Berlin snow is never virginal for long. Gathering coal dust on its decent it often boasts a yellowy hue long before hitting the ground. But adaptable as only city folk are, we have come to value the many shades of Berlin snow as white, bright white – with an afterglow. So when it falls and before it’s had time to dissolve into a slush of tyre tracks, dogs’ dinners and gravel, here is were to go and legally enjoy the fluffy, toboggany whiteness of winter:

http://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/umwelt/stadtgruen/gruenanlagen/de/
nutzungsmoeglichkeiten/rodeln/index.shtml

Note: There’s a place in Berlin called Coca-cola hill!

Skating in Scandinavia and Berlin

Wiki, I love you! With winter on its way and the bleak and smoggy city sky closing in on us… I thought it would be nice to highlight some of the happier pastimes of these shortening days. Childhood memories and X-mas cards soon confirm ice skating as the season activity. A quick google for ice-rink addresses lands me on a wiki link to Lidwina of Schiedman, patron saint of skaters. Bedridden after a skating accident back in the late 14th century, Lidwina developed a series of saintly qualities such as paralysis, anorexia, spontaneous bleeding and loss of limbs. I quote; “…great pieces of her body fell off… she shed skin, bones and parts of her intestines, which her parents kept in a vase and which gave off a sweet odour”.

But, wiki tells me, ice-skating wasn’t always this much fun. According to scientists, bone skates found in Scandinavia and Russia dating back to 3000BC, were invented for not for frolicking but purely for survival! Indeed -current studies confirm that “people traveling across the region’s frozen lakes reduced their physical energy cost by 10 percent”. (Perhaps this was the initial attraction for Lidwina)

Inspired? Learn how to make your own bone skates at:

http://www.valhs.org/history/articles/daily_living/text/ice_skates.htm

Or don’t make your own skates and just hire some at an ice-rink of your choice. Here some choice ice-rinks in Berlin:

Die Ungewöhnliche Eislaufschule
Ringstr. 67b , 12205 Berlin
http://www.eislaufschule.de

Eisstadion Wilmersdorf
Fritz-Wildung-Straße 9, 14199 Berlin
http://www.horst-dohm-eisstadion.de

Erika Hess Eisstadion Wedding
Müllerstraße 185, 13353 Berlin
http://www.eislaufen-berlin.de/index.php?id=login.php&gast=gast/eisbahnen.php&eisbahn=2

Eisstadion Neukölln
Oderstraße 182, 12051 Berlin
http://www.sport-in-neukoelln.de/

Eisbahn Lankwitz
Leonorenstraße 37, 12247 Berlin
http://www.eisbahn-lankwitz.de

Some say style is a matter of posture and posture a sign of all sorts of preconceptions –a bit like shoes. Forget it. Here is an establishment that will inspire you to unfold your spine what ever your background, it is the drinking hall of ballerinas: the Würgeengel – which is German for “your life is not complete until you have see this film by Bruñel” which is English for “El ángel exterminador”. Here you can quite happily enjoy your own company or else meet with a friend or two – and five at the most –, enjoy a good glass of wine and delight in the dark-red velvet interior and the handsomely well-groomed bar staff, flaunting serving skills long since perfected. The atmosphere is electric, time seeps away unnoticed as the people of the night fill the long, dimly lit room. And many hours after the thought of moving on has arisen, you will find yourself still hovering by the door, postponing your goodbyes, locked in excuses and unable to leave, for this bar uncannily lives up to its name. Which is a bummer if you fancy a Radler, cos the hot waiters gently refuse to serve beer cocktails. Snobbery? Surely not.

