Berlin: Week One

It was a rough start getting to Berlin... ie failing hydraulic systems on the plane needed to be fixed; you know the landing gear, not super necessary equipment. The 24 hour delay allowed us to run home, cuddle the cat, grab a few of the items we had been unsure about and drink a bottle of wine. We still took advantage of the free hotel stay AND some lovely dinner vouchers. However, we could have enjoyed the breakfast vouchers for a bit longer had we known that the next 5 hours would require us standing in a forever line to rebook the flight we already had tickets for. The words, "Your connecting flight boarding pass will be waiting for you in Munich." Is a tricky statement that should have been a small window into the German bureaucracy as Alexis would later explain to me. What that lovely airline attendant actually meant is that we would arrive to Munich dazed and confused be told to go through Passport control and wait for a suitcase that would never come because obviously it was booked through to Berlin. It also meant that we would wander the airport until finally figuring out that yes we did have a connecting flight arranged, boarding pass no, but just walk to AirBerlin...3km down the terminal. Hahaha I'm just getting started. What THAT meant is that no you can't go through security, you don't have a boarding pass silly. You must wait in another forever line to get a ticket. Thank you to my wonderful husband who ended up walking up to Premier seating window and in a broken English/German/Please help me I'm lost, got someone to find our tickets. Boarding pass check, Security check point passed, lets fly. 

Condor WILL be hearing from us, but we made it to BERLIN as evidence by the delicious Currywurst. Cue hotdog everything. Yes please. Week one in Berlin, Germany has been a blur of German, Turkish, Spanish and so many other language that I only try to guess at. We have a few games we play while walking the streets: 1. Name the tourist's country of origin. 2. Name the country that that Spanish speaker is from; so many Chileans! 3. Watch amused as pretty much every German shakes their head and mutters (or screams) at the absurd tourists. 4. Avoid death by bicycle. I am losing at number 4. Alexis has already developed a habit of grabbing my arm as we approach a crosswalk because the bikers here are fierce and that little bell can be angry! Currywust is just one of the fine delicacies we have tried in week one. The Dürum from Haci Baba is in my Top Five. Turkish food is amazing and on every street corner and at all hours of the day and night. Fresh bread is a daily occurrence as well as a Bratwurst. There was an intriguing Bao Burger, think BahMi in a Humbao, sweet potato and coconut soup, papaya salad, fried fish with veggies of the Caribbean region, fresh pasta and chanterelle mushrooms and SO MUCH BIER. A tiny sprinkle of daily joy for me are the strawberry vendors. At almost every subway station there is a giant strawberry (I have yet to work up the courage to photograph it in the midst of fast paced German commuters) and in that strawberry house a nice Herr or Frau sells 500g, 1kg, or 2kg baskets of strawberries!!  Perhaps a trivial part of every Berliner's daily commute, but absolute fascination for me. 

Berlin monopoly
right near our apartment.

I should know who
this is...shouldn't I?

I cannot do justice to the street art I have seen in week one with the limited HTML functions of Blogger. But here are a few scattered through my ramblings. Jet lag has its benefits and one of them is the early hour we seem to be getting up at. This give us a few hours to wander the streets each madrugada in full on tourist mode, photographing murals to our heart's desire. We put away the camera save for a few photos here and there when the city begins to bustle and as we enter the more touristic part of town to just walk and take in this crazy interesting capitol. The architecture, as describe by my husband, is like no other. Old and modern, half crumbled and restored all meld together bandage by graffiti and murals. 
The first day we completed a walking tour of a large section of Berlin seeing the East Side Gallery which is covered in murals. Of course the famous ones are streaming in tourist so I decided to save my pictures for a less desirable moment later in the weeks to come. Berlin is HUGE and every neighborhood as its own murals, interesting buildings and plethera of sidewalk cafes where at any hour, one or many people sit outside with a beer, coffee or whatever that brown liquid is in that giant bottle...iced tea? Walking city streets is grueling work and so we take advantage of the side walk cafes most afternoons. Here comes the fun part of being abroad. Being the awkward dumb tourist. 99% of Germans speak enough English to never have to try to speak German here, but we try anyways and fail. A typical conversation goes like this: waiter comes as we stare lost at a menu of items even though most have an English translation. Waiter says a few words in German into our blank stare. I maybe mumble in English or Spanish to Alexis and point to something on the menu. In which the server switches to perfect English and I continue rambling along in a mix of Spanish German English because my brain can't hold it together. The server pauses for a second because he think we might say something else and then I awkwardly smile and give a thumbs up like a dumbass. EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I try to mumble a "danke" under my breath here and there but words are tricky and don't like to come out of my mouth.


