Ok.
Only approximately 2 months later... That's not too bad, right?!
What's new... After a day of shopping to buy Mette something to wear
in her concert that evening we piled in to the Friedrichstadt Palast
for an evening of entertainment (Mette = amazing). Finishing up with
a few beers and some extra rum Natali, Mette and I headed off to the
Oscar Wilde for a couple of followers. Being the socialites that we
are we (and obviously not doing anything embarrassing in the
process...) we met a few travellers in Berlin and stayed a while for
drinks and chats. You know how it is. Which obviously ended in the
bar keeper presenting Mette and I with complimentary St Patrick's Day
hats. Somehow we seem to get our fair share of free stuff in
Berlin...!
Tuesday
brought the return of Anna (a well-missed being in our lives) and the
retelling of stories... Not that much to tell there! But we followed
that on Wednesday by a trip to Matrix (ladies' night = free entry and
2 for 1 drinks...), bringing Anna, Teruko (a friend of Anna's who was
also visiting) and inviting Becca (a girl from Birmingham who I've
somehow first met in Berlin) for a bit of dancing fun. Much more to
say for that night? I think that's probably all you need to know!
Having
Dada Falafel withdrawal symptoms, we took a trip out on Thursday for
dinner, where there was also a pianist giving a small informal
concert, cosy! And the hot chocolates there are lush...
Friday...
Friday Friday Friday... I had a horn lesson in the day (teacher =
still a legend), and in the evening I stopped by Katrin's flat (one
of the people we met in the bar – see, everything fits in
eventually!) for her birthday party, only intending to stay an hour
or so (planning on heading off to Salsa with Mette and Sandra later
on), but being “unfortunately” drawn in by the company, the
Bowle, the cheese and the children's games. I maintain that I am
still rather good at limbo... That's all I'm saying! And I <3
German children's games. There was Topfschlagen (almost spelt there
as Kopfschlagen :/), der Weg nach Jerusalem and probably a lot
more... Yes.... And Bowle and cocktails and cheese. And people... You
know how it is!
Continuing
with the theme of people we met in the bar, Mette and I had a music
session with Johannes on Saturday, just a bit of chilling, followed
by the Imbiss + wine + Hafenbar = Karaoke. Need I say much more? I
hit the stage twice that night – Wonderwall with Johannes (my début
in Hafenbar!) followed by You're So Vain with Mette, at which we were
amazing. Literally. I don't think Hafenbar has seen anything like it
before, we were all over it like a rash! Plus afterwards the DJ said
it was a 100% performance. What more can they want?! Then we stayed
late for a bit of dancing fun, getting confused by the trams and
changing of clocks on the way home, but who can blame us?!
I
met Becca for a café visit the next day to help her with some
arrival stuff in Berlin (because believe me, I know how ridiculous
and confusing it can be!), and we just had chats and jokes and
started on our list of things to do whilst in Berlin (even though
Mette and I still haven't exactly finished ours yet...). And we
finished off the day with a trip to our Stammkneipe (Mette having
supposed to have been home working through the day, but, due to the
amazing weather, having spent it in Mauerpark...), Al Hamra, for a
bit of relaxed chilling (is there another type of chilling?), joined
by Sandra, Simon, Henrik and Julian (another of our bar
discoveries...), which I can promise you, led to some quite
interesting topics of conversation... Which Mette and I probably
never want to be discussed again...
After
a motivational skype with the wife, I headed of to Ballhouse for a
bit of Salsa learning and fun. Knowing Natali was first coming later
(because she's already amazing, and thus doesn't need the lessons),
but that one of her friends was going to be there from the start I
was somewhat nervous, truth be told, but determined. Anyway, somehow
I found Christoph, and we joined the learners' dancing class. I'm
pretty sure by this point that I have two left feet (a term which I
think in German you can only translate as having two left hands,
which I don't think helps in this situation...), but I'm still giving
it my best! Adding to my embarrassment by this point, the instructor
also chose me for a while to be his demonstration assistant. Made
even more embarrassing for me when Natali walked in part way through.
I think she felt a bit bad for me that she wasn't there at the start!
However, I did it, and I'm proud! We stayed for the evening, salsa
salsa salsa. I think it also helps more when you practise with guys
who can actually dance already than when you try and learn with guys
who are also trying to learn. No offence, Christoph and the others!
