Ich war eine Berlinerin
I spent five days in Berlin last week and assembled here a picture cavalcade of the most memorable instants. Many of those moments are related to eating and drinking: enjoying fresh Vietnamese food, sparkling organic apple cider, exciting Ethiopian meal or lovely Ghanaian mango and passion fruit beers called Dju Dju (their German info page at www.djudju.de), meaning the voodoo religion also massively present in Benin and Togo.
Our first day in Berlin, however, included loads of Russians. It was the 9th of May, the Victory Day (Der Tage des Sieges), and hundreds, if not thousands of Russians gathered in the Treptow Park in Berlin. Bringing flowers to the feet of the Soviet soldier statue (in the picture) was not the only programme number, but Russian bands played classic songs, sausages were grilled and vodka sold. What a great way to spend a sunny afternoon!
If you ever go to Berlin and love or even like coffee, go to an Ethiopian restaurant. There are several of them, but we went to Bejte, which served great food and the best coffee I've ever tasted in my life. Wow. Now I understand why they were all so excited about it in the movie Broken Flowers.
Every year during the Pentecost holidays, Berlin hosts a big multi-cultural event called Carnival of Cultures, Karneval der Kulturen. It means four days of free concerts of bands from all over the world, divided into four different, though fairly small stages, dozens of food, drink and shopping stalls, and happy people all around. It was a bit like Vappu (1st of May) in Finland, except cleaner and more relaxed. The main event takes place on Sunday: a carnival procession with a hundred or so trucks of different organizations, countries or groups showing their skills parades on the streets of Kreuzberg. An ear -and eye-blowing sight and sound guaranteed. The photo here is from the Farafina (the African) stage - in front of me I had an elderly nun and some apparently Beninese women dancing. Meeting of cultures, indeed.
On our last evening in Berlin, we had a cozy barbecue in a garden next to this plane which served during the Berlin airlift in 1948-1949 and continued serving until 1971. It is now based between the famous Tempelhof airport and a huge Sehitlik mosque, funded by the Turkish state and inaugurated last October. The barbecue was nice...
...but the high point of an every Berlin visitor is to taste the pork knuckle (Eisbein) with sauerkraut. If this doesn't look disgusting, then what? It tasted pretty much like Finnish Christmas food, though. I'm still glad I don't have to eat it ever again, hopefully. It is nicer to have your meat in an unidentifiable package instead of...pig's foot. Guten appetit!
Our first day in Berlin, however, included loads of Russians. It was the 9th of May, the Victory Day (Der Tage des Sieges), and hundreds, if not thousands of Russians gathered in the Treptow Park in Berlin. Bringing flowers to the feet of the Soviet soldier statue (in the picture) was not the only programme number, but Russian bands played classic songs, sausages were grilled and vodka sold. What a great way to spend a sunny afternoon!
If you ever go to Berlin and love or even like coffee, go to an Ethiopian restaurant. There are several of them, but we went to Bejte, which served great food and the best coffee I've ever tasted in my life. Wow. Now I understand why they were all so excited about it in the movie Broken Flowers.
Every year during the Pentecost holidays, Berlin hosts a big multi-cultural event called Carnival of Cultures, Karneval der Kulturen. It means four days of free concerts of bands from all over the world, divided into four different, though fairly small stages, dozens of food, drink and shopping stalls, and happy people all around. It was a bit like Vappu (1st of May) in Finland, except cleaner and more relaxed. The main event takes place on Sunday: a carnival procession with a hundred or so trucks of different organizations, countries or groups showing their skills parades on the streets of Kreuzberg. An ear -and eye-blowing sight and sound guaranteed. The photo here is from the Farafina (the African) stage - in front of me I had an elderly nun and some apparently Beninese women dancing. Meeting of cultures, indeed.
On our last evening in Berlin, we had a cozy barbecue in a garden next to this plane which served during the Berlin airlift in 1948-1949 and continued serving until 1971. It is now based between the famous Tempelhof airport and a huge Sehitlik mosque, funded by the Turkish state and inaugurated last October. The barbecue was nice...
...but the high point of an every Berlin visitor is to taste the pork knuckle (Eisbein) with sauerkraut. If this doesn't look disgusting, then what? It tasted pretty much like Finnish Christmas food, though. I'm still glad I don't have to eat it ever again, hopefully. It is nicer to have your meat in an unidentifiable package instead of...pig's foot. Guten appetit!
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