going to my second home

just two days and partly for work, but – berlin, berlin, berlin – here i come – sigh, i feel very cosmopolitan, i’ll grap a latte on my way to the station, hop on the train and be back tomorrow – so long

berlin story

be there – 24 h berlin – amazing – if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere – a mosaic of a city – 24 h filmed last september and aired this september – tomorrow morning, 6 am – what a great project – and having lived there, the city has this amazing thing, it grabs you and never lets you go – you’ll always be part of it and it will never be the same – i wish i was there now

erich-maria

last night was the big night of good-bye – i am sad and i will miss my office – even if i was only interning for three months, it felt like a long time and it was such a good time – i am used to good-byes, but this one was special and nice and almost a little tearful and amongst my good-bye presents was one very special – i was selected to adopt the orchid erich-maria – it is very nice indeed that he’ll keep me company when i say good-bye to the city and return home – even though the city has become home and will always be home as well

foot of the mountain

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they were right – berlin’s got mountains – yesterday i climbed the great bunkerberg in friedrichshain and today it was the original kreuzberg – well, more hills than mountains, but who’d have thought? – this truly is summer in the city and all for no money and on a weekday like this even without so many sun-crazy working berliners like it would be on a weekend – really, this city has too many nice places for me, i could chill someplace different every day, but the waterfalls at kreuzberg, alongside the landwehrkanal are my favourites – you can guess why – of course, water and my feet in cool, fresh water – ahhhh, sigh, almost as good as walking barefoot on fresh green gras – almost!

sugarplum fairy

brunch à la berlin – take a sunny saturday morning, two friends and a small hidden-away treasure of a coffee shop – zuckerfee berlin – having lusted after a real great american breakfast for the better part of the last month, this was divine – sugarplum fairy, including pancakes with butter, blueberries and real canadian maple syrup, scrambled eggs and bacon, toast, hashbrowns and loads of fresh fruit – cute pink chairs with punched-out flower design, a charming waitress and an interior design to die for (violet walls and just enough kitsch not to be too much) – i must say, i am in love and lucky to be living half an hour by tube (about an hour on bike) away, otherwise i’d have to go every day and try all the other lovely ideas for a yummy breakfast and then i’d quickly only be able to roll back home

if you want to try for yourself, click on the logo and you’ll be directed to the homepage, where you can find the mouth-watering menu

a perfect way to start the weekend!

naked truth

first rays of sunshine alight on the city and people forget to put on clothes – they dress to impress with less – and a variety of people show it all – in tiergarten it’s nude party time and no one seems to care – there’s some pretty sights and some not so pretty and all of that right in the middle of the city, with cars going by and tourists from around the world gawking and sometimes even (most oblique of course) even taking photos – c’est la vie en berlin

smell ya later

the world is full of smells and there’s nothing as smelly as a large city – not all bad smells, but a great variation of smells of all kinds – i wish i could forward you some samples, but since internet is not yet that far developed, a good description will have to suffice – so, here goes – a smelly journey through the city

we start out in berlin mitte, the sun is warm on the asphalt and the tourists smell of sunscreen and sweat – the smell of summer vacation – on to tiergarten – fresh green smells, mowed grass and a variety of flowers – the wood of a newly repaired bridge gives of a strong pine aroma, overlaying the yucky smell of piss and moldy water from the little pond below

on it goes from tiergarten back into the city – a hot summer smell – dried, almost burned  grass and hot stones, in between the buildings – it smells like childhood to me – i can’t exactly say why – a patch of lavender gives of a delicious fragrance reminding one of summers in the provence and romantic sunsets

a swift shower leaves the streets wet and smelling deliciously like summer – there’s nothing nicer than summer rain – gentle and cooling and scenting the warm asphalt with a smell that everyone knows and adores – on one corner, a short whiff of cinnamon – churros, it’s just a fleeting moment and makes my mouth water, then it’s back to sewage

the next corner brings grill fat and french fries from a gay bar, which drifts down the street with me towards home, before the final smell of the day makes me hungry for supper – the bakery ’round the corner, where i get my croissants in the morning and where every evening the breads and buns give off an odour to die for

good morning, berlin

it is a shame to be at the office on such a beautiful friday morning – the sun is shining and the city’s alive – early on my way to work, i feel like singing and dancing and then find a cozy little cafe wich serves a croissant and hot coffee for breakfast – preferably somewhere near the spree and a good book and i’d be as happy as can be – well, there’s always tomorrow and that is WEEKEND – yay!

