Author: Michelle (page 15 of 15)

Berlin, my new city, how impressive you are!

Where to begin…if first impressions mean anything, and if it’s true that there are the 4 H’s to relocation, (honeymoon, hostility, humor, home) then I am in love, and I don’t want this feeling to end for a long while.

Coming in by train was perfect. The countryside between Amsterdam and Berlin is beautiful. The Dutch landscape is flat lush, and verdant. People of all ages ride bikes through the woods and past the farms. Who are these brilliant, bike riding, truly more intelligent human beings? Ah, I love them for this!

The first part of the North German landscape was also flat with people biking. Then it did give way to some rolling hills and even a few small mountains. I saw pine trees, birch, poplars, and lilacs. There were fields of something yellow, not sure what was growing, maybe something like hops to make beer? I am ignorant though, and I don’t want to assume this, so I’ll look it up later. Whatever it was, it was pretty. I also didn’t know how to feel about the wind turbines. There were a lot of them. All I could think about was how they might affect bats and birds, but again, I need to do more research.

After 6 hours of these vistas, we started to get closer to the city, and finally to Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof train station. Wow! The architecture of this building is beautiful! It is on such a grand scale that it is breath taking, and given the amount of machine movement and people bustling through, it has to be. Huge, grand, impressive! Benjamin and I were both awestruck. It actually took a moment for us to get our bearings and find our way outside and to the Uber car.

As a side note, this is the only way to travel in bigger cities when you have luggage to carry. We used Uber from our apartment to the airport in DC, from Jordaan to Central Station in Amsterdam, and from Hauptbahnhof to our temporary place here in Berlin. Every driver was experienced, knowledgeable about his city, charming, and courteous. The added bonus is that you ride in style. We rode in a Lincoln,a BMW, and a VW. Totally decadent in some ways I suppose but worth it if you’re already anxious about getting your self and your stuff from here to there.

And when we arrived here in our temporary apartment, we had the most charming experience. The woman we are renting from speaks English, but her mother, who showed us the place, does not speak it quite so fluently. She gave us a tour completely in German, smiling and giggling and using body language the whole time as it was clear we didn’t fully understand. At the end she motioned that we should call her daughter with any questions, and then she said in perfect English, “Don’t worry. Prenzlauer Berg is very trendy.” I loved this! Then, when we reached for a handshake, she hugged us! So nice! To be welcomed into your new abode this way was a true gift.

Our apartment is adorable! It is an altbau, not sure when it was built, but it has the nice alcove of windows and no lift to date it. The living room, kitchen, and bathroom are all painted white and red, while the bedroom is painted with blues and greens. Very nice color choices. The ceilings are high, the floors pine, and the view from the living room is a quaint little park. Lovely. Coffee and three kinds of coffee makers were left for us as well as everything we needed for cooking and cleaning. So thoughtful. We took quick showers and headed out for dinner. Wandering until a place felt right, we found a little Italian restaurant called Pizzeria Aviano (I think this was the name) only a few blocks away. We split a carafe of wine, a salad, and a large pizza, for 18 euros, and it was all delicious! We ambled home, slept well, and got up early to explore our new neighborhood further.

We began with a breakfast at a cafe called Butter. They had a buffet for 7 euros that was out of this world! Breads, cheeses, sliced meats, salmon, potato salad, waffles, pancakes, and a huge assortment of various sauces, puddings, and spreads. I tried everything! I ate my waffle with dabs of apple sauce, some tapioca, and something that tasted like vanilla pudding. But nothing was overly sweet like in the U.S. Everything was fresher, more flavorful. I tried a horseradish spread with my salmon. Oh my god was it good! We also splurged and had freshly squeezed orange juice. We were told that both fresh o.j. and peanut butter would be hard to find, but we found both on our first day.

After breakfast we went food shopping. We prefer to do this while full so that we don’t over buy. And we did pretty well. We started at a Kaiser, and we were able to find a few things there, but I was surprised that it was kind of pricey for a “regular” supermarket. Then, we went to two different, smaller, bio markets, Alnatura and BioFrische, and we found fresher, organic food that was actually cheaper. Very unlike the U.S. There were many unfamiliar things, as expected, but I liked the challenge. I need to remember to save the labels and begin writing bilingual grocery lists. It did feel good to make dinner at home and to eat lightly. We made a simple arugula salad with bread and cheese. We thought we had chosen dark chocolate for dessert, but it turned out to be white chocolate with coconut and mango. Not at all tragic for our first shopping mistake. ha ha Again, unlike common white chocolate in the U.S, it was not overly sweet, much more fruity.

On some girlie notes, I also had to buy skin and hair care products. Before we moved, I researched this, and I read several posts that German products were better. Completely true! We went into an apothecary, (you don’t see Walgreens type drug stores, only these) and I couldn’t believe all the natural products. The women wear what look like doctor coats and they know their products. And again, the healthy, normally expensive lines that I could buy in the U.S. were cheaper! I love this place!

