Sounds of the city

Well, I am now back from my retreat in the German countryside where I spent ten days cycling, walking, sitting looking out the window, writing and sleeping. That sounds like I was quite active but to tell the truth a lot of that time was spent indoors. It was a bit intense at times being on my own for that long and having all that time to think. It really was quite the psychological detox. How and ever, I came back to Berlin feeling really good and with a renewed appreciation for life in the city, though a big part of my heart still loves the countryside.

While I was in Stolzenhagen I got a real kick out of taking in all the sounds around me, just things that I would never hear in the city. Most of it was animal sounds, otherwise the place was pretty quiet. There was some funny ones like the donkeys who belonged to the woman downstairs, who sounded uncannily like a group of heavy smokers having a good laugh. We also passed a sheep that Eric said sounded like Kathleen burping. Must have been something in the grass.

Anyway, having returned to Berlin I have taken my ultra sensitive hearing with me. There is, of course, the ever-present noise of traffic. It's like a distant hum that quietens down at night. But there are lots of other sounds which I am finding quite endearing such as the opera singer across the road who sings in the late afternoon and the little girl in the next apartment block who practices her violin. There is also a constant stream of people going to and from the park beside of us, parents and kids mostly, sometimes happy, sometimes not. And there are also a lot of birds around here, probably because of all the trees, some who mimic car-alarms and some who just plain tweet. I think I am enjoying all these sounds because it is just a reminder of all the bustling life around me, which is really summertime in Berlin.

Taking a Break

Tomorrow we are off to the apartment of a friend of mine, Liz, out in east Brandenburg, out by the German-Polish border and I have to say that I can't wait. After nearly a year and a half in the city, and after months and months of saying 'let's go to the countryside' we are finally getting to ditch the bright lights of Berlin for greener and more importantly, quieter surroundings.

Liz's apartment is in the sleepy 'dorf' or village of Stolzenhagen. There are about 200 people as far as I know and a large part of that is a co-operative made up mainly of artists. My friend Liz is American and also happens to be a wonderful artist and performer. In fact she originally visited Stolzenhagen when she took part in a dance festival there a few years ago.

Now herself and her husband have an apartment in the village in the old schoolhouse (pic above), which they kindly offered to us while she is in Berlin having her baby (she is at this moment one week overdue).

Anyway, we are so looking forward to taking our break from city life, I think me in particular. Having grown up in the countryside I go through stages when, if I am away from it for too long, I get cravings for forest and fields and peace and quiet. Eric is actually coming back to Berlin for a week to record his album while I stay on in Stolzenhagen. I plan not to do too much, maybe just some reading, writing and mainly staring out the window at the wonderful green view and breathing in the fresh countryside air.

A Little Bit of the Middle-East in Berlin

Aha, another food post at last! As you all know, it's never far from our minds. Anyway, one of the foods that we have taken a fancy to here in Berlin is Middle-Eastern food. Germany has a big Turkish population and luckily for us they have brought their cuisine with them. The most popular dish in Berlin by far is the doner kebab. Now available around the world, this dish varies from country to country. In Germany, this is a minced meat compressed and cooked on an enormous skewer-like thing-a-majig, then sliced and put in a thick flatbread with salad and covered with a yogurt and also a spicy sauce. The Germans love it so much apparently they eat 2-3 metric tonnes of it a day which adds up to about €1.5 billion a year. That's a lot of doner. Eric loves it and often gets doner-cravings.

Me, I have to say I prefer the other vegetarian Middle-Eastern "sandwiches", those stuffed with grilled halloumi (a type of cheese, which Eric doesn't like 'cause he says it's too squeaky!) or falafel. It was while eating Falafel in pita-bread that I though to myself 'I could make this!' So we tried it out at home. First I scoured the internet and found recipes for both the falafel and the pita bread. The falafel were made by grinding together chickpeas, onions, garlic, and a load of herbs and spices. I made them into small bite-size patties (see top pic), and then fried them.

