First night out - new friends

Daniel

I first met Daniel Wednesday, my second day here, at the Checkpoint Charlie Museum where I am working for the 5 weeks of my 3 month stay. He is a very friendly Russian-history student from Freiburg. Within 10 minutes he had offered to give me a tour of his University Library. You know where Einstein and Marx studied? cool. Anyway, I was too jet-dragged to accept. We kept talking and the convo turned to football - I can't say soccer anymore - and he told me that Germany was playing Swiss in a European Cup exhibition game. Would I like to go to a pub and watch it with him? Holy shit. This is the kind of humanity I need to experience. Ottawa,(although I have had pangs of homesickness) C'Mon! can't you see how this is better. Anyway, it was a huge relief to meet someone so friendly so soon.

The small pub was located on Kastanienalle, which is also cleverly referred to as "Casting Alley" as it is the main drag of Berlin's hipster central - Prenzlauerberg. The pub can only be described as a sports bar for people who dislike sports culture. All the dudes there wore black hoodies, the small room was comprised of 8 rows of church style pews, the back wall had a two-tier bleacher. All of this faced a digital projection of the game on the back wall. It was comfortable and packed full of people. The self-service (no tip) beer only cost 2 Euros a bottle. Holy shit!

Germany dominated the game so we left before the ending, Daniel is also a very enthusiastic tour guide so I think he wanted to show me this place.

...where we finished our night by about 2:30am.

At the bar Gorki-Park I met the bartender Tatijana, a friend of Daniel's. Since I was kinda drunken and in a communist bar in former East Berlin, the conversation inevitably turned to politics. I have had the Cuba/Castro debate many times with many people and had always shocked acquaintances with my belief that sacrificing some civil rights was necessary for Cuba to survive the post-revolution sanctions. Anyway, I just deleted a paragraph of pro-castro shit, obviously I get caught-up on this topic (p.s watch this film)

Pictures from Daniel's handy (mobile) of Gorki-Park and Tatijana and I.

....anyway, Tatijana is the first person I have ever met that shared my Cuba views and it made me feel all warm inside. We ganged up on Daniel a bit and then we all kicked back with some black russians on ice. delicious.

Friday night Daniel, my new best bud, and I went out on the town. We started off with some awesome german cuisine. You know German cooking is authentic when you feel like drinking some gut burning alcohol (read: schnapps) after you eat to help with "digestion". We then went club/bar hopping to 3 or four places. We ended the night shooting pool at Daniel's billiard club. One of the things I liked most about the German bar scene is that there was obvious little concern about fire codes or food service licenses. In one club that was "illegal" (no license, just set up in a former school) the packed room was doing just fine, a man with a big tray of baguette sandwiches comes walking through and sells the for a couple of euros. He hops from bar to bar like the rose sellers in Ottawa, but way more useful.

I don't have any pictures from this night but we ended by buying a couple of beers at "ben & jerry's eisbar" at 5:00am and drinking them on the tram home. the beer tasted like freedom that makes you burp.


I woke up today, Saturday, to my first phone call - I don't know my phone number yet so it threw me off, but it was Daniel inviting me over for dinner. He also invited Delphine, beautiful name and a beautiful girl, for a three and a half course meal. Daniel is an excellent and creative cook. The piece-de-resistance was his dessert which consisted of strawberries, quark (german cheese yogurt), fresh mint, an after chocolate and balsamic vinegar.

Daniel's kitchen in former East Berlin. His building is so typical DDR architecture that it was acutally used for exterior shots in the movie
"The Lives of Others"
the building across the street was the main characters apartment where much of the story and the climax took place. cool.

Daniel & Delphine

Delphine and I - Delphine also works at the museum and is from Strassburg, France. However, she speaks English with a slight Scottish accent as she studied in Endinburgh for a year. Neat!

Things that are cool:

people stand still on the right side of escalators and keep the left side clear for speed walkers. what a concept.

Friday after work you see people casually yet respectably kicking back with a beer on the subway.

Clothes:

everyone, from small children to old folks, look like they would be comfortable carrying a submachine gun. Stylish clothes in faded army colours are the norm. When you land at the airport they hand you a pair of jeans and a black hoodie.