Archive for the ‘Berlin’ Category
Friday, October 7th, 2005
I guess the big majority of Berliners would say that the last summer was somewhat mediocre and there were not many opportunities to enjoy the good weather. This opinion must be known up in the skies cause now we get a big encore with a long period of warm and sunny weather. And the winners of these conditions are the overwhelming majority of cafes and restaurants who didn’t put their outside tables and chairs away for hibernation. What I noticed about this city is that the gastronomy here anyways waits very long until they do that - some owners might even wait till the first snow falls - and the use of these outside gas heat lamps helped here anyways.
So, the streets and plazas are full with people eating and drinking outside and even when its getting dark and quickly cooler, they have the endurance to stay outside.
Tags: Berlin, Berliners, eating_out, weather
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Friday, March 18th, 2005
You know, normally I don’t have anything against monument protection. I understand that there are historical places and buildings whose simple existence in the way that they were created needs to be conserved. Nothing should be changed so that generations after us can still look at them and enjoy their sight or recognize their importance that they used to have to or that they kept.
But why on earth does an ugly looking fence like this one at one of the university buildings downtown need to be protected like the sign says at it? What is so special about it, did Einstein or Humboldt lean against it while they were here?
Because, it can not be the look of this fence.
Tags: Humboldt-university, monument-protection
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Monday, February 21st, 2005
The Berlinale ended and its not only me who is ok about that. Me, because I found nothing interesting in the movie-program being offered this time. The few interesting movies that were happening start anyways soon nationwide so why should I stand in line for tickets and see that I get an acceptable seat in the theater? Additionally I am interested in watching Oscar-nominated movies in the original version but during the Berlinale the normal program of the movie theater that plays original versions was on a pause due to Berlinale movies.
There are some other creatures who are even relieved - its those swarms of crows that reside on the trees at Potsdamer Platz at the moment. They have already enough stress with the normal traffic and “going-out”-groups passing them by at normal times. But during the Berlinale its so hectic that they hardly can get some rest.
Tags: Berlinale, crows, movies, original-versions, Potsdamer-Platz
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Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
The eager customer walking down the shopping streets of Berlin has a tendency to look at neon signs advertising for shops, noticing big writings telling him to come in or screaming “CHEEEEEAAP”.
But sometimes a change of this behaviour can have interesting results. Looking down at houses can lead to surprising discoveries that will empty the pocket easily. Especially in Berlin-Kreuzberg, speciality shops found their hown in basements of older houses and while these shops might not be big, they often offer goods that the shops at eye level don’t sell.
As one example I want to mention the “Senfsalon”, a shop that for instance offers a big variety of selfmade mustards and chutneys.
Tags: Kreuzberg, Senfsalon, specialty-stores
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Wednesday, January 26th, 2005
Generally, living at a big street is not really an advantage besides the effect that the public transportation provides these streets and you won’t have it far to the next streetcar or bus stop. There is often heavy traffic and noise bothering the one having an apartment at such a street - unless you have some good windows that absorb the noise. But in these wintry times one unbeatable advantage pops up, something special that little side streets cant compete with: They are free of snow and ice. The big streets and their sidewalks are the ones that always are cleared off first and very often only those are cleared while on little side streets slippery ice reigns. I don’t want to know how many people fall down in these neigborhoods but you just need to look at such streets and imagine how hard it is for people to walk along there.
Tags: ice, weather, winter
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Thursday, January 20th, 2005
I guess it would be interesting to take a photo once a month of Rosenthaler Strasse in east-downtown and compare them with each other. There are so many store changes, you can’t keep up with the speed that they close and how quickly another new one moves in again. Just in recent times I noticed a few clothes stores opening (f.e. a Denim/Hilfiger store, a berlin clothes store), a new haircutter etc. etc.
Speaking of haircutters: These pull-a-number-and-wait-till-it-pops up-stores - yes, “Cut & Go”, thats the expression for them - they are still quite “in” in Berlin. This new one that I just listed, “Unicut”, has even a little cafe in it for you to wait.
Tags: haircutters, Mitte, Rosenthaler-Straße
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Sunday, January 9th, 2005
There is a good advice for all those people who are interested in the monthly new BVG-magazine (BVG = public transportation company in Berlin): Do *not* take a magazine from the middle of the magazine-holder - everybody does that already.
Yes, we probably all believed that the magazine in the front is the one that many ppl already took out just to put it back in place after reading it a while - and that this is the one with the most germs on it. But I got news for you: On my many drives with streetcars, busses etc. I watched so many people following this rule - taking a magazine from further on in the row *and* putting it back in the same place even - if they did not want to take it with - that I believe now that the cleanest one sits directly in the front cause thats the one that no one wants.
Tags: BVG, germs, magazine
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Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
Jeez, why is this city in such a hurry? We just had christmas a little while ago and the new year isn’t that old either but the city shuts down christmas lights wherever they can. Did they figure that all tourists visiting for the holidays are gone anyway now and Berliners don’t care? Kurfürstendamm: pulled the plug, Friedrichstrasse: darkness, just the trees at Unter den Linden are still lit up. In my old hometown they waited at least a little while more until they shut down the lights. I mean, yes, Berlin is bankrupt, but *not* that bankrupt? Seems to be a common phenomenon here in this town since Berliners obviously are in a hurry too to throw out their christmas trees. Sidewalks are just full of them.
Well, I guess I have to enjoy myself with other lit up places, for instance this building 
Tags: christmas-lights, Friedrichstraße, Kurfürstendamm
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Thursday, December 16th, 2004
From all the decorative elements a city has, fountains are the most useless in winter when they are switched off. Not that their pure architectural design isn’t worth a look at, but the main function - to spew out water in various creative forms - is not happening then. So, it is a nice idea from artists to decorate at least four of them every year and change them into advent lights. While some of them simply hide the whole elements of the fountain like statues and stuff under their art, this here is a nice example because it involves the actual parts of the fountain and literally puts them in a different light.
Tags: advent-lights, fountains
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Thursday, December 9th, 2004
In these difficult times concerning business and trade the companies got obviously a little bit wiser. Instead of reducing services and offers - one of the favorite measurements before, some of them apparently realized, that it is good to invest more to animate the customer to buy things again. One of the latest examples is the increase of christmas lights at the boulevards in Berlin. They used to reduce the amount of lights cause they needed to save the money they said but now, this time, there is much more to be seen than there was the years before and what a surprise: Newspaper articles talk about good business for the shops because obviously during these gray and dark days people like to come downtown to look at all the christmas lights and - buy.
Tags: christmas-lights
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