The Search

The Search began early last week. I realised very quickly that I should have started looking sooner. All the usual suspects were out. By Friday, things were not looking good. I put all my detective skills to use and found a man who knew a man who knew another man who could help us. Emails were exchanged. I told him I wanted two. We were lucky, he said, he was down his last few. He'd might even do a special deal for us. Did I know the Burger King by Landsberger Allee S-Bahn station? He'd be at 7pm wearing a red baseball cap. Bring your phone, he said, just in case. I had Eric come with me 'cause a fine strapping sidekick never goes amiss. So there we were on a cold foggy night, outside Burger King, rustling through plastic bags, and exchanging cash for contraband. Or that's how it felt. But as in all good stories (or at least the ones I like) it all worked out in the end. The guy got his money, and nice fella he was too, and two Obama fans were happy in the knowledge that they would be appropriately clad for Election Day.

So whatcha think? Nice eh? It says exactly what we wanted it to say and it also was the same t-shirt that Democratics Abroad made up for Obama's visit to Berlin this year. As Eric Eckhart likes to say 'how apropos'!

Current Obsessions

I just had a note from our friend Bridget about her addiction to Facebook and it got me thinking about my current obsessions, of which there are many. So here are just some of them, in no particular order:

1. Thirtysomething
Since I discovered that I could watch all the old episodes of Thirtysomething on Youtube I have been hooked. I was about eight when it first came out so all the issues in it about relationships and work and being a thirtysomething went completely over my head. However now that I am a thirty-(three) something, the lives and problems of these characters totally speak to me. When Eric can hear me laughing, crying, or giving out (to one of the characters) in the other room, he knows I'm having a Thirtysomething moment.

2. Baking
I am completely and utterly obsessed by baking at the moment. Cakes, breads, cookies, biscuits, you name it, I want to bake it. It's like this urge that totally overcomes me and won't go until there's something in the oven and the kitchen is covered in flour. The funny, or maybe not so funny, thing is that the more obsessed I get with the baking, the worse the cakes, breads or cookies get! Baking disasters in the last couple of weeks include a flaxseed bread that I could have used as a doorstop it was so hard, sourdough bowls that looked like saucers and zucchini (yes, zucchini) brownies that Eric described as 'rubbery, but in a nice way'! It seems my obsession is inversely proportional to the success of the end product, and I now officially have the baking blues. I've decided that it might be like a relationship. It's like I'm coming on too strong and the baking is being scared off by my desperation. So I am now acting breezy and hard to get. Hopefully this will work. For all our sakes.

3. Cycling
When I was a kid I used to love cycling and in fact used to cycle for miles and miles when we lived in the countryside. Then I got older and kind of grew out of it. However since we got our bikes here in Berlin I've totally reconnected to this way of travelling. I absolutely love it. There are the usual reasons to like it - it saves us money, it's good for the environment and it's healthy. But what I love is that it has totally opened up the city to us. We are lucky that Berlin is very cyclist-friendly with bicycle lanes mostly everywhere so there isn't any part of the city we can't cycle to. And I suppose when I'm freewheeling down a hill with the wind in my hair I probably do feel like I'm a kid again. It's just fun, plain and simple. If you haven't been on a bike for a while, try it!

So that's it with my current obsessions. Feel free to share yours in the comments section!

Joe's visit: Dresden

While Joe was here we decided, on the spur of the moment, to go with him for a few days to visit Dresden. And I am so glad we did. I don't know what I was expecting but I was pleasantly surprised by the city. There is a Altstadt (old town) with many beautiful buildings (photo above of Joe and Eric at the Frauenkirche), most of which are reconstructions of the originals that were bombed during the war. In its day it was the "Florence of the Elbe" and despite its sad history, it now has, I think, the feel of a thriving, up-and-coming city.