AND the fashion here! In both Amsterdam and Berlin, so many people dress stylishly, creatively. My Mom, niece, and sister-in-law would flip to see this. And given that they may read this post, I must describe… It seems that the spring fashion here includes pencil mini skirts or cut off jean shorts worn with colorful tights. Of course, bright scarves are everywhere, and I did see the skinny jeans with Chuck Taylors look as well. But as my friend Irina once said about London, women in Europe, and I think the men and even the children too, seem to dress up more. This doesn’t feel “businessy” or stuffy like I saw in Chicago or D.C. It feels like NYC. I am a bit intimidated, but hopefully that will pass as soon as I frequent the thrift/vintage stores and flea markets. Clothing is significantly more expensive here, as I was told, but there are sales. And so the clothes hunting will begin. For this, I will miss my family, but I will not give up trying to convince them to visit.

Another thing that has made me a little homesick is watching people with their dogs. While I see some people using leashes with smaller dogs, many larger dogs are trained to run along side people as they bike or walk. Like the cyclists in Amsterdam, there is a rhythm to this that is pretty incredible to watch. I know my brother would be amazed. I haven’t seen any kitties yet, but I will find them. Amsterdam, as a fish town, of course had tons, but I am hoping that my new city is kitty friendly too.

My first impressions are positive. I know the second “H” of hostility will most likely hit me in the winter, but for now, I have spring, summer, and fall to enjoy. Ah,Berlin…

To finally arrive on this European continent…at 46…to have waited this long, too long… I am experiencing strange, abstract feelings of comfort and familiarity while knowing on a concrete level that this is a new and foreign place. There is discomfort to come, for certain, as this is life, but this feeling of floating, of surreality, of charm and dreams is welcome, welcome, welcome. Perhaps the self editor, the pragmatist, wants to gain a foothold in my writing, but for now, she gets kicked out of my brain.

Because Amsterdam was Romantic and lovely! As our wise Dutch/Turkish cab driver, Tolog said, “Different people come to Amsterdam for different reasons. Some come for the coffee shops, some for Van Gogh or Anne Frank, and some for the tulips.” Maybe this is so. He should know, since he’s driven all kinds of people in and out of his city. I came originally because it was a direct flight before our move to Berlin, and I was indeed curious about all that he described.

But what has left an impression and what will draw me back is the charm of the Jordaan neighborhood. There were so many bicycles! On the street corners, (where there were no traffic lights, except for a few of the bigger intersections for the trams) you had to look carefully in every direction, because people flew on their bicycles! People talked (or texted) as they rode, people in suits looked like they were rushing to work, and mothers propped babies on the front bars of their bikes, (the children were protected by plastic shields)… And not a single helmet to be seen. Incredible! There was a flow to it though, and people were extremely adept at using their little bells and brakes. To see less cars and more bikes was refreshing.

The canals and the houseboats added to the charm. Benjamin and I had pints of dark beer and some ‘snacks’ prepared by a sweet woman who was the proprietor of a Bavarian pub called The Two Swans. Her place was situated across from the canal, between the Cheese Museum and the Tulip Museum. How could we not stop here? The food consisted of a small platter of fried cheese, curry samosas, and Dutch croquettes which tasted like they had some potatoes in them, but I’m not sure. Everything was delicious and perfect with the beer! So we sipped and watched people slowly come out of their houseboats. They emerged quietly, naturally, while at the same time, the tourist boats chugged by with people snapping pictures, laughing, and drinking. Quite the juxtaposition! Still, I can imagine that sleep could come easy if you were rocked by the water every night. And if you wanted to leave, you could, I suppose just head down the canal. I loved watching this and imagining either one of my brothers or my nephew seeing this lifestyle.

When it began to rain heavily, we headed inside The Two Swans. Again, we were delighted. It was dark and perfect. There were pictures on the wall of people singing along with an accordionist and dancing polka out into the street. One picture looked like it dated back to the 1940s or 1950s. Another was a collage of all the singers who had performed there. Their heads were cut out into a circle around the title of the pub. Really fun images! From what I could read in another photo, the building was constructed in the 1790s. Lovely find indeed.

We did go to the outside of Anne Frank’s House, but I couldn’t go inside. There was a long line, and we didn’t have time, which was honestly part of it, but I also felt like I wasn’t ready. Not on my first day in Europe. I didn’t want to depart from my dreamy jet lag feeling, and I knew being inside a place where a young girl wrote in her diary, while she hid from evil would jolt me. We will return to Amsterdam, and I will go, when I feel stronger. I need to do this for myself and for my niece.

We didn’t make it to the Van Gogh or the tulip fields, but we vowed to return to these as well. Again, with only one day, we opted for wandering the neighborhood streets instead of trying to hit the tourist sites.

On a few of the streets in Jordaan, we did see coffee shops. They were lit by fluorescent signs, which of course appealed to the font/text geeks in us, and they were so…normal. They were like any other bar or cafe. Honestly, we would have walked right past them if it weren’t for the signage and the wafting scent. Probably in another district we would have seen more people in them, but overall these were not crowded. In the U.S., we seem to demonize so much. Prohibition haunts our past. We have banned our books. Some religions have feared, and still forbid, dancing and card playing. Maybe because I am the great grand daughter of a whisky-running, “witchcraft”- practicing family, I just don’t have it in me to judge these things.  Anyway, this is as far as I go with this philosophy. The coffee shops were a normal part of a culture different from mine.

And Amsterdam is beautiful and unique. I can’t wait to return!