Another weekend passed

This was the first I spent here not being completely on my own, as one of my colleagues stayed too. So after a shared dinner we decided to check out some bars or pubs on Friday, and this time we at least knew where to start looking for one. So we headed to the Hackesche Markt, an U-Bahn station which is supposedly surrounded by all the places young people visit on a typical Friday night. Well, it was not really like that, they were again those restaurant-like places, but we managed to find some nice bar with live jazz music and a nice atmosphere. It was decorated with memorabilia from the German Democratic Republic, as Eastern Germany was called when the country was still separated. So we had a Berlin beer under a Russian flag and pictures of Lenin, Marx and Fidel :) It was good, though the music turned out to be just too loud for that small place, and the crowd a lot less crowd-like than we expected. But anyhow, at least I know of some place which at least resembles what I would be looking for.

Saturday was planned to be a day spent in museums, at the Rembrandt-exhibition, which I was really looking forward to see. The morning stared slow as usual, and my colleague was even slower than me...so I had to do the shopping for our dinner which we planned to cook together. Well, at least it got done in time. So we checked out the exhibition, which had paintings, drawings and prints by Rembrandt and his pupils. It was just as I expected, the man's portraits are just great, and I also like the way he plays with light and darkness. I've already seen some of his paintings in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam earlier this year, and I'm glad I was able to check out some more. For example, there was a smaller copy of the original version of the “Night watch”, which is interesting, as about half a meter was cut off from the original picture to make it fit some room of one of the previous owners. So the “original” can only be seen on a copy made by one of the master's students. Funny. There were also some copies by students, sometimes next to the originals, so one could see how they tried to redo Rembrandt's paintings and how they failed at it :) They were not that bad, though. Of course it was not allowed to make photos, so you just have to believe what I say about this :) The museum which has the exhibition is the Kulturforum, which has a huge collection of renaissance paintings, and surely more of different eras too, but it was just too much of it after the Rembrandt exhibition, so we just left without seeing about half of what the building had to offer. For dinner I planned to fry turkey and some French fries, and I also bought some spices to make it at least taste like something. The preparations and the cooking went fine, and the result was not that much less pleasing compared to what I wanted to make :) Of course, I did the cooking all by myself, especially because that colleague guy is quite slow on doing things, and he did not seem really be able to do things on his own – and I'm not that much of a cook that I could say what someone else should do, I'm happy enough knowing what's going on in my own hands. Anyhow, the dinner was good, and I left the dishes to him :)

After that, we watched the movie “Crash” at the apartment, and I must say, I was quite disappointed by that flick. All I knew about the film was that it depicts the racial tension in the United States, which of course I can't really imagine. But the movie turned just plain stupid in the end, it had such a happy end which did not really suit the neither the topic, nor the first 80 minutes of the movie. I t was not that bad, it's just that they did not manage to come up with a proper ending. Well, at least now I know what movie I was putting off for a few months now :)

Today was a very ugly rainy day, but luckily not from the beginning. We wanted to check out the free (with a Berlin travel pass) sightseeing bus and some fountain in the eastern part of the city. Well, before we got on the bus we checked out the liquid clock in the Europa Center again and we did quite well in figuring out how it works – and we even got to see the biggest “show” of it, at 1pm, when all of it's parts are animated. The same happens also at 1am of course, and it might look even better if it's well lit, but this was enough for now. So, during the bus ride the rain started pouring and the wind also turned quite strong, so my colleague decided to go home and I started for the Museum of Natural Science. The museum was quite good, though I guess this is about as much stuffed animals I can take in a day. There were some panels about how this stuffing process is and was, it was quite interesting. There is also a mineral collection, which holds some very nice pieces, but, as always, it was just too much in the end. And that with a third of the museum closed for renovation... But it was a good choice nevertheless.

For dinner tonight we're going to visit the cheap pizzeria nearby, it's called Don Corleone. I hope we will get along well with the local Mafia :)

G'night,
M.

Sushi - a first encounter

Yesterday I had dinner with all the Hungarian guys who work here at the company (The Company, even), in Berlin. One of them had the idea to go to this sushi place, which suggestion I was more than happy to accept - I've never eaten sushi before, and I was very curious about it, but I just needed someone more exprienced to show me how it's done :) So we went to the Sushi Express in the Sony Center on the Potsdamer Platz - they also have a homepage but it's ugly enough not to link to it. The place is nice, I'm not sure how usual sushi restaurants look like but here there were a few small and high tables and one could also sit at the bar. So we sat there, since we were too many for the small tables, and placed our orders. I ordered sake, because I've never tasted that before (it should be drank while it's warm :) and it tastes like a strange boiled wine), a Japanese beer of the Asahi brand (nothing special), and a Set 4 sushi plate :) I think this is not even listed on the not-linked homepage, as it's a Happy Hour offer. BTW all the opening hours are covered by the Happy Hour thingy. Strange. So anyhow, I got some ginger (Gari) and wasabi to it, as well as soy sauce. And I had to eat with sticks. First time ever :) It was fun though :) The sushi tasted nice, I liked the rolled little thingies (Makis) a bit better than the big fish-covered thingies (Nigiris). One of them was even called Unagi :) If I didn't know it was raw fish, the taste wouldn't have given it away either - not that I knew how raw fish should taste :)
After the dinner, we had a walk in the city, went to the Brandenburg Gate since it has a nice colourful lighting these few weeks (like a lot of other places in Berlin, this is some kind of event), and then took the train back home. Of course first in the wrong direction :) but it was fun nevertheless.
So what I learned yesterday that sushi is a good food and one should not be afraid of eating with sticks :) It was a good lesson, though a bit pricey, sushi is definitely not the cheapest food around. But who cares, it was a nice evening!
Tonight we are going to check out some pubs the locals suggested. We'll see how that goes :)
Oh, and I was told today that I'll stay here at least until the end of this year. And I got my name put on my postal box. I'm happy about both :)

Over for now. I try not to eat anything strange until next time!
M.

Back in Berlin

Well, on Friday I had my first trip back to Hungary. Things went quite well at the airport, though it was quite unnecessary for me to be there so early, as I only got my boarding pass 10 minutes after the checkin desk was supposed to close. Of course this is because I had a so called standby ticket, which means that I can only travel if there is an unsold place on the plane or somebody cancels in the last second. Some colleagues were less lucky than I was this Friday, and had to sleep in Frankfurt in some 4* hotel :) That could be considered luck though, too, as the company pays for these nights spent in hotels :)
The weekend at home was nice, it was good not having to do everything for myself again :) But it's also good to be back. The trip back here also went good, tha landing in Berlin was a bit shaky because of the strong wind, but I liked that too :) And with this trip behind me, I can say from experience that it's better to travel on bigger planes. I was expecting a bit more form the 50 and 80 person planes I was flying to and from Budapest, I mean I kinda thought I'd be able to feel what's happening with the plane a bit more. Au contraire! It was only uncomfortable. Not only the plane is smaller, the seats are too :)
I also started my new assignment today, which should be a bit more exciting compared to the previous one. The guy who is supposed to be instructing me has no idea why and how stuff works. Ain't that fun. So I will have to do a lot of figuring out in this task too, and I hope that will make it a bit more interesting. We'll see.
This evening I'm planning to buy another dose of tea, and I tried to look for something that would suit my taste online. That is not an easy thing to do. I mean I have no idea how stuff that tasted good for the reviewer, having a taste resembling this and that and a partridge in a pear tree would taste for me... So I will have to just go by the shopkeeper lady's taste, and maybe this time she'll give some better advice. Tea-shopping reloaded.
Oh, and one of my colleagues got sent back to Budapest apparently. There seem to be no more assignments for him that would need him to stay here in Berlin. And that only after one month :| I hope I can stay a lot longer... This was quite a surprise for him too.
And I also broke my keychain today. The door here in the offices is just too heavy, and when I unlocked it and tried to pull it open holding on to the keychain, one aluminum part just broke. I will have to ask for a new one, as this would be my badge holder if I would have to wear a badge like in Hungary.

Well, no more adventures for now...my barbecue sauced dinner awaits!
M.

Ps. I also changed the template for the blog... The plain white background just did not cut it for me any more :) Feel free to tell me if you like it better or not. I'm not really ready to make my own template, so one of the defaults has to be good enough.

A night at the Museum Island

In Berlin, on Thursdays, entry is free to all regular exhibitions in all museums for the last 4 hours of their opening hours. And some are open till 10pm on Thursdays. So I decided I might as well save a few €s and use the opportunity check out some things at the Pergamon Museum, which has a collection of Muslim, Greek and Babylonian art. By the way, the German archeologists were just crazy in the beginning of the 20th century, they dug out and brought almost complete buildings to Germany... And, as at that time preservation was less important then nice looking stuff, they rebuilt a lot of missing pieces on the things they brought back. So this way, the exhibitions are very interesting, but in some parts just not real.
The main attraction, which gives the name to the museum, is the Pergamon Altar, which is basically a set of stairs and an entrance, and a lot of pieces of statues. They actually managed to figure out a complete story of one Greek mythological guy based on the remains of the statues... though to me it sounds more probable that they just made something up :)
There was also a Babylonian gate and a marching way rebuilt, which look kinda swell with the very blue color of it. Maybe I just like blue too much :) And of course a lot of ancient writings on clay tablets and stuff like that. These Babylonian guys were quite good in what they did, and it's amazing that these few thousand year old things just remained more or less intact.
Another interesting thing to me was the Muslim art part. They use colors appealing to me a lot, and I also really wanted to check out how pages from a real "illuminated" Turkish book look like. Well, they are nice :)
I got very, very tired though before I had the time to check out the Greek collection, so I just made a few photos in the first room, and then left for home. Of course this was still absolutely worth my time and money :) But I think I should not go to "boring", passive museums when I'm tired.
Oh, and one thing that was interesting was the density of Spanish(-speaking) people in the museum. There were a whole lot. Strange :) And even though the entry was free, there were not too many people. That was one good thing. And only once did I accidentally made a picture using the flash on my camera, which is of course forbidden - luckily I photographed only a copy of something precious.
And when I got back to the apartment, my colleagues left me a note to visit them for a beer, so in the end I did not go to sleep early, as I intended, but had a fun evening again :)
Also, this afternoon I'm gonna fly back to Budapest for the weekend, and I'll be there till Tuesday. I need to get my warm coat for the coming winter, for example :)

Stay tuned,
M.

