Berlin Hearts
Inside a cab that stopped at the red lights in Mitte. This is a story of two people who traveled all around Berlin in cabs. It seemed totally sensible at the time.
Breakfast in Prenzlauer Berg. The end of the official work days and the beginning of the official holiday. A watershead. Notice the bee on my apple with dusting sugar. I don't have a picture of Niko at this breakfast, but he looked like a blond Serpico (below)who had just climbed home through a window, two hours earlier. The sun was shining mercilessly on his face. It was ridiculously warm and cheerful in that part of town.
Yelka took us to her and her friends' new little summer cottage next to a big river, which may have been the Rhine. It sounds romantic that way. Anyway, it was so big Yelka insisted it could be mistaken for an ocean. It was the Berlin Ocean. We drove in a 1970s Opel Recordf with seven people. I got the lucky seat between the driver and the shot gun – it was a quilt or a sleeping bag from the 1970s, dipped in some unknown oil. We drove from Kreuzberg through the West on the longest and widest road for a long time. At the cottage Macke had to first fix some pipes and then he got to save Yelka's sailing boat from sinking.
On Sunday we went to a big flea market in the East. I learnt about MSG and we went to a thai place free of it. We also discovered the massiveness of the Soviet streets and building blogs. And the graffiti. All this was brought to us by Jonas, our guide of the day (below).
This picture is boring. It represents a long Friday walk, which we embarked on partly because we got lost. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, to the right of this picture. And a lot of grand buildings with no life, but a lot of past. I was too tired to read about the history of the Gate, but I wanted it to be old. Most of this walk I thought about having a latte. This is evidence of the little tourists in us. The dutiful camera man and his dead dog, two steps behind.
Then there were nights. They bit into our days and made us zombies.
There was playing and all the lovely people who took care of us and found us instruments and even clapped their hands at shows. There was Yelka, the incredible DJ who was supposed to be recovering at home. Falafel, Red Curry and the 'Best Meal Ever'. And the Eagle Boston citizens with their homes close by and their incredible Berlin hearts.
Niko did all the shopping. He found this hat on Monday. I had lost my sense of style. Or direction.
Soundtrack to this post: 'Berlin Heart' from The Dears –Missiles (2008)
