Happy New Year!! in Berlin
Hey blogisphere-
I wanted to post about our trip back to the UK for the holidays and our "lost weekend" in Berlin for New Year's.
The below is taken from an OP I did on Lonely Planet Thorntree in the Women Traveller's section:
One of those "well I'm back" threads....
Yeah, we're back! Had a fabu time on our 2 weeks away.
Initially, the pre-Christmas fogged in Heathrow did not really affect us, as we were on a long haul flight, although we had to circle for about 1/2 hour and when we came in to land, we went from cloud, to, well, directly on the ground, the fog was so thick.
Spent a few days with H's mum, and the down to Surrey for a lovely Christmas w/his aunts and cousins. Then, I flew up to Edinburgh, well, to just outside of it to visit a dear old friend of 17 years. Back on the 27th, then into London for the day on the 28th.
Checked out a photography show and some old oil portraits in the Nat'l Portrait Gallery, then did a little shopping at the sales. I was suffering from a cold (still have the remnants), so was on Lemsip fizzy powder, vitamin C and zinc that whole day.
Off to Berlin on the 28th. Our friend's friend, the expat 'merican, found us a great and cheap apt just north of Mitte in the working class neighborhood of Wedding. Kind of reminded me of Astoria, Queens.
Headed down to Kruezburg- Bergmanstrasse, to be exact, which I think was like the Smith Street or Williamburg (Brooklyn) of Berlin and went to the bar where the other friend works (Atlantic, if anyone is interested, nice place, and looked to have a decent menu). Made it and early night and only stayed out until about 3:30 am ;-).
The next morning, our 2 friends, one from Bawlamore and the other from Bawlamore and TO showed up. We got some groceries and such and H found a tuxedo jacket and white shirt from the thrift store across the street from the apt for the new year's party. (and the whole 30's thing was just an email misunderstanding, BTW, as it turns out, Roody and his girlfriend were really sweet people, kindred spirits, etc... yes, it was meant to be like a roaring 20's party) H's friend, M had a 20p bow tie he could borrow. Finally, the expat 'merican comes around and takes us on a whirlwind tour (in the rain) of checkpoint charlie, where the wall was, etc. He was chockful of info as he used to run tours. He kept saying 'now keep up' and 'gather 'round'. Old habits die hard I guess.
We went to my first German Christmas market, and although I'm not normally much of a red wine drinker, I absolutely adore Gluwien (sp). I think I'll keep drinking it so long as the weather is cold. (Why stop at New Year!?).
Then, back to the apt for a disco nap and to get ready for dinner. We went to this place- a blind restaurant. Gourmet food- you pick from a set menu with hard to decipher "poetic" descriptions of the food and order your cocktails and then a blind waiter leads you in to the dining room. It is absolutely pitch black. You walk in with your left arm on the person in front of you's shoulder. Your waiter seats you. At first it feels rather claustrophobic and disconcerting. I made cracks about being afriad I'd have an acid flashback ;-).
Your salad course is odd- you are encouraged to eat with your fingers if you need to. Mine was odder as he mixed my husband's and my salad. An artichoke heart and reconstituted sun dried tomato is an odd thing indeed to eat when you can't see it. Part of taste for us sighted folk is also visual.Eventually, you start getting used to it, and the din of conversation at the other tables. I started to find it incredibly relaxing, and kept holding my head up with my hands, afraid I was nodding off. We all made jokes about people picking their noses n stuff. During the main, the expat 'merican, G, "stole" my friend Lisa's plate, to play a trick. Pretty funny. As I said we started getting used to it.
Just before the dessert, G's girlfriend, a German girl (and waitress, she works at the Pomp, Duck and Circumstance Circus cabaret), thought she heard some wait staff talking about using infared to be able to, say, see when table 10 was done with their soup. Something to remember should any of you go! No nose picking or clothes removal- some people in there might actually be able to see you! As were were one of the last groups seated, eventually, the supposedly large room filtered down to just us and one or two other groups. Another table started singing Bette Midler tunes (I think with a sense of irony) and we joined in. We all started laughing and as they left, wished us a happy new year. Odd to have a whole exchange with strangers without actually seeing them.
Once they lead you back out again, your eyes adjust and they show you, on a menu, what you actually ate. Confirmed I got the wrong salad, but can I blame the waiter??? The guy's blind, fer Chrissakes!