Rant on my camera

I would be sooo happy if I'd be able to make pictures with my digital camera in the way I want to... I mean if the conditions are less than ideal, then the photo won't turn out to be the best possible. But, on the other hand, I would not want to spend the time, the energy and of course the money on getting and using pro equipment. Is there some way to stay in the middle? I mean, are there compact cameras that are not too expensive and still deliver close-to-pro quality? I will have to investigate...
Anyhow, I just the above picture to be sooo good... I just had to stop and take that photo. But it got less then perfect, of course... *sigh*

Have a nice evening, y'all!
M.

Sunday happenings

I was only a little bit quicker today as I was the day before :) I think this has to do with the real dark curtains I have in the room, it always seems to be very dark when I wake up. Maybe I don't notice it's already 9am and I've already had 10+ hours of sleep this way :) Not that I had to hurry anywhere...I bought the usual Brötchen for breakfast – I only noticed today they are called Schrippen here in Berlin. No wonder the Turkish girl at the bakery did not understand what I wanted :)

After the usual morning ceremonies I planned my trip for today, and set off for the Platz der Luftbrücke, or Square of the Airlift – a square which is dedicated to the USAF and RAF that supported West Berlin during the Eastern blockade in 1948-49. As some of you might know, West Berlin was completely cut off from the outside world during this year, and the people could only get food and any other materials via this airlift, and this was also the only way to sell their products. The main airport used for these operations is Tempelhof, which is right next to the square. The square itself is basically a small park with a quite ugly statue resembling the 3 aerial routes the allied air forces could take in their support operations (allegedly, I read this on an information board). Actually I was quite curious how this square looked like...well now I know :) By the way, one of the planes taking part in the support flights, a so called Rosinen (Raisin) Bomber is now on the top of the German Technology Museum I visited on Saturday.

So, after checking out the square, I set off to continue my trip according to my plans – which lasted almost 2 U-Bahn stops, when I noticed that I'm quite near to the Jewish Museum, one thing I was told not to miss. So I changed my carefully planned way for the day, and entered the museum. The museum building itself is strange, the architect really wanted to symbolize quite a few things with the shape of the building, but I think even he himself wasn't really sure about what these were :) Inside the building the corridors are not really like corridors in any other place...In the basement, there are 3 axes symbolizing exile, the Holocaust and continuity. There is one tower dedicated to the Holocaust – this is a single wedge-shaped room, with only one narrow source of sunlight about 10 meters above ground, with bare concrete walls. The goal is to feel how abandoned one can be when he can hear the sounds of life going by and seeing the light of day but not being able to interact with anything. There is also one square shaped outside area with 7*7 concrete towers in it, with a tree on top of each. 48 trees are planted in German soil and do symbolize Israel, and the one tree in the middle is planted in soil from Israel and symbolizes Berlin. I have to admit I did really get the point of this second installment.

The other floors in the building, reached via the axis of continuity have an exhibition on the history of Jews in Germany in the last thousand years. It is quite interesting, though I did not learn anything I did not know before – it was just illustrated by things I've never seen before. (Reading “Fogság” (Captivity) by György Spiró taught me a lot about Jewish customs and how they have to live according to religious rules). The exhibition ended of course with the Holocaust and how the Jewish Germans managed to return to normal life after it. The museum is really not about the Holocaust itself but the history of Jews, so this part was not over-emphasized. Not that I would have a problem with that, but I was getting really tired and hungry (Éhes vagyok, fáradt vagyok, segítsetek Vuknak, a kisrókának...), but I hate to leave museums unfinished. Oh, and in the end there were a few voting machines, asking visitors if they have people among their friends who have antisemitic views (~55% don't), if they would mind if their children would marry people from different cultures (~60% would not) and if Turkey should be accepted to the EU (this was quite balanced, and I voted “no” on this one – I'm sure the museum people also know about the Kurdish Holocaust that Turkey does not admit to have happened).

After the museum trip I took quite a detour back home for some hidden reason, and then visited the fence sitting on which I can use the Internet on my laptop. Of course the day concluded in a great dinner, and I still have a beer and some movie waiting for me. Whomever finds out which one was in the fridge, gets invited for the other :)

Time to chill...
M.

Thoughts about the Berlin night (and other things :) )

This last Friday I decided I should check out what the nightlife looks like in Berlin. I did not have many pointers on where to go apart from what my books about Berlin told me. So I figured I'd check out the Savignyplatz (Savigny square) and it's surroundings, as I saw two jazz clubs mentioned in that region, and it was supposed to be one of those places where young people spend their time. I did not go directly to the square, because I wanted to have a short walk and this way I was able to spare a few stops and changes on the U-Bahn. The walk in the evening was nice, the weather was not that cold, and there were not too many people. On the other hand, there weren't many on the places they supposed to be either... All the bars were just full of elderly tourists or families finishing a dinner. Most probably everyone went there because they read this and that about the square in their own Berlin books, but still...You can most probably read about Ráday utca in every newish book about Budapest, and it's full of young locals nevertheless. Here, I only saw a few punks strolling in the area, and some young people who were there with their parents :) And also the bars...Every place is just a restaurant, everything is well lit, and nothing looks like a “proper” pub or bar. Even the jazz places were completely different from the ones I was to in Amsterdam, and it's not that these would have been better. The Dutch ones were smaller, cozier, and let people be close to the artists, to the music... Here, I did not even notice these were music bars, they just looked like all the other restaurants. It might be that I was there too early, but if 10 pm is too early than I don't know when life would at least look like it was starting to happen.

