Living in Berlin

Moved

2006-04-04T14:49:00.000+02:00

This blog has moved permanently to the following location:
http://www.uguz.net/index.php/category/berlin-blog/

Please do not leave comments here.

Thanks a bunch,

Caner

After Berlinale

2006-02-21T15:20:00.000+01:00

Last week was the film festival Berlinale. During this time a lot of films were shown around the Berlin cinemas. It is nice that big cities have such events. It gives you the opportunity to see films that you might otherwise not see. This means mostly low-budget films from foreign countries.

I was very excited about the Berlinale, but it became a bit annoying in the end. First of all getting tickets was too difficult. You had to line in for hours. To get a place you had to buy early, and when you bought early you couldn't get student discounts. Forget about group tickets anyway.

I like to watch blog busters these days because I have a prejudice about low budget films: they either suck or if they are good they make you deeply miserable. The worst is when they do both. A blockbuster on the other hand is based on a proven formula that aims to inject you with 2,5 hours of mindless fun, and sometimes they come with a good bonus, like an interesting plot or well played characters. You can only be posivively surprised in a blockbuster. Berlinale had a few of those, but most of the films seemed on the deppressive side. We did in the end see a Malaysian movie, which was like an amateur film student had taken it, and not a very experienced one. Poor intellectuals sitting there with us I guess had to dig deep into their analytical skills to find something meaningful and marvellous out of this one.

Anyway, when festivals come people seem to forget that there are good cinemas showing such films all year long. Anyway at least some people got to see George Clooney. Though you can also see Hollywood people in Berlin during premiers of films. If you want to make sure you don't miss the best of cinema while you live in Berlin get a house close to Potsdamer Platz. Yeah, that should do it.

New Year Buzz

2006-01-02T11:23:00.000+01:00

I haven't written much here so far because I'm working on another huge project and it's sucking up all my precious time.

I was away in the south of germany for the Chritsmas and I must say that it feels nice once in a while to be in a small town where you can walk from one end to the other in about half an hour. It was nice, quiet and snowy. We were thinking that Berlin would have no snow, but we couldn't have been more wrong.

The day I had to return it was snowing in Berlin and the pile was getting higher by the minute. After an 8 hour train ride I had to drag my suitcase through slushy snow at the S-bahn stop in Warschauer Strasse (which I think is the most hideous station anywhere).

The next morning I was severely sick and had cramps all over my left shoulder. I had a blanket over me at all times walking from bed to kitchen, bed to bathroom and back. Anyway it was a bit nasty, and it ruined all my plans of capturing the essence of New Year celebrations in Berlin. I had planned to get to the centre of city where the major action is and take a gillion photos. I don't know if you ever witnessed a new year celebration in Germany but it's like a psychotic warzone, with fireworks and other small explosions all around and people in an ecstatic state. It was for me the closest I could get to any conflict zone journalism but I had to lie in my bed the whole time. In new year though I risked opening my window to watch some firworks but unfortunately I had no good view and my cheap camera doesn't take good motion pictures.

Anyway the new year was a bit lousy for me, and I hope it doesn't continue like it started. best wishes to everone else though for a healthy new year.

Saturday Market

2005-12-10T14:35:00.000+01:00

Every saturday I try to go to the street market in our area to make a change from the low cost and low quality Lidl products that I usually buy. Today I got some Greek antipasti; cheese filled peppers and olives. The market is also a very good place to buy good cheese and fresh meat. There are also many bio-food sellers there, also known as hippies. This bio-product trend is a result of post-materialist societies who react to the supermarket culture. Supermarkets don't always sell fresh stuff, they use a lot of additives to prolong usability and pay the producers less. Bio is supposed to be healthier and more fair, but I'm not sure if it's anything more than a new market. Supermarkets also have their bio products these days anyway. Capitalism has a way of catching up with you.

