Day 3: Berlin

Highlights:

• 5ft German male bartender wearing denim hotpants
• Trying to sell stamps to a post office
• German jazz singing of Frank Sinatra - "Let me see what spring is like on yupiter und mars"

So as I've been to Berlin a few times before, there are no real tourist sights I still need to see, so I'm going on Gurk's recommendations of things to do whilst she's at work. I'm trying to use this opening stint in Berlin to plan my route for the month so I want to mix her museum recommendations with thoughtful, cafe sessions. I'm going to be honest; I figured the easiest thing to do was to google 'cool cafes in Berlin' and found a list of various places, including somewhere called 'Mein Haus am See' on Brunnenstrasse, which was about a 40m walk from Gurk's, so I headed there first. I asked Gurk for a map and she gave me her copy of "111 alternative things to do in Berlin" guide and map. Not 100% useful, as the book was in German...and the map at the back also helpfully only had a smattering of street names in it. 

After the sun and completely clear skies yesterday (on the two European Bank Holidays I've experienced this year - Queen's Day in Amsterdam and Reunification Day in Berlin - both have had unbelievable weather, in between a month of rain. In the UK, we had the Queen's Jubilee...), it had got quite rainy and cold (regenisch und kalt?), but I wanted to walk to get my bearings. Mein Haus am See was really cool. It was a large, long room with high ceilings, and the back area had cinema/arena style, tiered seating overlooking the rest of the cafe. The best thing undoubtedly about this place was the bartender/barista. When he was stood behind the bar, he just seemed like a grumpy, short German guy, but only when he stepped out to make my coffee did I notice his RIDICULOUSLY short denim shorts. We're talking bottom-grazing hotpants. He was wearing army style boots, and had really tanned, muscular legs and just looked incredible. And as he was so short, it felt like most of his body was on show. No matter how miserable he was, despite my best German attempts and smiling, it really made my day. I creepily took a photo of him on my phone.

Gurk had mentioned the C/O Berlin on Oranienburger Strasse, where she'd seen some photography exhibition by a guy called Larry King which she said was completely shocking and eye-opening, so I headed there next (stopping off to buy some SOCKS from H&M). I did a €10 walking tour of Berlin with my sister on my first visit and realised they'd actually pointed out the c/o building on that route, because it used to be a post sorting office, and has only been a gallery relatively recently. I'm presuming the C/O name of the gallery relates to the postal term 'care of (c/o)'. I've still got a student card from my OU, so it was €5 entry, which I think's about the most I'd pay given that they were mid-exhibition change and so there was less on show. Larry King had gone but there was a cool exhibition on fashion photography, which I'd never really given much credit to before this year when I watched the David Bailey biopic on the BBC with Karen Gillen as Jean Shrimpton. There was some really cool photography, including Bailey, and later Gurk had a good chat about fashion (she knows a lot more than I do) and the differences between male and female designers and photographers (there's apparently significantly increased wear- and suitability of women's clothes if designed by females, rather than males, who view fashion more commonly as just a form of art). 

There was also an exhibition about the reporting of Osama Bin Laden's death in media around the world. Completely shamefully, the most ridiculous report was in the Sun with their headline 'Bin Bagged'. From what I remember the gist of other papers was:

• Guardian - good that he's dead, but isn't it suspicious how he hid for so long...?
• Telegraph - died 'cowering' behind his wife
• Sun - ....Bin Bagged...
• Independent - died using wife as human shield

A few US papers used the opportunity to emphasise how similar Obama and Osama's names are.

From the C/O Berlin, I went to try take a few photos. I've set myself a target of taking three good photos a day (I'm already falling behind) so I just wandered through the streets a bit, seeing what I could find. I was also looking out for supermarkets to buy this product Gurk mentioned. It's a local German soft drink made by a company called Fritz-Cola. Like Reggae Reggae sauce and cola, they've got a secret recipe, so it can't be copied. I've tried some of their melon-lemonade and it's really good, but apparently still not really sold in many places outside of Northern Germany. I also love European supermarkets. I spent about an hour in a Rewe, just having a bit of an exploration. 

I had a conversation with Gurk yesterday about some German language nuances. There are different words for renting to and renting from someone. She'd once gone into a ski resort and asked if she could rent them some Skis...I came back to Prenzlauerber and found a Lotto, and had a similar experience where I tried to ask a guy in German if he sold stamps, but actually ended up asking him if he'd buy some stamps. He worked in a post office, so presumably wondered if I was some sort of travelling stamp sales person? Sorted it eventually, and then chilled for a bit before going to meet Gurk after work to go listen to some jazz. I got pretty lost trying to find the Metro so Gurk had to come find me and walk me to the place. We had a cool evening drinking Mojitos, red wine and Berliner Pils with Gurk telling me about her experiences as an Au Pair in Bavaria with a divorcing couple. The jazz was downstairs in this bar just off of Oranienburger Strasse where I'd been earlier, and was not the sort of experimental, German jazz I was expecting. It definitely fell in the Bill Bailey category of hotel lobby/elevator jazz, and consisted of three old guys wearing fleeces. Highlight was the trumpeter stopping to sing Frank's 'Fly Me to the Moon' in a German accent, not being able to pronounce the J in Jupiter. Gurk was able to fully impress with her knowledge of German (teaching me lots of words and translating the band banter) and of Berlin (telling a young Danish guy called Sebastian the coolest places to go in Berlin. Apparently always stay away from Bergheim and Watergate and head to Warschauer Strasse - where we were last night - and further East).

Got a U-Bahn back to Schonhauser Allee and stopped off for a Halloumi Kebab.

End of day 3.