The trip was not in vain though, I've found a grocery store which is open every day, including Sunday, up till 10pm! This is one thing to treasure here in Germany, as in the evenings and on Sundays you can get whatever you need only at petrol stations or small newsstands and the like in U-Bahn stations for example. Bakeries and restaurants are an exception. When we were in Aachen (next to the Dutch “border” in Western Germany) last winter, we had to go to a nearby Dutch town to get some food for our trip back home to Hungary, since we started on a Sunday. So here, I know a place now.

Oh, and about me knowing places...I've already helped tourists find their way twice here in the city :D The first time I tried to help Spanish tourists (in Spanish of course), but I was lucky since the figured stuff out themselves. I mean, I knew how to help them, but they were so happy that I seem to speak Spanish, that they started to speak so quickly, I almost did not notice when to nod that they are right about the way they chose :) The second time I helped an elderly American couple (at least I think they were from the States based on their accent), this was right here in the U-Bahn station next to my apartment – so I knew quite well how to get to the S-Bahn station next to it :) So I'm almost like a local now :D Actually, it was only today I almost got lost for the first time, but luckily I did not reach the metro going the wrong direction :) Not that one could really get lost here with a map :) Metros go everywhere, and with a few connections one can get anywhere.

But now, a little bit closer to the original subject again :) The other thing I wanted to write about is the number of people of Berlin, in general, not only at night. I mean I've never seen a real crowd here since I've been here. I think I travel at around rush hour twice a day, and I still have to see so many people on public transport as I can on the tram no. 6 or the bus no. 7 at home. Or a traffic jam, for that matter. I'm not sure how exactly road traffic is in Berlin since I've only taken public transport until now, but I've only seen the traffic flowing, not stopped in a long row. That's quite surprising knowing how many “Staus”, traffic jams there are on the highways.

Well, no more thoughts for now :)

M.

PS. I wrote this post on Sunday evening, and this Monday morning there were a lot of people on the U-Bahn... Maybe I should also write about stuff I'd love to happen, it might turn real too :)

A day in the life

Wow, today started quite slowly :) It was at around 10am, when I managed to get my sorry behind down to the bakery to get my breakfast. The honey I bought yesterday was quite an addition to the morning delights, I think I'm in love with these fresh out of oven bread rolls :) (Though I'm sure not with the mustached Turkish baker... :) ) And after I finished the morning ceremony, it took me more than an hour to decide what to do today. I considered a whole lot of things, but in the end the geeky engineer hidden (not too deep) in me lead me to the German Museum of Technology. And, I must say, this was a good decision, and four and a half well spent Euros. I was there all afternoon :) Of course, this one cannot reach the perfection of it's counterpart in Munich/München, but still, having the chance to look at all these old TV sets, a reproduction of Kondrad Zuse's first computer, airplanes cut in half, century-old locomotives...well it's an experience :) Describing what I saw in more detail would be quite in vain, since more or less everyone knows how these things look like, but I'll attach a few pictures about them. You should all come and check it out for yourself ;)

The best part of the afternoon was that my ticket was also valid for Spectrum, the museum of experiments next to the technology museum. This is very similar to the “Csodák palotája”, so I guess you Hungarians have at least an idea about what it would be :) For all others, this is basically a place where the experiments of science classes can be reproduced by you yourself, even such exotic things as high voltage demos or radioactivity measurements. Of course everything is displayed in such a way that even 10-year olds can and will enjoy. Hell, even I did, and I'm just a kid myself :) The only bad part was that I did not even have the time to visit all the floors :( I think the last part was about acoustics, but at least I saw electricity, mechanics and a lot about optics. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to go back again once, but for now this much should be enough :)

BTW, one problem I have with all this sightseeing that I don't seem to find the best things to make a photo of... I get home after a very good sightseeing day, and I have almost no good photos to look at :( I'm kinda disappointed with this, but well, I still have time here to make a lot more pictures, and maybe in the end I'll feel more satisfied about all this :)

In the evening I got home very hungry, and luckily I cooked something very satisfying this time :) Nothing too special, so I'll even keep it a secret :) But I'll add the leftovers to tomorrow's dinner for sure, and I assure you, that'll be a meal you'd be jealous of, no matter how gross it sounds :D

Well, that's it for now... I wonder what I'll do tomorrow :)

M.