Anyway, I can't afford to buy bio-products these days, since I'm close to broke, but it's nice to get some good food once in a while. It is also important to note here that developing countries think that Europe doesn't have lively markets, and one has to go to Marrakesh for instance to really get a flavour of the oriental/african market. This is however mostly based on a myth. It is true that German markets are more organized, cleaner and less quiet, but they certainly have a market culture; in which Turks are receiving a respectable place as good vegetable sellers.

The market I was at is near Grünbergerstrasse in lower Friedrichshein, which is mainly food but there is also some clothing and LP's etc. I heard of another market around Boxhagenerstrasse (also in the same area), but I was never there myself.

The Road to Amsterdam

2005-12-05T20:24:00.000+01:00

is long. It takes you 10 hours from Berlin to go there with bus. You get on the bus at 7:30. At summer time the sun is still up. You go to the ZOB on the western side of Berlin, you find your lane, and gather around the couple of backpackers sitting all around the post that tells you where the bus will be going to.

I'm listening to Coldplay now, I had it in my MP3 player on the long journey to Amsterdam, just four songs though. I listened to them for so long in that trip that it reminds me everytime the long night there and another long night back. There are mainly young people making that trip to Amsterdam, trying to avoid the high ticket prices of the comfortable ICE trains. But a 10 hour night bus is not a favorite of Europeans still, so the bus is often rather empty, even in early August.

I had my headphones in my ears, I listened to Coldplay, "lights will guide you home, and ignite your bones, and I will try to fix you." Hours at a time I lost my sense of place, where was I? Where was I going to? It could be anywhere in the world, especially around the countryside at night, small and lonely bus stops at 2:30 at night. I could be back in the bus to New York so long ago, or to Chicago, which also took 18hours one way.

I was going to Amsterdam for my visa application for Germany. Something that I was quite dependent on and very desperate about. Time was running out. I was in great uncertainty about what was going to happen in the next months. And I can't sleep in buses, no matter how comfortable I skew my body around the narrow seats. Then the drivers makes the compulsory stops and kick everyone out of the bus for half an hour. You freeze outside though it's only 5 degrees. Then you go into the restaurant at the stop, pay 50 cents to pee. Then there is also the border police. They stop the bus and check your passports. They take them away sometimes and sit in their large Mercedes and flip through them slowly. You wonder if you will ever make it back. There is a fraction of time there that everybody in the bus feels like a fugitive, like they have done something that they should feel guilty about but they are not quite sure what. Nobody even has any pot on them, though if you are black or look like a hippie you may still be asked to open all your bags, yes even the ones tucked away into the baggage compartment of the car.

But it's not so bad. You listen to coldplay at least and it gives you a good 20 hours every trip to think about your life and what you want to do with it. "I promise you I will learn from my mistakes" says your music and you nod along. Once in a while someone snores, some people talk lightly, and before you know it its morning. You see cows, and the same old green grass, with a glow of the orange morning sun. Sometimes rain drops slowly run down your window and it's all good. Now you think about how you'll camp at the Free University Amsterdam campus while you wait for the ride home. You will drink a 30 cent coffee from the machines at the university canteen. While the Dutch will buzz away in their bicycles around you you will look for a relatively safe grass to make up for the lost sleep before you take off again at 11:30 from Amsterdam to Berlin. The way back is always easier. Berlin is your home, for now. You don't know what will happen in the next months but you learn to live life 3 minutes at a time, from one coldplay song to the next. "And I will try... to fix you."

English language second hand bookshop

2005-11-27T16:52:00.000+01:00

There is a bookshop in Berlin that I go to often, which has English language used books at very good prices. In the summer especially when money was i very short supply I was able to find very good books for about 2-3 euros a piece. The guys there are also very helpful (and speak English of course). You can look around as much as you like or sample some reading in the bookshop as well. I'm sure that if you have been living in Berlin you probably know it by now but for others do check it out. This picture is from their card, which I also like. The picture on the front side is exactly what I feel like when I read my books and most of them are science fiction anyway. The address is around Frakfurter Alle, which continues from Karl-Marx Alle towards southeast. When you are at Samaritaner U-Bahn just walk northeast from there.