Würgeengel, Dresdner Str. 122, Kreuzberg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_ángel_exterminador

Swabians do alright in Berlin, what with Tannenzäpfle beer and Maultaschen raviolis flooding bars and eateries everywhere. But what to do if you grew up in Hessen, have no regrets about leaving home but still fancy a good old Ahle Wurscht or a Stracke and a nice big glass of Apfelwein every once in a while. A wish easily fulfilled in Frankfurt, Kassel or Marburg, proves hard to come by in the capital of Germany. Apfelwein is not the same as cider; it tastes a bit stale, like apple juice mixed with mineral water and left in the sun for a day. Anyway, to get this fantastic drink in Berlin, you have to follow other Hessians’ word-of-mouth propaganda and so sometimes find yourself in the kind of bar you’d rather not be seen dead in. However, if you’re lucky, you’ll end up in Hubis where the proprietor will willingly mix you Apfelwein-colas all night long. The word is out and now that the Fichtekranz-Company is busy trying to turn “happy apples” Apfelwein into the new scene-drink it’ll soon be served in a bar near you! I’ve already lit a candle for their success. Meanwhile Strongbow is an okay alternative, rapidly growing popular in F’hain under the exotic banner of Irish Apple Beer (Zees Krazy Irlanders).

And moving swiftly from alcohol to its counterpart stodge: …a satisfactory Irish or English fry-up is even harder to find than a good Ahle Wurscht. There is a place on Grimmstraße which usually serves all the right ingredients with a little continental garnish of fresh red capsicum on the side. Apart from that I hear the Irish Pub on Erkelenzdamm is at last making a comeback under the name of Murray’s Bar. As for that nice supper of Grau Brot and Ahle Wurscht you can order it anywhere in Berlin – albeit by post, phone or online. But your best bet is to “befriend” some commuters from north Hessen and infiltrate the sausage trafficking scene. Incidentally, Ahle Wurscht translates as Alte Wurst which simply means old sausage. And Stracke means straight. So what you are waiting for during those long wintery homesick hours, is a loaf of grey bread and an old, straight sausage. 

www.nordhessische-ahle-wurscht.de
www.fichtekranz.de
www.murraysbar.de

When can you say you are? People who just recently moved here don’t have a clue what this kiez-thing really means. They have an address and don’t care about spending their free time going from Mitte to Charlottenburg and later to see a friend in Friedrichshain.

I think it starts when you start saying Fhain or Kreuzi or Prenzlberg or S.P.A.N.D.A.U…. This goes hand in hand with a certain feeling that your (!) kiez is the most exciting neighbourhood in Berlin. This kiezthing – you probably have it in every other city as well. What’s special about berlin is that you can afford to live almost everywhere (well, the square meters differ a bit) – so choose your homebase carefully.

Here’s some Berlin-Musik: 

Hanne Hukkelberg, Berlin
http://www.lastfm.de/music/Hanne+Hukkelberg/_/Berlin

Icke & Er: Keen Hawaii
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYojBDQQXy4

Seeed, Dickes B
http://de.youtube.com/watch?v=w9b2j2g42nQ

about Berlin, films about Germany: funny, serious, boring and outstanding.  A subjective selection:

• Alles auf Zucker, Regie: Dani Levy, 2004
• Gegen die Wand, Regie: Fatih Akin, 2004
• Texas – Doc Snyder hält die Welt in Atem, Regie: Helge Schneider, 1993
• Heidi M., Regie: Michael Klier, 2001
• Keinohrhasen, Regie: Til Schweiger, 2007
• Good Bye, Lenin!, Regie: Wolfgang Becker, 2003
• Der Himmel über Berlin, Regie: Wim Wenders, 1987 and its sequel: In weiter Ferne, so nah!, Regie: Wim Wenders, 1993
• Das Leben der Anderen, Regie: Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, 2006
• Theo gegen den Rest der Welt, Regie: Peter F. Bringmann, 1980
• Sommer vorm Balkon, Regie: Andreas Dresen, 2006
• Der bewegte Mann, Sönke Wortmann, 1994
• Das Leben ist eine Baustelle, Regie: Wolfgang Becker, 1997
• Pappa ante portas, Loriot, 1991

