Berlin with the Floh-fish

Berlin, Germany.
Mary Mary Mary... she'd informed our poor host that we'd actually be arriving the week after we did! So in fact, he was only with us the first day, as he then headed to Strasbourg (hitch-hiking) and to Sicily by plane for a few days.

Still, this guy was amazing. An extremely experienced Couch Surfer, who has hosted hundreds of people from all over the world, Floh is one of the most down to earth and generous people I've met, though I only "knew" him that one day. Just the fact that he opens his apartment (which he shares with an Estonian guy) to so many people passing by in Berlin, even though he is unemployed, says something about his mentality.



He has a "time machine".
This is a shower.
Except... it's in his kitchen.
Amazing.
He has no bathroom, except for a toilet down a long corridor.
One of those old houses where you turn the hot water switch on 20 minutes before showering... in the kitchen!

So the day we got there, Floh took us around Berlin for many hours, ensuring our first meal would be the famous Currywurst, and Berlin's best Kebap. Food is extremely cheap in Berlin, as are most things actually.
Anyway, Floh accompanied us through some less touristy sides of his city and amazed us with never ending knowledge about the history and future plans of the city, he showed us some "empty" grounds and told us what buildings were destroyed during WWII, why they haven't yet been re-built, and whether there were any plans to re-build something on the sites. All this in a day when he wasn't really expecting us, and had to submit two job applications, AND pack to go travelling early the next day.





..... snow?!



In the evening we went for drinks at a Couch Surfing catch-up, and met some really interesting characters, namely a nice Oxford graduate in literature, turned poet, teaching English in Berlin... a Colombian/Ecuadorian tattoo artist... an American girl travelling around Europe by herself for three months... a gay German fascinated by the Italian film industry of the 70s, and a few other Berliners.

We also travelled a bit out out of the city and visited Großer Wannsee, a river/lake.



We caught up with a friend of MJ's, who showed us a busy neighbourhood with cool bars.
We went to an intense Turkish market! It was easy to forget which country we were in with all the interesting breads, dips, olives, types of feta cheeses, fabrics etc... so we didn't resist buying some curious products for lunch on the river.
We found Berlin's hottest Latin American / hip hop club, and found some interesting differences between the Germans' and Italians' approach.
MJ and I had a romantic dinner at a typical German restaurant, with truly lovely food.
We got absolutely astounded to find that all buses arrived perfectly on time, on the dot, in what seemed to be a nearly faultless public transport system.


My highlight was by FAR visiting the historical five-storey Kunsthaus Tacheles. Tacheles, from Yiddish, = "straight talking", and there seem to really be no limits to the art exhibited in the many rooms inside. In the 1990s it was occupied by activist artists who opposed its demolition... thank God they succeeded.
Anyway the history is quite fascinating, if you have 2 free minutes read up on it here: http://super.tacheles.de/cms/
I don't think I've ever felt so powerless, almost scared, walking through a building. Not that there was anything dangerous about the place, but the dim lighting and unfiltered art had a very particular effect on me.
Unfortunately some heartless bank has too generously paid off someone for the building (who never officially owned the building but simply gained control of it over the years), and it seems it'll get demolished.

I took a lot of pictures: