A quick walk

The other day, the sun shone so greatly, and I celebrated by taking a quick walk around my house. I crossed the bridge over to Alt-Treptow, a sort of forgotten part of Berlin, where hipsters don't seem to live, and the houses are old and quirky. When the sun disappeared, I went back into my apartment to have more coffee. (Sorry for the smudgy photo quality, my iPhone is getting old...)

A walk in the kiez

The other day I needed a walk. I have decided not to hand in my assignment after all, everything went wrong and it was such a difficult process. So I needed that walk to convince myself that I am not entirely a big failure, and it really helped getting some fresh air down my lungs and putting one leg in front of the other. I walked down to my new favourite kiez; Richardkiez. (Kiez = little area, community, often centered around one street, in this case Richardstraße). The area is made of old houses, small and neat, beautifully ornamented. It's survived the war bombings and is a little window into how Berlin has looked prior to all the evil that happened to the city in the 20th century. I like walking around there, it feels like being in the country.

It feels like the sky over Berlin has been grey forever. I know it's probably the same in Copenhagen, but I'm really looking forward to a change of scenery when I go north for the Christmas holiday...

 That little orange house made my day. And the lamp!

 I came across a little market.

 Behind the windows is a cinema.

About borders and coffee

Last week I met Rasmus from Dönerkind (check out the website, it's cool!). He suggested we met at Leuchtstoff Kaffeebar on Siegfriedstr. 18 in Neukölln. On my way there, I discovered I had been in the area before. One time, I purposely got lost, and I had taken photos from the bridge going over the train tracks at Ilsestraße. And another time I had gone around there in the dark trying to find a party. I like discovering places and drawing lines on my inner map, connecting the city to itself, familiarizing myself with it. Also, the train tracks in that area mark the ringbahn that goes in a circle around the city. For all berliners, the ringbahn signifies the border of the city. You don't really live in Berlin if you live outside the ringbahn… When AnCa visited, we went to the café again, and we stood on that bridge photographing the tracks and looked over on the other side. "I don't know what is over there," one of us said looking over on the buildings that didn't look so different from the ones on our side. We both felt we were on the edge of the city, still safe behind the invisible fence that is the ringbahn. Berliners are crazy. I must go explore over there sometime. But in the meantime, if you're near, go have coffee at Leuchtstoff, it's so quirky, and the coffee is good.

 The whole place is strapped together by wooden things, and they even hung up a sofa… I chickened out and couldn't get myself to climb up there, but AnCa OK'ed it and said the view was alright.

 The area between my house and Siegfriedstraße is definitely also worth a trip. Rickardkiez is my new place to go exploring for sure...

I'm still hoping for a summer in one of these once. Just to camp out in the van and go wherever you want….

West II

I'm moving today, so it's only fitting that the second half of my 'goodbye West'-post is featured now. I only lived in the west for 26 days, but I kind of enjoyed myself. I liked exploring a new area and getting the idea of how it is living in this part of town. So decadent, so rich, so fancy. And then little me, always in black and always in worn-out dresses and strange hair. So now the new chapter is Neukölln, another area I haven't lived in before, but I know this place pretty well. I can't wait to settle down and explore.

 The Danish Christiania-bike has gotten a new Berlin fanbase, and it's kind of nice seeing this familiar thing driving around here as well.

 Peek-a-boo.

 This building! Notice the roof, the windows...

Of course.

West I

As this is my last week in the West, I have been taking long walks down the broad streets, looking up and taking it all in. I have taken so many photos I will share them in two posts. So here's the first round; let me take you down Kantstraße.

 'My' corner of Kurfürstendamm; ecke Uhlandstraße.

 Oh what a great place that top apartment must be. Such big (and small) windows, and a view down on Savignyplatz' railway station.

 Under S Savignyplatz there are lots of small designershops. This little one served up nice juices. (And UGGs, really?)

 The equivalent on Kantstraße was this little hole-in-the-wall shop. Neat.

 Oh, that font!

 The trees are losing their clothes...

 Again, the font.

Stay tuned for trips down the sidestreets.