berlin airports ran out of de-icing fluid – unbelievable! It's winter every year, you wouldn't think it would cause such chaos. The boys flew in on Friday instead, and got tickets for Monster Magnet at Postbahnhof. I had a "girls night in German" with S and S, and at 2am we decided to meet up with the guys for a beer at legendary Paules Metal Eck on Simon-Dach-Strasse. I was home at 5am, and needed to be at a photo shoot on Saturday at 11.30.

After the very successful photo shoot some colleagues and I decided to go to Morgenrot on Kastanienallee for breakfast – I still hadn't eaten anything and was feeling pretty weak. Plus I haven't been there in ages and I looooove their vegan/vegetarian brunch! A and I still made a half-assed attempt at Christmas shopping, but were too tired and too uninterested for it to go well. At least I got to visit the new English books store at Kulturkaufhaus Dussmann – thank god I was too tired to shop, even for myself :)

Today we talked the Finnish boys into trying our favourite brunch at Datcha with us. We all agreed, once again, that it really is worth to pay €9.80 per person for. I don't think I'll have to eat all day now! The guys wanted to still make an effort as tourists, so instead of coming to our flat for a nap, they went to the Erotikmuseum in Charlottenburg. I opted to go visit our Kiezweihnacht Christmas market at the Samariterstrasse church. It wasn't very big or special, but I did manage to buy a great Christmas present there... But it's for the secret santa present at next weeks Christmas get-together, so I won't reveal it, at least yet!

Kiezweihnachtmarkt, Friedrichshain

The office Christmas party

2010-12-12T16:10:00.000+01:00

This week I have mostly been eating out and curing hangovers. I have not done any significant Christmas shopping and have not been resting for the long work week ahead... Sigh.

Our company Christmas party was on Tuesday. We ate a three course meal at Gugelhof, a pretty fancy restaurant on Kollwitzplatz, and then we took the party to White Trash, and when they closed, to Kaffee Burger. I was home at 8 o'clock in the morning – and it wasn't even an extraordinary fun night... There was some drama though: unrequited love, juicy gossip, over-sharing and some boy-on-boy / girl-on-girl kissing. None by me, thank god! Still I was too hung over to go to work the next day :P

Christmas, shopping, Berlin

2010-12-05T17:47:00.002+01:00

My mother is in Berlin again for the weekend, and I've kept her busy. We have ignored the snowy sidewalks and been shopping and eating well, mostly.

We started off on Friday by designing my mom a custom made perfume at Frau Tonis Parfum in Mitte, a scent of roses and lily of the valley (€65 for 50ml, €22 for 15ml). Then we dropped in to my fave clothing shop, Cyroline, on Alte Schönhauser Straße (they also have shops in Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichshain). I always find cool and comfy clothes there and this time both mom and I bought tops. This all accidentally happened on our way to check out a friends' exhibition at the very interesting Haus Schwartzenberg on Hackescher Markt.

On Saturday we had a date with S to go check out TK Maxx in Charlottenburg together – I had heard that the shop there was a lot bigger and a lot better then the one in Neukölln. Other people had clearly heard that too: it was super crowded! We did manage to find some Christmas presents and I bought a hoodie. S had a very successful shopping day and declared that she'd found "her shopping paradise" :) Everyone loves TK Maxx <3

Since we were in Charlottenburg – possibly for the first time – we decided to go see Schloss Charlottenburg and the Christmas market there. Sure, it was big, pretty and had free entrance, but it was also a bit kitchy and crowded for our liking.

When we found ourselves in Neukölln today, we decided to take advantage of the shopping Sunday (the shops in Berlin are closed on most Sundays of the year), and check out the TK Maxx there, too. It was a lot less crowded, so we could really engage in rummaging around and two hours later we walked out with more Christmas presents and two sweaters for A. Dangerous place, that is!

Frosted city

2010-12-02T22:06:00.001+01:00

Yesterday we had no snow in Berlin – even if even Ireland had had its fair share by then. After nine in the evening it started and so it snowed all night. When I woke up today, it was bright and utterly white outside my window. It snowed all day long, until the late afternoon, and now we have an impressive layer of frosting over the whole city. Berlin is pretty again! Let's just wait and see how long the enthusiasm lasts :P

I had to abandon my bike for now and buy a monthly train ticket this morning. I invested in the 10am montly ticket and thanks to the S-bahn chaos apology from BVG, the €15 discount on it meant that it only cost €36! Now that's a bargain!