Then we headed back down to Atlantic and then to a place "Shark Bar" after that... home at 5:30 am....Must go run some errands now (the cupboard is bare, actually strike that, the cupboard is okay, it's the fridge and breadbox that are empty) so will tell you about the next 2 days later :-)
Trip to Berlin, continued...
We got back to the apt and I immediately went to bed. M and G stayed up in the kitchen and drank some scotch, I think. Finally woke up about mid day. The girls ran off to do errands and myself, H and M went down to the Potsdamer Platz area and then over to the Brandenburg Gate, which was all set up for the evening's festivities.
We sort of cut through and then out the other end. Its started absolutely pissing down with rain, so we waited under the roof at the back side of the Reichstag, which I learned was like the German capitol buiding. As it as heavily damaged in the war, and then in a fire, parts of it were totally redone, and although the facade looked old, parts of the inside, of what we could see, looked modern. Recently they added this quite modern looking dome at the top. We wandered around the front. Across the top of the door, it said "Dem Deutche something or other". My husband says to me "how bout dem deutche something or other". It's a Bawlmer joke (as in "How bout dem O's") I started laughing, but M didn't get what we were on about. Stopped by the big ferris wheel near the Tiergarten and got a most delicous cheesy pretzel and some gleuwine. (love that stuff). Finally, after many voicemails back and forth to and from M's Barcelona cell phone, fonamac and I managed to fine one another and had about an hour to hang out. We greeted each other with a huge hug- what a feat to actually be able to meet up!
There were some vendors set up selling hats and things. Most sold only wooly hats, but one of them had some vintagey looking brimmed hat. I found a lovely hat to complete my costume for the party that night- only set me back 19 euros- bargain!
We wondered over to the Holocaust memorial at fona's suggestion. Very interesting to wander around inside. Doesn't look like much from the street, but once you are inside, it is similar in a way to being in the blind restaurant. You become immersed in these large concerete blocks and it is easy to get lost and lose those that are with you. Fona said it is meant to to try duplicate the feeling of isolation and loneliness the victims must have felt. Some of the large installation peices I saw a couple of days later at the Jewish Museum were of a similar vein.
As we had to get back to the apartment for a cat nap and to get ready for the evening, we parted ways with fona, and headed back north to wedding.We got all dolled up. Friend K had some sort of vintage animal stole thing, complete with clip mouth and little feet, spat shoes and fab hat. We did Lisa's hair in a kind of Heidi like 'do (although G kept calling her "Princess Leia" all night), and she wore a sort of "Aunie Mame" scarf blouse over a black dress. I wore a silk peplum blouse and a high waisted sort of trumpet skirt in a matching shade, did my hair in a sort of "faux bob" and wore my new hat. H had his faux tuxedo and M wore a double breasted suit he got when he was visiting his Dad at a thrift store in Chelmsford. I drew a little John Waters mustache on him with an eye pencil. G showed up in a vintage smoking jacket and some sort of silly bow tie (with his cowboy boots- he may have lived in Berlin for 19 years, but he grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin).
In Berlin, in the days leading up to NYE, all the little houligan kids light fireworks. They put them in mailboxes. They throw them from balconies. But that night, on the way to the subway, in our 'hood, was the worst I'd ever seen. It was like a war zone. Craaaazy.
We got out in sort of north K-burg a couple of blocks from the party, which was a cool loungy type place. Roody and his girlfriend had spent the whole day getting ready, which included making an impressive spread of hors deurves (sp). Lots of pretty little things on bread and crackers. With the exception of the obligatory bubbly, my drink for the evening was Cuba Libres. With Havana Club. (not available in the US). A friend of theirs, a gal about my age maybe, in a lovely 40's dress spun lounge choons then funk, then anything goes. K's two Brooklyn friends showed up and decided to stay. Everyone else there were designers, artists, what have you... the German version of our group! We all got long great. We all danced our asses off. Ms dj at some point even played "Rapper's Delight", which is an obligatory party song here in B'more.
When midnight rolled around, we headed outside and the scene was crazy- fireworks going off everywhere! Lots of hugs, kisses, etc going on, as it does. Eventually we were back inside for yet more dancing- which we did, pretty much until we gals left at around 4-ish. H stayed until 7. It was really one of the more perfect NYE that I've had. Lisa planted the seed- next year in Havana???