Treptow Park

2005-11-26T23:16:00.000+01:00

The winter is coming in slowly. The weathers have already reached below zero but the snow isn't falling with full magnitude yet. This morning the weather was very sunny with some snow on the streets but generally dry. I'm glad that such perfect weathers for walks seem to have been scheduled for weekends. It gives time to relax and talk things over, or think things over if you're lonely.

Treptow Park is in the southeast part of Berlin, not so far off the city. We live very close to the park but it's still quite far. We went in the morning, so not very many people were there but as we were concluding our walk you could see people just beginning theirs.

We usually walk on the side close to the lake, and when we are on the other side we mostly walk around the large memorial space from the communist times. That's another story which I may come to later. But today we walked around it on the far side, which I found is far prettier, with small bridges and water running through. These are three photos from that area. Now time to do some work.

Moving lights

2005-11-24T21:48:00.000+01:00

I tried to show this as a movie, it's recorded in .mov format but I didn't have good software. I will keep trying though. It's a clip from Potsdamer Platz where lights were reflected on one of the buildings. Refresh to play again.

U and S Bahn Stations Berlin #1: Hallesches Tor

2005-11-24T21:42:00.000+01:00

From now on I will post photos from the U and S Bahn stations in Berlin in a brand new series called... uh.. U and S Bahn Stations Around Berlin. This is Hallesches Tor, nothing fancy but I use it alot because of work, so there it is.

Another movie night

2005-11-24T21:28:00.000+01:00

A few days ago I was at Sony Center again for another movie (Tuesdays by the way is discount day for everyone). We saw Harry Potter and the Goblet of fire. The place was relatively full and the film was very long but I was quite satisfied with the entire experience.

The Cinestar at Sony Center is more like the North American giant cinema complexes, with huge posters and ice-cream stands everywhere. They also have the candy section where you fill a plastic cone with overpriced sweet, the gummi bear style. I had a small fill the other they but it already costed 3.20.

We wanted to have ice cream before the film and went across the street to the big shopping mall. On the first floor there is a very good ice-cream place. It's open until very late. Anyway we took out ice-cream with us all the way to the cinema again but the guys checking the tickets wouldn't let us in. It's not because you might make a mess because they sell ice-cream there too. It's just that we had bought it from somewhere else and you can't hide ice cream under your shirt. So anyway, that was a bit annoying. It was already quite late when we were done with the film.

The photo is taken right in front of the cinestar looking the other direction. There is a big construction of a stage on the left. The table belongs to one of the bars there, but the weather was crazy cold to sit anywhere outside. While I was waiting for friends to come I dropped in the Sony.Style shop and played a game and looked around at the cool Sony stuff. Not that I can afford it but it would be nice to have a kick-ass HD TV. Nothing like going to cinema though. @living in berlin

It's snowing outside

2005-11-18T14:20:00.000+01:00

It finally came. I was expecting it to snow for a few days now. Berlin just had a two week Fall this year. There was a long summer, which I liked very much. Until end of October the weather was sunny and quite warm. Then came the cold weathers and it looked like the trees shed off all their leaves at once. I don't know where all those leaves went though, there isn't many on the streets. Luckily we had already collected a few samples to decorate the occasional empty wall. I would take a picture but I don't have my camera with me. Working hard in the last days, had no time for the pictures.

There is a wonderful thing I saw a few days ago in the U-Bahn that I hadn't discovered before. There are these trains that are connecte throughout, no wagons, just these rubber connection bands like they have in long buses. The effect is quite maervellous. I was at the very end of the train and as it made its way across the U-bahn tracks, bending, turning up down and sideways I felt like I was riding in the stomach of a giant warm, like the ones in Dune. It was fantastic. I will try to capture it somehow for you. §living in Berlin

Flightplan

2005-11-14T15:43:00.000+01:00

Image from IMDB

Yesterday we went to see the Flightplan at Cinestar in Sony Center. Cinestar there has most films in original language and student ticket costs only 5.50 Euros. Compared to all other cinemas I think that is quite cheap. If you're not a student you can get discount on Tuesdays.

