One Sunny Sunday in Berlin
March 25th, 2007 | Posted by Shannon
After I posted my last entry, I told Kasch that if there were any errors or anything I wrote that could be construed as offensive (this being another culture and all) that she should tell me. So she read it and she told me, that the locals at Gerbaty were “absolutely not drunk” because if they were, they would be “unable to walk.” I stand corrected! Also this means I was not drunk myself, whoo hoo! I love Berlin.
I did manage to make it until 2AM on Friday night despite my exhausted state. We went to this trendy Vietnamese place called Monsieur Vuongs because someone over on the chowhound.com message board had said this was not to be missed. It is a really cool place, packed and not so expensive and Monsieur Vuong himself seems to be in attendance, an older Vietnamese gentleman standing behind the bar smoking cigarettes. Kasch was not too happy to be in this place with all the trendy “Mitte people” and I cannot really blame her because hell if I would ever be dragged down to the Gaslamp district to eat. As if! Cafe Gerbaty is Kasch’s Vine, and Pankow is her Ocean Beach. I totally understand but on the other hand I was very happy that she humored me in my quest.
After that we went to meet the expat musician, David Pedroza, in a trendy, packed bar, but once again I love this about Berlin: even in the trendy packed bars beer and wine are still a commodity, and therefore reasonable. Still we did not stay long and I was on my way home, I mean ON MY WAY HOME when Tom and Kasch talked me into going to the freeking Cafe Gerbaty again. It’s very difficult since everything is just a subway stop away or two, to say No. Anyhow. It was a very mellow night compared to the previous one and even though I did not make it to bed until 2AM I was well rested and prepared for yesterday’s Let’s Discover More of Berlin with Tom.
First of all, it was sunny yesterday, all day, but windy. After a week of really cold weather and almost constant rain, it was pretty great to put on a lighter jacket for once. I am not going to get into the activities of the day, except to say that by way of the UBahn and SBahn Tom and I made a circle of the entire city, walked through the Tiergarten, and then along a mile-long remnant of the Berlin Wall, and then I made Tom come to a very packed area with me where this place called Tacheles is. It is an old squat that is now a cool and anarchist sort of place but I can imagine that it used to be cooler and more anarchist, right now it is sort of Tourist Anarchist if that makes any sense, which obviously makes no sense. Still, I was very impressed with the place.
Last night Kasch made us a dinner of chicken and potatoes baked in lemon and garlic and I actually made it to bed before midnight.
Today it was even warmer and it was a glorious day with all the Berliners out soaking up the sun. We went to the mother of all flea markets, a massive place with stalls heaving with junk and what I really wanted was a beer glass with Russian writing on it but instead left with a TShirt and a cool new purse. After that Tom and Kasch had to go home so I wandered around my neighborhood of Prenzlauer Berg. There are obscene quantities of coolness and hot looking urban people around here and also they are breeding heavily because every other one has a baby carriage. I sat for an hour or so at a sidewalk cafe on this very happening street, the Kastanienalle, and at one point I watched this dude who looked to be an aging punk rocker, wearing a knee length tweed jacket and a white scarf, walking down the street pushing a PINK baby carriage and also, smoking a cigarette. It’s pretty awesome here, let me tell you.
Anyhow. After some time I went back to my apartment and sat on my balcony with no shoes or socks, it is that warm here all of a sudden. And now I am starving so I have to go eat. The question: Sushi? Russian? Spanish? Doner Kebab? Hmmmm….
