Happy New Year.

Fi & I had an awesome time in Berlin. What an amazing city, obviously it’s drenched in history, however the most eye catching details are on the trains, in the subways, on the street, in the parks and in empty lots. Graffiti and street art rules this town. It’s the most bombed city I’ve been too. I mean everything is totally trashed, but at the same time it makes the city so unique. It’s finally finding it’s voice and it’s letting the world know. So much creativity is now reaching the outside world, or maybe we’re just now able to peer inside.

Berlin looks rough. Litter lines the streets, everything is tagged or vandalised in some way, however there is no threat of violence and we never felt unsafe. We met a woman on the flight from Stockholm who said she feels safer walking through parks at night in Berlin than she does in Stockholm.

We couldn’t have picked a crazier time to be in Berlin. NYE went for 3 days. It started on NYE with people setting off fireworks and firecrackers non-stop until the wee hours of the 2nd of January. As you can see above, we joined the party. The youth are rebels at heart, and the older generation are grumpy which makes for an interesting mix as the youth are running the town, and the oldies are just putting up with all the chaos.

What’s interesting to note is that we didn’t see any authority for the entire stay. No police, no met-cops, nothing. In fact, you don’t even need to swipe a met card to get into the subway, you just walk in and walk out. Apparently met-cops bust people constantly, however we saw none of that, and the trains run all night. We made it across the city at 7am with no problems what so ever.

Anyway.

I made the awesome mistake of booking a hotel on the other side of the city from the airport, but it was the only place I could find on such short notice. Seriously, it was like landing at Tullamarine and getting public transport to Frankston, just check the amazing view from our hotel window.

We saw Checkpoint Charlie, saw the wall in various places across the city, and walked, walked, walked to a point where we were both dizzy from lack of energy. We refueled on beer and Japanese. By the way, watching Japanese speak fluent German is a trip, especially when trying to order since they don’t speak English and the menu’s are in German! Tasty, though.

We caught up with a friend of a friend, who also is a stockist for NiceProduce in Berlin. If you’re ever in the city, make sure you pop into Van Liebling and say what up to Chris, also check the NiceProduce in the front window (nice!). He was kind enough to invite us over to his friends house for a NYE party. We of course were the only Anzac’s and the best english speakers at the party, so you can imagine the types of broken conversations we had. Kangaroo’s and koala’s (not koala bears damn you!). I also learned the hard way of setting off bottle rockets. Use a bottle. The New Year came around and the custom is to kiss and hug everybody in the room, a strange thing for strangers!

After getting up, we dragged ourselves back onto the streets and headed over to Mitte, a very trendy, highly fashionable and beautiful part of town. We found a lovely pub which used to be a laundry, a coffin maker and a bakery. It’s now one hell of a good find for some hungover tourists. Bratwurst, parma, stout and house red. It was snowing outside, and we were toasty inside. Amazing. Fi even let me break my stout-drought, as apparently my stout-pout has dispersed since moving to Hugo land. Check the hair. It’s gotta go.

We got back to Stockholm to find it well into the minuses and snowing, a lovely omen for us as it snowed when Fi came and it was snowing when she left. It’s a lovely reminder from now.

My friend Gustav is a waiter at a popular restaurant called Grill just off Rådmansgatan. I had the first steak since living Australia and Fi had an amazing seafood skewer topped with all her favourites. We drank a bottle of Chile’s finest and several cocktails which later led to midnight snow angel making, good times!

Now for a little bit of geekism…

Click the image to view a little larger…

This is Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn in Berlin. I wanted to try out the merge photos as a panorama in Lightroom, and I must say it’s pretty damn good. I’ll be out trying some 16mm shots around Stockholm soon to try to flex it’s muscles a little harder.

So that was NY in Berlin in a nutshell. I could type all night but it’s always too much to take in at once. Perhaps I’ll dribble more over a cold beer back in Australia some time, until then I’m sure Fi will be updating her blog with her version of the trip soon.

Work starts tomorrow, will be good to get back into the swing of things. Speak soon.

I couldn’t help myself. I promised I would lay off the stout as to keep the pot belly down, but whaddyagonnadoboutit?

A healthy alternative. Get on it.

This weeks Drink of the week is something I’m very fond of. I’ve been investigating the Australian selection of stouts and was happy with what I was drinking, however it wasn’t until I took the plunge into Coopers Best Extra Stout that I realised that my journey was complete.

True to stout flavour with the aromas of spicy fruit and a slightly creamy, slightly bubbly texture, this little bugger weighs in at a lovely 6.3%, which means one long neck is almost 4 standard drinks. It’s seem me stuck to the couch many a night this past few months.

For the lads who like their beer with a kick… get on this baby.

The first drink of the week, without a doubt, goes to one of my favourite creature comforts: Boddingtons.

A fine thick ale from Manchester, UK, this is best drunk frosty cold though also enjoyed luke warm (like right now). A top drop, that’s creamy in texture, smooth to drink and has a sucker punch alcohol content that makes this cricket season a sight for sore eyes. Often over looked by fancier ales, I prefer Boddingtons to join me on some couch for some baggy greens action any day.

IGA has them on special. Get into it.