just so

flying visit of príncipe encantado in berlin – old feelings? – yes, a little, but much more just feeling good about it and having a nice day – summer in the city indeed – work is work and fun is fun – combination of both and someone beautiful and nice visiting is just perfect – a picnic at the spree, a walk around the sights – then back to work and coping with the frightfully difficult task of  forgetting about barbaro -who’s beahving more barbaro each day, if you can call whatever he’s doing behaving at all – anyways, some things are nice and best enjoyed as they come along

americanize me

unsuspecting me on my way to work – sunny monday morning – i quite enjoy myself and the early morning buzz of the city around me – then, i nearly fall of my bike – i see an advertising pillar with a huge ad on the soon to be opened berlin hooters – i am in shock – it’s not enough that there are mcdonald’s, burger king and starbucks on every second street corner, that our police is turning from green to blue and our educational system goes down the bachelor/master drain – no, we now start adapting tasteless american rituals as well – in a prude society, that america would like us to think they are, a bar like hooters is simply ironic – scantily dressed girls in a business that defines itself as “delightfully tacky yet unrefined” and offers a ” work environment in which joking and sexual innuendo based on female sex appeal is commonplace” – in a country where everyone can sue anyone for anything and literally anything is possible, if it is not hushed up (!!!) i wouldn’t wonder, if sexual harassment was at the menu at hooters just as well, only we don’t know – somehow i find the idea of a hooters in germany silly and slightly repugnant – it may be that hooters is trendy and cool and a must-do in america, but who needs to export it?

summer breeze

with príncipe socorrido off sick – assumably with swine flu, i was next in line for a special treat last night – an exclusive dinner with important people from all over the world – i was the least important, only the little intern, but i enjoyed it so much – i met so many interesting people and it felt very nice to be talking in english again for a change

so, we took a bus to the wannsee, south of berlin and then moved on to be shipped across the lake in the “royal louise”, an exact replica of the ship that used to take five generations of royal prussians around the potsdam lake systems – fancy that add champagne and sunshine and you get one happy me

we landed at the villa thiede – right next to villa liebermann (where max liebermann lived and painted, probably my favourite “der papageienmann” as well – link, link, link – there it was dinner music, more champagne, some speeches by people i am still amazed at having now actually met in person and a rather nice dinner with bbq, salad, lemon butter and bread, sweet little nothings for desert and a choice of red and white wines – at ten o’clock the bus took us back to berlin and me, intoxicated with the day’s events into bed, where i slept soundlessly for the first time in days

spotted

angela merkel – about two meters away from me – on her way to attend the ceremony of the unveiling of a memorial tablet, which we attended with our boss – exciting!

just my luck

as always it starts raining just when i have left home and am well on my bike to work – and today i was so very tired – but then, just like that, luck changed – i saw not one, but just about fifty chimney sweeps, congregated right beneath the brandenburg gate – due to majorly eating and drinking excesses that lasted well into the night before, i wore glasses instead of contacts and those were clouded with rain, so i almost did not believe my four eyes – almost because there they really, really were there

spotted

gesine schwan, having lunch with her husband at the spree canal on this incredibly hot and humid day in the city

happy birthday, germany

yesterday was a day to celebrate for almost anyone in germany – wolfsburg is football champion – horst köhler is still president and germany turned 60 – so, berlin was one huge party, which i reluctantly attended due to my hatred of large gatherings of regardless, ignorant and hopelessly proletarian people, shoving their way through and not caring on who’s foot they step or which body they elbow – and it was good, apart from the people you always get – the large families, thinking just because they herd three small kids through the crowd, they’re allowed to push through with their bikes – the nasty smiling pretty girls who don’t seem to sweat even as the sun burns down from the sky – the drunk idiots who simply want trouble – but they weren’t many and the day was beautiful, the mood over-whelming friendly and the entertainment quite good

we got there a just as thomas gottschalk walked over the bridge between the two main stages and i got a couple of good shots – unfortunately we were far away from the stage, trying to get a good look at all the stands, when kathi witt (and other sports idols) were there – damn, i want to meet kathi witt – hero of my childhood, who’d keep me glued to the tv, when i was just three years old – http://teacaro.wordpress.com/2009/01/14/girl-skates/

then pur played some songs and it was rather nice – hm, i’d like a concert in that location every week or so – there’s nothing better than a blue sky, an amazing location and catchy sing-along tunes that everybody knows

