Bleurgh

Propped up on pillows in an ocean of tissues, I have spent this Sunday in bed with a shitty cold. What better place to write from.

2011 is already old, but I hope you all had wonderful Christmasses etc. My week in Exeter was buried in silent snow, bliss in contrast to the brash honking of sleepless Hermannstr.

On returning to Berlin I have been inundated with visitors. 10 divided between my cupboard of a room and my housemate's was entertaining in this heatless house. There were more than I or these four walls expected but I cannot adequately describe how wonderful it is to sit down to dinner with 15 of the most brilliant people. We may not have had enough seats, or plates, and only four forks...but these are trivial matters when there are pots of hot soup and a crate of beers.

New Year's Eve itself was an epic night of mayhem. We slipped down the streets and fell up the icy Kreuzberg to see in the New Year and - what I supposed - Brandenburg Gate's official Firework spectacular.

Oh how wrong I was.

The Berg was no outlook post to see distant colours. We were the display. Armed with giant sparklers, Feuerwerk stuffed into emptying champagne bottles, the air thick with burning smoke, a sky crackling with colour, we duck under flying explosions and shouted over the roar of the fireworked sky. After surviving, limbs intact, sliding down the hill, jumping out of the way of explosions at all sides, we danced the morning through an Electro Houseparty. Perfekt.

The following week was full of Museums, Bars, Beers and uBahns. Classic Berlin. We returned to Tempelhofs Flughafen - now a white, frozen wasteland. We wandered through melancholy Treptow park. We captured smiles in the ever brilliant Photoautomats.

I miss the collage of voices, laughs and musics. A massive thankyou to everyone for being generally wonderful. You're welcome whenever. : )

And so. I keep dreaming about long days and warm nights. I've started planning disjointed adventures...this summer is going to be very, very good.

I hope you all have a brilliant year full of interesting people, stories to tell, and maybe a bit of Berlin on the side...

It's good to be home.

Love,

Nikki

xx

Photos are of Tempelhof, taken by Michael Tomkins

AND...

I forgot to say...

If you're coming to Berlin for New Year's, (YES YOU!) Then please please let us know, and when exactly. Because space is finite. Floorspace, that is.

Um yes.

That is all.

So excited for January, Fireworks, and Visitors! :)

Wool, Wine and Fairylights.

Ach yet another late update! I'm rubbish. Anyway.

Quiet Sunday. Outside a grey expanse of snow swirling. Inside the steady warmth of the stove. Feeling fragile after people filled parties, I've baked banana bread and drank enough tea to turn me into a teapot. Later on we'll make Glühwein, watch something christmassy, eat cake and KNIT.

Knitting is probably one of my more exciting stories to tell. Believe it. Our guerilla knitting group has grown to four people, and we are well on our way to completing project 1. Probably one of the most ridiculous moments of my life was having my photograph taken for the Bild Zeitung. We knitted beards, (yes - as in facial WOOL) and invented Pseudonyms in order to remain partially anonymous. I mean, this is the BILD. We also refused to discuss our street art. It is, of course, Top Secret.
We've found sponsors for our idea, and have bags of beautiful, free, wool! Amazing.

Other wintery tales…you may have heard already about our various WG Catastrophes. They make quite a collection. Our roof decided to leak the day prospective new housemates came to our door. A kitchen that rains inside like outside is a pretty big disaster, it is distressing to watch a roof so epically fail in its responsibility. However, our Kitchen is now beautifully dry and it looks like the ceiling won't collapse - though it does have a huge ominous stain. After this, a series of minor dramas took place. Our bathroom window is broken. The piece of wood nailed to the gap seemed to keep the worst of the elements out…until heavy snow. I've never had a shower until now where the shampoo was buried in snow. We tried to light a fire in the Kitchen stove in order to ward off damp…and successfully smoked out the entire flat. That chimney is definitely not clean. 2 hours of messy ashiness later (thanks to Joseph) and we now have warmth in our kitchen! Exciting. Our latest hazard involved hot ashes and a plastic bin…words cannot adequately describe the extent of the ugly, ugly smell. Just don't do it.

However, I can say with confidence that all is now ok, life moves on and I am very certain of this flats general safety : )

University is great. I feel much more relaxed and stress free. The classes are so much more flexible than at Leeds, really allowing you to decide your direction of focus. Dahlem is a picture book place of snow, trees and houses with a golden glow. The Caféte is full of beautiful people, music, and Glühwein to ward off the viscous cold.