Anyway, getting chucked out at closing time (not that late, no
worries, mum!) Natali and I headed off with a couple of others to
Kaffee Burger for a bit more dancing, which was particularly nice as
we haven't managed to spend much time with one another recently.
Horn
quartet time was happening the next day. Massively. For those of you
who don't already realise, I LOVE chamber music. Horn chamber music
is lush. So yeah, we had a couple of hours of playing fun followed by
a beer on the river bank in the sun. There have been so many perfect
days in Berlin, and I just really hope they continue to appear out of
the blue. Please. That evening Mette and I went to Joe's bar, which
was not quite what we expected, but we stuck it out for a beer before
heading hope to have a more chillaxed evening.
Wednesday
looks boring and empty in my diary. I was probably doing essay work.
Maybe.
On
Thursday my long awaited guest arrived in Berlin – welcome to Miss
Amy Barker!! We did a bit of sight-seeing, just general stuff, as you
probably know, Amy got excited by the double decker trains, we
visited the chocolate shops and a few other sights of Berlin :P and
in the evening we went to the delight that is Matrix... Getting
rather confused when the wrong part of the club was open (it took us
a while to figure out what was going on...) but loving the England
tunes that were coming on and having some rather amusing chats with
the people in the outdoors area. The casual stealing of hats was also
on the agenda, with the owner turning out to be here from England
with a few of his friends, so we had some chats and jokes with them
for a bit, all gravy.
A
long-awaited trip to the zoo was called for on Friday, with Berlin
Zoo being the zoo with the most species in the world. Boom. And it
was pretty epic as well. I'm not sure whether or not I've mentioned
it before, but I love monkeys and gorillas and most of that sort of
tree-hanging species area, so I was in for quite a treat there. SO
cute. Yes. Becca, Amy and I had a whale of a time wandering around
there, trying to compose theories as to WHAT that polar bear was
doing/thinking, you know how it is... Sadly Mette's departure from
Berlin was nearing with every single day, and that evening we had her
Abschiedsparty in our flat. Oh yes, we did... There were one hell of
a lot of Brauses going on, it has to be said! You always know a
party's good when you go to the bathroom, take at look at the clock
and it's 8.30 in the morning. Wow. So yes, I think that pretty much
says everything you need to know – there were games, music, live
music, dancing, more games. Oh, and Brauses... Everything!
This
did, however, did have a bit of an effect on the activities the next
day. We obviously stayed in bed until rather late, then Mette came in
and the three of us just lay on my bed with Green Wing playing on my
laptop and fell asleep again... A very productive day! Unfortunately
the first of my two weekend departures was to happen that day, and I
took Amy back to the airport for her flight back to England after a
fun filled visit – thank you Amy!! That evening Mette and I hit
Hafenbar again, overcoming our tiredness due to the Karaoke
competition happening there that night. Mette was AMAZING in the
first round (she'd have gotten through easily had she been later on
so that the judges were as drunk for her as for the others...),
getting through to the next five because someone dropped out.
However, getting the lowest score of the five to go through she had
last pick of the songs to be sung in the second round. With many of
them being German Schlager (which we *cough
cough* obviously know really well), she was effectively
forced to sing I'm Not That Innocent (whacking out the Britney...),
still managing to win the judges' votes! Unfortunately with this
song, however, she also had to start the next round. The next round
being a German Schlager split into three parts... So basically I lied
before when I said we know our German Schlager really well... But she
improvised shockingly good, and still wound up in second place! For
anyone who can't tell, I'm SO proud :D
The
first of April. Mette's departure from Berlin :( (and mine, actually,
for a week...) We struggled with three suitcases, a guitar, a horn
and our “hand-luggage” bags (with most of the luggage obviously
being mine ;) ) to the coach station, arriving a bit early and just
sitting in front of the bus playing guitar and singing. We're
definitely the coolest people in Berlin. Just putting that out
there... In fact, we must be, because then we met a guy who came and
added his mouth accordion to our musical miscellaneous. So yeah,
cool. Anyway, we eventually got to Denmark, where Mette's mum and
Søren met us and drove us to Nini's where we stayed the night.
