Berlin

A city of artists, students, and freelancers – with nearly 14% unemployment – Berlin’s denizens have plenty of time for hanging out. Hip restaurants and cafes, filled around the clock, line the avenues of East Berlin, imbuing it (at least the area where I was) with an East Village flair. We invaded Laura’s Prenzlauer Berg apartment on Friday evening, and after depositing our bags, headed out the first in a series of amazing meals, this one at Laura’s standby Toscana. We then headed ‘around the corner’ (Berliners have a different notion of proximity than we do in Vienna) for drinks at the Neu Odessa Bar with a bunch of familiar faces.

The next day, Spagitti, Hosti, and Gato graciously showed me the major sites of the city, including: The Brandenburg Gate, Check Point Charlie, Unter den Linden, Alex, Hack’Schen Höfe, and Galeries Lafayette (new on the Berlin radar). After so much walking, we replenished our energy at Sian -an amazing Vietnamese restaurant where everything is available in both carnivorous and vegetarian forms – before L. and N.’s Flower Power party on a boat in the Spree river.

To give you a better picture:

At about 2am the owner of 1001 Falafel, ‘Berlin’s Falafel King’, received a great welcome:

The morning after…

There were even reminders of Brazil: