Es freut mich, Kreuzberg, sie kennen zu lernen!
Day 2 in Berlin. My brain woke me up at 7:30, so I got up to get bread (OK, an eclair) at the Turkish bakery on the corner to find that there was a film crew in the street outside the apartment filming a zombie-cyborg movie. Yay zombie-cyborgs! In German! The woman at the bakery rolled her eyes when I asked her about the filming, as if saying “Great, another zombie-cyborg movie.” M got around and we went wandering Kreuzberg. Today’s weather was gorgeous, and as it is supposed to be rainy and cold for the next week, every single person who could be outside today in Berlin was outside. We found our way across the Landwehr Canal near our place to Görlitzer Park and sat in the sun in the bowl that used to be the train turntable.
We wandered from there and had lunch(ish) at a cafe along the U-bahn 1 line and watched people for a long time just being lazy and enjoying the weather. From there we ventured up into Mitte to go to Kastanienallee, where we knew there was a great art store to get some supplies. Along the way we saw a park completely packed with bodies soaking up the last summer sun of Berlin which cried out to me “Buy some ice cream!”. Not one to quash ice cream urges when they hit, we found some ice cream and spent more time being lazy in the sun. Eventually we made it to the art store and then headed back to Kreuzberg to meet famed Australian scrytchian Justien and her sweetie Robert. We had an excellent dinner at a bio (organic) restaurant and got to know each other. Both were immensely entertaining.
The apartment we subletted through Craiglist for a pittance is great and convenient to the U-bahn. M and I agree that we’re glad the first time we came we stayed in Mitte and Prenzlauer Berg where there are more young people running amuck and the cafes and such are more densely packed. Kreuzberg, however, has its own charms and holy hell is it cheap over here. I am eating more cheaply than in Austin even with the terrible dollar/Euro conversion.
The jet lag is still kicking me, so I’m off to bed. We’re going to try to head to clubs and shows later this week. I’ll report back with any musical finds.