The
next day we headed off to Mette's apartment to move in and figure out
how things were. It's vairy nice, I'll tell you that much! We settled
in a bit, and later (I'm not sure whether I've maybe messed up my
days at this point, or at some point) Signe came to visit with her
daughter, and we all (along with Anna) went for a walk in the park.
Where pigs really do fly, and they have a dummy tree (which I think
we need to introduce in England). Basically when your child is too
old for their dummies you take them and you hang them on the tree for
the dummy fairy so she can give them to other children, and it's
really cute, and some of the children have written letters with their
parents for the dummy fairy. I want a dummy fairy. That evening we
went to a restaurant for dinner – one word: Buffet. I was stuffed.
Tuesday
we had a bit of a trip round Copenhagen, saw the sights, got free Ben
and Jerry's. You know, standard! We cycled round town (I don't think
I've ever seen so many bikes before in my life, not even in Berlin!),
getting to grips with everything, went on a boat, took a trip to the
mermaid. Yeah, pretty standard. And in the evening Nini and Anna came
over for dinner, and we made Fajitas. Also very standard for us.
The
next day we did a bit of shopping, got some new shoes and took a trip
to the beach to get our feet wet. Of course. Because it was really
warm. In the evening we had dinner with Mette's mum and Søren (wow,
can he cook!), just generally staying late and chatting. Thursday
brought the arrival of Viktor. Oh Viktor. How can you do so much in
so little time?! We started our jollities rather early in the day to
celebrate his arrival, with the gin and tonic being at quite
interesting proportions... Then in the evening we headed off to
Charlie Scott's for Jazz Five's warm up gig (rather good band, by the
way, recommended!). I think there's only one person who I've lost
that many times in one night (remaining nameless), and that
definitely wasn't quite to the same scale as this! Whilst still in
Charlie Scott's we got a phone call from him requesting our
whereabouts, because, having thought we had for some reason gone else
where, he had gotten in a taxi and was somewhere in the middle of
town. Ok. Lost number 1. This happened again that night, though we
managed to somehow find him again. Then, somewhere between two bars
(or in one of the bars, I'm not quite sure) we lost him again. And
didn't find him again, despite several phone calls between several
people. So we just stayed in the Happy Pig (interesting choice of
name...) with live music for a while before heading home. To be woken
up around 6. With a request for directions for wherever we supposedly
were at that point in time. Eventually arriving in a taxi (with no
money to pay for it...), he was greeted by some VERY (ok, one,
because I was too lazy to get up...) unhappy bunnies. It was a bundle
of laughs... Determined not to have quite the same thing happen the
next night, we kept quite a close eye on Viktor on Friday (at the
real gig), which was definitely a good plan! Though when we wanted
him to go home we did offload him on some other unfortunates...
With
it being Mette's big return to Denmark there was a little surprise
waiting for her on Saturday. By surprise, I do of course mean a
surprise party. It was SO well done, the effort put into it was
incredible, and I have to say Mette is very lucky to have so many
people so intent on her having a good time back in Copenhagen. Plus
they're all really lovely people, which makes everything so much
better! Though I wasn't necessarily loving it all that much when I
had to get my coach back to Berlin at 06.30 the next morning...
After
a lot of complexity (very complex, don't ask), I was asked to play
first horn in Britten's War Requiem for a concert in early May. Which
led to my attending the first rehearsal on the Tuesday. See,
everything has a point. Tuesday also being my first day back at uni.
Because we don't have the same holidays as England, so yes, we will
start back the day after Easter Monday. Fun, right? But yes, I'm not
sure four hour rehearsals after days in uni are always the most
productive thing. But they should have thought about that in
advance...
Being
cool as I am, I went to the Sprachzentrum nice and early the next day
to book my Sprachkurse, which is always a bit of an effort and a
half, especially as I didn't bring my “Schein” to prove that I'd
passed my courses last semester. But whatever, as I'm a genius I
managed the registration anyway :P And had a horn lesson later that
day, before meeting up with Becca for some chillaxing with chocolate
milkshakes. Mmmmmmmm.
Having
had Ren withdrawal symptoms, Mette arrived back in Berlin the next
day for a ten day visit (Berlin (and I, of course) is pretty hard to
give up just like that!). So yes. This meant Friday = party at
Sandra's. Fun times, meeting of new people, learning from grammatical
mistakes. All the things you need for a party. Plus I had a skype
chat with George on Friday, where we established that he'd be a good
Frenchman. And that we should go out in London, though this will
probably end badly, as previously discussed...
