Berlin: Week 1 - 2

Finally back to blogging. I am currently living at Legiendamm in Berlin, Germany - the apartment is overlooking where the Berlin wall once stood. Berlin is filled with so many types of people and nationalities and personalities - old women with bright blue hair, little girls with big nose piercings, teenage boys with multiple holes throughout their face - pretty much there is just a huge eclectic scene of people. Punks, anarchists, musicians. In the U-bon, you will see people from all walks of life - lawyers sitting next to the homeless sitting next to a man playing the banjo sitting next to regular people. There are so many musicians - it is wonderful. Almost every times I am on the U-bon, a musician gets on my section/wagon to play for a few Euro. I love the diversity of music and people. I went to an underground rap battle place - it is called the cypher where people pass around the mic and rap to each other and people around. Once a night, they play battle games. It was really neat. I did not understand every rapper since they rapped in German - but they rap so fast that M does not even understand what they say. I also went to two concerts at Quasimodo (where M works) - I saw SouLive and 55.

This past weekend I went to 2 Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas markets) - heaven for me! Hundreds of different stands selling little trinkets, food, games, and anything related to Christmas. I love trinkets so these markets are the place for me. We went to to Gendarmenmarkt - which is located in a famous square in Germany. Gendarmenmarkt is the nicest Weihnachtsmarkt - and it costs a Euro to enter which is very uncommon for the Christmas markets. There was a stand inside that let you literally try every thing they had (balsamic vinegars, mustards, salsas, and alcoholic drinks) for free. I tried every flavor of balsamic vinegar and mustard, and tried a couple salsas. I was nervous to drink too much of the alcoholic beverages due to my tendency to break out in hives from alcohol. We bought Gluehwein which is a hot red wine - known in Germany during Christmastime - it frequently contains alcohol of choice (amaretto, rum, gin). Yum yum.