Today the Wifi search has brought me and a friend to Café CK in Prenzlauer Berg (my favourite of Berlin's more central districts). I have already had my meagre knowledge of coffee beans and roasts insulted, but other than a little staff snobbery this quiet gourmet coffee shop makes a pleasant change from the endless crowds in St Oberholz. We've just spent (quite) a while in St George's English bookshop just down the road. Resisted the temptation to buy any more books because of the implications for the weight of my suitcase on the flight home.
Quite a lot has occurred since the last post. One of my flatmates and me visited the Pergamonmuseum and the Alte Nationalgalerie on Sunday, giving our weekend a serious cultural injection. After a quick but hearty lunch in Fraulein Burger - an all-organic, all-homemade, all-delicious burger bar - we spent four hours from late afternoon into the evening working in St Oberholz, watching the nighttime crowd filter in around us.
By Monday morning my cold had well and truly settled in. Used an embarrassing amount of loo roll as no one seems to sell single packets of tissues in Berlin and I didn't want to commit to buying 12 packets in the supermarket. Had my first ever doner kebab for lunch from a Turkish place around the corner from the offices - an incredibly tasty way to feed a cold. Decided to skip the afternoon trip to Mercedes World (the planned visit to the Garten der Welt couldn't go ahead because of the drizzly weather) and went for a guided tour of the Berliner Philharmonie instead. Architecturally the building is a masterpiece; every curvature of its concert hall was designed to create the best possible acoustic experience, from the tilted walls to the wooden sails hanging from the ceiling. It's most definitely one of my favourite buildings in the city.
After the tour I retreated back to St Oberholz and hid myself upstairs with a chai latte (newly discovered hot drink of choice). That evening, as none of us in the flat had made plans to go out, we stayed in with plenty of cheese, salami, bread, salad and Rittersport and pigged out in front of some German-dubbed American television. Blissful.
Yesterday involved a very long day in the office. When we finally did leave at nearly 5:30, it was to head out to Kreuzberg to find a German restaurant - dubbed by Marcus as "touristy" - called Max und Moritz's. The six of us who had headed out there enjoyed some good wine and very traditional, flavoursome German food. Overall immeasurably more successful than our previous attempt to find a German restaurant in Kreuzberg (see the "Mutti" incident from 6 September).
This morning was our final writing workshop; even though we've only had three in total, it feels like the end is already approaching. There's still so much to do before the project is finished - writing the final reviews, editing and finalising the layout designs to name but a few tasks - but the flights home are drawing close worryingly fast. Having been here two and a half weeks I now appreciate that one month in this glorious city is simply not enough. When I leave next Saturday, although I will have done so much in my time here, I will leave behind so many places I wanted to explore, so many things I wanted to try. It's safe to assume that Berlin will draw me back before long.
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