Is this the best chocolate eva?

I thought a foodie blog was due so here it goes. When we moved in, our landlady, Nina, kindly left us a list of the 'best of' in Berlin. One of the places she recommended was a place around the corner from us called In't Veld, which I have to say, is one of the best chocolate shops I have ever been in. Not only do they do their own brand of chocolate, but they also carry chocolate from around the world. And it's not super sweet, creamy chocolate either, but very intense, high in cocoa, full of flavour chocolate. The kind of chocolate I reckon the Aztecs ate. The real deal.

The one bar I bought, and yes, I can proudly say I only bought the one, was the above, Zotter's Mare's Milk with Oat, except it had a German wrapper so I didn't have a clue what it was. It was amazing - sweet with chewy oats and a deep intense cocoa flavour. It was only when I read the small English translation on the back that I realised it had mare's milk in it. Yes, mare's milk! When I talked to Eric about it, a conversation straight out of Meet the Parents ensued. Me - 'it can't really be horses milk can it? Eric - 'well, horses have nipples too'

Anyway, to make a long story short it was mare's milk, we checked with the store. Apparently mare's milk is sweeter. It's also a delicacy in Mongolia (!). Either way I have to say that it was delicious. I'm not too sure whether it is the best chocolate eva, but that's only because I haven't tried any other of the chocolate in the In't Velt shop. Yet.

The Eckhart Effect

Apologies everyone for not posting sooner. It's been quite the mixed bag over the last couple of weeks settling into our new life here in Berlin. On one hand it's been days filled taking in the city of Berlin - sitting in cafes eating kuchen (delicious, amazing, mouth-watering cake to you and me, I will be blogging on this I promise), checking out the different neighbourhoods and taking in all the usual tourist sights. And on the other hand we've also been trying to make ourselves more at home here, which entailed sorting out things like our broadband issues at home and our resident's permits, all with my very limited German (being both an aid and a hindrance).

Firstly, let me dispel the myth that all German's speak great English. This is what we thought coming over - a mix of English-speaker's arrogance and over-confidence in the German education system I think. What we have found is that maybe one in ten people we have met speak English, and most were under 40. And not having the language has made things a lot harder such as dealing with the Immigration office or the telephone company helpline. We are so looking forward to our German language class, which starts next week. I think it will really make a difference to our stay here. It will be great to be able to say more than usual please, thank you, can I have another piece of cake?

That's not to say that we haven't found the people here very friendly and helpful, which we have. But I must say we did a little victory dance when Eric finally got his resident's visa last week. Because I am an Irish citizen mine was no hassle, but Eric's took two day's of queuing, filling out forms and trying to talk in pigeon German with very stern Immigration officers. My sympathy goes out to all who through it every day around the world. There was one woman who just plain scared the living daylights out of me.

However, at the end of it all, when they found out he was married to an Irish citizen we got herded into this lovely bright room where a very nice woman promptly gave Eric a resident's visa more or less on the spot. And for five years, which apparently unheard of. We think the Eckhart name may have helped things along. Later we realised that Eric is now the first Eckhart from the family to have moved back to Germany since his family left in 1840s. The thought just kind of made us pause a moment.

Checkpoint Charlie

Before we moved here, when I thought of Berlin, it was how the city has become the arts and culture capitol of Europe, full of life and a cheap place to live. Wednesday's trip into the city centre reminded me of the other side of the city - its fascinating and harrowing history.


Kusi and I took our first journey on the city's public train, the U Bahn, to the city centre. It was there we saw what is left of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, which is now a tourist stop with an person dressed up as an East German soldier who will put an East German stamp in your passport for fun.
Standing where so many events happen which made up so much of the psyche of the Cold War experience was truly profound.

Even more so was walking down one block to the ruins of the Gestapo "Interrogation" (torture) headquarters. The exhibition there and the stories where too much to take in. I wasn't expecting the eerie and disturbing depth of feelings that the place held.

I plan to return to these spots and others such as the Reichstag, better prepared to experience them and ready to feel their stark memories. But also, as a plaque read at one of sites we visited, "these places are a challenge to us to constantly resist the solution of political problems by means of war".

Alles Güt!

Well everyone - we have arrived, safe and sound. I have to say that I am SO happy that the moving part of our trip is over. It was a lot harder and more traumatic than I thought it would be. And we would never have managed it were it not for the help of Eric's friend, Mark Joyce (a thousand thank yous to MJ - you will be treated like a king when you visit us).

And so now we are here in Berlin. We spent last night in a hotel but got the keys etc from the family we are renting from, Nina and Dirk. We were so wrecked from the move the day before (I had been holding off a migraine for two days) that we didn't get to spend that much time with them, which was a pity because they seemed very nice.

How strange it is to meet someone for the first time and then move into the their place the next day (which is what we did today)! They were hardly out of the place a couple of hours when we were straight in with all our gear!