Last day of cycling

2010-12-01T21:51:00.001+01:00

Happy December 1st! Voilá: instant winter! It has been -10°C and a cold wind made it a nasty day – specially to cycle. I think I will have to take the train tomorrow, and in the worst case scenario, until the end of February :(

I met S for a language tandem tonight at the Kulturbrauerei Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt. All we could bear was one cup of glögi before running to a café for a hot chocolate with rum. I was joking that my tactics to keep warm in the winter will be to always carry a flask of vodka with me to keep warm. It would make the blood flow and the cold seem less annoying, for sure! It's not even entirely a joke, if this weather keeps...

Advent dinner. -1°C.

2010-11-28T23:42:00.001+01:00

We just said goodbye to our friends M, M and little J. Only Mrs. M had been to our "new" apartment before – only briefly in summer – so it was about time to have them over and make them dinner. J was nervous when he first came through the door and wanted to check the whole apartment thoroughly before he could settle – and by the end of the evening he felt so familiar here, that he said good night to each room separately before they left :)

We went shopping for dinner supplies to the Boxhagener Platz food market yesterday. It is a little bare now in winter and all the stall keepers where shivering and rubbing their hands together in vain. It's funny that -2°C can feel so cold already! We got a bunch of beetroots for a pasta sauce, (€1,50 for about 5 kilos!), goat cheese, also for the pasta, a big loaf of bread and of course some licorice and salmiakki from the regular candy man there.

While preparing for the dinner tonight, we slowly realised that we have about double the amount of beetroots that we need for the pasta... And as we're serving the food, we see that we also have double the amount of dinner. So we're eating beetroots for the next week / week and a half. Seasonal, regional and healthy!

A visit to the kitchen (and Wedding)

2010-11-24T23:49:00.002+01:00

J turned three today, hooray! So we were invited to his birthday party in Wedding, and I made chocolate and oat treats to bring with us: they were super easy to make and went down a treat!

We bought J a train cart that goes with his wooden train set – that we then had to watch him play with the whole evening. M had made a cool chocolate-banana birthday cake, topped by a lego construction site. We had such a nice time hanging out with M, M and J, that as usual I feel we don't see them enough. Wedding is really, really far from Friedrichshain, it seems! We invited them for an early Sunday dinner, so we get to see them soon again.

Next week our flat-mate finally moves out and my mom takes over our living room for the weekend...

Chocolate and oat treats (makes about 30)

100g organic butter
100ml icing sugar (confectioner's sugar)
4 tbsp Fair Trade cocoa powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla sugar
300ml oat flakes
1 tsp water
100g Fair Trade, organic dark or milk chocolate
Icing sugar and cocoa powder for decoration

Combine sugar and butter in a bowl and mix to an even paste. Add cocoa powder, cinnamon, vanilla sugar and oat flakes (and a teaspoon of water if it seems too dry), and mix again. Melt the chocolate carefully using a water bath. I don't have a layered pot, so I boiled water in a regular pot, put the chocolate in a cup and placed the cup in the water. Because chocolate burns easily, a water bath an easy way to melt it. Pour the chocolate in with the rest of the ingredients, make sure the mixture is even. Let it cool in the fridge for about 10 minutes. Prepare two bowls; one with icing sugar and one with cocoa powder. Roll (the amount of a heaped teaspoon) of chocolate dough in the palm of your hands into balls, drop them into one of the smaller bowls to then coat them in icing sugar or cocoa powder. Store the treats in fridge if you don't eat them right away.

Recipe from Chocochili.

A missed opportunity for an early Christmas

2010-11-20T23:50:00.000+01:00

Working still: yesterday I was home at 1am, tonight at half past ten, tomorrow back again.