On
Friday I met up with Nadi for Sushi (I told you the people from bars
keep coming back to life!) before getting Becca round for some games
and a trip between the three of us to Frannz... The games continued,
let's just put it that way... We teamed up with Evamaria and her
visitor for dancing and... hilarity? Can I call it that? Probably.
However, I do have to admit that late night clubbing is probably not
the best thing when you're planning on visiting the opera the next
day... Which I was (in case anyone didn't get the hint...). So I met
up with Almut (who had also been up rather late the night before) and
we went to the komische Oper to watch Strauss' Der Rosenkavalier,
which, despite the consequences from the night before, was rather
good, even if I didn't quite approve of parts of it... And hit the
pub afterwards for some discussion. With our class. See, it was an
educational pub visit. Bet most people can't say that.
Mum
arrived from Poland pretty early the next day, and after booking her
into the youth hostel and seeing a few of the sights we met up with
Mette for lunch in the Mensa, then meeting up with Vanessa for some
group Rosenkavalier work before a rather overfilled seminar. And
because it was Yulia's birthday we then had a sort of meal picnic
thing in her room that evening, with brownie cakeeeeeeeeee :)
Between
my language course and orchestra Becca and I met up for a hot
chocolate to discuss the developments of the week. That makes it
sound rather intellectual. I assure you it wasn't. This was followed,
obviously, by the first orchestra rehearsal of term. Shostakovich 10
and Dvorak Cello Concerto – quite a program! And then, because
every country needs a Klimach invasion at at least some point in its
existence, Boy, Hepsie and Baby arrived, which led to a pizza and Rum
fuelled evening. I think that sums that up nicely.
Having
Wednesday off Uni I again delved into the tourist attractions in
Berlin with guests. Anything else to tell there? I think that tells
it all. No, that's a lie. We didn't hit quite all the usual tourist
attractions. We started off with an old children's hospital. Then we
headed off to Tempelhoff (which is one of the usuals, just not one
I've been to before) and then to the fruit and veg market at
Yorckstraße
before then starting with the normal tourist attractions. There you
go.
After
a full day at uni on Thursday (yes, 10-18. Try that.), we dolled
ourselves up for a bit of dancing at Alte Kantine, old style. Having
had her bag searched at the entrance, Mette was found guilty of
possessing whipped cream, though we were granted entry providing she
promised not to spray it in the club. Maybe they remember us from
last time... Becca also met us there along with a few of her friends
who were visiting Berlin at the time, so that was all interesting.
But they didn't play our spice girl requests, which upset us a bit. I
mean, that coupled with the ban on Sprühsahne was a bit much, if I'm
honest with you!
Being
a bad girl and going against all possible German traditions, I
naughtily celebrated my birthday on the Friday, almost a week early!
Shock horror... Oh well. I left my year behind in style. Fancy dress
style – definitely not Germans' favourite thing, I promise you!
Though I did get quite a few responses – Mette and I were clowns,
my siblings were Wally (Where's Wally, not the robot), Minnie Mouse
and Luigi, and then I also had a variety of things including Pippi
Langstrumpf, Alvin, Schnee Weiß and Rote Rose, Heidi, and many more!
This is, however, where the Sprühsahne was introduced – and I
apologise to anyone who got bruised in the fight.... As Joe was to
tell us later that week, food is not to be played with. I shall learn
my lesson. One day.
I
think the Reichstag got quite a great impression of the Klimachs in
Berlin when we arrived the next day... We were loving it. Plus it was
very sunny. We had a rave. And then took forever to get back home
because of demonstrations in the town centre – thanks
firemen/bagpipers! Still never figured out what all that was about.
But we still made it to the airport in plenty of time, sitting eating
Teddy's Hits for a while. Yeah...
With
hopes for the return of Karaoke, Mette, Natali, Simon and I had a
picnic in Mauerpark the next day. And we weren't disappointed, no no.
In fact, I don't think anyone there was disappointed that day... So,
with the best seats in the house, Mette signed up for the Karaoke
(being amazing as usual), and, having allowed Mette and a bit of wine
to take influence, after a while I signed myself up too......... Yes.
