procrastination

god only knows why it took me this long, but i finally have enough coat hangers for all items that needed to be hung. i can actually see all my clothes at once now, a very beautiful thing!

tourist

here a some (very few) of the sites.

potsdamer platz, recently redeveloped - it used to be in the 'death zone' between the walls.

the luftwaffe building, one of the three (i think) remaining nazi buildings. it was used by the commies as the ministry of ministries (seriously) and the east german uprising of 1953 happened here.

the wall.

checkpoint charlie.

we saw other things too but i felt kind of lame photographing them and/or couldn't get a good enough shot. you all know what the brandenburg gate looks like though, right?

flea markets

anything you could possibly want, including giant letters. i bought myself a wedding band. it turned my finger green.

gnarly

i fell in love with these skateboards, but there was a short version that i really really want. ellie talked me out of it but i've asked chef to teach me how to skate. then i'll go back and buy one. awesome.

eating and drinking

this is bonanza coffee heroes, where tabea works. fantastic coffee, aussie style (flat whites and all).

a place called cupcake. (gluten free, pure chocolate).

that man was so monocle.

a little bar that tabea took us to. so many places felt like melbourne or sydney. there seems to be a very similar attitude to food and coffee in berlin, very relaxed and very social.

this wine bar was great. you pay a euro and get an empty wine glass, then there are bottles of quite a large selection of wines and you can pour yourself as many glasses as you like. then when you leave you pay what you think is about right - one or two euros a glass. such a good concept.

same place, different days.

holocaust memorial

eisenmann and gehry.

exceeded all expectations. just incredible.

ein bett

this is berlin, more specifically prenzlauer berg (just like the beirut song), more specifically shoenhauser allee.

and our hostel, pfefferbett.

ellie.

and a pile of rubble.

teaser

berlin, ich liebe dich!

new friends, lucien and dough-boy. (and a fantastic book, by the way - new york trilogy by paul auster, not the lonely planet).

wow...

...that's a lot of bikes. i've never seen london fields so packed. had a bit of a struggle trying to find young miss chantry within the masses. it was so amazing to see her though (when i found her, thanks to a white dog) and very normal. just happy to have someone else on this side of the earth, relatively close-by, and somewhere to crash when in oslo!

steamy

sunday was really freakin' hot - they (the bbc) said it was 25 but i think it was closer to 30 in the sun. ellie, hannah, kat and a girl called sarah (i hope? could be wrong) went to the carter's steam fair for some old timey fun.

i mean really old timey.

this is simon the otter that hannah won for ellie. we bonded, it was a beautiful thing (me and simon i mean, and me and hannah to a lesser extent!)