Didn't do much of anything NY Day except run to the Turkish shop for some provisions and cook a nice meal. Our last morning we all split up- I headed to the Jewish museum and H headed to some Technology museum. The gurls headed to see some fine art exhibits.It took me about 2-1/2 hrs to go through the museum. A very interesting building- very modern, zinc covered outside walls. The main entry is an old building but the whole permanent collection, including the two permanent installation peices mentioned above, are in the new building.A couple of things that struck me- as I mentioned in post 1- H and I had wondered round the London Nat'l Portrait gallery looking at old oil portraits. Of course, everyone in those portraits looks very, well, British. In the Jewish museum, in the section that deals with Jews of the court (late 17th- early 18th centuries, age of enlightenment, etc), there they were, hanging on the wall- formal painted portraits of people that looked kind of like me! Or my relatives. Hadn't really seen much of those before.Of course there are sections talking about the Holocaust, but the museum traces Jewish history in that region from the middle ages to modern day, so it covers much more. After the really sad and tragic sections dealing with wwII, there are then a couple of areas that deal with modern day Jews in Germany. In one gallery, there was a temporary show of photographic portraits of modern day young Jewish Berliners. In the portraits, they are all smiling and dressed like people we might know. You leave the museum with a great sense of hope for the future, rather than depressed. Made me think about how the US finally got around to having a Native American museum just a few years ago.
Next, H and I met at a subway station nearby and decided to head over to B'strasse for lunch and so I could buy a couple of gifts in the little indie shops there. When we changed trains, we ran into M! What a coinky-dink!
After lunch and shopping, it was back to the apt to say bye to everyone and collect our bags then train it down to the airport where our plane was delayed 3 hours. Finally made it back to Paul's mum's at about 2 am.
We hung around the house all day Wed and had to wake up at 5:30 am yesterday to get to Stansted and catch the Heaththrow bus. After a 2 hour bus ride, checking in, duty free shopping and boarding the plane, we sat on the tarmac for 2-1/2 hours due to some fuel pump related technical difficulties. Got back to our house at about 8 pm ( 1am UK time!) last night.
All in all, a great couple of weeks.
I wanted to post about our trip back to the UK for the holidays and our "lost weekend" in Berlin for New Year's.
The below is taken from an OP I did on Lonely Planet Thorntree in the Women Traveller's section:
One of those "well I'm back" threads....
Yeah, we're back! Had a fabu time on our 2 weeks away.
Initially, the pre-Christmas fogged in Heathrow did not really affect us, as we were on a long haul flight, although we had to circle for about 1/2 hour and when we came in to land, we went from cloud, to, well, directly on the ground, the fog was so thick.
Spent a few days with H's mum, and the down to Surrey for a lovely Christmas w/his aunts and cousins. Then, I flew up to Edinburgh, well, to just outside of it to visit a dear old friend of 17 years. Back on the 27th, then into London for the day on the 28th.
Checked out a photography show and some old oil portraits in the Nat'l Portrait Gallery, then did a little shopping at the sales. I was suffering from a cold (still have the remnants), so was on Lemsip fizzy powder, vitamin C and zinc that whole day.
Off to Berlin on the 28th. Our friend's friend, the expat 'merican, found us a great and cheap apt just north of Mitte in the working class neighborhood of Wedding. Kind of reminded me of Astoria, Queens.
Headed down to Kruezburg- Bergmanstrasse, to be exact, which I think was like the Smith Street or Williamburg (Brooklyn) of Berlin and went to the bar where the other friend works (Atlantic, if anyone is interested, nice place, and looked to have a decent menu). Made it and early night and only stayed out until about 3:30 am ;-).
The next morning, our 2 friends, one from Bawlamore and the other from Bawlamore and TO showed up. We got some groceries and such and H found a tuxedo jacket and white shirt from the thrift store across the street from the apt for the new year's party. (and the whole 30's thing was just an email misunderstanding, BTW, as it turns out, Roody and his girlfriend were really sweet people, kindred spirits, etc... yes, it was meant to be like a roaring 20's party) H's friend, M had a 20p bow tie he could borrow. Finally, the expat 'merican comes around and takes us on a whirlwind tour (in the rain) of checkpoint charlie, where the wall was, etc. He was chockful of info as he used to run tours. He kept saying 'now keep up' and 'gather 'round'. Old habits die hard I guess.
