Sunday in the Dam

Riding through the Dam I tremble with anticipation at what this City will offer me over my 4 night stay.  My train is making peculiar racing car noises, the tram driver initially forgot to take my fare money,we pass a group of shady looking young blokes and as we pass H&M even the clothing models look as if they've been on the Koosh.  Is it in light of knowing cannabis is freely sold and freely smoked that I'm seeing the red ring in the eyes of everybody I walk past?  Or is smoking cannabis the most common passtime next to cycling through the streets?

Once I arrived at my accommodation I couldn't escape fast enough.  Destination "The Flying Pig", in my opinion the owner had only one real motive for not installing any ventilation in the pokey underground common room-slash-smoking room...Hotttttttttt Boxxxxxxxxxx!  I explored the neighbouring park Vondelpark as I waited to check into my room.  The edges of the park were littered with dodgy individuals (my judgement based on the content of their conversations with themselves).  I questioned the safety of my exploration mission as I drifted through the hazy smoke and stepped over and around the hundreds of comatose bodies sprawled on the green.  Joking!! Gross exaggeration there were pockets of dog walkers, cyclists, families holding hands, a dash of peculiar scents with a sprinkling of limp bodies on the green. 

Morning 1 in Amsterdam
To be continued........

Norske språket er skrullete (2 words..google translate)

Let me bring to your attention that all single women and men should make the journey to Oslo, Norway at some stage in life.  These Norwegian individual's were genetically blessed and deserve a mention.  Nowhere have I come across such a concentration of good looks, for sure Paris had the occasional head turner but Oslo is teaming!!! Not only are they sensational looking with their deep tans, light hair and limbs to turn you green with envy but they are very friendly and likely to be earning some mad cheddar (money?).  I'm basing this on the ludicrous prices of food and drink (Daniel's single 330ml can of cider was equivalent to $13.50NZD) and I'm presuming the wage is relative?  So singles if you're still seeking take the plunge!

I would like to enlighten you all on the coping mechanism involved with being booted in the nose by your opponent in a football match.  A step by step process follows:

Back on the blog..

I am officially back up and running after nearly a complete blog-free month.  I was probably too busy enjoying all the public football viewings..beer..and lying in the sunshine.  Not to rub it in friends, family and followers but we have full-blown Summer happening over here in Berlin,  my main train of thought upon waking is 'where shall I lie in the sunshine today?'   There will now be a steady influx of posts relaying my events over the month of June and I'm looking forward to it! 

xxx

Mr Peeper

Today's entry is unbelievably horrifying.  It's often the most shocking moments of your life that make for exceptional stories and provide the most amusement!

Boobs and Bikes

My new bike is a sweet ride, I feel like it may be the becoming of me.  Today we went on an adventure to Tiergarten in 30 degree sunny skies.  I wrote down what appeared to be fool-proof directions to Tiergarten (thanks to the help of BBBike Berlin).  At direction 8 of 12 I got madly lost, ending up on the other side of the River and having no clue where in Berlin I was.  I had to bike back for a good 20 minutes trying to find a road among the shlerers and shleises that sounded familiar.  A bridge, a beach bar, a near death collision with a small child and I arrive in Tiergarten well overtime.  I'm going to get a little picture just to show to you the extent of this park, 20km of bikers heaven.

We like big bears and we cannot lie..those other bears can't deny

Berlin has decided it's Summer and the City is buzzing!

With Sunny skies comes mischief..grilling, sunbathing and visiting bears.  Live, roaring, people-eating bears tucked away in a small enclosure in the middle of Kollnischer Park next to Dan's work.  In my ignorance I'm going to call that quirky, as I have no clue to the significance of having 2 brown bears in the middle of a City.  They seem happy enough with their own private keeper, a pool to cool down in and plenty of visitors.  Given Berlin loves it's history there's gotta be a great story behind them, for now they are Berlin's living mascots Schnute and Maxi.
 

Pause at 37 seconds!

For those who wanted to check the Subject60 party, follow the attached link to Face Hunter's blog and watch the movie from the night.  Better yet, pause at 37 seconds and you'll see me in all my glory milling around the cocktail bar. SNAPPED!!!  The guy featured was perhaps my own personal bartender for the night..sad but true.  Anyway I have a little crush on Face Hunter and love his work, hopefully this clip sells him to you and gets you all on board.  Take note of Lykke Li's performance...*sigh*...amazing!
Bye for  now X
http://facehunter.blogspot.com/

Home Sweet Home..

