Fresh fish in Berlin

Fresh salad, generous slices of lemon and grilled, fresh Loop de meer (sea bass)

It's not the easiest thing to find fresh fish in Berlin, and if you do, it's going to cost you. We've lived on the coast our whole lives, and a few years in Ireland – literally on an island, so we feel very lost here at times.

Last weekend I received this hot tip: the fish in Turkish restaurant Balikci Ergün (Lüneburger Str. 383, in the middle of nowhere) is fresh and delicious. So, on Wednesday, with the excuse of belatedly celebrating A's and M's birthdays, we pointed our bikes towards Moabit.We found the restaurant easily: is in the foot of a railway bridge and the facade is bright blue and yellow – in every way un-charactaristic for Berlin. On the inside Balikci Ergün is small, cosy and covered from top to toe with hand written notes greeting the owner. We were seated on the small terrace fenced in by flowers and greenery, and could barely glimpse at the dull buildings that the area consists of.

Our Finnish/Swedish/German party-of-four agreed that the grilled fish was fresh, excellent, and satisfied our desire for grilled food: it tasted like summer. The fish is not so cheap (we had whole mackerel, €9; salmon, €10; sea bass, €13; shared salad; €20), but worth it! Next time I want to try the calamari...

Eis eis baby

For this issue of the magazine we compiled a list of our favourite ice cream places in Berlin. I didn't have one, I just usually grab a spontaneous Eis from Eisbar on Kastanienallee 10, who serve a decent scoop for 80 cents.

Caramello

I happened to read about Caramello, an organic ice cream manufacturer in Prenzlauer Berg, and decided that I found my new favourites then and there. Caramello has a second location in Friedrichshain. Amid the frenzy of looking for apartments, we made a point of making a stop-over on Rykestraße 7. The Caramello café is cute, and they have a mind-boggling selection of flavours (at least six variations on chocolate alone). I went for a Yogi Indigo (blueberry yoghurt) and A had a Going Nuts (nuts and nougat). One scoop costs €1,20, but it's worth it when you can pretend it's healthy.

Eisfabrik

When we went to see an apartment on Frankfurter Allee in Friedrichshain, we turned the corner and found ourselves on Samariterstraße, where we had never been before. With ice cream on my mind, I straight away spotted the jungle-themed facade of Eisfabrik (Samariterstr. 34a). When we found ourselves on on the same street again the next week, it was a sign: eat more ice cream! It is now my absolute favourite ice cream in Berlin, maybe the world; it's home made, the texture is soft, the scoops are big (cost 80 cent) and the "Grün Apfel" was everything I hoped it would be (although not green in colour). I hope to try all the flavours before the end of summer :)

The weather forecast bodes well for an ice cream weekend!

A new home

We found an apartment!!! Actually, already last week: we were shortlisted for an interview with the owner (the cutest old granny), who then picked us out of the two applicants. (As usual, I felt really bad for the other girl applying. She was really sweet and nice, and had already viewed 28 apartments!) On Saturday we signed the lease, so it's official. I am super happy: it's the apartment that we most liked of the 19 places we saw, and it has a kitchen big enough for a table and big-ish balcony, too. On 1.7. we will be moving to Friedrichshain!

Today should be the last day of work stress, the magazine is being printed tomorrow morning. Then it's all about packing, re-registering our address, and preparing mentally for my mom to arrive to spend July in Berlin.

Also, we have no furniture, except for a fridge M&M are donating us and two guest mattresses...

Football frenzy

It's weird to live in a country that's so good at sports, that every sports event is important. You can't turn a corner without being reminded of the World Cup. Every little café, restaurant and bar has at least one TV showing the daily matches. Every tenth car is draped in German flags to support the national team. Every fiftieth conversation I have somehow ends up involving football. The German Eurovision song has been turned in to a football song; Schland oh Schland. ('Schland being short for Deutschland) This is Berlin life until July 11th.

Unfortunately...

This is true again.


The sun has been present, from time to time but the temperatures have dropped to barely +20°C and the weather forecast bodes worse for the end of the week... I'll be stuck at work, so I don't mind :)

Talk about it

We got an apartment-interview for the really nice apartment we saw on Friday. An apartment-interview! Too funny! Only in Germany, I think?

Tomorrow I'm having lunch with my bosses and they want to talk to me about my future in the company. Yikes.

A lovely lunch

We were working hard at viewing apartments last week, and to make matters even less fun, we have been trying to be very prudent and boring, too. On Tuesday, after viewing an apartment on Rheinsberger Straße, in Mitte, with 30 other people in +30°C, A hoped to cheer me up by suggesting we treat ourselves to lunch, al fresco. I jumped at the chance to finally try the much-talked-about Vietnamese restaurant Onkel Ho around the corner from our house.


I had a fresh, slightly spicy papaya salad with shrimp, A had noodles with spicy shrimp and fresh vegetables – the krupuk and the dessert were complimentary. Unfortunately we only found one actual vegetarian dish on the menu, so I don't know if we can become regulars here.

It was a lovely meal, on a lovely day, and only cost €16,50 (I love their style of pricing: small beer €2,20, big beer €3,30, salad €4,40, warm dish €6,60 and so on.) There's no separate lunch menu, so prices are especially affordable for dinner, and there's always a few daily specials on offer.