Sharing Berlin with people I care for

During the last couple of month I have quite often faced the wonderful possibility of showing Berlin to strangers. Time limits were always different as well as the preferences of my friends. So I was challenged to give them an idea of Berlin worth loving in 12, 8 or 5 hours … Quite tough for this rather big and straggling city. Especially considering the fact that it doesn’t fascinate everybody automatically. Once I was really surprised to learn the opinion of a young girl who has spent most of her life in a village in the southern Germany. After having visited Berlin with her schoolmates she wrote me a mail describing the city as “a grey spot”. I was utterly incapable to understand how can a young person screen out the energy and excitement of this city. And most logically I didn’t want that the same happen to my friends.

I guess I did a pretty good job, but I’m not sure it was a complete success. I still keep asking myself if I should rather have brought them to the Kulturbrauerei instead of Sony Centre, to the East Side Gallery instead of the Check Point Charlie or to the “Trattoria Toscana” instead of the “Deponie”. There are no right answers I guess, though I still keep on checking the imaginary list in my head, putting in some new points, reconsidering the old ones and not being able to discard anything, so the list just grows bigger …

To my deep satisfaction all my guests have expressed their desire to come back to Berlin again. And what matters non the less, they helped me to rediscover the city, to see it in a slightly different light. Like one July night drinking cocktails on the Savigni Platz with someone, to whom due to the formal reasons of his short trips only the formal sights had been shown, I was surprised by the “I could never imagine Berlin can feel like Paris” remark. Why is it so, that when hearing a compliment for something you like you get as proud as if the compliment was paid to you personally?

Anyway, I would be grateful for any ideas concerning what’s worth “seeing for feeling”, feeling the very soul of Berlin.      

Angst

Berlin, wovon hast Du mehr Angst, von der Wahrheit oder von der Luege? / Berlin, what are you more afraid of: of the truth or of the lies?

sun & rain

Berlin, what’s up? Why are you crying every evening? We like your sunny smile… keep wearing it! No reason for rains, and the fashion week will hopefully be over in two days :-)

Entertainment for hares.

2 o’clock in the morning. Wonderfully calm night with no wind and no clouds in the sky. I ride my bike along the Teergarten with the Potsdamerplatz on my left dreaming of my soft pillow and the not finished book hiding underneath it. Suddenly a small creature jumps away from under the wheels of my bike followed by another one. I stop and watch a couple of hares rush away from the path into the Tiergarten. Curious beast! They walk out of the garden to sit on the path and watch the changing lights of the Potsdamerplatz and cars pass by! Even they need something besides gorging and fucking? Amazing!

Literatur Haus in Fasanenstrasse 23 – a fab place to be!

White and red roses flourish in the garden of the Literatur Haus. People are sitting at the tables sipping wine, enjoying each other and the idyllic view. I feel tempted to join them for a while but pay the bill just in time not to be late for one of the wonderful events of the LH itself. Its charmingly profound program varies from exhibitions to movies and from poetic readings to lectures. It is something above the ordinary entertainment. Accordingly the public is over 40, which is a pity, because the events are everything but boring.

Today I went there for the pleasure of watching “A Foreign Affair”, the 1948 wonderful classic by Billy Wilder with peerless Marlene Diethrich, Jean Arthur and John Lund. Filmed in the ruins of Berlin this brilliantly funny story is all about life, love and risk. When I then went down the Q-damm I could not believe it is the same street I have just seen on the screen: bright lights, happy idlers and the strong scent of jasmine where shouting that the spring is there!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mDSWCfIy4Y

http://www.literaturhaus-berlin.de/

Berliner Luft

Today I could fill Berlin’s air in a bottle to use instead of perfume the rest of the year.
It's top note including fresh grass, long awaited sun rays and oxygen makes feels me with happyness; the heart of the fragrance consists of the dizzy floral composition with strong jasmine accent; the scent is accomplished with the bottom note of the freshly backed bread, adventurous Vespas and warm wood. Fabulous!

SIGHTSEEING

A wonderful scene seen this morning has made my day. Sun shines in the blue sky. First brave leaves have started painting green the trees on quiet Berlin street. An old man is riding even an older bicycle. A birds’ cage is tied to the back of his bike. In the cage there is a huge green parrot, almost as big as the cage itself. Clutching at the perch the parrot bobs on all pits and bumps. Nevertheless birds’ curiosity wins over the panic and discomfort. The parrot turns his head to the left and to the right trying no to miss any moment of the Berlin spring life.