All about German films: www.filmportal.de

The most popular German crime series is “Tatort”, every Sunday, ARD 20.15pm

What makes Berlin so special is her pace. Berlin is a city, a capital city, a metropolitan capital city – but fall out of your window and the chances are you’ll not hit anyone. Cycle down a one way road the wrong way and the only danger you’ll encounter is a traffic policeman waiting to smugly lecture you to death. Berlin is slow. Every one strolls – not just the tourists. And in between strolls the citizens like to have a little sit down, stretch their thumbs flicking though a menu, or flipping open a bottle (it is essential to master the technique of opening a beer with a lighter, or your eyebrow). Time is quality. Spend it standing in the queue at the library waiting for the buerocratic registration process to unfold and you will experience the unlikely German luxury of watching time slip by. It will not wait, but so what? Where’s it going to go?  The shops will still be open when you get there.  If you need a tin of soup, toilet paper, a beer or chewing gum at one in the morning, visit your Späti or Spätkauf (late purchase) and place your order. In Berlin a hole in the wall is a little old lady who has opened her downstairs window to sell you a tub of ice cream for a midnight feast as you have no freezer. Just don’t get up early and try and go shopping for cloths or trinkets in Mitte, Friedrichshain, Kreuzberg or Prenzlauer Berg. If you need to be up and about before midday go brunching in a café that sells soups and hot chocolate, beer and wine and possibly the furniture your sitting on.  FYI: The german version of english breakfast is the so-called “Strammer Max”: Brown bread with smoked ham and fried egg on top. Or a Bauern-Frühstück: Scrambled egg with onions, mushrooms and sausage. Amazing. And not hurry – last orders are often not until 4 or 6 pm. 

The other night we went for Il Casolare,  a  punk pizza at Admiralsbrücke in Kreuzberg, to enjoy the sunset. And as always a group of English people (young, dynamic, hip and all the rest of it) plonked themselves next to me. I pretended not to understand and so listened in to their chit-chat. Two of them had been here a while and the other three were newbies. So it was all about sharing or showing off the knowledge. Turns out all the stuff I explored a few years back is still available (but we found it first…)  Such as the Weinerei in Prenzlauer Berg. You go, eat soup from a cauldron, sandwiches from a pile and drink wine from bottles stacked around the room. And then when you leave, you pay – what ever you see fit! You end up paying over the odds, I mean, when was the last time someone trusted you? Worth its weight in gold. (Did I mention in my day you had to climb through a hole in the wall to get to the loo… ) Meanwhile my pizza arrived and I learned that smoking will continue throughout Berlin, if only to combat the current perfume explosion – albeit with certain restrictions (for details contact the government). So where to go to relax and gulp down some unadulterated smog?  It used to be Görli for us, said the girls next to me. But recently the police have set up clandestine BBQ treasure hunts with each illegal sausage pierced on their squad car antennas winning them 20 Euro in coppers. But drinking is still legal, so grab a beer and gaze into the crater, imagining it filling with water. And be sure to share your empties out equally among the bottle-collectors. 

PS. If you really want good pizza visit “Rocco und seine Brüder” on Lausitzer Platz in Kreuzberg. www.roccoundseinebrueder.de

The Badeschiff (in English, “bathing ship”) is an old barge or cargo container that has been converted into a public swimming pool. Designed by Berlin artist Susanne Lorenz, the Spree swimming pool was fashioned out of a shallow river cargo container. It’s a rectangle, 32.5 meters (yards) long by 8.2 meters (yards) wide and just over two meters (six feet) deep.

The ship’s filled with 400,000 liters (105,668 gallons) of fresh water that’s been slightly chlorinated. The water is heated to a comfortable 24 degrees Celsius (75.2 degrees Fahrenheit). The pool has been filled so that its water level is almost even with the pool’s edge, which itself is 70 centimeters (28 inches) above the surface of the river.

Beached on the shoreline in the East Harbour section of the River Spree, the Badeschiff invites  people to swim in a safe and really extraordinary environment. It is open to the public daily from 8am to midnight. Disc jockeys commonly spin records outside the pool entrance where there is also a bar.

From November to March the Badeschiff will be converted as sauna with a wonderful view over the frozen river.

http://www.arena-berlin.de/badeschiff.aspx

arena Berlin / Eichenstraße 4 / 12435 Berlin / Tel: 030.533 20 30