Back in Berlin, in the same apartment we were in last time. It's remarkable how nice the feeling of returning "home" is, even if it's a rental for a few weeks. Berlin feels so familiar too, looking forward to seeing it for the holidays.
Got a transit pass and local SIM. Panhandled 4 times in 30 minutes. Now I just need to get some coffee and wine for the apartment and it's like I live here.
They don't mess around about Christmas in Berlin. Here's a map of 178 different Christmas markets big and small around the city. weihnachteninberlin.de/5085411-955634-karte-der-besten-weihnachtsmaerkte-in-be.html
There's a market for pretty much everyone. Including the disaffected; the hipsters out in Friedrichshain offer an "anti-Christmas market" for people who can't stand Christmas but still want to enjoy shopping for gifts. All vegan snacks. weihnachteninberlin.de/weihnachtsmaerkte/4642482-955635-antichristmas-market.html
Meꜩerstraſʒe und Kollwitzstraſʒe
Brown Teddy Missing!
I would be so happy if someone found him and Teddy could bring me back to bed again.
Your German lesson for today is the word "Weihnachtsbaumabfuhr".
Amazon in Germany "helpfully" offers to charge my credit card in USD instead of EUR. They don't clearly disclose the 3% haircut they take to do this. (Pretty much all currency conversions are a scam like this; many much worse. Get a US card with no foreign currency fee.)
Just lost Whamageddon at the Rotes Rathaus Christmas Market.
Two Towers. Bonus church.
Deutschland '83, Vespa edition.
Your German lesson for today is the word "Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Netzwerkdurchsetzungsgesetz
Everywhere you go in Berlin reminders of Nazi history are unavoidable. Here is Gethsemane Church, an important center of protest against the DDR in the 80s. In the 30s it was a congregation of Deutsche Christen, pro-Nazi. Plaque covers both histories.
I should add reading news about Trump building his wall in German half a mile away from the former deadly Berlin Wall is pretty fucking rich.
Finally figured out where people buy good meat in Berlin. At the game specialty truck in the Saturday market, the one with the long line.
American groceries according to a German department store. Pancake syrup. Nacho cheese. And baking soda?!
Picture this... Jason Momoa is Aquaman... On ice!
Your German lesson for today is "Durchfall". As in "I think that dodgy street food I ate gave me Durchfall for 3 days". I think I'm mostly better now, but ugh.
Fifth and final Christmas grocery shopping trip. Very different when limited by small specialized stores and what you can carry on the walk home. Makes me appreciate the "drive car to giant supermarket" American experience.
Time for a traditional German end to Christmas dinner.
Man Berlin is quiet on the day after Christmas.
Lesson learned. Don't eat at the "American diner", it can be even worse than you imagine. For that matter don't eat in Potsdamer Platz at all.
The disappointment of a bad fondue.
Sony Center, Potsdammer Platz.
I like Berlin’s restaurants, but I'm done with places that think hard wooden benches or stools are reasonable seating for dinner.
The celebratory explosive barrages have started in earnest in Berlin. It's seven and a half hours before midnight.
Happy New Year from the India Club in Berlin.
Bit of mixed emotions watching fireworks over the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin.
The police brought their own sparklers. And healthful fruit juice.
1am and the whole city around us is alive with wildcat fireworks. Berlin does NYE pretty nice.
Street fireworks at 1am when everyone's partying: awesome! bring it on!
Street fireworks at 8am when the city is asleep: um, please don't.
Today the weather forecasters promised no rain in Berlin. Joke's on me, we get snow instead.
East German propaganda art for the workers, c. 1952
Excellent temporary exhibit about Kritsallnacht. Many boards explaining specific acts of violence: the victims, the perpetrators, any eventual justice (rare). Imagine an exhibit like this for lynching in the US.
Got a burrito in Berlin at Chupenga, near Checkpoint Charlie. It was pretty good. Won't compete with my favorites in the Mission but certainly a Chipotle-level of competence. Good guacamole.
This mural is by Max Lingner, and was explicitly intended as pro-Communist propaganda in a very unsteady time in East Germany. The building it is installed in is quite striking and a bit scary, too.
walled-in-berlin.com/j-elke-ertle/story-behind-max-lingner-wall-mural
This same location was the center of a protest by East German workers asking for a higher wage / lower production quotas. The uprising was put down brutally by Soviet tanks.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uprising_of_1953_in_East_Germany
Not quite sure how the East German socialist propaganda survived except its quite beautifully done and not offensive on the face of it. It reminds me of the 1930s WPA murals in the US, like at the Beach Chalet and in Coit Tower in SF.
At the German Resistance Memorial Center. Most of the WW2 historical sites in Germany are grim and horrible. Because we'll, what else could they be? This one is an exception, honoring various ways people resisted the Nazis.
The exhibit on "Silent Heroes" - Jews who escaped murder and the people who helped them - is particularly good. Here is a photo of a ribbon Ilse Rewald wrote addresses on and hid in her skirt hem. Addresses of people in Germany, New York, France who might help her.
Not what I expected but this carnitas burrito at Maria Bonita in Berlin was good. More of a Tex-Mex style: loosely filled with meat, cheese, guac and then grilled like a quesadilla on the flattop.
I made myself a promise, no currywurst this trip. And yet here I am.
Ketchup regrets.
@spara Here ya go
1. Boil a hot dog and slice it.
2. Put some ketchup on top
3. Sprinkle a tiny bit mild curry powder on top
There, authentic Berliner currywurst. OK, OK, really the hot dog should be fried.
I'm not much for natural history museums but there's something to be said for being confronted with a 45 foot tall brachiosaurus skeleton.
No natural history museum would be complete without fanciful taxidermy, cases of dead animals, cases of creepy jars filled with dead animals, and cases of rocks.
Berlin also has a fabulous complete T Rex that was found in 2010 in Montana. The story of its preservation and sale has some controversy.
Random Berlin street art.
On a plane back to San Francisco. Ready to be home and doing nothing. California sunshine here I come. (Shhhh don't say it.)
Eating a breakfast quesadilla with a lot of hot sauce in a diner. The radio is playing 50s doowop. The quesadilla is enough to serve two. Glad to be back home.