PS. I'll have something on the nightlife in Berlin and about my trip on Sunday...when it's written :) And I'll add the pics when I'm not publishing sitting on the street (backdating, as always) :)

On a literary sidenote

Orhan Pamuk was announced as winner of this year's Nobel Prize in Literature. Who is he, you might ask (hint). Well, I was like that too a few months ago, but someone in Spain was reading one of his books, and it seemed quite interesting. So I also bought myself a copy of Pamuk's “My name is Red”. The book has a very good storyline, and also the idea of changing the point of view from character to character with each chapter is quite innovative. It also shows a lot of the life and ideals of the Turkish Empire in the 16^th century. But. And this is a big but. I'm not sure about the original style of writing, as Mr. Pamuk writes in his native Turkish, but the English translation by Erdağ M. Göknar makes reading a bit more difficult than I like it best. With a good book, no matter the language, I can read a couple of hundred pages a week easily, with this one, I'm at page 220-something, maybe two thirds of the book, in almost 2 months. Of course the award is mostly given because of Mr. Pamuk's political stance, but still. These last weeks were quite busy for me, granted, but no matter how much I'm interested in the story, the style just breaks my pace... Well, I hope I'll finish before next year's Nobel ceremony ;)

M.

Wrapping up another week

My washing worked quite well yesterday! :) I even managed to set the drier properly so it did not cook my clothes :) But hey, there's a first time for everything... And now I know why people from the States miss driers so much in Hungary, it's very convenient. Oh, and my choice of liquid detergent and fabric softener (as in "cheapest of each") was quite good, my stuff does not smell weird at all :)
There was not much more happening yesterday either, the evening was again just chilling out with colleagues. Which is quite different from my previous workplace, I don't think I hung out with people there in 2 years as much as I did here in 2 weeks. Of course, here everyone is without the usual friends. Maybe that's why the German colleagues don't invite or join us for anything, as they have better thing to do with people they get to choose :) Which also leads to me spending another weekend on my own, since Hungarian people went back home again, but I think I can handle that much :)
I think it's time to mention the place where I usually have lunch here. Not that I had tested so many places, there was one Italian restaurant, which is more or less okay, but having pasta each day would suck :) And it's not so special anyhow. The other place, which I like a lot, is a small almost-restaurant called Opern Schlemmereien. "Schlemmerei" translates to "gluttony" or "gormandizing", so basically it's to eat a lot of good stuff :) So the name more or less means "Tasty stuff next to the Opera" :) The place is operated by a family as far as I can tell, and they have a different menu each day - 2 kinds of main dishes and a selection of soups and there's always Käsespätzle. I usually take one of the 2 main dishes, which is some meat, potato or rice or pasta and a quite rich salad, maybe even some sauce with it. And there's free dessert with each main dish :) A chocolate bar or some kind of tasty yoghurt, usually. And it's only 4€, which is quite cheap compared to other places. For example, a sandwich can easily cost 2-3€ on it's own at a cafe and a Burger King menu is somewhere between 4 and 5€. I think I've become a regular at this place :) But I'm not sure what will happen if it gets colder, since this place is more or less open, the only part "inside" is the kitchen. I hope they come up with something soon :)
Oh yeah, and one thing which is just a little detail, but a very important detail, regarding all the shops I've visited (also the restaurant place). They always say goodbye properly, and usually wish a pleasant weekend or a nice evening. It's only one second of effort for them, but you leave with a smile.
Well, today I finish another week of work, which also included some stressy moments due to some mistakes on my side. I hope it will get better. I should be able to finish the "boring" part till next Wednesday or so. If I don't spend this much time blogging, that is :) We'll see :) For now, I'm out of thoughts anyways :)

So, I wish you all a nice and relaxing weekend! :)
Mark

One week has passed

So it seems I just skipped a few days in blogging. Of course all this is very mood dependent for me, so if I'm sleepy or just don't care enough, I simply won't write for some time... I hope that's okay :)
Actually I did not do anything worth the Internet it'd be printed on on Monday, and Tuesday evening we celebrated the birthday of one of the new guys who started work here the same time I did. It started with a surprise champagne, but eventually led to a few beers and a very tired sleep at the end.
At work, today, I finally managed to finish the first of my tasks, but the biggest part is still ahead of me. The one problem with this actual task is that it's so simple and repetitive, that it should have been automated years ago, and thus I progress very slowly with it... There's no real challenge in it, and basically for any question I ask about why stuff is written like it is, the answer of my "mentor" is that he does not know and I should only copy and paste because if it worked before then the same should work for me now. Well it probably will, but I would rather know what I'm doing, too, not only that it's most probably correct. Especially when the set of examples I have at my disposal to steal from is quite controversial, and I don't see which solution is the better working one. Anyhow, I hope to finish this soon, so I can get to some more interesting stuff :)
This week I also had the halogen light bulb in my table lamp replaced (so no more falling over the chair at night :) ), and bought coins for the washing and drying machines in the basement. Of course I had to buy wash powder and fabric softener, too, so I now have stuff enough to wash for a family for a few months. I did ask, if there was a possibility to buy just small amount maybe from a vending machine or something, but I got the answer that I should be happy that I even have the possibility to wash my stuff here. How nice. Well I'll check out tomorrow how these things work, I hope the German instructions are easy to decipher.
Today I went back to the tea-shop to buy some Ceylon tea, but now it wasn't the kind lady from last week who served me, and this one was not so helpful... Of course it's not her fault that I messed up with the first tea I made from these new leaves, but still, she could have told me these were a bit different :) And I should have taken the leaves out of the water on time, too... Maybe tomorrow :)
Of course a good tea would have made my dinner today just picture perfect, I had salami with some white bread (I've only had the brown seedy stuff, Vollkornbrot, until now), some bell peppers, cheese and boiled eggs. It was delicious, no matter how simple it sounds. Soon I'll have to start thinking what to eat on the weekend, it should be a bit more than this usual weekday dinner.
I'm a probably too tired to make this entry a lot more interesting, so I'll just finish for now, and only add new things when something actually happens :)
Bye bye,
M.
PS I actually had to refuse candies from a stranger yesterday in the shop :) Though probably accepting them from 20-something girls would have been okay, no matter what ;)

