The weeks seem to fly by and it’s already time for another post for the blog event Weekly Small Pleasures, where you describe some of the moments you enjoyed during the week. It’s probably going to make a nice life-in-Berlin photo diary for us to look back on one day! Continue reading
Show your World – Table Mountain
Tiny expats is hosting a blog event called “Show your world“, where you can describe some of the beautiful places you have seen. If you ask almost any Capetonian to name a beautiful place, the first thing that is likely to come to their mind is Table Mountain, the mountain around which Cape Town is built. So I thought I’d kick off my first Show your World post by describing why I love this mountain, and find it one of the most beautiful places in the world.
Middle Europe Weekly Small Pleasures #2 – weekend in Czech
Last week was a pretty ordinary working week, with the highlight of the week definitely being the weekend trip to Czech to visit J’s family. Summer is slowly arriving, and the return of this season, including some lovely warm weather, was the greatest source of pleasure this week. Here are some of the moments that stood out this week: Continue reading
Grandpa’s rock buns
These rocks buns were on my grandfather’s wishlist for every birthday, Christmas and Father’s day, so my mother would always make him a big tin and some for us at the same time. She would make some slightly burnt ones especially for me, because I liked them that way. I guess the reason my grandfather liked rock buns so much is that they are good with a cup of tea. I think they make a nice breakfast when you’re in a hurry! Continue reading
15 things I love about Berlin
Previously I mentioned some of my pet peeves in Berlin, so now it is time to list some of the things I love about Berlin – a much longer list!
1) The lakes.
I did not know before I moved here that Berlin contains, and is surrounded by, so many lakes. One of summer’s greatest pleasures is going for a refreshing swim in a lake on a hot, humid day. Apart from swimming you can also go stand-up paddling, kayaking pedal-boating or sailing in some of the lakes.
Weekly Small Pleasures #1 – park life
Mani, author of the blog “A New Life Wandering” had a great idea for a blog event – to write a post every week sharing some of the week’s enjoyable moments, the things that made you happy. There are usually those good little moments in every week that make you smile, so what a great idea to catalogue them. Here are mine for this week:
1) The beautiful fragrance of flowers from the tree Robinia pseudoacacia, which had fallen to the ground in a park Continue reading
Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures), Berlin
There are many festivals to look forward to in spring/summer in Berlin. One of my favourites is the Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures), held in May over the Pentecost / Whitsun weekend. There is a street festival in the area between Hallesches Tor and Mehringdam U bahn stations (Blücherplatz) where you can taste food and drinks from around the world, watch performers on the various stages and browse the clothing and craft items for sale. The last few years I’ve visited this on Friday evening and tried things like kriek (cherry beer from Belgium), mango beer from Ghana, baumkuchen, garlic bread, Jamaican chicken, and other treats. This festival is also famous for its very strong caipirinhas and mohitos!
On Sunday there is then a large parade starting at Hermannplatz and continuing for many hours. We heard that this year there were 110 floats, and we lasted for about 60 of them as it was a scorchingly hot day. The best floats seemed to arrive earlier anyway, with countries from all over the world showing their beautiful traditional costumes. As the procession went on it was more the party floats that were coming through, with many people following them, dancing with drinks in hand. It’s amazing how many different countries are represented, and it’s a reminder of how cosmopolitan Berlin is.
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Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände
There are many parks in Berlin, each of them with a slightly different character. Today we visited Natur-Park Schöneberger Südgelände, right next to Priesterweg bahnhof. Entry costs only 1 euro. This park is an example of how quickly nature takes over once a man-made place is abandoned. The area the park is in used to be a railway yard, and when you walk through the natural forest you can see the remains of train repair areas, buildings and railway tracks. It’s a fun place to walk around. Here are some photos!
Minsk
Minsk
Last weekend we went to visit a friend in Minsk, Belarus. Most people we have mentioned this to asked about the visa process, expecting that it would be difficult – actually, it only takes 5 days to issue the visa, at least for the embassy in Berlin, and they were kind enough to do it more quickly for us when we submitted our application a bit too late as we weren’t aware that the embassy is not open on Wednesdays. Continue reading
Vilnius, Lithuania
Market in Vilnius
This weekend we went to visit a friend and her family in Minsk, Belarus, and as we had left booking a bit late and prices were pretty high on the airline Belavia which flies directly from Berlin, we booked tickets with Lufthansa which flew via Frankfurt and Vilnius, then took a train from Vilnius to Minsk. The flight arrived late at night to Vilnius, but it was cheap and easy to book a taxi to take us from the airport to our B&B. The B&B was run by a lovely Lithuanian woman who stocks her kitchen with cookies and tea, so even though we arrived really late, we could at least have a little something to eat and drink before going to bed. Continue reading