Category Archives: Cities

Summary of Week 4: April 17th – April 23rd

Week 4 was officially when I started to spread my wings. I also started drinking, which I don’t normally do but I found actually quite fun in Berlin. The laws here are extremely loose and it is basically treated the same as any other beverage as far as consumption goes. You can drink on the street, purchase alcohol 24/7, and aside from drinking and driving laws you are basically treated like an adult who can make their own life decisions. What a novel concept. Surprisingly, the only time I really saw people drunk in public, they were usually American tourists… embarrassingly enough myself included.

I should go out to Mauerpark today, I really really should. But my feet are killing me and my body is aching. I can’t even find the energy to take a shower right now. Guess I will stay home and try to get some work done here. In other news, when we were sitting in the bar yesterday with Ben, we heard a German version of “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down”, but I could tell the lyrics weren’t the same. I finally found it, and it was recorded in 1972 about a guy who dies of a drug overdose. Because Germany.

***
Emailed German Customs about how to get my new laptop here. The response was nightmarish maze of paperwork and forms and different departments and offices I need to deal with. It prompted me to compose a song to the tune of “Brazil” that included lyrics like “It’s like a Kafka Christmas treeeeeee…. and all the presents aren’t for meeeee…Bur-a-cra-cy… in Ger-man-y…”

Seriously, this is some crazy ass red tape.


Personal Journal: Berlin Diary – Day 20


Why is Der Kommissar in town? Is there a convention? The Boat Show? And why can’t I turn around? Is he behind me!? Should I be afraid? I mean, if he’s just come into town I can safely assume he’s out his jurisdiction, so he can’t arrest me. Is he a ghost!? He’s a ghost, isn’t he! Jeez, man, what kind of messed up boat show has cop ghosts that follow you around? That’s some really over the top security. You know what? I’m skipping this years boat show out of protest. I’m glad that’s settled.


Personal Journal: Strange Dreams


So we went out and had the most awesome and perfect day in Berlin today. Beer and radlers in Viktoriapark, doener at Mustafa’s in Kreuzberg, wandering in a gorgeous old cemetery, buying liqueurs at a small distillery (after liberal sampling of their wares first), a crazy and eccentric book shop run by a British ex-pat who was a total character, pulled pork and sauerkraut at Markthalle IX, gelato for dessert, then off to a totally amazing little bar that was playing incredible music from the 80s for legit absinthe, then stopping for more beer at Gorki Park across the street. Come home and Prince is dead. Well, shit.


Gallery: Viktoriapark


Gallery: Trinity Cemetery


Drinking Absinthe in a Kreuzberg Bar, Berlin. Photo by Elliott Cribbs
Drinking Absinthe in a Kreuzberg Bar, Berlin. Photo by Elliott Cribbs

Gallery: Kreuzberg


This day was totally mental, but in a good way. Went to Museumsinsel, saw some sort of Armenian ceremony thing that we couldn’t actually see but there was singing at St. Hedwig’s. Then went to the Altes Museum (Old Museum) and saw all the Greek, Roman, and Etruscan statues. As we were leaving, the church bells started to ring at the Berlin Cathedral (which is right next to the museum). Then, just as that finished, a large group of Syrians showed up in the Lustgarten to celebrate a wedding with music, dancing and singing. We walked to Alexanderplatz to catch the U-Bahn, and saw a guy with a giraffe head playing the buckets while a bunch of football fans danced and sang “We’re Not Gonna Take It” in German.

And to think, we didn’t even get out the door until after noon today…


Video: Syrian Wedding Party in the Lustgarten, Berlin


Video: Giraffe-Headed Bucket Player in Alexanderplatz


Video: St. Hedwig’s Cathedral, Berlin


Altes Museum, Berlin. Photo by Scarlett Messenger
Altes Museum, Berlin. Photo by Scarlett Messenger

Gallery: Altes Museum (Old Museum)


Days like today, where I just stay at home and work on my research, try to plan next year’s class schedule, and make borscht are the days where the homesickness really hurts. Nothing to distract me, I guess.


Berliner Weisse is the shit. 2 Berliner Weisse is even besser.
Signed,
The Girl Who Should Never Drink

And now I move on to my first Radler (50/50 beer and lemonade). Jesus Cristos these people know what to do with a beer. And no, this isn’t a daytime drunk, it’s 9pm here

… why is it that the beer that sounded so awesome at 9pm feels so awful at 3am?

Gallery: Kreuzberg

Gallery: Friedhöfe vor dem Halleschen Tor

I spent the day in Kreuzberg with my friends Elliott and Ben. We found this cemetery that had not only Felix Mendelssohn’s grave, but also E.T.A. Hoffmann, the Romantic-era author of the book The Nutcracker was based on, as well as the protagonist of Offenbach’s opera Tales of Hoffman.

Angela Brower (Nicklausse) and Diana Damrau (Giulietta) in the 4th act of Jacques Offenbach’s “Les contes d’Hoffmann” in a production by Richard Jones. Bayerische Staatsoper 2011.

Gallery: Viktoriapark

I went to Viktoriapark in Kreuzberg with my friends Elliott and Ben. We had radlers in the Biergarten and then walked up the hill to the Prussian National Monument for the Liberation Wars, which actually predates Germany as a nation (1821). It is a beautiful Neoclassical spire commemorating the German Campaign of 1813 during the Napoleonic Wars. From the top of Kreuzberg you can see the entire city. It was a fun afternoon.

Ben on a zipline, Viktoriapark, Berlin-Kreuzberg.