I then made up the pita-bread dough, which Eric kneaded and divided up. They were then rolled out and let rise and then popped in the oven.

They puffed up so nicely in the oven. It was so exciting to see!

Then when it was done and out of the oven we stuffed the pitas with the falafels, lettuce, tomato and hummus. Oh boy oh boy, the joy of eating something that you make yourself. Eric thinks he looks mental in this photo but I think he just looks like he is really enjoying our homemade falafel in pita-bread. (Okay, maybe just the teeny-tiniest bit mental - it's all in the eyes!)

PS I'm not posting the recipes as they are both really long (but not complicated) but if you want them just let me now and I'll email them to you.

Checking out Kobe

Oh my God! Are we going to be reading about Kusi and Eric's trip to Japan forever I hear you asking yourselves. And the answer is yes, yes, you probably are! This is going to be like one of those very long holiday slideshows, which people inflict on their friends and family, except mine is blog-stylee. This is because I keep looking at our Japan photos and thinking 'I must do a blog on that, and that, and that'. The options for blogs on Japan are many. In fact so much so that it's hard to decide which part of the trip to pick, so I end up doing nothing. Boo.

Anyway, here is an installment about our stay in Kobe. On one of the days we just decided to get in as many sights as possible. We started with the earthquake museum (pic above). Japan lies just where a number of continental plates meet and therefore is an earthquake territory. It has a couple of minor quakes every day. Most don't register that high on the Richter scale but in 1995 Kobe suffered a massive one in which 5,000 people died.

The museum was fascinating with an introductory virtual earthquake which is very convincing and pretty scary. It wasn't the may west (for my American relatives that is Irish rhyming slang for best) for a migraine sufferer so I cheated and kept my eyes closed for most of it, and was still impressed! They also had a number of English-speaking volunteers that talked to us about earthquake prevention. All in all, definitely worth the visit.

Right beside this was a sake brewery with a museum showing the intricate sake-making process. Seriously, when it comes to sake brewing the Japanese don't mess around. The sake is distilled from rice and can be drank either hot or cold and is pretty potent. It became Eric's official drink of our trip. The brewery gave us free samples (one of Eric's favourite things) and I have to say it was quite delicious.

They also dressed Eric up and let me take a photo of him in full sake-drinking get-up. Doesn't Eric look super happy with that big bottle. Pity it was just for the photo - they took it back after.

After the sake brewery we felt like a trip up into the hills behind Kobe via cable-car to check out the views over the city.

On our way back we walked around the area in Kobe where a number of foreign residents settled at the end of the 19th century. I can't remember what the area was called but knowing Japan it was probably called 'Foreign Town', or something like that. The houses of the residents have been renovated and are open to the public. We particularly liked this one (this is for you Ben!). The travel site describes this as "former house of Ben, an English hunter, and where fierce and rare animals he hunted (e.g. a huge polar bear and a moose) are displayed". It made me wonder what would be written about our place if was on a tourist trail. I don't think we are going to be a major attraction any time soon!

Anyway, speaking of hunting, we ended our day eating at a 'kaiten' sushi place, which is a restaurant in which the sushi sits on a revolving belt and you just pick which plate looks the tastiest. This kind of dining brings out the hunter in me because you spot something and you have to grab it before it goes past you and some other customer gets it instead. It's very easy to overeat at a place like this, though we managed to be relatively restrained. Surprising eh?

We both enjoyed our stay in Kobe and found it particularly good as a base to visit my family. It also had the best food that we saw on our trip. However, next time (!) we reckon we would spend just a day or two instead of six or seven. The reason was that as with most Japanese cities Kobe is super westernised so by the end of our time there we were ready to see a more traditional Japan, which luckily we did.

Before I sign off, the never-ending blogs on Japan was a joke by the way. Breathe sigh of relief! However there will probably be a couple more, interpersed with some foodie blogs and tales from Berlin.