But anyway the film. Important to note is that it begins in Berlin, because the main character works there. The first shot is from Alexanderplatz underground station. They also show the station Platz der Luftbrücke, which is where I travel three days of the week for work. They also have some shots of the houses in Berlin with their typical inner courtsyards.

I think the film was very much worth the time and money. The story was very good but unfortunately it looked a bit too forced. If you are one of those types for whom everything has to be just plausable you might have trouble connecting the ends of the story at Flightplan. Judie Foster performs marvelously as always, (or maybe I like her so much that I can't differentiate anymore). She was here a couple of weeks ago for the premiere of the movie. Unfortunately I didn't find out about this early enough.

A plot twist (possible spoiler) that I really really loved was the heart drawn on the window glass by her daughter. When Judie Foster after trying really hard and upsetting many people almost herself doubts that her daughter exists she finds this heart shaped mark that she thought her daughter had made before. She makes a straight line with her own fingers and you see that hers is much thicker, so the heart much have been drawn by a small child. Very chilling. Anyway do see the film. It's not the best but it is very engaging and interesting. §living in Berlin

Fahrscheine bitte!

2005-11-11T10:02:00.000+01:00

In Turkey we always talk about the advanced societies of the West where trust is so high that nobody checks your ticket in public transportation because nobody would care enough or be poor enough to neglect buying a ticket. When I first came to Germany I thought so too. After all that was what I saw. But what the Germans do actually has little to do with trust and a lot with a mischevious control mechanism.

It might happen to you that when you're sitting on your comfy bus seat some very unlikely person holds out an ID card and goes "fahrscheine bitte", tickets please. These people periodically go around and check if you have bought your ticket, and if not you will pay a hefty fine. They are quite unforeseeable and that is their biggest weapon.

First of all you don't know if and when they will come. I sometimes spent months in Berlin without ever bumping into any control. Since I am regulrly commuting however it is becoming more and more common. Secondly it's not like they wear shiny black uniforms that will catch your attention. They come in any shape and size. They can be clean shaven manager types, or very housewife looking women. Once I had two young people dressed in a 'punk' fashion. A few days ago it was a hip hop looking Turkish dude with a large gold chain on his neck. Transportation companies really mess with the stereotypes you have built in your head. You expect it from just about anyone to approach and show you their ID card and demand a ticket.

It was a bit depressing to discover this. So no trust nor civilized values will make sure we buy our tickets, but only unsuspecting ticket controllers sneaking up in trains.
§living in berlin.

another photo from the park

2005-11-08T17:54:00.000+01:00

§living in berlin

Lunchbreak

2005-11-07T18:27:00.000+01:00

I work in Mitte, near the Gendarmenmarkt [Satellite image]. It's a beautiful place I think. Imagine three large neoclassical buildings placed on a large stone tiled square, surrounded by old and modern office space and rows of low trees and you will get the full scale of the area that the image above only poorly portrays.That picture though is not from today (By the way I take all the pictures for this Blog myself).

Today was not very sunny and my lunchbreak was a bit stressfull . I left a bit late and was very hungry but I first had to go to the bank, which very inconveniently is available only in a few places in the whole city. Then I went to Fridrichsstraße Bahnhof, to get a ticket for Christmas. I waited for a long time in the line, and when my turn came I found out that the ticket is quite beyond my buying capacity. Trains can be so expensive in Germany without a Bahncard (which is basically a 50% discount card you buy once for a year).

