Yes Mitch has been invited to do a guest entry into the world famous Krissy tour blog. Now i can finally say DAMN YOU KRISSY!!! I’ve been sitting in overcast wintry conditions for the last few months reading her stories of exotic beaches and adventures and going crazy with envy.
Anyway, Berlin what a fantastic city! The only place where small denim shorts, white socks and sandals CAN work. The only European capital city left where you're surprised to see tourists around and can live on a minimum wage (or an English teachers) and still be comfortable, where you are being ripped off if you pay more than 2.50€ for a Kebab, where beer is cheaper than water, where punks and business men live in harmony, where everyone can’t wait to leave but then can’t wait to get back to when they are away, where the scars of recent history are being patched up everyday, where saying “Sorry” or “Pardon” is seen as superficial and dishonest, where even the mayor prefers to go to parties than care about the economy, where you’ll never find a city centre, where a Kebab is more popular than Sausages, where the hungry come to feed for mine is a generation that...oh sorry wrong movie.
Anyway, this is a city that i had the privilege to show to Krissy, Anita and Geri for the last few days. Firstly as guests the 3 are A1 and I’d recommend them to anyone! Anne even said that the apartment is actually cleaner since they got here. As for the program well the girls had next to zero knowledge of Berlin making it easier for me to make up facts at random. However, with them coming off several weeks off of a low stimulation holiday, lazing on thai beaches, topped off with a trip to Amsterdam (wink wink), history and facts weren’t going to hold their attention for too long anyway.
So where history lessons failed, the German beer didn’t. Ok not just the beer, but more an intro into the typical Berlin lifestyle: Cafés, Bars, Alternative Art, People and Food. I’ll take the diary format to give you an account of what we’ve been up to:
Friday: Pick up day, short tour of Friedrichshain, cold, introduction to the German beer range at a place offering 150 different beers, Tacheles art centre (ONE of a kind, basically an old squat that’s hosts travelling artists from all over the world), on the guest list of a party, too tired to go.
Saturday: tour of Prenzlauer berg district, all of us (ok mainly me) playing like children in a park (the childrens playground facilities here can’t be
beaten, the trampolines are hilarious), Jonathan safran foer signing autographs, me playing guitar at JSF book signing, then party night afterwards, beer, walking, bad music, german music, beer, bad german music, beer, dancing, bad dancing (yes a bad idea when you are out with 3 photographers), Mcdonalds then fall into bed. We arrived at the bar to hear Hanson coming from the DJ with Krissy hardly containing her excitement.
Sunday: the Berlin institution of Brunchen (having brunch), a tour of the freak show we call the boxhagener platz (flea)mark(e)t,Helmut Newton Museum (the short tour! The girls found out that a closing time in Germany MEANS everyone out by 6pm even being spurred on by flicking the lights on and off), Reichstag, Brandenburg gate, jewish memorial, potsdamer platz,starbucks, find krissy a bathroom (why she needed a bath in the middle of the city beats me???), krissy and geri show off their newly acquired thai cooking skills with authentic pad thai and sweet and sour, session of "shooting the shit"
Monday: Anita leaves us, tour of Kreuzberg, east side gallery, cafe bagdad=kebab, Checkpoint Charlie, yawn, pasta, cocktails, man were we cool
Tuesday: relax day, Mitch working, Anne cooked, Girly night with Chocolate and 4 episodes of “Sex and the city”.
The sun came to town just to impress the girls. Unfortunately i didn't have the opportunity to show them such famous things as our nudist neighbours, more
mullet haircut freaks, the nude park culture, the all-night night club culture, and more history. But I guess I have to leave something for them to see on their next visit.
So I left Krissy and Geri in the (hopefully) capable hands of the ride share driver extraordinaire “Christoph Heckenbücker” where they set off for Prague. The adventure continues and I wish them all the best.
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