Back to the future...

Or at least the present! I know you're all eager to find out how the camping went (all five of you!), but I thought I'd show you some stuff around my neighbourhood, and then get back in the time machine...

Our little flat is perfect for the two of us. Here we are out the front of Schlegelstrasse 24:

And here's the stairway of death! It looks pretty harmless from this angle, but do not be deceived. There are four more levels just like it...

The couch is where I'm doing most of my working (and I am working, believe it or not!) and blogging.

The kitchen is small, but perfectly formed.

Now, this isn't the smallest shower in the world (the one in the flat in Barcelona holds that title!), as I can turn around without shutting off the water. But it is a bit capsule-ish.

I can juuuuust get the doors to the cupboard open, if I don't mind banging the light fixture around. And I don't.:)

 And here's our lovely balcony, where we spend quite a bit of time, while the weather's still nice.

It looks out onto a courtyard and garden that I'm infatuated with, for some reason. I watch it a lot. Maybe because I can't understand any of the TV shows (even Star Trek Voyager is in German!). There's always something happening down there, and I feel very Rear Window, peering around at my neighbours. (I don't use a camera with a telescopic lens, though. I'm not Jimmy Steward creepy.)

Yesterday we went to lunch, and I experienced what has been described as Berlin's contribution to world cuisine: the currywurst! (Ask and you shall receive, Sophie!)

If you get the chance to try it, pass on that.

I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't what I got.:P It's basically a sausage slathered with ketchup, then sprinkled with lots of curry powder. Oh, and fries. With mayo. That was all kinds of weird. Maybe I wasn't drunk enough to appreciate it.

The place was cute, though! Very Berlin. Basically a vacant lot with a school bus and some wooden shacks, with plastic chairs under umbrellas.

I can make myself at home anywhere these days, as long as there's beer. And there's always beer. It's cheaper than bottled water. I kid you not.

Here's where Mark's working - at the Natural History Museum.

We're living in what was the former East Berlin (just around the corner from the museum), and our neighborhood is still very much recovering from the wars (both world and cold).  They're digging up the major thoroughfare near our place, to lay new S-bahn tracks to link up the transport systems of what was East and West Berlin. The wall used to run basically where the tracks are going. There's construction everywhere!

You can still see bullet holes and scorch marks on the buildings around the neighbourhood, from the street fighting that took place when the Russians took the city during the fall of Berlin.

Patches over the bullet and shrapnel holes

I'm loving exploring this area. There's lots of amazing street art.

Hay monos aqui!

And today I stumbled across this very peaceful cemetery, which I could spend a lot of time wandering around in (in which I could spend a lot of time wandering?). If I read the sign correctly (and I'm sure I did, because my German is excellent!), JS Bach's wife and brother are buried here...

This is what I saw when I peeped into a crypt. Since when do crypts have windows anyway?

 

And on that note, I'll conclude this entry. Next time, more mountain camping, less cemeteries!