It's at this point where the picnicking really has an impact. You
see, there was quite a lot of food from my party on the Friday, and
with Andy having presented Mette and I with a box of Schaumküsse
each, there was no way it was going to end well. So. The next thing
you need to know is that when you eat a Schaumkuss, you have to smash
it with the Schamkuss your neighbour is eating. Which went fine when
Natali and I were eating them. Mette, on the other hand. Well, as
most of you know, she is quite the child. Which meant there was a bit
of a mess. On both of our faces. And then more of a mess. And then a
bit of a fight. And then, right after one got smashed on my glasses,
my name got called to sing. Yeah... I think we showed Mauerpark a
thing or two that day... So yes. I'm quite proud of what I like to
call my bravery here. I stepped up and sang. Covered in Schaumkuss. I
really do have to thank the people who presented me with water and
tissues to wash it off my hands, though, otherwise it just wouldn't
have happened. Yeah. It's going to take quite something to match up
to that. When I finished Mette also came and chased me around the
stage with the last Schaumkuss. Yeah... We then sat in the sun for
another few hours before getting the tram home and attempting to
persuade Aysel and her friends that that's the new thing at Mauerpark
now – if you sing then they cover you in Schaumküsse. I'm not sure
they believed us. And you know what the worst part is? There are
still three Schaumküsse in my room and Mette's visiting again in a
few weeks....
Right.
Less than a month to go. Phew. Mette left the next day, because
obviously she can't actually just stay forever with me. Apparently
then you can't actually finish a degree. Or work. Whatever. More
orchestra the next day. There's a lot of orchestra coming up. It'll
probably make my writing this faster...
Wednesday.
I had a lovely skype with one of my favourite gingers. By which I
mean Rozzy. She's such a babe. And then Becca came round and we
headed out for some dancing fun as well as a few challenges thrown in
there, you know, just for fun! For some reason we also bought olives
stuffed with garlic, cheese, pombears and pringles for the way home.
But who's judging, right? I mean, if anyone's going to judge they
should probably judge the late night playing of play mobil rather
than the food... It did, however, mean that the next day was a bit of
a write-off – after 8 hours straight in uni you don't really feel
up to much if you've only had a few hours sleep!
Friday:
Orchestra. Although this takes more than just that, so maybe I lied
with what I said about orchestra before. It was our Berlin
Probewochenende, so yeah. Then afterwards Wiebke invited me to an
archaeology party, which I obviously rocked. There was beer, rum,
people. Pretty cool. Oh. And it was in a library. Because that's
completely normal, right? I don't know, I'm not sure any uni in
England would let you have a party in the library. But who's judging?
Saturday:
Orchestra. AND the Keller is back!!! This has made me very happy.
Kicker and beer after rehearsal is what everyone needs. And in the
middle of orchestra we had a brunch outside in the Sun (it was SO
sunny), and it was all very lovely and lovely and lovely.
And
on Sunday I rested. With Freddy (my exchange partner) being in Berlin
for a few days I met up with her for lunch on Monday, which was all
groovy, followed by a bit of relaxation in Lustgarten. And yes, I got
sunburnt in April. Only on my left side. I like to think of it as
skill. And in the evening there was orchestra.
Tanz
in den Mai. That's another thing we need in England. It was SO sunny,
like you wouldn't believe. I met up with Becca and we headed down to
Volkspark Friedrichshain for a bit of Salsa in the Park with Natali,
Johannes, Christoph, Vanessa, and whoever else was invited... We
danced, we barbecued, we chatted. It was lurvely. Then it chucked it
down with rain. But somehow it was still soooooo nice, and we just
danced in the rain for a while (about an hour maybe?) before catching
the tram home, absolutely soaked! Yeah :) There should be more days
like that.
On
Wednesday I met up with Freddy and her brother for lunch in a cute
little restaurant in Moabit before heading into Uni for a one-off
Rosenkavalier Seminar – we managed to get the conductor from the
production we went to see to come and speak to our class, so it was
pretty cool :)
Thursday:
Orchestra. Then afterwards I met up with Sara, who I haven't seen in
absolutely forever! We went to a little pub near Warschauer Straße,
which was really cute, and just chatted and caught up on a lot of
news! So yes, that was pretty nice.
After
a horn lesson the next day I sorted my life out a little bit (it
would take a lot longer to sort it out a lot) before going to
Johannes' for his housewarming party. He possibly regrets that...