I'm really bummed that I'm missing the Finnish Christmas market in Kreuzberg today and tomorrow... But Monday marks the beginning of Christmas – most of the Christmas markets open on November 22nd! This year I will make sure to finally try roasted chestnuts, to avoid Glühwein (yuck!) and to find another hot drink to keep warm with at the markets. The Lucia Weihnachtsmarkt in Prenzlauer Berg has a Nordic them and serves Finnish and Swedish glögg – far better than English or German mulled wines. Bring on the snow!

Terror

2010-11-18T23:55:00.000+01:00

When we heard the news yesterday at the office that Germany is being targeted by terrorists, one of our interns freaked out. She was really chocked when everyone else just shrugged their shoulders and laughed at her. I've never lived in a city or a country directly threatened by terrorists, but somehow I can't take it very seriously. Well, of course it's serious, but I'm sure it's more likely that I get hit by a car tomorrow, than by a bomb... Still, maybe I'll avoid Alexanderplatz even more than usual for a while.

Work, Harry Potter and potatoes

2010-11-18T23:46:00.000+01:00

Work, work, work – blahblahblah. Yes, I've been spending a lot of time at the office. Yes, the weather is miserable and rainy.

Luckily we had booked tickets to the premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, part 1 already a month ago. Before going to the cinema we met our friends M&M for baked potatoes at Bixels, a restaurant in Mitte that only serves baked potatoes (and salads). Thumbs up! They were really delicious and the toppings were all more exciting than I would think to do at home, so definitively worth €5-6. But then again, I'm a sucker for spuds :)

November sun

2010-11-14T19:52:00.001+01:00

Mauerpark and the last warm day of the year?

The Bearpit Karaoke seems more popular than ever.

It's mid-November and we got to enjoy a temperature of +18°C and sun today! Wohoo! But isn't it just typical that our friends H and C left for Helsinki this morning, and all they saw in Berlin was rain... After they left we tried to make the most of the weather anyway by going to Mauerpark for a stroll. We haven't been there for months and were certainly reminded of that it really is the best Sunday market around: there's so much music, so much food, such a good atmosphere, so many things I could want. Sure, it can be a bit crowded, but that's a good excuse to stop for something to eat or drink while people watching. We found a birthday present for A's mom – like two weeks in advance –so for once we won't have to panic about finding and sending someone a gift on time!

As it happens, I found a new favourite fast food today in Mauerpark, the Turkish gözleme: thinly kneaded dough, fried on a rounded pan, folded over and filled, then served with a salad. Ours was filled with spinach and cheese, then wrapped around some fresh salad. The gözleme had a lovely crepe-like taste with a touch of great grill aroma and was fresh and light to eat. I feel an addiction coming on!

Keeping up with the gözleme orders required four strong women.

Gözleme with spinach, cheese and salad, €3.50

Happy travels!

2010-11-14T12:58:00.000+01:00

I use public transport fairly little – as long as the weather permits I prefer to zoom around on my blue bicycle. I seem to be lucky to not even have noticed, but the S-bahn has had a lot troubles this year and as an apology BVG are turning our Einzelfahrscheins, one trip tickets, into day tickets for the weekends in November and December. The monthly passes are also 15 euro cheaper these two months. (Read about it here.)

Our friends from London were here for the weekend and told us that the trains in London have had problems, too, and because problems equal costs, they end up raising the ticket prices. BVG's action is much more to my liking!

Happy Martinstag!

2010-11-11T21:06:00.000+01:00

All of a sudden there was a terrible racket outside the office today. I thought it was one of those post-teenage guys with a "cool" car and playing his music loudly – but as my colleagues ran out to the balcony, I realised it was something else. Our little street was taken over by a parade of children and parents, carrying colourful paper lanterns and singing.

Happy St Martin's Day, apparently!

Paris, je t'aime!

2010-11-11T20:58:00.002+01:00

Paris was FANTASTIC. I've been there once before, but didn't really remember much of it, so I assumed I hadn't been too impressed. Now I was; everything was quaint, charming and everyone was friendly. I was there with my three best friends and we had so much fun – in fairness, you could probably have dumped us in Siberia and we would have enjoyed ourselves :P

I flew with Easy Jet (€107e, return, including a check-in bag) for the first time, and found it ok, pretty much like Ryan-air: they charged for extra luggage, they don't assign seats, they sell priority boarding and don't give you any food or drink on the plane, unless you are willing to pay. The flight was about 1 hour and 50 minutes long and everything was on time. I flew to Orly (sud) and had to take three trains to reach our hostel, near the Bastille. That felt really complicated compared to Berlin.

