Genau! Berlin Diary: Day 1.

So while everyone in this fine land o’mine was using some regal wedding or other to get (royally) drunk and gasp “Oh, ain’t they nice?” at some people they bear absolutely no relation to, I went to Berlin. This is what I wrote.

“Tired. Lack of sleep. Fidgety man beside me on the plane. Arriving in Berlin, I’m struck by a couple of things. One, Tegel airport is small. Two, am I on the right subway train? All I can see is industry, bare brick warehouses with blown out windows and overgrown grass. I’m not in the right place, I think to myself.

But eventually I arrive at my friend’s ‘hood. Prenzlauer Berg. We meet at his flat and quickly decide to go for a morning coffee. As if a sign of things to come, we both sit down at one of (what I soon discover) are innumerable stylish cafes, converse about music, life in Brockley and other such matters, only for a bird to relieve itself (in fairly voluminous fashion) on my glasses, which are perched towards the centre of the table, rested neatly beside the sugar dispenser. “Good luck!” exclaims the old lady sat next to us, who up until now has had her head buried in the newspaper. A bird has just excreted its lumpy mess all over my glasses and this lady seems animated, a beaming smile stretched across her face. I learn that in Germany, contrary to pretty much every country I assume, bird shit actually brings good luck. “So die sagt”, nods my friend in recognition. So they say.

Having been promptly booted out of his apartment for the afternoon, I leave to wander the streets, chancing upon a disused water cooler tower and synagogue (Berlin is riddled with abandoned buildings – many of which are curiously lacking in any kind of signage, suggesting perhaps that some things people just want to forget), as well as some beautiful cemeteries, laden with Roman-style structures that form tributes to entire families in some cases (this is not so unusual, my mother tells me).

The day flitted between sunshine and cloud and, having later learned of my route around where the wall once stood, I started to understand better how strangely Berlin alternates between sparse and dense. The evening finished with most delectable Thai food eaten outside in the evening sunshine. Every cafe and restaurant seems to have outside seating in this city. I’m starting to feel at home already.”