The legendary Berlin Weihnachtsmärkte do not disappoint. Stalls laden with beautiful handcrafted gifts, woollen wonders, biscuits and Stollen breads alongside (yet more!) delicious Glühwein...

Thanks to Hannah Clarke, I found this beautiful video. Green grass! It feels like a long time ago, in this monotone world.


Little Big Berlin from pilpop on Vimeo.


Snowy love.
N xx

Hier bin ich gern zu haus

First frosts, skeletal trees. Berlin is beginning to wrap up, as things take a turn for the cold.

I've booked train tickets home! For one week I'll be found back in Devon, enjoying fridges full of food, central heating, and roofs that don't leak. You can catch me there between the 19th and the 27th of December. If you're looking for an epic New Year's, join us in Berlin for Silvester!

I have a million novels to digest, so will leave this brief hello with a beautiful song about where I live in Berlin:

Kleingeldprinzessin - Der Kanal

Boddinkietz

Only here will I begin a Sunday in the early afternoon, eating breakfast in the middle of the road. By Boddinstr U-Bahn you will find a motley crew of people, chairs, and teapots outside on the island between traffic lanes. Passers by might stop to grab a bite of croissant or balcony neighbours might offer some eggs. Today was probably our last outdoor HermannFrühstück, but plans to take it onto the ring S-bahn in winter are already afoot. I feel lucky to live where I do, with my old WG opposite and Evan's two houses down.

Following Frühstück I'll maybe bake a cake, drink coffee, raid a Flohmarkt, more tea, cycle into the sunset on Templehof's ghost runways. I've started knitting everywhere I go: U-bahn, queues, pubs. Our weekly stitch and bitch sessions are touring the bars of Berlin, and have some guerrilla plans in the process. I've found the most brilliantly emerald green coat imaginable and feel like an "Ampelmädchen" as I skip this city for its stories.

Universität properly begins tomorrow. I'm all matriculated, zedat-ed, filled out and signed every coloured sheet of bureaucratic crap and am so so ready to get on with the business of learning. It seems a lot more relaxed here - I get to spend this week just wandering into the classes to figure out which ones I want to stick with. I'm already falling in love with my daily train journey. Zipping from east to west and south, from grungy grimy Neukölln to the intellectual greenery of Dahlem. I love the JFK institute of North American studies, the students are all cool, the volunteer run cafe has more sofas than floor and is strung with beautiful bunting. Perfekt.

I have a lot more that I want to talk about - some snippets of Neukölln histories and upside down bars but this will have to wait for another update. Which will be sooner. Promise.

Ich liebe euch.

xx

Days Like This

Brilliant blue skies!

My Berlin holiday of no responsibilities is drawing to a close, and so I am leaf crunching and worry free in this beautiful Autumn. Next week I'll get to meet even more people, students mostly, pick modules, meet tutors, buy books. It's exciting. I can't wait to get back into the rhythm of studies.

The days are blending into a long mishmash of sleeps, sunlight and cycle rides. I can't really remember what I have done in any sort of coherent chronology so will settle for a collection of tales...

My sewing machine exploded. That was dramatic. I don't mean bits of flying metal, but it did give an ominous dull bang and then filled my room with smoke and the smell of burning rubber. That same day, my key snapped in half inside my bicycle lock thus stranding it in Kreuzberg. Bicycles are brilliantly clever and efficient, but the moment you lock its wheel to the frame it is nothing but a jumble of irritatingly heavy and awkward bits of metal. I had to carry it from Kreuzberg to Neukölln which isn't fun, but the lovely bike man broke it open for free.

Last weekend I bit the bullet and forked out a whopping €28 for Bonobo, Fink, Lou Rhodes and Cinematic Orchestra only to be brutally disappointed. I thought a lineup like that couldn't fail to be incredible. How wrong I was. I realise now that expensive nights demand expectation, and more often than not the best things in life are the Kostenlos accidentally discovered treasures. Take for example, last night. After making friends with the flat downstairs, I ended up in a basement party with the most incredible jazz trumpeting feet stomping soul singing live band, the place packed with all sorts of beautiful interesting people, dirt cheap drinks, incredible visuals. I made a million friends spoke loads of German and have maybe found myself a new housemate. And it cost me €2. I didn't even have to pay for drinks after making friends with the people behind the bar. (Unfortunately the police spoilt the fun around 4am.)

Bonobo, however, lacked his orchestra and served a dish of mediocre banality. Fink's line up consisted of ONE song. Lou Rhodes frequently depended on the hissing shushers in the crowd, and sang songs deploring all the death in the world which was embarrassing at best. By the time Cinematic Orchestra rocked up I was too hot, tired, and pissed off to stay any longer.