Our hostel, Auberge Internationale des Jeunes, was really basic, you could even call it crappy, but it only cost us €17 per night for a four person room. You get what you pay for... A friend of mine worked there when she lived in Paris, and actually tried to persuade me to cancel our reservations. We had already paid a deposit, so we decided we could handle it, and it really wasn't that bad: the room was very prison-like and the bathroom door was open on the top and the bottom halves, but it was also clean and seemed very safe. It was probably a good time of the year to be traveling: the hostel was pretty empty and all the landmarks we visited were bearable and not overcrowded.

We did very little proper sightseeing and didn't go to any museums. My favourite sight was the Montmartre area. I wish it had been a little warmer so we could have had some wine on the stairs of the Sacré-Cœur church... But we did drink enough red wine to make up for it on other occasions. We also ate many pain au chocolats, baguettes and drank many cups of wonderful coffee – seriously, it was delicious everywhere! Everywhere we walked we saw people being served amazingly big looking salads, and particularly the goats cheese caught our eye. We tried desperately to find suitable salad places when we got hungry, but never managed. On two nights we even ended up settling for pizza. On our last night we were strolling around the Latin Quarters and Notre Dame, and finally found a restaurant that served a salad with warm goats cheese (€14,50) and without meat. La Fourmi Ailée turned out to offer us the best meal we had all weekend, and in a really cosy atmosphere, too. To top it all off, the waitor was cute and to our surprise we found tofu lasagna on their menu (€13,50)!

Now I'm a big fan of Paris and want to take A there as soon as I can! Although we just got an invitation today to a wedding in London next spring, so maybe Paris can wait...

Cyclist alert!

2010-11-03T23:41:00.000+01:00

I had the most annoying cycle ride home from work tonight; my dynamo didn't want to cooperate and the front light was having a connectivity problem and kept going on and off at every bump in the road. I was sure I was going to be pulled over for a bike inspection: the police are watching us cyclists extra carefully right now, so make sure your lights work and that you have enough reflectors and a bell on your bike – or you could end up paying a €100 fee. At least I missed all the rain today, I didn't even see it, just heard peoples complaints.

When I got home A and I went out for dinner at our favourite Korean restaurant, Maru on Rigaer Straße in Friedrichshain. They do a kick-ass bibimbap and serve aloe vera juice, that I just can't seem to find anywhere here in Berlin.

We felt allowed to splurge on dinner a little, since we won't be sharing meals for a few days: I'll be spending a long weekend in Paris with my bestest friends. I'm so excited!

Old/new brunch favourite

2010-11-03T00:52:00.001+01:00

There are a few things I knew I would miss when we moved from Prenzlauer Berg: the salty licorice from Bärenland, the excellent Chinese dumplings at Wok Show, the amazing pizzas at A Magica and, finally, the festive Sunday brunch buffet at Pasternak. This brunch is unbelievable: there's so much food, it's so good and it's so beautiful.

Since we moved to Friedrichshain I have wanted to try Pasternak's sibling restaurant, Datcha. On Sunday we finally did, after four months of thinking about it. The brunch costs €9,80 per person (compared to €12,40 in P'berg) and it's the same spread that I remember from Pasternak – the only difference I noticed was that it's a bit louder and busier in the Friedrichshain branch, which some might even prefer. When we finished our meal I could hardly button up my coat anymore! Dangerous place :)

Just avarage is not good enough

2010-11-03T00:24:00.001+01:00

On Saturday we went for burgers and fries to White Trash Fast Food – a less than impressive restaurant in Mitte, loved by tourists. Sure, it's kitschy and unexpected, but the food is only average and all in all it just feels a bit forced.

After dinner and a cocktail we moved on to check out the monthly Nachtkonsum flea market. I must say that it, too, was a bit disappointing: not so much night and not so much shopping... The market opens at 17.00 and only goes on until midnight. Having a three euro entrance fee is crazy considering how many bigger and better (free) flea markets we have in Berlin... But I did buy a very pretty necklace, so no hard feelings!