Bötzowstrasse

It was a cool and overcast day in Berlin today, but that didn't stop the birds that live in my building's courtyard from singing. Google has revealed to me that they are Eurasian blackbirds. I like 'em. But sometimes one of them will land on my windowsill or balcony and scare the living bejeesus out of me. True story. I'm on the third floor (really the fourth--silly Europeans), and sometimes I think that means no one and nothing should be able to appear in front of my window. Of course, birds can fly, which I recall at such moments. At any rate, I like their song quite a bit:

Look, this blog has an aural component! Exciting! Isn't it like you're actually here with me now?

These photos may help further with that:

The entrance to my building, sandwiched
between a wine salon and  little restaurant.

I have to go through the main door shown in the previous photo, then through this courtyard to the other side of the building to get to the stairs leading up to my apartment. Door is on the right.

Main area of the apartment!

Bookshelves, complete with more wine glasses than I will ever need.

The little, well-appointed kitchen!

The view from my desk.

The balcony!

Looking down from the balcony into the courtyard, and neighbouring buildings' courtyards.

I've rented this apartment from an American couple currently living in Paris for the year. I chose it because it's in a quiet, residential, fairly non-touristy neighbourhood called Prenzlauer Berg, just northeast of Mitte, the old city centre. I haven't explored it fully yet, but it's pretty lovely so far! From my understanding, Prenzlauer Berg wasn't heavily bombed during the war, so many of the original buildings dating back to the turn-of-the-century still stand, and cobblestone streets greet you at nearly every turn. I hadn't spent a lot of time here during my last Berlin sojourn five years ago (when I was living in decidedly grittier but perhaps cooler Kreuzberg), but I'm looking forward to getting to know this area better.

The apartment seems pretty well situated--walking distance to multiple grocery stores and just a few blocks in almost any direction to bus/trolley stops to Alexanderplatz and other parts of the city. I've already been to three different grocery stores: Lidl, the German equivalent to No Frills, but with even less frills; Rewe, fairly average and with a good selection of things; and Alnatura, an organic/healthfood store. AND GUESS WHAT I FOUND AT ALNATURA???

The mother lode!

Unbelievably, at Alnatura I stumbled upon a whole two fridges full of vegetarian and vegan products, INCLUDING some soy salami slices that, as many of you know, serve as one of the essential ingredients of my go-to lunch. I haven't tried them yet, but hopefully they're tolerable. Because you have no idea how happy I am that they have these kinds of products here. I like this country a lot, but its cuisine is another story. It's a meat-and-potatoes land and this vegetarian was weary to subject herself once again to two months of cheese sandwiches for lunch, day in and day out. But Germany, or at least Berlin, has made leaps and bounds in this area since my last time here, although perhaps I just hadn't been looking in the right place. My coming upon Alnatura was a fortuitous event indeed. So, thank you, sandwich gods!

While on the topic of German cuisine, shockingly, I have yet to have a pretzel, despite being in the country for more than 24 hours already. I will try to remedy this problem post-haste. On another note, does anyone happen to know how to set up a tally/counter on this website--not for page visitors but for pretzels eaten? It'd have to be something I could manually update. (This is a very serious question.)

I've been pretty busy since my arrival. The flights were fine (I connected in London Heathrow, which, incidentally, is full of posh stores but is too cheap to provide free wifi to passers through), with the exception of some turbulence on the London-Berlin flight. Jet lag and luggage demanded that I take a cab from the airport to the apartment, which I did. My taxi driver was, well, perhaps not the definition of a law-abiding German. He didn't break any major laws, mostly just driving in bus lanes and making left and right turns out of the wrong lanes...he was cursing the traffic, which was cursing him right back. My favourite was when he took a shortcut through a supermarket parking lot to avoid a long line up to turn left at a light. And now, who hasn't thought about doing that at one point or another? At any rate, I made it, and had no difficulty picking up the key and finding the apartment. Today, after catching up on my sleep, I hit up those grocery stores and even sorted out my cell phone situation. Back at home, I had taken an old iPhone 3 that a former colleague kindly gave to me, and had it unlocked. Today, I went to Telekom, the German equivalent of T-mobile in the States, and purchased a prepaid SIM card. I haven't used it yet, seeing as I don't really know too many people here as of right now, but it seems to be up and running.

Luckily, the guy in the Telekom store spoke enough English for us to get by. Mein Deustch ist...nicht so gut. I've already apologetically said that to several store clerks today. Five years ago when I was last here, mein Deutsch was non-existent, so even with the little German I know now, I have already noticed a difference. For instance, on my walk around the neighbourhood yesterday afternoon, a man came up to me and asked which way the Deutsche Bank was, and while I lack the vocabulary to have explained it to him, fortunately I in fact did not know where the bank was and was able to honestly respond in German that I didn't know. I think he bought it! And, quite simply, the fact that I understood him at all is greatly encouraging to me. I didn't get all of his words, but I got the gist, even through my fog of exhaustion. So, bring it on, Goethe Institut!

I would post some photos of the neighbourhood here, and I did take some today, but because it was so grey and drizzly, the photos aren't too spectacular. Hopefully the weather tomorrow will be better. But for now, I'll leave you with this:

Why, hello there, Fernsehturm!

I love that ugly ass tower. So happy to see it again.