What else. The lovely Anna Donne visited, and I had an awesome weekend with her and the Sedgwick Jell family (parents inc.!). Highlights included the discovery of the epic Spielwiese, a cafe dedicated to boardgames. What more can I say. I also hosted a housewarming Kaffee and Kuchen, and filled this tiny WG with all sorts of brilliant people. It was crowded and chaotic but full of coffee and delicious cake. Oh, and I invested in a teapot so now I really do have everything.

I'm really looking forward to a parcel of forgotten essentials that is on its way from England.

Postcards and letters are in the pipeline. Apologies for being so typically Nikki disorganised.

I miss you all, love you more, and can't wait to show you this city!

N xx

Silk Inside a Chestnut Shell

I've had chestnut shells literally hit me as I cycle beneath, my bicycle basket catching the plunder. The trees are turning gold, the breeze smells cool, every day that golden sun sinks a little lower. I'm rattling round on my wheels, enjoying every bit of brilliant sunshine while people continue to be moodily prophetic about the coming winter.

So so, where have I been, what have I seen. I'm in my new WG and making it home. I know I'm only here for a year but I didn't realise how important pretty spice jars are to me, and have already mustered a collection from the Flohmarkts. I've built myself a loft bed in this tiny room, and am even fairly sure of its being safe. I've made curtains out of beautiful indigo blue silk, filled a wall with maps and magical photography, and acquired important things such as a chair and a sewing machine. I've made a world to escape to in in this city's madness.

The past week or so…stumbling across outdoor electro parties, climbing up walls and through windows into empty buildings, overwhelmed by the turkish markets, the flohmarkts with their dens of junk, learning how to knit, eating cake, drinking Kaffee.

One of the best restaurants I have ever been to: http://www.lavanderiavecchia.de/

I will probably take you when you come visit.

This weekend is looking set to be a good one, what with friends from England visiting and Bonobo teaming up with Cinematic Orchestra…

As always, please send me your stories.

Liebe Grüße

N xx

Here, there and everywhere

Four walls to call my own

I am gradually moving from nummer 40 to 226, my more permanent home. For €100 a month I will be living in a tiny but beautiful room, complete with its own wood burning stove to keep me warm in winter. I'm terrified. But also enough of a romantic to play the part of the ragged student. If you fancy sending me love by snail mail, e-mail me for the address.

Berghain, Beers and Spytowers

Berghain, the infamous factory of Sound. With one of the biggest soundsytems in Berlin, three floors of booming bass and hour long queues this place will go down in clubbing history. The night here doesn't start till the sun is rising. You are unlikely to get in. What did I think? Yes, it is epic for what it is, but I'm really not sure I quite get it. I mean, clubbing on this scale generally. After two hours I was already feeling old with aching ears and feet. The place seemed a bit too preoccupied with its own elitism, and the hardcore electro can get tiresome to the bones after hours of bass with no twists or turns. Maybe I need to work up to the Berghains of Berlin. Go once.

A beer a day keeps the blues away. Here, it is perfectly acceptable to wander through the streets and onto public transport with a beer in hand. Totally standard prep for a night out. The local Späti are numerous and a half litre of "Sterni" will set you back around 80 cents. But the place isn't staggering with drunks, rather there seems a much healthier relationship with alcohol. You only need to be 16 to buy beer or wine, so I think you get much less abuse of strong spirits.

There is nothing better than spending your evening up an abandoned spytower. This place, Teufelsberg (literally translates as "Devil's Mountain") is contstructed on layers of history. (I really recommend reading the wiki article). A huge edifice of humanity's insanity it was pure magic to sit on the edge and stare out over the City, forests, lakes, and watch that blazing sun melt into a horizontal horizon. Go there. Or if (when) you come visit, insist I take you.

A bit of Britain in Berlin...

I am passportless. Not entirely sure how, but probably happened at the fairly eventful LunaLand festival at Spreepark. And abandoned themepark is a good place to have a party, but copious amounts of gin lead to losses. The week went downhill from there. I got caught without a ticket on the U-bahn (it was in my passport...) so that's another fine, my bike broke, I lost myself in a rainstorm. However, I did get to check out the Embassy. It's not that exciting, after a serious of security checks I was ushered into a dingy office with a crinkled portrait of the queen and a confused looking Oak tree in the yard. It could have tried a bit harder.

I think that's all I have that you'll be interested in. I've had more people coming to stay, every day meeting new people, slowly tuning into this new language, new world.

Speak soon!

Tschussi

N x