Weather Report

Did I mentioned I absolutely loved the weather on Sunday? Just look how blue the sky is!

I'm proud to announce...

...that today was the official Käsespätzle and Office Space day! Yay! And in the end of the day I even had hot water to shower! :)

M.

The sun shines in Berlin!

I finished my last entry before starting to cook...Well, I managed to make the second worst spaghetti of the world, at least it did not reach my expectations. But I'm always disappointed with bottled spaghetti sauce, so that might have been the reason – sadly enough it would cost a lot to make my own sauce, and I would have a lot of extra spices that I would not use for anything else, really. So the best solution would be either not to make any more spaghetti while I'm here, or experience with different kinds of sauces :) I think I'll go for the second :)
After dinner I sat down with a pint of Paulaner Dunkel Hefebier, a dark wheat beer, to watch Prison Break as usual. The beer was so delicious, and the first episode I watched ended with such a cliffhanger, that I had to stay for another more :) This made my early wake for the F1 Grand Prix in Suzuka quite bitter, but I had to watch the race live! It was not a really exciting race, but I like the German commentary a lot better than the Hungarian one, despite the commercial breaks (during a live, continuous event...bleh). There were two highlights for me, one was when the back part of Albers' car almost literally blew up in pieces, the other was of course the engine breakdown of MSC. Funny enough, I was doing the maths on what chances would Alonso have to win the final trophy if MSC took this race, but with Alonso winning and Schumi out on this one, the chances of the latter are purely mathematical. But, whatever happens, the finale will be a very interesting one!
After the race, I went to the bakery again to get my brötchen, but the girl who was there today spoke even less German than I do... that made me quite unsuccessful in communication, but I managed to get what I wanted – though it would have been better if they had labeled stuff properly, then I wouldn't have asked for one thing while pointing on something completely different :)
Having had my breakfast, I started for today's first stop: the Brandenburger Tor, or Brandenburg Gate. This is a symbol of various German victories, and also of the unity of the German nation, from the 19th century. So naturally it was quite important during the time Berlin was split and ironically enough the Gate was impossible to visit from either side. But now, as with all other areas of Berlin, it is completely rebuilt as are the surrounding buildings – I even caught sight of a Hungarian flag! After eavesdropping a few tourist groups, I decided I visit the nearby bell tower, as it was almost noon and I read that there's a five minute bell show at noon. Well there wasn't :) There were a few other tourists also waiting for it, but we were unlucky. So I went to check out the Reichstag building with it's famous glass dome, but when I saw the huge queue in front of it, I quickly made up my mind :) I only made a few outside photos...Probably I'll go back when I'm not alone, so I won't get bored to death while standing in line. I did some “exploring” in the government part of the city, checked out the new shiny buildings and the brand new Hauptbahnhof (main train station). It's amazing that the city has so many very modern and nice buildings, this is of course not the case at home. And all this in the middle of the city, next to the huge park called Tiergarten. Amazing.
While walking for the Siegessäule, the Victory Column I passed a motorbike procession (probably not the correct word :) ), there were an amazing amount of motorcyclists showing off their bikes and funny helmets... I have no idea why :) I climbed the stairs of the Column (it was a lot less than in the Stephansdom in Vienna), made a picture of Victory standing on top, and left for a walk in the park. I wanted to find an exhibition of old gas lamps, but it was simply not where it should have been. I've found a nice squirrel in place of it, but it ran away before I could take a photo – this one was red, while those in the garden of Schönbrunn Castle were brownish... Dunno why :) I did not chase the little fellow for long, as the lawn was not very tidy between the trees...these Germans seem to do “interesting” stuff in their public parks :|
Leaving the park I had a Cheesy Bacon Double Cholesterol Bomb at a Burger King, and took the SBahn to the Alexanderplatz. I had to change 3 times, there seems to be some heavy construction or whatever going on, it should have been one continuous ride. On the Alexanderplatz I saw the world famous whatever-player of the band Omega, László Benkő :) I think the band is having a concert here in Berlin, but I did not know it was now. Anyhow, he was in the second Hungarian group I met today, but I did not blow my disguise with talking to them :) I just held my English book on Berlin high and hid my Hungarian T-shirt :D
The Alexanderplatz is quite ugly, but comfortable at the same time...it resembles some run down 1970s districts of Budapest :) It was something like the center of the communist-era East-Berlin, and according to this role there are a few “shopping malls” and similar things. And an embarrassingly ugly and tall concrete TV tower. I even found a movie theater which had a
Hungarian name :) People didn't really understand why I'm taking a picture of such an ugly building :)
So, to cut this short... My feet were very tired again, so I decided to take the U-Bahn home. But,
before that I checked out the World Clock, which is a primitive public clock to show the time for all time zones. I was waiting for it to change the main display, but it did not do anything around 4
o'clock, so I just left. And, as I got home and got some rest, I went to the nearest free hotspot I know about to the Mutter Café Restaurant, where I just sat outside for while to post my previous posts (backdated, again, but written on the dates shown :) ), and to chat with friends at home. And now I'm going to wrap it up to cook dinner :) I came home through some Asian restaurant zone, but I trust my own cooking more than the taste of what I'd choose from those exotic menus :)

