The past two days have been filled with both quirky and lovely surprises.
To the quirky first…Benjamin and I needed both juice and bottled water, so we decided to go to a place across the street. Berlin is filled with what I suppose could best be described as convenience stores, but they are not like the ones in the U.S. First of all, you are not accosted by fluorescent lights. In fact, these stores are usually dimly lit. It goes without saying that they are in buildings that are much older, and they are not attached to gas stations. Beer, wine, and alcohol are sold here but not in a gazillion buzzing coolers, and while gum and some candy are present, these are in much less quantity than in the U.S.
The thing that is the same is that the employees are usually, and rightfully so, dismal and grumpy. It has to be a thankless job. I’ve been in a few convenience stores in the South where the man or woman behind the counter has politely asked, “Hey, how ya’ll doin’ today?” But these greetings have been rare. So we expected the same mood in the store across the street. Not so. Enter, MatchBox Man. The man across the street has the walls of his shop plastered, and I mean every inch of wall space above the bottles covered, with what look like MatchBox semi trucks. Still in their packaging. Serious collectors. This was awesome! And he was friendly! He spoke no English, but we thought we understood, through his pointing and writing down some figures, that we were to bring the bottles back for a refund. To top off the experience, he sold Kahlua! Now Julie, Brendan, Benjamin and I can realize our dream of making homemade white Russians in honor of “The Big Lebowski.” Ah, good times.
For absolute loveliness, all I had to do was walk down Stargarder Strasse. Nick and Dad, I hope you’re reading. Keep in mind, this was only one street, one in Berlin. I wandered into a gallery, because I saw book art in the window, and I spoke with the owner who was from Italy. She informed me that there was going to be both an opening and a workshop this coming weekend featuring some graphic designers(of course from Italy). “Also,” she said, “we have publishers come here quite a lot as we are a bookstore and a gallery.” The books in there were beautiful. Hand drawn, simple bindings, children’s books, and art books. I will be returning!
I walked a little further to discover a little market that sold, yes, food and wine from Italy! There were pastas, chocolates, cookies, olive oils… I closed my eyes and wished really hard that there would be olives for sale and yes, when I opened them, there they were! Ah, fresh olives from a little shop. The woman behind the counter was really nice, and I promised to come back to buy wine. Viva Italiano!
I had gone out originally in search of a German children’s book, as per the instruction of my soon-to-be tutor, Sophie. I ambled into Buchbox, a bookstore with tons of children’s books across from Wohnzimmer Cafe. The young woman in the store enthusiastically showed me some of her favorites and shared the plots of each. Because she spoke with particular affection for one called Post fur den Tiger, I had to pick it up. This story features two friends, a bear and a tiger. The tiger is sad because he never receives any mail. So the bear decides to write to him, and the adventures begin. Perfect! I was grateful for her help and of course I will return.
Another nice day of wandering, and the sun is back. Thank you, Berlin.
