the sign outside states “don’t die before trying”, and so, try we did. and then it became a sort of ritual: every time we were nearby, the caffeine siren calling would divert us from our path straight into this tiny little coffee shop. well, the coffee and the cheesecake, if we’re being honest. it’s really good.

i don’t know enough about coffee to comment beyond “i like it” – so their fancy machine has little allure on a commoner like me.

but sometimes, good coffee has this quality of making time go slower while you sip. have you noticed? this is one of those coffees. you take a sip, taste the foam, close your eyes and feel all is well with the world. you take a bite of that cheesecake and let it melt in your tongue, slowly. yup, you don’t even notice the impatient baristas anymore. all is well. :)

bonanza is on oderberger straße, 35 near mauerpark.

stolperstein, or stumbling blocks, are the name of these little brass cubes that you can find on the sidewalks of berlin. they’re small and unremarkable in the hustle and bustle of the city. but if you take the time to stop and really look, you’ll notice they’re more like silent memorials. each one of these blocks marks the last place of living of a victim of nazism, who was later deported and murdered. they’re made by artist gunter demnig, who started this project in 1993 – today there are over 20000 of them, all over europe.

in the words of cambridge historian, ioseph pearson:

“It is not what is written on the stolpersteine which intrigues, because the inscription is insufficient to conjure a person. It is the emptiness, void, lack of information, the maw of the forgotten, which gives the monuments their power and lifts them from the banality of a statistic.”

more from this series.

i’ve always wanted to live in a city with one of these…

…and now we do! :)

“That was but a prelude; where they burn books, they will ultimately burn people.”

the quote is by heinrich heine, a german-jewish poet. it was written in 1820, over a century before the nazi book burnings that took place in the square where it is now displayed. heine’s books where among those destroyed, along with titles by karl marx, bertolt brecht, thomas mann, ernest hemingway, etc.

…make our cheat days a lot sweeter! :)

these little beauties are from cupcake in krossenerstraße 12, friedrichshain, 10245 berlin.

i’ve had quite a few bikes throughout the years and the countries… but i had never had a real dutch bike. i dreamed of it, so pretty and elegant… so, when we came to berlin, i made a point that this would be the country where i would choose a dutch bike. well, here she is, straight out of a nearby second hand shop:

it’s actually a raleigh, which means it’s a british bike, from one of the oldest bike companies in the world. but nevertheless, the concept is pretty much what i wanted: a simple & sturdy bike, with pedal brakes and a sort of moustache handle, that i can ride upright (and not bent forward, like on mountain bikes).

it’s been a pleasure to ride it around :)

- there’s going to be a pillow fight in alexanderplatz today. do you guys want to come?
- errr… yes!!!! :D

on our first day in berlin, a dozen shy pillow fighters converged in the square and unleashed their feathery pillows on each others. a sort of an omen, or a toast to the fun times ahead! :)