There were games etc. (people here are bumming all over English
games) and some tests of strengths, which I'd just like to let
everyone know I won. And that's no lie! Yeah...
So.
Almost there, about two weeks to go, I reckon... With her brother
visiting, Becca and I decided to make another trip to Matrix.
Something tells me we go there too often... So yes, after a few games
and Brauses at mine, James ended up not coming out with us (he was
tired from the night before!), so Becca, Louis and I headed off just
the three of us. Armed with rum and vodka. It was... an interesting
night! Let's just say we didn't all manage to stick together... To
this day we're still not quite sure what exactly happened to Becca...
But there was still dancing, which always makes things good. Until
ridiculous o'clock in the morning...
This
was followed by a relatively early (compared to the hour of the
return home) trip to Amelie's the next day. But definitely well worth
it for the Käsespätzle.
Wow. I don't think I need to say anything more to that point. And the
day was obviously made perfect by the essay that was waiting to be
finished at home when I got back...
Monday:
Orchestra. Tuesday: Orchestra + Keller (Luis and I: five games of
Kicker, 100% win. Improvement from last Semester? I think so.).
Wednesday: Orchestra. Hey, what do you know, I was right!
Anyway.
On Thursday Amelie, Laura, Mareike, Christopher and I went for frozen
yoghurt and then sat and chatted in Lustgarten. Which was definitely
better than the lecture we were supposed to be in... Then I met up
with Süley
for the first time in about forever! We went for a few beers in a
Biergarten near where I live and just chatted and drew on my hand.
Because we're normal like that. And that evening Arne came back for
the night, so we also had chats until rather late, quite proper DMCs,
actually, now I come to think about it. Definite bit of bonding right
there.
Friday:
Orchestra, Saturday: Orchestra + Concert (in the Berliner Dom!). Then
Theresa, Moritz and I went out for a few drinks, which was cool,
especially as we haven't done anything together in far too long. So
yeah, which just sat in a bar and chatted for a while. Surrounded by
football fans...
Despite
it not being the best weather in the world, Becca and I met up for a
picnic the next day, though swapping part way from park to the garden
behind her flat, due to the grey skies... And on the way we found
Louis, who was meant to be there earlier, but hadn't quite made it
out of bed in time... But yes, we picnicked, talked, played games (oh
we wrote some publish worthy stories) and then spent a bit of time
sitting in front of her bathroom watching youtube videos. Don't
ask...
After
my seminar on Monday I met up with Charlotte and Amelie to go and see
The First Rasta in Germany's oldest cinema. Yeah, how many of you
have been there? It was quite quaint, small and cosy, really nice.
And the film was pretty good, actually. I say film, it was a
documentary. But you can google that for yourselves.
Tuesday:
Orchestra. And Keller. And Kicker. And dancing. With new people.
Well, new people for me, they've pretty definitely been there before
me. But I like new people. Luis and I still did pretty well on that
Kicker table, though I do have to say we've unfortunately lost a bit
of our Zing from the week before. But don't worry, we're determined
to get it back! But yes, quite a while in the Keller there, getting
home about 5.30 in the morning. Ah, Berlin, I <3 you!
Almost
there! Right. So on Wednesday we had our Hoffest for the Musik- und
Medienwissenschaften. Pretty cool. Basically everyone bring food and
buy beer there. A bit like the Keller, but at the top of a building
instead of underneath it. Plus you get to realise that the man who
rules over all the music in the library is a bit of a legend, and
will happily open a Seminar room for dancing with toons. Yeah. And
after that we had a bit of a crawl, effectively seeing how many pubs
we can stay in before they shut, starting in Aufsturz, heading off to
Fire and then another one whose name I don't know. Learning the bunny
game on the way. Of course. And eventually leaving the last pub at 6
in the morning. That's something they don't have in England...
However
two rather late nights after one another generally lead to a doss
day. That was yesterday. (And today, sort of...) Although I did give
my horn a bath, so let's give that some credit! And today... Well,
I've practised at least. And written this. Which doesn't exactly take
no time and effort! Later I'm meeting up with Katrin again and going
out anyway. So hah. And I think that's all for now! Thanks to anyone
who actually makes it to the end of this.... I'm impressed!
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