My absolute favorite exchange here so far in Berlin came from our anniversary dinner. As you admire the roast half of a duck, sweet red cabbage and potato dumplings bliss you see to the left, I will tell you that our anniversary dinner did not disappoint. Neither did the waiter. We as good millennials do googled the words "Best authentic german food" and the hidden gem of a restaurant to your right popped up in the top three. Alexis and I have been married 7 years and most of the celebrating we do includes food. After eating and drinking, eyes half closed in delightful delirium for well over a couple hours, appetizer and post meal cappuccinos included the server cleared our plates. I told him "that was delicious." and he paused for half a second and replied "well you two were also VERY delicious." and thus ended a perfect night.

We have had several electric storms while here in Berlin, which according to our host is very unusual, but you know...climate change. So a couple days of sightseeing included rain jackets and umbrellas. I study female fashion obsessively to try to match my next outfit to something that will make stick out less like a sore thumb and I have noticed that while an umbrella is pretty much dress code, there is a lack of jackets...even in the rain. Adidas are a must for every occasion. I learned that Adidas was German (Alexis nearly fainted at the thought that I did not know Adidas was a person, where was that in my American history lesson??). Anyhoo, he got into a fight with his brother who then left the company to create Puma. --Lauren, why have none of our fights ever resulted in a billion dollar fashion industry?-- Whereas in the US, someone may have some Adidas shoes, here it is the complete outfit, handbag included. 
We are visit historically relevant monuments daily. And in my top five so far are National Art Gallery and a memorial church in Charlottenburg. In the art gallery, Alexis discovered a portrait of me as a wild child and I gawked at several beautiful but less known works by Monet, Manet, Renoir and Gauguin. I also came across several pieces that I know we studied in art history and I tried to remember the important aspects of them, but instead just stared and enjoyed remarkable pieces of work from people who would be alarmed at what some call art in the 21st century. 
Alexis had never been to Charlottenburg and we both were mesmerized by the Bikini Berlin and a church that was built to commemorate one destroyed in WW2. Walking into this church you are engulfed in sea of deep blues. 

Thousands of shards of glass make up hundred of tiny cement stain glass windows. Areas of red and green are scattered among the blues and the feeling is as close to godlike as I have come. The stain glass window surround you except for an enormous organ that plays at 18:00 every day from the limited German I understood.

Window box sunflowers!

I love the amount of greenery in Berlin. There are parks and green areas to sit and drink your beer pretty much everywhere. Tiny gardens grow out of sidewalk raised beds, window boxes and on top of roofs. And in many one to two sunflowers sway in the wind. However, the real wow is Tiergarten. The park with the iconic angel at its core. All paths lead to her. For 3 Euros you can climb to the very top where panoramic views and tourists collide. 

One road leads to the radio tower. One leads to the Brandenburg Gate and various others to iconic parts of Berlin. Of course after climbing hundreds of steps we had to stop for a Raspberry Weisse and a Bratwurst or two. 

Don't vandalize you idiot.

The signage in and around Tiergarten made me smirk. The one to the left was posted in the spiral stairway heading up to the Angel. I giggle mostly because I hear a strong British accent for some reason when I see it "Idiot!". Another poster was in the cafe bathroom warned you while you pee to not be a Seat Piss Monster. And a final one in the area was warning signs about tricksters.  Aka thieves and pickpockets, but the term tricksters seems so much sweeter. How can you be mad at a trickster for stealing your passport and all your money? 



I took many "artsey" pictures in the Angel and at some point, I'll post an album of just my random camera angles, but for now you can enjoy these two views from the top of the Angel. 

Sundays are flea market days and so far we have made it to just one. However, this coming Sunday we plan to do two to three so I can buy some presents... ;) I LOVE THE FLEA MARKETS. There are musicians playing everything from swing jazz in Spanish to some Enya type drum chanting. Vendors are set up in a football sized field selling relics of Berlin, second hand clothes and new stylish earrings...drool. There are tasty bites to eat everywhere and then you can grab a beer find a spot on the lawn or hill and just relax. 

Jeje, sneak picture attack on Alexis to the left. I love the flea market because while there are hoards of tourists, the majority of people are just Berliners, families coming to hang out on a Sunday afternoon. Much of Berlin is closed on Sunday. You can't go to the supermarket and the museums are packed so why not just enjoy the music with a beer in hand. Have I mentioned you can just walk around with beer...mind blown.

Bicycles and the River Spree. So many rivers and channels snake around the city of Berlin that viewing everything from bicycle will be a must in the coming days. For now we just walk and walk. I love walking the paths the follow the river because you can see so many different buildings, sculptures like the Molecule Man to the left and random art. Like Seattle construction cranes litter the river side and stand as a symbol of development sometimes contrary to what many Berliners would like to see. But that is a topic that I am not yet educated enough to write about. 

I'll leave week one post with a picture of the Dom situated on Museum Island and next on my list of important places to visit. Know that I am learning, relaxing, drinking, eating and trying to take risks all in the name of vacation. Until next week or a random facebook sighting, love to all. -Dana