Monday 14 September 2015

First 24 hours in Berlin...

First impressions...

1. Every time I see the word wilkommen, this tune pops into my head...


2. Bicycles!! It's lovely to be in a place where lots of people cycle around town.
3. Even on Sunday morning, people dress up to go out to brunch. Every other person is a young tattooed hipster or possibly an ageing rockstar.
4. Bottleshops. People buy 500ml bottles of beer, open it at the counter (there's an opener handy) and then drink in the streets / on the trains. In fact, you can buy a beer on the train platform, and drink it on the spot.
5. Speaking of public transport - it's a little rusty around edges, but it's so easy to get about town! Plus on Saturday night it runs until 3am!
6. Variety of food! So many options again! My breakfast consisted of a green juice and multigrain toast with cream cheese and avocado. So good. And I had Vietnamese for dinner. It was pretty good. There's also a ramen place in town I need to find! Oh, and McDonalds has a quinoa vegie burger...
7. Loud ambulances. I mean really GETOUTOFTHEWAYTHISISAFREAKINGEMERGENCY loud!
8. Literary events. I attended a few of the sessions for Graphic Novels - definitely want to check out more of Joann Sfar and Riad Sattouf's stuff, if I can find it in English. Then this evening, I attended a passionate and inspiring panel discussion on the state of feminism, with guests Mona Eltawahy, Laurie Penny and Josephine Deckard, who certainly didn't hold back, and with hundreds of people in the audience, the energy was electric - I walked out of the auditorium ready to do my part in destroying the patriarchy. And it was so refreshing to be at an event like this again - I feel like some parts of my brain have been left dormant since I left Australia, and it's moments like these that remind me of the things that I forget are still important.

Anyway, it's time to sleep, finally. More adventures await tomorrow...

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