Fahrrad!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I bought a bike at the flea markt on Schlesischestrasse! It's a silver beat up folding bike with former DDR vibe going on and I had to barter with a Turkish gentlemen to get it. Here's the scoop, at first he wanted forty euro so I biked around a bit then returned and said I'd think about it, you know, let him stew a bit. Just before we left Veda and I talked about it and decided not to pay more then 25 or 30 euro so I walked back and said, "Listen, I have 25 euro for a bike and that's it." He was not impressed and stuck to 40. His friend said, "For Americans, 60 euros." When I replied that I was Canadian he said, "Oh, 25 then." The main guy scowled at him and his other friend offered his beat up rainbow bike for 25 euro, so I scowled and said, "That's a little girls bike." The main guy then said, "35 euros" and I said, "No, 30" and he said, "No, no, no I cannot do it for so little." I thanked him and said I couldn't afford it, started to walk away and he shouted after me, "Why do you walk away, you have 30 euros yes?"

So yeah, I bought a bike.

Gatzaenkers!

I pulled a muscle in my neck stretching this morning. What is the point of stretching before you run so you don't hurt yourself but then hurt yourself trying to avoid it? If you can imagine somebody running very erect and acknowledging other runners with what could be misconstrued as a bow then you have some idea of what it was like for those who were in the park today. On the other hand the Gatzaenkers arrived from Sweden today! Huzzah! We met at the former DDR television tower at Alexanderplatz and had a picnic of brot, kase und fleisch as well as bier und schokolade. For those of you who don't know this East Berlin landmark, my understanding is that the communists were annoyed at how much development was occurring in West Berlin that they built this quite extravagant needle-like tower as a way of keeping the East Germans hip to the communist scene, as well as giving a nose thumbing to the west.



Charlie and I were also fortunate enough to hang out with Marx und Engels.



After that illustrious meeting we started on to our respective s-bahn stations. During this we passed a movie shoot, a photo shoot with a half naked (or half clothed) model in front of a fountain and a very beautiful sunset. Nice way to end the day. Time for ibruprofen, guten nacht!

Some pictures

For no reason but Saoirse, Anders and I are waiting for Ved to awaken so we can go out...

What goes on

So, it has been three days since I last posted and of course much has happened, and as well not much has happened. Let me explain. Soon after my last post on the 23rd, which some of you noted was my birthday, Saoirse decided to blow-dry her hair, the result of which was accidentally blowing out our only north american plug adapter, which has served in succession the computer, the phone and the ipods. So as a result we have been forced to conserve power on the computer while looking for replacement adapters which for three days has not happened. Until today, when we found them 2 doors down from our apartment. Henceforth, I shall recommence regular posts and now fill you in on what we have been doing.

1. Song Of The Day- everyday there has been a different song Saoirse and I have been singing. Some inspired by what we've seen walking around Berlin (huge recent tour posters of Europe, the band not the continent), some by beat boxing (boots und cats und boots und cats und boots und cats), some just cuz they stick in yer head (like Pokerface and My Humps.) We are only allowed one song per day in order to preserve Veda's sanity.

2. Walking tour of Berlin- Yesterday we all got up and out of the house quickly to attend a four hour english language walking tour of Berlin by Brian, the artistic director of Edmonton Opera. He was very animated and told us many things I knew but were made more vivid by the location being underfoot. For example, the huge Jewish synagogue located on Oranienbergerstrasse was spared destruction during Kristallnacht due to a guard pointing out to the mobs that Otto Von Bismarck himself had attended the christening of the church and as such it should be considered a German landmark. The mob dispersed and looted and trashed the rest of the Jewish stores and buildings in the neighbourhood but the synagogue was spared. Until later, when it was bombed...

3. Practicing the German language- One of the more difficult street names to pronounce is Schlesischestrasse. In response, I've been adding schlesische to any word in English to make it sound more German which Saoirse finds hilarious.

4. Shopping- I purchased two vinyl records that have been difficult to find in North America. The Sundays debut and Nick Cave's Tender Prey. Whoo hoo!