Byebye,
M.

My first weekend!

I got up at 9 just to listen to the weather on the radio – Brandenburgische Rundfunk Antenna Brandenburg I think :) They said it will rain, like the days before (I'm gonna kill the surprise here: it really did). It took a while to get up, but when I finally managed to, I went to the bakery nearby to get some brötchen and something to kill my hunger during the day. All the stuff were oven fresh, so it was a very tasty breakfast maybe I'll “sacrifice” these 5 minutes of mine needed to go to the bakery each day, it seems to be worthwhile.
After getting ready I went to the nearby NahKauf to get some food to cook for dinners this weekend (as I figured I'll be in the city at lunchtime, so I better cook in the evening). This weekend it will only be spaghetti and turkey steak, I'll report later how I managed with them :) Of course I forgot salt the first time I went to the shop, but I rather went to Lidl to get some, I did not want the cashier girl notice my stupidity :) I could not find any “proper” salt though, I bought some coming in a grinder, in bigger crystals...quite strange.
At this point I was ready to go! I chose the S-Bahn (Schnell-Bahn, a train-like transportation method inside the city) to go to the Potsdamer Platz. I did not really know what to expect, as I forgot what I read about it in my book ( :) ), but it turned out to be the middle of the city with high and shiny office buildings and a lot of tourists – though it's not the Manhattan-style of an inner city, the tallest building had definitely less than 25 stories. I checked out some remnants of the Berlin Wall, and decided to check out even more, so I headed for Checkpoint Charlie. There were tourists all around (I noticed mostly Americans, Spanish, Germans from other cities and some Italians), it was almost only me who was alone. I don't think I'll start a conversation with anyone, but it could be fun if someone else did :P I know, I need to change :D
So on my way I got distracted and entered the Museum of Communication – that was a nice experience. It is really about communication, in all of it's ways, letters, telegraphs, phones, and anything related. There were eve some interactive parts where you could communicate with your partner with Morse-signals using lamps for example – being alone I did not really try these, but the kids seemed to have fun :) There were also a few robots, one was funny, he was chasing a ball rolling on his own little wheels, and making very happy sounds in the meanwhile :)
After I left the museum, came the rainy part of the day – I had to flee in some strange exhibition of miniature buildings in the Bulgarian embassy :) Wasn't really worth the pixels, so no photos from here. Soon I reached the Checkpoint Charlie, where I could read the lengthy story of the wall, make the obligatory photos and get very tired :) I went to check out the last longer original part of the Wall, read about the Nuremberg trials on an open-air exhibition (man, these Germans really have a bad conscience) and I had to leave prematurely because I really had to sit down. I will go back some other day, there were a lot more things to see there. I walked back to the Potsdamer Platz for a coffee (I asked for “au lait” but got a plain one...bleh) and a tasty Italian sandwich. The girl behind the counter said the price really slooooowly so I can understand it, probably there was something wrong with my German again.
Anyhow, after chilling out a bit, I went for the EuropaCenter to look at some funny and strange clocks! One uses some fluorescent fluid to show the time, the other just uses lights – I made a photo of the instructions on how to read it, too :) And when I left, I was offered some weed on the square...At least I know now what to answer if someone asks where he can get some :P
I took a different route to get home, and I bough a few kinds of beer to taste. Shops aren't open on Sundays, so I hope I have everything I need for a day. And now I'm here, typing my extremely long blog entries, and trying to decide if I'm hungry enough for dinner :) I don't think anything interesting will happen in the rest of today :D
Quote of the day:
“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but respects the value of nobody”
Bye for today!
M.

Day three :)