Frustrated and hungry I left the train station. The clouds were covering up the sky already. I had a bike but I had left it at the bank. I don't dare to ride a bike in the middle of the city, because I'm still a novice. The most arrogant bikers and car drivers usually travel in this area so it's not safe for me. Luckily a döner place is always close by in Germany and often the cheapest type of food [see Döner Kebab in Wikipedia]. So I got one. The Turkish guy who was selling it could not figure out if I was Turkish and was a bit uncomfortable at this uncertainty. I am never in a talkitive mood in these places so they can't tell if I'm Turkish (though I look quite like one). I took my warm döner and sat down on a windowsill of an unused shop. While I ate my food many people threw pitying and rather disagreeing glances at me. I must have looked like one of those homeless guys who eat at the side of the street and when they have a full portion of something instead of scraps and leftovers you wonder where they got that from. Maybe they were hungry too, I don't know. Big cities are great but they can also be rather lonely, especially if you're gnawing on your food while uncomfortably sitting in front of an unused shop and strangers pass you by all the time.
§living in berlin

A walk in the palace park

2005-11-07T18:11:00.000+01:00

Yesterday we went to Schloss Charlottenburg to have a walk. We still have very good weather in Berlin. Although I don't expect that from Germany anymore every passing day here I'm positively surprised.

Charlottenburg is a bit far away from where we live (Friedrichshain), so we had to drive there but it was well worth it [Satellite view]. The palace has a large park at the back side, which is open to public. It was quite crowded at places with joggers and tourists but there were many quiet corners as well. The gardens themselves aren't that splendid like the French versions or even Sansoucci in Potsdam, but the park in general is very pretty with many small canals and bridges.

If you urgently need to go to the bathroom there is one in the palace itself at the entrance. But it costs 30 cents. My girlfriend had to use it but we didn't have any money. She told me a good trick though. If they ask you just say that your mom/dad will pay for it when he/she gets out. Something else that could work is to play the tourist: acting like you have no idea what they are saying. Another thing you could do is quietly slip away. But if you ask me it helps to carry change with you and avoid a quarrel over 30 cents.

Parks are great places to chill out, especially in a large crowded city. That's something I find always lacking in Istanbul. Although it's got quite numerous parks, none of them are large enough to actually go for a two hour stroll. Living in Germany you may think that as far as the Turks are concerned parks are only for grilling. Unfortunately I have to agree. We must have a grilling gene or something. I have that urge to when I find myself next to burning coal bits and some piece of meat. It might be related to the fact that all fun activities have to involve eating somehow.
§living in berlin

Here comes the first post...

2005-11-04T17:58:00.000+01:00

... which few people will probably read. This picture on the right is from the famous Sony Center, my favourite location on Earth, among the places I've been to. Why is Sony Center so special? Because few people will put in so much money to make an area look so beautifully futuristic and functional at the same time.

It's not a bunch of buildings where some managers sit and drink their coffee, nor is it a space fenced off for the public full of cool places that you can't afford. In Sony Center there are offices, but also cinemas, a film museum, some ordinary bars and an open public space. In this public space there is also free wireless Internet connection. The Bahnhof complex that they are building (right under this grey box there) is also a wide closed area, which I think will look really cool once it's done.

An interesting historical note about Postdamer Platz (where Sony Centre is) is that at its heyday in 1920's it was one of the most crowded and well known districts in Europe, where cafe's, bars, cinemas, clubs and entertaintment facilities of all sorts were present, with bustling pedestrians and cars. During second world war it was almost entirely destroyed and when Berlin was divided into two it became a wasteland where the ugly Berlin wall span. With the fall of the wall this situation changed, but not until the completion of the Potsdamer Platz construction complex (including Sony centre and other buildings) did it look like anything great.

Anyway, visit it if you haven't yet done so. There is a shopping mall somewhere there with many expensive restaurants. For the poor folk like me you can find a bakery close to the U-bahn entrance and Dunkin Donuts, which also has an EasyInternet cafe. If you have wireless though don't forget it's free under the illuminated roof of the Sony Center.
§living in berlin