LIKE A LOCAL

 

I’m sitting on our little balcony in Budapest as I write this post and reflect on our time in Berlin. The street below me is littered with people running their daily errands and soaking in the sunshine. It feels like a lifetime ago that we were in the paint-splattered city of Berlin, but in reality it’s strange to think it was only a little over a month. Time is flying by at an incredible speed. We’ve been in Europe for three months now but it feels like we might have lived here for years. I’ve become quite accustomed to walking into a shop and not understanding any of the labels, barely being able to say “Hello” and “Thank you” to the cashier, and sitting on the train home to a chorus of noise that I cannot understand a word of! It’s comforting that advertisements have been reverted to nothing but scribbles and colours, a smile can say more than a handful of words, and relying on the patience and kindness of others is refreshing.

But back to Berlin. By the time we’d entered our third week we had finally settled into a routine and began to understand the local customs a little better. For example, if the sun was out, we made our way to Mauerpark to simply sit and enjoy. Watching artists painting at the top of the hill and groups of boys playing basketball at the court.

You’ll eat a lot in Berlin. For cheap! One of the local cuisines that is a must try is the Currywurst. Basically it’s a sausage covered in a curry ketchup sauce with a side of deliciously greasy fries and a dollop of mayonnaise. And yes, there’s a vegan version too! I had to take Martin’s word on the meat version but considering it disappeared in less than 5 minutes I’d say it was a winner. Other great cheap eats are Turkish doners (the falafel kind if you’re a veggie) that Martin says are some of the best he’s tried on this trip (he’s turned into somewhat of a doner expert) and I think has to do with the flourishing Turkish community that live in Berlin. There is something like over 1500 doner shops in Berlin! And we might have tried at least half of them… 😉

At first the grittiness of Berlin is confronting, I’m used to seeing graffiti and art on the streets of Melbourne, but I’ve never seen a city where there are almost no walls without some kind of spray paint on them. Once I was past the initial shock, I started to really appreciate the colours and thought that went into some of the pieces, and the sheer rebellion of others. You begin to recognise styles and tags by certain artists. Like the gang ‘1UP’ who can paint an entire train carriage in a few minutes, or Little Lucy by El Bocho who is always thinking of creative ways to kill her cats.

For Martin’s birthday I bought him tickets to see one of his favourite bands play in Berlin. We love going to see live music, especially on our travels! And we’ve watched bands play in Japan, New York, Berlin and Prague. It’s a great way to feel ‘normal’ when sometimes life can feel a little out of touch on the road. There nothing quite like the comforting feeling of appreciating music in a room full of people, no matter what languages you all might speak. At the gig we met up with some new friends from Prague whom Martin messaged after seeing there post on a Facebook group for the event (are we officially creepy internet stalkers now??) but we’re so glad we did because we really hit it off and had such a great night with them, spending two hours walking Berlin in the early hours of the morning and taking in the sights afterwards.

Part of the charm of Berlin is the rebellious spirit, and the heart of that rebellion can be found in the many squats that are spread out throughout the city. United through anarchy and a desire to not conform to capitalism, by definition, squatting is occupying an abandoned or unoccupied area of land and/or building, where the person does not rent, own or otherwise have lawful permission to use.

From the outside Berlin squats are colourfully painted apartment buildings with flags over windows and boots hanging from balconies. They certainly stand out from the surrounding uniform buildings, you can’t miss them! Often there will be loud music emitting from within, with some squats holding concerts, unofficial bars, banquets and even cinemas. I’ve known friends who have squatted in Australia, usually in an abandoned house without running water or electricity. In comparison Berlin’s squats are relatively more comfortable and definitely more established.

After the fall of the Berlin wall, in the 1990’s understandably many Berliners in the east abandoned their homes and fled to the west. Meaning entire apartment blocks were left empty, which is when squatters began occupying these spaces. The now legalised squats remain to this day, and are located in some of the most sought after residential areas of the city. Some of these buildings are now even owned by the ‘squatters’, meaning they are more of a community living space than a traditional squatting environment.

 I woke up one morning to my usual routine of putting on my warm tracksuit, starting up the computer, making some cereal and having a look out the window…. and the ground was covered in snow! Snow! In April? I ran back into the bedroom jumping up and down like a mad woman and shouting at Martin to get up. The poor thing had a heart attack until I could coherently form a sentence to explain there was snow in our backyard. At lightning speed we got dressed in our jackets and ran out into the court yard. The snow was no longer falling but a soft covering was all over the grass. It was my first time seeing ‘unexpected’ snow. That day we explored the city to crazy weather, sometimes soft snow flakes, then torrential rain and also crazily huge hail. I danced in the street, laughing and trying to catch it on my tongue when others shot me bizarre looks and quickly hurried undercover. It was magic.

Sunset walks just to soak it all in became my favourite pass time. We’d buy cheap drinks from the local Spati, Martin a 60euro cent Berliner Beer, me a Kaffe-Kola (I’m not a coffee drinker but these are just something else… so good!). In Australia we often sit with friends out the front of the pub in the afternoons drinking and chatting, in Berlin people sit outside the convenience store on the benches provided and drink cheap beers that they’ll crack for you with their bottle opener on the counter. It’s legal to drink on the street in Berlin, and I could imagine how crazy that would become if it were a bunch of Aussie lads wandering the city getting wasted, but in Berlin it really works. People seem a little more considerate and civilised, everyone is just having a good time!

We spent a few wonderful nights in Berlin going to bars and getting late night greasy food with our friend Jolyon. I remember on this particular night while waiting for him to meet us on his bicycle, I was drinking a bottle of kaffe-kola under the train line listening to a guy busking with his guitar who had a voice like honey. We’d been caught in a snow/hail storm earlier that day, and I felt acutely aware that this is moment was one I’ll drag up out of the memory bank for years to come. We spent that night hanging out in a smoked filled bar laughing until we cried, and we caught the last train home in the rain.

❤