We went to my first German Christmas market, and although I'm not normally much of a red wine drinker, I absolutely adore Gluwien (sp). I think I'll keep drinking it so long as the weather is cold. (Why stop at New Year!?).
Then, back to the apt for a disco nap and to get ready for dinner. We went to this place- a blind restaurant. Gourmet food- you pick from a set menu with hard to decipher "poetic" descriptions of the food and order your cocktails and then a blind waiter leads you in to the dining room. It is absolutely pitch black. You walk in with your left arm on the person in front of you's shoulder. Your waiter seats you. At first it feels rather claustrophobic and disconcerting. I made cracks about being afriad I'd have an acid flashback ;-).
Your salad course is odd- you are encouraged to eat with your fingers if you need to. Mine was odder as he mixed my husband's and my salad. An artichoke heart and reconstituted sun dried tomato is an odd thing indeed to eat when you can't see it. Part of taste for us sighted folk is also visual.Eventually, you start getting used to it, and the din of conversation at the other tables. I started to find it incredibly relaxing, and kept holding my head up with my hands, afraid I was nodding off. We all made jokes about people picking their noses n stuff. During the main, the expat 'merican, G, "stole" my friend Lisa's plate, to play a trick. Pretty funny. As I said we started getting used to it.
Just before the dessert, G's girlfriend, a German girl (and waitress, she works at the Pomp, Duck and Circumstance Circus cabaret), thought she heard some wait staff talking about using infared to be able to, say, see when table 10 was done with their soup. Something to remember should any of you go! No nose picking or clothes removal- some people in there might actually be able to see you! As were were one of the last groups seated, eventually, the supposedly large room filtered down to just us and one or two other groups. Another table started singing Bette Midler tunes (I think with a sense of irony) and we joined in. We all started laughing and as they left, wished us a happy new year. Odd to have a whole exchange with strangers without actually seeing them.
Once they lead you back out again, your eyes adjust and they show you, on a menu, what you actually ate. Confirmed I got the wrong salad, but can I blame the waiter??? The guy's blind, fer Chrissakes!
Then we headed back down to Atlantic and then to a place "Shark Bar" after that... home at 5:30 am....Must go run some errands now (the cupboard is bare, actually strike that, the cupboard is okay, it's the fridge and breadbox that are empty) so will tell you about the next 2 days later :-)
Trip to Berlin, continued...
We got back to the apt and I immediately went to bed. M and G stayed up in the kitchen and drank some scotch, I think. Finally woke up about mid day. The girls ran off to do errands and myself, H and M went down to the Potsdamer Platz area and then over to the Brandenburg Gate, which was all set up for the evening's festivities.
We sort of cut through and then out the other end. Its started absolutely pissing down with rain, so we waited under the roof at the back side of the Reichstag, which I learned was like the German capitol buiding. As it as heavily damaged in the war, and then in a fire, parts of it were totally redone, and although the facade looked old, parts of the inside, of what we could see, looked modern. Recently they added this quite modern looking dome at the top. We wandered around the front. Across the top of the door, it said "Dem Deutche something or other". My husband says to me "how bout dem deutche something or other". It's a Bawlmer joke (as in "How bout dem O's") I started laughing, but M didn't get what we were on about. Stopped by the big ferris wheel near the Tiergarten and got a most delicous cheesy pretzel and some gleuwine. (love that stuff). Finally, after many voicemails back and forth to and from M's Barcelona cell phone, fonamac and I managed to fine one another and had about an hour to hang out. We greeted each other with a huge hug- what a feat to actually be able to meet up!
There were some vendors set up selling hats and things. Most sold only wooly hats, but one of them had some vintagey looking brimmed hat. I found a lovely hat to complete my costume for the party that night- only set me back 19 euros- bargain!
We wondered over to the Holocaust memorial at fona's suggestion. Very interesting to wander around inside. Doesn't look like much from the street, but once you are inside, it is similar in a way to being in the blind restaurant. You become immersed in these large concerete blocks and it is easy to get lost and lose those that are with you. Fona said it is meant to to try duplicate the feeling of isolation and loneliness the victims must have felt. Some of the large installation peices I saw a couple of days later at the Jewish Museum were of a similar vein.
