– 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! :)
“not every day is going to offer us a chance to save somebody’s life, but everyday offers us an opportunity to affect one. so get in the game. save the shoes.”
mark bezos is a volunteer new york firefighter who gave a quick ted talk, on two simple life lessons: don’t wait to be a hero and every little thing counts. it made me smile and it made me think about all the little things that count.
(there are some things left to be said about slovenia, so this is a backtracking post about one of those things, which someday will be moved back to a time that matches our stay there.)
fried cheese with fries. it’s one of those dishes that you can always get in any restaurant in slovenia, like a safe option for vegetarians and picky eaters alike. it’s as common as eggs with fries where i come from, and yet, we had never heard of it before.
when our friends first suggested it on a roadtrip through the slovenian mountains, we couldn’t even imagine how it would be possible. small mozzarella sticks are one thing, but whole slices of cheese? we had our doubts, so we stopped on the first roadside restaurant we could find to correct our ignorance. and of course, they had fried cheese – along with bear goulash and other local specialities.
i think something might have clicked when the first forkful of delicious melted cheese hit our tongues. soft and chewy cheese and crunchy breading… that was a moment when i realised “wow, i could eat this forever and never get bored!” it was so good and irresistible we had it 2 days in a row. :)
yum yum! :D
what do berliners do on weekends, when the sun is out? they go to parks and soak in the sun! the whole day, just laying around, lazily perusing nearby markets, drinking beer and roasting their sausages in makeshift grills.
and for the entertainment? well, they have frisbees and kites and there’s always a nearby radio blasting a tune, or, if you’re in mauerpark in a sunday afternoon… the bearpit karaoke!
this was something we saw on our first weekend in berlin and it blew our minds. a massive outdoor karaoke? hell yeah!
it happens in a stone amphitheater on mauerpark, every sunday afternoon. a guy comes in with a set of amplifiers on a bike, plugs his computer, and lets people sing whatever songs they like while a couple thousand people watch and cheer. the results are often unexpected and hilarious. some examples found on youtube:
i may not know much about berlin yet, but this is definitely something you don’t want to miss :)
it took us a while to settle down in this city – it’s all too big, too foreign, too bureaucratic, and frankly, more than a little intimidating with its omnipresent obsession with cool. but we’re getting the hang of it.
our new home is a sunny ground-floor apartment with wooden floors and windows on every room. it’s on a quiet little street, so little in fact that it has the word kleine on its name. :)
the house came completely empty, a clean sheet that we are slowly filling with ikea goods, ebay treasures and other things we’ve found on nearby second hand shops. every day it feels a little bit more ours, a little bit more home.