What I Did On My Holidays?

A.k.a Four-Day City Marathon.

The Berlin trip is over, I'm back to home sweet home with overflowing laundry basket and a distinct look of being lived in by a tenant who's not been arsed to take the vacuum cleaner out for a while.

Plus it's raining outside. Raining, I tell you! Water, not snow!

I want my climate-controlled, clean and tidy hotel room back, thank you very much.

After all the waiting and biting of fingernails, when I finally got to the airport on Monday I had to control myself not to join a young gentleman, who had not yet celebrated his second birthday, in his Sunday best, expressing his joy of seeing aeroplanes by running in a wide circle and making impressive "prrrrt!" sounds.

It snowed when I got to Berlin. In fact, it snowed all through the week, except on Friday (when I had to leave the city) the sun came out and the weather was just perfect. Nevertheless, as I decided to live life to the maximum and took a taxi from the airport to the hotel, my first impression of the city was a pretty one - snow falling gently, lights on windows, and the taxi driver's choice of classical tunes made for an impressive experience.

Berlin is an awesome city. No matter where I went, there was something worth seeing. On Tuesday I took a look at the west side of the city, walked down the Kurfürstendamm shopping street and took a look at the KaDeWe department store, which has the most impressive food court I've ever seen. I also took advantage of the relatively tourist-free time to walk the Unter den Linden down to the Brandenburger Tor, turned around and couldn't stop grinning as I saw the Fernsehturm looming over the buildings.

Wednesday had me wailing and gnashing my teeth at the Saturn music store at the Alexanderplatz. I mean, every single CD I've been lusting after was there. I looked left, there were neat piles of pretty albums, just waiting for me, I let my gaze fall naturally to the right, and there were more! I must have spent an hour there, clutching a pile of CDs in my clammy hands, running from aisle to aisle, trying to decide what to buy and what to leave behind. In the end I opted for In Extremo's Sünder ohne Sügel, Megaherz's Herzwerk II, Corvus Corax's Cantus Buranus (arrangemets can be made for those unpatient to wait for the Amazon.de order) and Janus' Nachtmahr - which has to be the most beautiful CD case ever made.

At least I got to hold the rest of them for a while. Still, I'm surprised the staff didn't throw me out for fondling the albums in public.

I had planned on taking the lift up to the Fernsehturm's top, but took one look at the queue and decided to admire the symbol of DDR's might and power from the outside only. I went for a walk in the Nikolaiviertel, and ate at Zum Nussbaums which offers food as German as it can get. It was delicious, but had at least one kilo of butter in it. I almost left permanent dents to the ground as I left, and after several hours of non-stop walking still wasn't hungry. If you ever happen to find yourself there, try it out. Excellent food and excellent beer.

It is very reassuring to find out that after 2 years of learning a language I can now confidently walk in a restaurant and order myself a meal. After 2 more years, who knows, maybe I'll have advanced so much that I can order a dessert as well. But really, I spoke German to people, and instead of being laughed at, got understood. Amazing.

And because of a band I like I had to look for a certain U-Bahn station (where parts of Mein Teil video were shot), and a building in Schlossplatz (where the video for Ich Will was shot). And while in Schlossplatz, looking at what remains of the Palast der Republic, where DDR's rulers sat in their time, I had a good thought about history and where it has lead us.

But back to the modern times. I did sample the famous kebabs, as I promised. A good kebab, yes, as kebabs go, but I still think that the kebabrulle special med ost you get in Skåne is the best. Must be the added factor of spending ten days camping on what must be the soggiest field in Sweden which makes anything a) made by someone else b) you can eat indoors and sitting on a proper chair taste divine.

I also sampled the famous beers. Goodness gracious me. The selection in the small corner shop near the hotel had me biting my lower lip, and had I had room in my bag I'd have brought some over.

Thursday Berlin was hit by a good, old-fashioned blizzard. I tried to brave it, but after a couple of hours (and after my legs simply refused to take another step unless it was towards the hotel) I gave up, went to my hotel room and spent the evening looking at movies dubbed in German.

I went to the Deutsches Historisches Museum to look at some medieval goodies, but to my embarrassment got lost in the building and ended up walking in a circle between 2 exhibitions and the museum shop. In frustration, once I had located the front door, I escaped. The Gemäldegalerie, on the other hand, made up for the disaster. It has an endless supply of art beginning from the 12th Century, and I spent an informative couple of hours there, nose pressed to the paintings, trying to figure out the secrets of seams, headdresses and fastenings of the past centuries. Too late I found out that taking pictures was allowed - I had left my camera with my coat.

On Friday the city exploded with people coming to celebrate the New Years. Two thirds of the Italian population had moved in for the single purpose of blocking every single way. Traveling alone, I must have gave the impression that I was somehow a part of the native population as I was stopped at least four times and asked for directions. I took a walk around the Museuminsel and too soon it was time to head to the Tegel airport (if you take a really good look at the picture, you may see the bloke at the end of the corridor thingy, playing Mozart on a keyboard. Lovely, I must say).

On the flight to Berlin we had this big, shiny job of an aeroplane, with small videoscreens popping down from the ceiling, giving us real-time info on our altitude, ground speed, local time in Helsinki and in Berlin and so fort and so forth, complete with air hostesses dashing back and forth the aisle radiating concern over the passenger's sufficient coffee intake and pampering us in all ways possible. Also, you could donate all your extra coins to Unicef and thus help educate young girls in Nepal, a campaign Finnair has till March, if I'm not mistaken.

On the flight back, however, we were crammed into a small can of sardines which I thought was a blast from the past until the captain proudly proclaimed it to be one of the brand new planes Finnair has just bought. Really! Had there been any video screens there, they'd have smacked us over the head. But before the air hostesses begin their dashing and pampering, when the plane, small or big, takes off from the Tegel airport and the cabin lights are lighted, it faces the wrong way and has to make a slow curve over Berlin in order to get on the right course. If one is lucky enough to be seated on the right side of the plane, and has chekced herself in early enough to get to choose a window seat, when the plane dips to turn, one is treated with a sight which can only be described as fuckin' A.

All my money is gone, I'm still tired and my brain is only half-way home, but goddamn, it was so worth it. I don't think I'll complain too loudly if I happen to find myself there again.


Oh, and it's the last day of the year. Have a happy next one!

Berlin piccies.