I'm lucky enough my colleagues picked me up this morning – we did not agree on anything the evening before as they stayed longer in the office and we did not meet up afterwards. The day at the office was nothing special, I did some of my new tasks, which involved a lot of asking, as there were some less then evident parts of setting up my work environment and stuff. It still does not work flawlessly, but at least it's usable. The funniest part was when I had to show a change I made for approval. The change was correcting “defaults_skill” to “default_skills”...Maybe they could have trusted me enough to believe I can solve this on my own :)
Today, every Hungarian colleague I know left for home, for Budapest during the day, so it's me alone for the weekend. I understand that we don't get any money for staying here on the weekend, but still, it's like a holiday, you can do a lot...On the other hand, going home to your family/GF is also a viable alternative...Still, I decided to stay for most weekends and do a lot of exploring :)
Before leaving work, I tried to “trick” Luis into showing me the city and/or how a Friday night looks like :) It did not work, he only gave me some pointers on where to go and what to see :) Well, he most probably has his own life he has to handle...
Anyhow, I bought some tea on the way home in a nice little tea shop – the first time I actually had to use my German :) It was okay, though I need to practice more... So the friendly shopkeeper lady helped me choose a small pack of Golden Nepal leaves and a proper tea-egg, too. She was nice, gave a few pointers on how to prepare it properly and she gave suggestions on what else to try with my taste. I'll definitely go back to that place for more tea next week!
Later, I also managed to buy nail clippers at a Rossmann shop – one thing I did not find anywhere in Hungary (though I did not try Rossmanns back at home...). So now I don't have to travel back to Budapest just to clip my fingernails ;)
The evening basically was the same as the ones before, as I was quite tired, and had no company. I made myself a nice warm tea, and found that this Golden Nepal sort truly was very good :) I was kinda reluctant on going to sleep, so I went through all the 40 TV channels a few times before I got fed up and went for a shower :) After this, it was only good night, and good luck!
M.

My second blog entry :)

Still backdated, but written in advance so I don't forget all the juicy details :) The second day started differently compared to my first – since I was already in Berlin, I did not have to catch a plane :) I met with the new colleagues, who also joined my current employer just this Monday, and we tried to figure out how to find the same U-Bahn (Metro) we took back to the apartments again. We got in quite early, no-one of the local team was there yet to give more instructions – which wasn't so bad, of course. Then Andree, my “mentor” arrived, and showed us how to set up the development environment. Well, this introductory session was at least more in depth as the one the day before, but still, Andree replied with most questions with “I don't know, it's best to copy and paste” :) The other guy, Luis, who is originally Spanish, but has already lived in the US, France and the UK for longer periods, knows things a lot better. And he speaks English a lot better, too, his accent is a pleasure to listen to after all the tortures the German guys put Shakespeare's language through :) I hope I can work a bit more with him, his explanations are always very good and he is always glad to answer questions. Anyways, I got my first tasks, too, which were officially described a pain in the ass :) I don't know yet, how long and boring they would be, but since I have to code in some special language I don't know yet, it might be interesting to find out how things work :) Though I really hope I can get my hands on some Java soon enough...
So anyhow, after getting the task I left the offices for some sightseeing :) I decided visiting the Charlottenburg castle would be a good idea, since it's quite near our offices, and I didn't think I could do a lot more walking before it got dark. I was only half way to the castle, when it started to rain... That's not really a problem, as I like it a lot more to take photos in rainy water than in very bright sunshine, but it's quite difficult to hold the camera straight while balancing the umbrella with one of my hands :) I'm glad no-one took a photo of me while I was juggling with my things :) I was there at the castle just on time, as the guard closed the gate right after I left, but I managed to make photos of this mounted statue and the mounted statue-shaped hole next to it :) A bit to my surprise I found there was also a castle park – I didn't do much reading beforehand on what I'd find here :) The park was quite nice, though the flowers were a bit neglected, maybe because it's autumn already. I wanted to cross the whole park, but it was already turning dark and I was not sure if I would be able to cross the river Spree at the other end of the park to get to the U-Bahn station. So I just made a small circle, and walked to the station on a shorter route. Thursday evening is not the busiest time in Berlin, that's for sure. Even though I met some colleagues on the U-Bahn on the way home. Small city, eh? :)
The evening looked the same as the one before – dinner, a beer and Prison Break :) I really should spend some time outside in the city at night...maybe on Saturday. It's not easy to get started for a night out if you don't know anyone. But more about this in tomorrow's entry :) I don't want to spoil you with all this information :D
Over and out,
M.

The eagle has landed

Well,

Never before did I even consider the idea of a writing a blog... I might even get uncomfortable with this one and stop updating it without notice :) But still, so many have asked me about how I feel on my business trip to Berlin, which might last for a few months, that I decided it'd be easier to tell my stories this way :)

So I arrived here today (as this entry is backdated by two days :) ), and having stand-by tickets made me travel half the trip in the jump-seats at the flight attendants places :) It was fun, we even got to help her make coffee :) Here in Berlin everything went pretty well, we bought our monthly passes for the public transport, and the more experienced colleagues led us to the bus and to the offices after. It took a while to get our computers, but meanwhile we had a boooooring training... I hate it when a "training" consists of showing all the menus of one program... Setting up email and IM was the first thing I did afterwards :) Sadly, it's only meebo for now, as the company firewall blocks ICQ and GTalk, both of which I use quite frequently... Of course MSN is allowed, bleh. Skype is also working, but I don't have a mic yet, so I'll use the company phone for the time being :)

The day ended with a quick shopping at Aldi (of course I also bought beer), a kebab (must find a better kebab shop) and getting comfortable in my aparment. Not having net access there makes being comfortable a bit more difficult, but a beer and an episode of Prison Break helped a lot :) I still have to get the last 3 episodes of the 1st season from someone...

Yes, and after this it was just sleeping... After all, I had to get up at 4:30AM to catch my plane :)

So this concludes my first blog entry ever :) Exciting, huh? Now take a look at my apartment :)

M.