i missed out on beethoven, but the day had wornd me out and so i made my way home and enjoyed beethoven’s 9th on tv with a cool drink and chocolate, whilepainting my toenails – that’s the way to celebrate your saturday

first impressions

the city is vibrant – the city is fast – and i wasn’t all to wrong when i figured berlin is just a smaller version of new york – both cities have the seem feel about them – you either love or hate it there – in my case – i do love it, despite the occasional annoyed side-glance at stupid tourists, the vast crowds of mad shoppers on a saturday afternoon and the horrid humidity in the summer (even that is just like new york)

a fact about berlin, i have really come to adore is the many well-dressed men – i just appreciate a man in a well-fitted suit or even same well-chosen smart casual wear – so much better than the many students, sporting the “just-rolled-out-of-bed”-look, which can be sexy, but definitely not in the long run

the fast city life also seems to take its toll on everybody’s love-life – i have yet to meet someone, who leads a happy and normal relationship – i fit right in – complications, devastation and lost hopes take turns with unreasonable cheerfulness, silly grins over sweet nothings and leaping for joy, while singing out loud – again, just like new york because this definitely feels very carrie, friends and company

projects for the near future are the big embassy hunt – i must admit i am fascinated by the variety in the different embassies’ looks – so i plan on taking some time for an embassy photo tour and maybe have a contest, so everyone can pick their favourite – i think i already know mine, but i won’t tell – and maybe, just maybe a political career is not all that bad after all – i mean, being an embassador definitely seems to have it’s ups

and work – ah, well, it’s still pretty exhausting and being grilled for the first time on the speech preparations i did for mrs s. was horrible – she wanted to know everything in detail and caught me totally unprepared as i had already moved on to the next topic – at that moment i simply wanted to quit, run out and never ever go back – but after some chocolate cake, ramazzottis and the assurance of the team that that was a total exception, i was back on track and am now doing extra special work on my next two, rather controversial, preparations

i still love the apartment, though i’d definitely say the mother-daughter flat-share has failed – it works ok, but mostly i am happy, when i have the place all to myself, turn up the music and dance around in all that lovely lovely space i suddenly have – so long, i’ll hop into the bath now and enjoy the last bit of my glorious free day, before it’s going to be back-to-work tomorrow

life in the city

apparently my new favourite drink – i am getting trained to drink ramazzotti – lots of ramazzotti – i don’t complain – it’s my favourite drink now – that’s the city life and i like it!

my new home…

… in pictures

first week berlin

monday – i was completely thrown into the deep end – there’s the phone, you answer and deal with it – ahhhhh, what? how? when? who? where? – nope, i just had to do it mostly on my own and since it was monday after a long weekend it was exhausting – i came home, feeling absolutely dazed and just wanted to cry and come back to göttingen – defeated and beaten

tuesday – better, not quite good, but better – i learned that while working for a very important person, everything we do is also very important – that’s kind of our catch phrase, so don’t mind if i use that quite a bit – i took photos during an interview and felt oh so important – but i still came home simply wanting to curl up in bed and sleep

wednesday – i slowly get the hang of that whole phone thing – calling people and answering calls from total strangers, who might be important, but then also only think themselves important – i start to figure out a little more who’s who and recognize people, when i talk to them a second time – then, lunch at the official restaurant for members of parliament, with tourists on boats going past on the spree – ogling and photographing – oh, i feel so important

thursday – it’s like a puzzle and i slowly get the whole picture assembled together – and after a glass of wine to celebrate my start, i feel like embracing the world – i am happy happsy drunk and nothing seems like to big a challenge, unless you count putting the mail into the mailbox instead of walking past or finding the closest to home grocery store

friday – my way to work, through tiergarten and then driving underneath the brandenburg gate – it’s actually quite nice, especially if the sun is shining and it’s a bright friday morning, the weekend only hours away – the city is full of tourists and especially french school children – no idea, if they ever manage to go to school – there were tons of them running around england during my visit there as well – and it really is kind of surreal to be photographed while biking to work, just because one happens to be cool and trendy looking, when one bikes through the brandenburg gate, duh

summing up – my first week was exhausting, but eventful – my trip to the turkish embassy to deliver an important message and running down to the porter’s lodge to pick up important guests – it all feels quite okay – i miss göttingen to pieces, but i am getting used to big city life – i adapt easily it seems, but then that’s nothing new, for a cosmo girl like me – traveling the world and being at home where ever i happen to be

buddy bear

just one more note – these are my very new, very exciting neighbours – i can see one just across the courtyard from my window – photos to follow soon