On the day we arrived we were lucky enough to get tickets for the opera that night, Rigoletto, which Joe kindly gave to me as my birthday present. Dresden's Semper Oper has to be on of the most magnificent buildings I've ever been in. We were up in the nosebleeds but were able to sit on the steps which was fine. The opera itself was fantastic - the stage design and the costumes were just wonderful. It was also a very creative production - there was one woman topless at one stage (we were up so high that I wasn't too sure if I was seeing right but Eric and Joe were happy to confirm, during the break, that it wasn't just a mammary illusion) and they all danced wildly with much headbanging to a crescendo in a particular aria, but somehow they pulled it off.

Dresden also has some cool bars and restaurants. Above is a photo of Joe enjoying a schwarzbier in this quirky vegetarian restaurant that, from the inside, reminded me of a hobbit house. It also served lots of meat dishes for some strange reason. Maybe vegetarian means something else in German, I don't know. It could also be an Eric or Ben version of vegetarian.

We also found a great bar in the Neustadt area of Dresden which was where we were staying. To Joe's delight they brewed their own beer as well as serving up good German food. It had a nice mixture of tourists, trendies and oul' wans as they say in Ireland. They also had a pool table which kept me occupied for most of the night. How I love pool!

As we were only there for two days we couldn't get to see everything, but a must-see, just for the building alone was the Gemäldegalerie beside the Semper Oper.

This photo was taken in the grounds of the gallery. I think you can tell from the look on Joe's face how lovely the buildings are. I also just think it's a nice photo of Joe. So, it may have taken Joe's visit here to give us the push that we needed to go venture outside of Berlin but we are definitely going to make sure that our trip to Dresden wasn't our last. Who knew that Germany had so much to offer! (Probably lots of people of course, but it is certainly a pleasant surprise for us). Next Eckharts up - Mary and Brian!

Joe's visit: Berlin

One of the perks of having visitors is that it gives us license to be tourists again. And that's what we've been doing for the last few weeks, while Eric's brother Joe was over. And no, it wasn't all about beer, though Joe did get to sample some of Germany's finest. We actually did see a lot and even have the photos to prove it. In fact it was a great excuse for us to visit all the places we have been putting off seeing. I guess once you live somewhere long enough you just start taking it for granted.
One of the things that I was glad to finally visit was the impressive Jewish museum. They had a number of interactive rooms which gave a sense of horror of the Hollocaust. Above is what they named the 'Hollocaust Tower', which was probably the scariest place I've ever been in, a cold dark room lit by only one window with the sounds of the street outside echoing inside. Very creepy.

This was another exhibit that consisted of thousands of metal faces that when you walked on made an awful scraping, clattering noise. I actually couldn't bring myself to walk over the eerie screaming heads. The boys though were made of stronger stuff.

We went to one of the three main opera houses in Berlin - Deutsche Oper - to see Puccini's Turandot, which we all enjoyed. I particularly liked Nessun Dorma (the only song I knew from it) though you can see why Pavorotti was paid the big bucks, particularly like he sang it at the World Cup 1990. Don't you think that Joe looks like he could be the conductor for a promo picture in this shot?

Of course we brought him around to see the usual tourist spots like Checkpoint Charlie...

and the Sony Centre building in Potzdamer Platz...

...as well as the DDR monuments in our area.

He saw a rake of museums including the usual suspects on Museum Island. I think he was averaging three museums a day at one point!

When the sun came out though we made sure to make the most of the rays by heading to Tiergarten.

Where Joe got to see the spot where Obama stole the hearts of the Berliners. Go Barack!

And when the going got tough, which it sometimes did (being a tourist is hard work!) we rested up and Joe, ever diligent, made sure to sample the house brew. All in the name of science and furthering his knowledge of beer of course. A dedicated brewmeister if I ever saw one.

When he left though there was still of huge list of things that Joe just didn't get to do. We hope though it will act as an incentive for him to visit again if we stay on. Always good to have a carrot on a stick.

Next post, pics of our trip to Dresden.