5. Birthday- I am 38 now. Daniel, Pigi, Zoi, Veda and I went to an Argentinian place down the street for dinner. Which I must admit was very enjoyable to be out sans Anders. Thank you Saoirse.

6. Weather- Very warm. Then very stormy. Then very warm. Then very stormy. Today is very warm and this morning I went for my first run in nearby Viktoriapark. It is a very lovely park on a hill that has a waterfall running through it and a quite gothic memorial situated at the top. Unfortunately, due to the previous entry I was only able to last a half hour which Veda pointed out to me when I returned...one day at a time...

7. Language barrier- Generally our mishmash of Germglish gets us by no problem except the more difficult concepts with Turkish restauranteurs such as veganism. Saoirse and I went out for the day and decided to stop and eat at this Turkish falafel establishment. Before we went in there was some rehearsal of the vegan language but it all fell apart when we ordered our food as he spoke absolutely no english at all and was somewhat impatient with us. Just before the food arrived in Saoirse's hands he poured a stream of yogourt on the falafel thereby rendering it inedible to her. As a result I took it and ordered another one without yogourt with the help of a woman who was waiting patiently for us to finish. He was visibly annoyed at our inability to order food properly and when it finally arrived we skedaddled before we felt worse. The food was excellent and Saoirse wanted to go back and tell him his food is good but he is a dick. We didn't...

Drei Tag

Oot and aboot on the town, did the tourist thang in the zentrum. Brandenburg gate, checkpoint charlie and the last bit of The Wall (the structure not the Pink Floyd album). The holocaust memorial was an interesting experience as most of the visitors were children and teenagers playing hide and seek which is easy to fall into, Veda, Saoirse, Anders and I crossed paths like shadows many times without intending to. I'm excited to go to the zoo but not until mid-week when the other tourists are busy...

Day One

So here are some pictures of our place, por ejemplo, Saoirse watching Daria on the interweb, how 90's...
Saoirse und Anders on the couch in Daniel und Pigi's adjoining apartment.
Our staircase to the upper level. In British Columbia it would probably be illegal due to it's minute width. Oh, and it's partially plastic...
Our kitchen, freshly installed today! The oven is magnetic and uses 3% of the electricity of a commoners oven!
Our hallway, our shoes, our Veda.

There are the sounds of the U-Bahn und kinder crying in the nacht...

Ich bin ein berliner...yeah right.

I'll take what I can get. We arrived in Berlin after a long night of Star Trek, X-Men-Wolverine and part of a Julian Temple film with Madness (the band not the affliction) as well as Anders waltzing. Our taxi driver was charmed by the aforementioned young man and offered to not charge us if we left him behind. Later, while Veda slept, Saoirse, Anders and I walked for an hour down Bergmannstrasse taking in the local denizens drinking, smoking etc. Saoirse was impressed with the basket on bikes situation, and on our way back we stopped at Viktoriapark to people watch. Noted was a woman with an incredibly stunted pair of legs hanging with her tall, willowy pal. Now to bed, tomorrow I will post pictures of our flat.

YVR

The setting, YVR. The situation, Saoirse, Veda, Anders & I. Anders has charmed everyone and the gates of power have opened before us. Soon regular & yam fries will provide the wings of desire needed to board our flight to Berlin.

The Final Countdown

For real. Today is the day when I install a cat door in the upstairs neighbour's back door. I had an idea that cat doors were high techno but they are actually just high price. For twenty four dollars you can buy the small cat door your big boned cat may fit in, or for sixty four dollars you can have a larger cat door. To test if he would fit Veda slipped the cat door over Nucat while he was sleeping on the kitchen floor in a sun splash. He sort of splooshed through the opening mildly unhappily.

He fits!!!

Time With Jenkin

First post to Jenkin Time. Unbelievable that eleven days from now we'll be in Berlin, Germany. Making lists, listening to Tears For Fears, setting up this blog for ease of communication with the world. Now, if only we had a laptop...