Wedding has been a welcoming neighbourhood so far, kebabs a plenty and fruit shops galore.  Everything is at our doorstep which makes life easy and lets me give Wedding 2 thumbs up!  I went to IKEA spending 4 hours on Saturday and have now furnished our room.  Daniel really enjoyed the 4 posted oh-so-girly iron bed-frame, that's what you get when you leave it up to the girls!  We are lucky to have an area of lush green as our backyard and a park through the gate.  Recently I presented Dan with ping-pong bats and balls, there have been some close challenges but I have yet to beat him. 

Hope you enjoy xxx
P.S. Obviously it's always sunny like this too...pffft I wish!

Some fun Berlin snaps

Out and about in Berlin so far, the favourites:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxfskezcFOc

Lykke Li completes me..

Subject60 - a ridiculous marketing scheme to launch the new Volvo model.  A lavish party series in each of Berlin, London, Milan, Paris and Madrid.  The stars of the night were Swedish star Lykke Li (my most favourite singer ever, despite only having 1 album) and Face Hunter (Europes most popular street style blogger).
 
Exclusive tickets...well that's where I came into the scheme of things, winning 2 tickets via iHeartBerlin.  Considering Lykke Li hasn't got a scheduled gig here I was a lucky little basket to get the chance to see her!  I've never ever seen people so well dressed, I think Face Hunter had been in their thoughts when they were getting ready.  The fashion was cutting edge, the cocktails were free flowing and Lykke Li's performance was outrageous!  She is everything and more in the flesh, stunning..amazing..sensational voice and her dance moves were killer! 

P.S. Oh and I was front row!!!

 Lucky me:)

Karneval der Kulturen

Berlin's most fabulous street festival started Friday and ends Sunday (today?..oh tear).  Karneval der Kulturen means Carnival of Cultures.  As the name suggests this is a multicultural event with multitudes of performers from all over the world covering 4 big stages.  I'm struggling to sum up this event in a few short sentences, the food...the cocktail bars...the entertainment? The entire occasion was so far above my expectations of a carnival and sets the bar very high for all future Carnivals.  All in 1 day I had me a Thai massage, some Chinese dimsims, Mexican taco's, watched a Capoeira battle, walked passed a blazing African BBQ and lost my mind over a Spanish churro (fried dough pastry, extremely bad but so extremely good).  It wasn't just the eating we enjoyed, the music was also good and very diverse! 1 stage was showcasing traditional Turkish music, another African drums and the 3rd international bands such as an eccentric Scottish band called 'Punch and the apostles'.  Fair to say as soon as I get out of bed I'll be straight back to Hallesches Tor for the last day of Karneval der Kulturen!  

  

The flea market series - Strike 1

Sunday in Berlin the shops are closed and from what I have experienced there's not a lot that goes on.  Unless...you explore the finest of fleamarkets dotted all over the city.  Yesterday we visited one called Flohmarkt am Mauerpark, I was impressed and to rate it I'd give 7/10. 

Lost in translation..

I report on an exciting note...we have now found accommodation in Berlin.


On a rather hilarious note, I would like to share with you some of the room adverts that translated from German to English made absolutely NO sense.  The quest to find accommodation was testing at times but Im glad there was some light relief during the process:) For your entertainment...

Berlin...thank you for being an exciting city

Well it has been 11 days since we touched down in B-town.  I was lucky enough to nab myself a job after just 4 days and began working instantly.  There are 3 new things I can do since moving to Berlin...

P.S. The video is up and running

Follow the link from my previous post named...France with love x  :)

From Paris to Berlin and every disco we go in my heart is pumping with love...

Pumping with love!
So...we are on day 12 of our journey and have already been to 5 countries.  It began with a quality sleep and feed in South Korea and right now I am sitting in an internet cafe in Zadar, Croatia.  In between these places we visited Paris, then Nice (Im sure you copped a look at the food shots...words cannot describe the food in France).

France with love x

Some of my favourite piccys so far...

Fromage and more

So..I didn't get a picture at the Incheon bridge but what I do have is numerous pictures of the exquisite food here in France.  I can't believe the variety, colour, flavour and how cheap you can get the goodies for.  All I wanna do is eat, is that a bad thing? hehe  The photos are pretty self-explanatory..buying olives at the fresh market in Nice, purchasing eats at the supermarche, amazing bakery food and bottom right are interesting Arabic sweets.  Feast your eyes:)

Farewell lovely people, the next time I post it'll be far far away on the other side of the world.  First stop Seoul so hopefully getta picture of the sweet 12.3km Incheon Bridge. xxx