As we had to get back to the apartment for a cat nap and to get ready for the evening, we parted ways with fona, and headed back north to wedding.We got all dolled up. Friend K had some sort of vintage animal stole thing, complete with clip mouth and little feet, spat shoes and fab hat. We did Lisa's hair in a kind of Heidi like 'do (although G kept calling her "Princess Leia" all night), and she wore a sort of "Aunie Mame" scarf blouse over a black dress. I wore a silk peplum blouse and a high waisted sort of trumpet skirt in a matching shade, did my hair in a sort of "faux bob" and wore my new hat. H had his faux tuxedo and M wore a double breasted suit he got when he was visiting his Dad at a thrift store in Chelmsford. I drew a little John Waters mustache on him with an eye pencil. G showed up in a vintage smoking jacket and some sort of silly bow tie (with his cowboy boots- he may have lived in Berlin for 19 years, but he grew up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin).
In Berlin, in the days leading up to NYE, all the little houligan kids light fireworks. They put them in mailboxes. They throw them from balconies. But that night, on the way to the subway, in our 'hood, was the worst I'd ever seen. It was like a war zone. Craaaazy.
We got out in sort of north K-burg a couple of blocks from the party, which was a cool loungy type place. Roody and his girlfriend had spent the whole day getting ready, which included making an impressive spread of hors deurves (sp). Lots of pretty little things on bread and crackers. With the exception of the obligatory bubbly, my drink for the evening was Cuba Libres. With Havana Club. (not available in the US). A friend of theirs, a gal about my age maybe, in a lovely 40's dress spun lounge choons then funk, then anything goes. K's two Brooklyn friends showed up and decided to stay. Everyone else there were designers, artists, what have you... the German version of our group! We all got long great. We all danced our asses off. Ms dj at some point even played "Rapper's Delight", which is an obligatory party song here in B'more.
When midnight rolled around, we headed outside and the scene was crazy- fireworks going off everywhere! Lots of hugs, kisses, etc going on, as it does. Eventually we were back inside for yet more dancing- which we did, pretty much until we gals left at around 4-ish. H stayed until 7. It was really one of the more perfect NYE that I've had. Lisa planted the seed- next year in Havana???
Didn't do much of anything NY Day except run to the Turkish shop for some provisions and cook a nice meal. Our last morning we all split up- I headed to the Jewish museum and H headed to some Technology museum. The gurls headed to see some fine art exhibits.It took me about 2-1/2 hrs to go through the museum. A very interesting building- very modern, zinc covered outside walls. The main entry is an old building but the whole permanent collection, including the two permanent installation peices mentioned above, are in the new building.A couple of things that struck me- as I mentioned in post 1- H and I had wondered round the London Nat'l Portrait gallery looking at old oil portraits. Of course, everyone in those portraits looks very, well, British. In the Jewish museum, in the section that deals with Jews of the court (late 17th- early 18th centuries, age of enlightenment, etc), there they were, hanging on the wall- formal painted portraits of people that looked kind of like me! Or my relatives. Hadn't really seen much of those before.Of course there are sections talking about the Holocaust, but the museum traces Jewish history in that region from the middle ages to modern day, so it covers much more. After the really sad and tragic sections dealing with wwII, there are then a couple of areas that deal with modern day Jews in Germany. In one gallery, there was a temporary show of photographic portraits of modern day young Jewish Berliners. In the portraits, they are all smiling and dressed like people we might know. You leave the museum with a great sense of hope for the future, rather than depressed. Made me think about how the US finally got around to having a Native American museum just a few years ago.
Next, H and I met at a subway station nearby and decided to head over to B'strasse for lunch and so I could buy a couple of gifts in the little indie shops there. When we changed trains, we ran into M! What a coinky-dink!
After lunch and shopping, it was back to the apt to say bye to everyone and collect our bags then train it down to the airport where our plane was delayed 3 hours. Finally made it back to Paul's mum's at about 2 am.
We hung around the house all day Wed and had to wake up at 5:30 am yesterday to get to Stansted and catch the Heaththrow bus. After a 2 hour bus ride, checking in, duty free shopping and boarding the plane, we sat on the tarmac for 2-1/2 hours due to some fuel pump related technical difficulties. Got back to our house at about 8 pm ( 1am UK time!) last night.
All in all, a great couple of weeks.
posted by Beth @ 2:09 PM
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