Yesterday I got up at 5am after talking and drinking with Ditte until 1. Fun times! Thankfully, after a bit of a wait, the bus to Berlin showed up and I was able to sleep in grand style- holy smokes, that was a nice bus! Not only was it from the Larsen bus company, but it was double-decker with fully reclining seats. Score one for Denmark! I snoozed comfortably until we got back on the ferry, which was gross. The inside stank of perfume from the duty-free shop and when I went outside for some fresh ocean air, the decks were packed with people smoking like there was no tomorrow. When I finally found a comfy seat far away from the perfume store, I sat down and it stunk of dirty dog. Bleah! Naturally, I was thrilled that we took a different route and were on the ferry four times longer than the trip to Copenhagen from Hamburg.
A few hours later I was in Berlin and received a warm welcome from Marijke, an awesome vegan who used to work as an au pair in San Francisco! We never got to meet over there because she was there during the time I was working at No on 8, and we all know how my social life disappeared between September and November last year! We did realize we were both at the Sarah Kramer book signing, although we didn't know each other then.
Marijke promptly took me to a shop where we had vegan sorbet (I had lime) and then walked around the corner to Veni, Vidi, Veggie, a vegan grocery store, where I loaded up on cheezly, tartex, gravy powder, patches... you get the idea. Then we went back to hers in the former DDR! That's right, Marijke lives five minutes from the wall, which we passed on the way.
After freshening up, we took a short trip to the neighborhood which boasts a lot of vegan eateries, such as hot dog soup, yoyo cafe, and cupcake, as well as some cute little shops featuring goods made by local designers. After a bit of shopping, we pigged out at Yoyo Cafe- I had some sort of faux chicken-cheeseburger thing with what seemed like ten kilos of french fries. Oh my god was it good, and only 5 euros! Of course we needed dessert, so we headed around the corner to Cupcake, a bakery that offers several vegan options. I went for the blueberry pie with soya whipped cream, and Marijke had apple. We both had milschkaffe, which I probably spelled wrong, but it's the first time I've ever had it, so hey!
Marijke had plans to visit her boyfriend and attend a rock festival, so I had the apartment to myself! I threw a wild party (watched a movie and passed out).
This morning, I slept in blissfully. After fixing a little breakfast of raspberries and bananas in soy yogurt, I headed back to the Yoyo cafe-area to visit the Sunday flea market! It was very cool. If you live in Berlin, it's probably nothing special, but like the first time I visited the Temple Street market in Hong Kong, I was entertained by the sight of Communist trinkets and funky, blocky, functional designs. I was tempted by a lot of things- old Braun coffee grinders, German army gas masks, and an original ALF* soundtrack cassette tape, to name a few- but ended up getting a few small things to remember Berlin by, including original 1980s Adam Ant patches!
I grabbed a quick bite at Hot Dog Soup, a Brazilian hot dog. I forget what made it especially Brazilian, but it was good! Then I finished up with some coffee and the apple pie at Cupcake. Their crust is to die for. Oh yeah, but that didn't stop me from having some berry sorbet in a cone from a local ice cream shop.
I decided to take a walk to the wall, and ended up at the East Side gallery, a 1.5k-long stretch of the wall that is actually under preservation orders from the government. In 1990, artists from over 100 countries were invited to come and paint the wall in celebration of the reunification of Germany. It was restored in 2000, and by the looks of some of the scaffolding and one artist I saw, it's being restored again today. The reason is that every jackass tourist who manages to schlep their ass onto a plane thinks that this monumental feat of human ingenuity is as historically relevant as the day the wall fell, and have proceeded to scrawl names, dates, and twee slogans ("united we stand, divided we fall" - oh, really? How original) all over the work of far superior artists. All this despite signs asking people to respect the art. In some areas the original art has all but disappeared under signatures from Tina Magruder of Palestine, Texas ("I made it!"), "ENGLAND," and entreaties not to drink and drive but "smoke marijuana and fly!" People are morons.
I walked back along the West side, then collapsed in the apartment for a couple of hours. Then I mustered the strength to return to Vöner, a vegan doner shop! Not only is their logo and artwork totally awesome, but they actually make a seitan-mix "meat" in the shape of a traditional doner and put it on a rotating spit! The novelty of it blew my mind. I ate in a nearby park where folks were outside, enjoying the fact that the 60% chance of rain hadn't really materialized beyond a few weak sprinkles. Yum!
I chose a bad time to visit Berlin- although I managed to have a pretty
*the Alien Life Form who eats cats, not the masked anarchists who free cats.
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