Anyway, about our place. Senefelderstrasse is a lovely street, just off the main drag in Prenzlauer Berg. To me it has a very continental feel, tall buildings with courtyards. See the facade to our building above. Our apartment is on the first floor, just above a cafe and, get this, an olive oil shop (Eric is in his element).

Now our guidebook warned us about the graffiti in Berlin, but it is really everywhere. Above is the hallway to our place, which, to be honest, when I first walked in I was wondering if we were in the right place (Dee - Oliver Bond eat your heart out!).

The graffiti continues all the way up the stairwell. Strangely the "artists" use English a lot. One thing I would say is that their work lacks consistency - one says 'I love you' and another says 'I eat babies' (I mean, really).

However, the graffiti aside, I have to say that we are delighted with the apartment. The photos that Nina had sent us did not do the place justice. It is much bigger and nicer than we thought. A definite step up from De Vesci Court in Monkstown. Above is a photo of the room that Eric will be using to compose, chill out and generally be creative. It's huge, or as Seimi would say 'you-ige'!!!

This area has a million and one different restaurants (Thai, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese), all that look lovely and inviting, and all are incredibly reasonable (it is possible to for two people to eat a gourmet meal for under 10 euros here!). However, we decided to spend our first night in. As well as saving a couple of bob, there's nothing like cooking (see photo of Eric in the midst above), and eating your first meal to make a place feel like home. And though it is just our first night, both myself and Eric agree that this place already feels like us.

Birthday Boy

As you all know, it was Eric's 40th birthday recently, and his present was a book of photos and written pieces by his family and friends. I had originally envisioned it as a scrapbook-type project. However, when the reality of keeping it a secret from Eric sunk in, I had to change my plans to a more digital effort (I was able to work on my computer without Eric getting too suspicious).

Anyway, I ended up using Photobox, the same company who develop our digital photos, to put together the book. They have this really great software which allowed me drop in photos and pieces of text. And for those of you who haven't seen the book, just to let you know that it came out brilliant. I was very happy with it, and more importantly, Eric loved it.

So I just wanted to send out a big thank you to you all for your help and contributions. I really wouldn't have been able to do it without you. Though we couldn't put in all the written pieces, please know that they were printed off and Eric got to read them all. And the same with the photos - we easily got over 100 photos (all great!), which Eric was delighted to get and are going into a special Eric album. Posted are some of the pics.

Eric hanging with Ceci and Muttsie

Eric with his band (Brian on drums!)

Eric and Joe - tough revolutionaries

A full blog on the party and all birthday proceedings is to follow from the birthday boy himself.

On the Move

Eric posing patiently with two heavy boxes while his wife grapples with the camera

We are finally on the move! We spent today, with the help of Eric's friend, the lovely Mark Joyce, moving most of our belongings into storage (Mark Joyce's bedroom till he gets his attic sorted). Though it's another week before we go to Berlin, I really felt like today was the first step on our year long adventure.

I don't know what it is about moving one's belongings from one place to another, but it always feels significant to me. There's something about packing away everything you own into boxes, throwing away the junk that has accumulated and trying to distill your life into two suitcases that is both liberating and stressful. I think it is a mixture of letting go of the old and embracing the new, which, as my old buddies in San Francisco used to say, is 'all good' really.

I'm not that sad to be leaving our apartment though. For one thing this place is cooooooold (not enough o's in cold to borrow a phrase from Ben9). Our last two electricity bills were astronomical as we had the heating on a bit more than usual and the worst thing was that it didn't even get that warm!

But there are things that were great about the place too. Firstly, we had the world's best landlord - Cyril. He was just a very nice man with a wicked sense of humour, who always tried to make our place as comfortable for us as possible. Secondly, we really liked our neighbours and loved stopping to chat with them when we met them in the hall. And lastly, our apartment was in a great location. I will definitely miss the walks by the sea.

However, as we get closer to going away (next Tuesday!) I am realising how ready I am for this adventure. Maybe it is the Spring weather getting into my veins but I am really looking forward to a bit of a change. So though the moving bit is stressful, I know the arriving bit will make it all worthwhile. Berlin - here we come!

Our Place in Berlin

I thought you all might like to see some photos of our place in Berlin, where we will be spending five months from April. It is in the Prenzlauer Berg area of the city, which is in East Berlin. The apartment is in an altbau, which is an older style building. Our landlords are Nina and Dirk, who are heading off on an adventure themselves, which is why their place is free. They have shipped their campervan to Panama and are travelling from there up to Canada with their 5 yr old son Rocco and their 2 yr daughter Nona. We feel lucky to have found the place as we were really looking for a home away from home and feel like we have found it. I'll let you decide for yourselves.

Sitting room

Kitchen and bathroom

Bedroom No. 1

Bedroom No. 2

The apartment also has a small garden, where Nina tells me is nice to sit with a glass of wine when the sun is going down. Bliss!