Erinnerungen von Berlin

Berlin is amazing. Part of my very strong positive reaction to the city is that it is, in many ways, the opposite of London. Where London is dense, Berlin is diffuse. Where London is comparatively clean, Berlin is comparatively filthy. (Yes, really.) Where London's past is continuously present and visible, much of Berlin's past is comparatively invisible, only emerging is startling moments. (I'm not sure how this architectural fact relates to Londoners' relatively unambiguous relationship to their history, and Berliners' -- obviously -- conflicted relationship with theirs.)

In any case, much of Berlin, especially the old East, has this thrift-store, jury-rigged aesthetic that I highly approve of, and which is almost completely lacking in London. Examples: an abandoned lot, with some christmas lights and a trailer, is converted into a rollicking biergarten. A bar called Wohnzimmer ("living room") is decorated entirely in dilapidated, ornate furniture and ugly 70s wallpaper. A brand new restaurant is decorated in imitation ugly 70s wallpaper and thrift-store furniture. My host points to a hideous communist office tower: "there's a big nightclub on the twelfth floor of that building. The rest of the building is offices, or empty." All of these things make me very happy, and all of them are unknown or very rare in London.

Actual things I did: lots of walking, mostly. Shopping in the old West and the old East. Berlin Alexanderplatz. Also, the Gemäldegalerie (European painting through 1800), the Hamburger-Bahnhof Galerie (art since the 60s), Libeskind's Jewish Museum (an interesting failure). No music, as it is Sauergherkinzeit ("Sour-pickle-time") when all the musical institutions are on vacation.

It was wonderful to hang out with my host, the Young Musicologist Known to Many of You. We gossiped, we argued about music and musicology, we compared notes about living abroad, he told me war stories from his job search. Significantly, though, by my "cultural" definition he is hardly gay at all -- doesn't really know or like a lot of gay men, and certainly never goes to gay bars. So the notorious Gay Berlin remains a mystery to me. But that's okay.

One eats well in Berlin. For cheap. My last night, we went to this hilariously tacky, old Thüringian restaurant, and got the mixed grill to share. Everything was pig. Sausages, bacon, gilled pork... utterly exquisite. With a plate a pickled vegetables, it came to 20 euros for the both of us. Plus an 11 euro bottle of wine. If to you things this sounds not "cheap," it would have been about twice as much in London. A German breakfast, which features a big platter of delectables (cold sausage, much cheese, etc.) to be placed on dense bread, is a life-affirming institution.

We were walking down the street, having just come out of the gigantic book and record store Dussmann, and I recognized a person walking towards us. It was the flatmate of my friend in Paris! I have never felt like so much of a Global Teen in my life. My host said that he had never run into someone, randomly on the street in Berlin -- but then two days later we were walking on the other side of town, and who should we run in to, eating in an sidewalk café, but a famous University of Chicago musicologist known to my host!

So that's Berlin. In other news: everything in my life is still late. Late, late, late!

Finally, a link for my sister (it relates to my childhood). And perhaps also gf (it relates to a recent exchange). And perhaps also bk (just 'cuz).