At the "beach"

Is the weather up or down? Coming or going? Personally I've loved it now that the temperatures are lingering in the low +20's and I'm able to enjoy the sun without melting in it. I have not been to the beach once this summer, mostly because when it was hot, it was too hot to move. As a sorry replacement to the real thing, beach-less Friedrichshain offers a variety of beach bars. My latest find is Oranke Orange at a very unexpected location on Karl-Marx-Allee; sun chairs, sand and a little wading pool in the midst of all the pompous socialist architecture. It's not the beach but it's something!

Mom in Berlin

Dinner for three

My mom's visit is a constant roller coaster of feelings for me. One minute I'm incredible annoyed at everything she's ever said, one minute I feel grateful and touched that she's here. Yesterday I got snapped at her for not having been out and hardly seeing any of the city... In fairness, what adult can still live in the same household as their mother, for ten days, without getting even a little pissed off? I've been good - better than I expected.

A month has almost passed and now she's leaving; packing and preparing. I will miss her. We are throwing her a farewell party on Thursday, with drinks at our place and then a dinner at the downstairs restaurant. A few friends already confirmed that they are coming: my mom has met many of our friends here. She wants to bake a cake. I will make watermelon cocktails, I think.

Am I happy or sad? Coming or going? For one thing, I will be very, very grateful to have our apartment to ourselves for a while, last week we were four people sharing it!

Presents and pearls

An assorted baggy of gems from Tukadu on Rosenthaler Strasse should have reached the birthday-girl K already last week. These treasures don't come cheap: I bought pearls for 19 euro and the bag looked a little empty... But will make a gorgeous necklace, maybe, with white wooden pearls and silver stars. I would love to know if she got inspired!

My week as a tourist

It's been busy: I finished my design project last week, then on Saturday my friend M came to visit us for a week, we met up with both her friends and ours, and on Wednesday my mom moved in with us, too.

M left a cool and rainy Berlin today, I walked her to the U-bahn just over an hour ago. I was very proud of myself: I didn't lose my patience once, even if I find it quite straining to have guests stay for so long. We visited Mauerpark on a Sunday, ate pizzas at A Magica, had vodka-rhubarbs in Kptn Müller, introduced everyone to vegan fast-food at Yoyo, popped by our local Friedrichshain brewery, Hops and Barley, ate at our downstairs favourite-restaurant several times, had a lot of ice-cream, drank beer in Viktoriapark at sunset, showed off horror-bar Zyankali, cycled to Treptower Park to check out the Soviet memorial, did a guided tour at Hohenschönhausen Memorial, the former GDR remad prison, and drank Berliner Weiße mit rot in Volkspark Friedrichshain. Not bad. I think I'll have a nap now. Or go to the Humana second hand department store on Frankfurter Tor with my mom :)

A place in the shade

On Friday we finally found ourselves in this shaded little beer garden, on the corner of Gubener straße and Grünberger straße, that we already noticed in spring. Jägerklause is not a cute, picturesque beer garden, but more punky and relaxed (however, there is a play corner for kids), with rock playing in the background and the friendly, tattooed staff sells a handful of different beverages. Mostly Jägerklause is just a great place to escape the sun, have a cold beer and barbecued burgers or sausages (or a vegetarian cheese burger!).

Hothothot

It's insanely hot in Berlin. Like +37°C. It's so hot, that I can't move, eat, walk... or do anything. I should be working and we should both be cleaning and fixing in the flat, but fat chance! It's so hot, that we can't open the windows or the door to the balcony, because that will let the hot air in. Our tomatoes on the balcony need to be watered 2-3 times a day. It's too hot to go to the beach, because that means taking public transport... Remind me next January when it's cold of how much I suffered now!

Slow Berlin breakfasts

I don't really eat breakfast, I never have. In Berlin breakfast has become one of my favourite meals: almost every café and bakery serves wonderful breakfast platters that I love to take my time over on a day off. Yesterday we tried breakfast at our long-time-Friedrichshainer friend's favourite bar, Sando (Proskauer Straße 10). We shared the salmon breakfast plate and a portion of fried eggs with fried potatoes, and had coffee and tea, all for just under €13. The portions were generous, everything was fresh and well made – even perfectly salted, which never happens. The dinner menu wasn't half bad, either. Sando just might become our favourite bar, too.

Today there's no breakfast, no slow start to the day. A is at work and I'm supposed to be working too. I got this little design project thrown my way by an overworked friend (clearly not a Berliner!), and I promised to send the client in Finland stuff by Monday. It's actually pretty great: what should be about 2-3 days work will pay more than my part-time job here pays in a month. That's the dream: live in Berlin and get your job assignments from abroad, where they pay you more...