Pussy Cat, Pussy Cat, Where Have You Been?

Last Tuesday, it was announced that bars and restaurants could serve customers outside without the need for a negative corona test from Friday. This is one of the reasons why I am writing this in the early hours of Tuesday morning rather than during my usual weekend period. Furthermore, bars and restaruants were permitted to open to customers who had a negative corona test inside, but considering it has been 28C throughout the weekend, there really was no need to go inside.

We have recovered from our first dose of the vaccine which, along with the number of corona cases in Germany being at their lowest since last September, is giving me greater confidence going out and about. We are still being very careful, wearing masks and carrying hand sanitizer wherever we go, but the fact we can do so much outside has given us a real sense of freedom. Furthermore, there is a sense of real progress now, having submitted the revised contract to our new landlord for a 1 July moving in date as well as Wolfie receiving his call up from the immigration people to get his residency card. Alas, they are yet to contact me, but I have heard similar stories of huge gaps between partners and I can only hope they get in touch soon. Certainly, I'd like them to get in touch by the end of the month, as that is technically the cut off for applications and even though I have proof of submission, I am still paranoid that something may have gone wrong.

Last week started well, but descended towards the end, largely on account of Wolfie's job frustrations. He really doesn't like the work and sometimes it really gets to him, with Wednesday in particular being one of those days. As the weather was nice, I prompted him to go for a walk, which turned into a two-hour affair along the streets. Still needing a test to go for a drink, we decided to avoid the bars, although we were very tempted to try and get tested simply because we wanted to sit outside. We didn't though, although seeing Boris in a hideous shirt standing outside Stray's favourite bar, Weiss-Blau, made us wish we had got tested. Still, it was past his closing time of 8pm so it was probably for the best we didn't. In the end, we called off at a kebab store on Wilmersdorf Strasse, realising that despite being in Germany for nearly seven months, we had not yet sampled a kebab. This was a travesty and although we chose this place at random simply as we were walking past, there was a regular footflow of people and some BVG workers were sat on the benches outside, suggesting it was a place favoured by locals despite it being on one of the main shopping streets. We grabbed a kebab sandwich for €3,50, with my German just about holding up, and it was one of the most exquisite things we had ever tasted. The meat was good, there was a good amount of lettuce and I could have mine without tomato. We had a range of sauces in there too and it's delectable nature did perk Wolfie up somewhat. After this, we also grabbed some ice cream from one of the local Italian restaurants I often walk past, tucked right next to Deutchse Oper. We then went to the supermarket, which was less exciting.

With the trials of the week getting on top of us, it was during a call to my mother that I noticed that Bar Lemke was open. This sits opposite Schloss Charlottenburg and was a place we had been meaning to go to ever since we moved here. It has a narrow outside terrace which we didn't think would be used, but upon walking past and noticing it was full, I headed back home and after finishing the call with my mother, dragged Wolfie out. Their opening times were non-commital, saying '9pm but if it's nice weather, it may be later' so we chanced our luck approaching 10pm. It took a while to get seated, but once we did, we struck up a rapport with an elderly barman who quite liked us. Alas, my German soon slipped into English but we endeared ourselves to him, so much so that he said we should come back the next day as he was working then too. I think he liked my story of wanting to go to the bar ever since I first saw it was there over half a year previously. We did go back on the Saturday in the end, but it was quite late and I think he may have clocked off for the day, so we only had one drink and disappeared. Still, on both evenings, it was great sitting outside and watching the sky darken, the lights of the castle and street flickering on and even the boy racers revving their Volkswagens up and down the road outside weren't too annoying. Indeed, it was all rather pleasant.

We had signed up for an online furry con this weekend, Furality Luma, which was solely in VR Chat. We had intended to go quite a bit, but in the end only managed to squeeze a few hours each on Friday and Sunday. The key problem was the whole thing was gate-walled so you had to join each instance from their website, meaning you had to keep taking your headset on and off. Furthermore, each instance was only capped to 25 people, and there was no way of knowing where your friends were. This meant we had to bounce in and out of all instances - at one point finding Procyon in DJ room 114 from 100 - just to see if we could find anyone. Furthermore, despite the plethora of invites - both receiving and requesting - we couldn't actually meet up due to everything being walled off. I understand the reason for this, as Furnal Equinox got doxxed so often back in March, but it did negate the social aspect of the con for me, which is the primary reason why I go to them. Still, the worlds themselves were really stunning, based on a crystal theme, while the dealers den up the mountain in different coloured huts was a nice touch. Furthermore, they did have a rock and metal set from the fantastically named DJ Fetus Grinder interspersed with the usual EDM and hardstyle rubbish. Still, there was some chilled music too and the ability to turn the volume down in world meant we could at least chat to some fellow ravers. Wolfie found a way of circumventing the invite issue so on Sunday night in particular we managed to get a number of our furry friends down, as well as talk to Procyon's crew too. In the end, $10 represented very good value for money but I do wish it will be easier to meet people next year as I definitely enjoyed Furnal Equinox more. This was one of the reasons why I wasn't tempted to go on Satuday night - this and Stray kinda guilted me into joining the Jackbox Games night and we ended up hanging around. We had only intended to be with Stray for an hour before dipping into VR Chat, but in the end we stayed with Stray for three hours, by which time it was too late to log off. The evening with Stray was mixed - it started off well, but Mel turned up with his usual bitchiness and the conversation became somewhat mired and tedious.

We skipped Stray's music night on Sunday, going to Furality Luma instead. We ended up staying up past 4am, meaning that we were rudely awoken by the cleaner this morning, which was frustrating as she usually comes on Tuesdays. Wolfie never told me the day change and had I known, I almost certainly would have gone to bed earlier. Exacerbating the tiredness has been the sticky weather, which has made the bedroom/my office something of a furnace. Furthermore, over the weekend, we did around 50,000 steps combined which resulted in very tired paws.

I'll detail our Saturday Potsdam trip with Hunter Husky separately as it's quite lengthy, but on Sunday afternoon we met up with Kamsirius and Trax for a walk out east along the Spree. This was our third attempt at a meet-up as we cancelled our first one two weeks ago due to the weather, while the following week we were still recovering from the vaccine. I think Wolfie was a little undecided about whether he wanted to go on Sunday as he was still feeling tired after Potsdam and values days where he doesn't do all that much, but we had already rearranged this enough times and I didn't want to alienate friends in Berlin. Furthermore, we got to be reacquainted with Trax, someone to whom we had spoken a few times before but someone we didn't know all too well. In the end, it turned out to be a fantastic day and well worth the effort.

We had arranged to meet up at the cathedral-like Hauptbahnhof at 4pm, but both pairs were running late - us on account of a 245 bus that didn't turn up and them because they were walking all the way from Ostkreuz and were slightly delayed. Still, after grabbing a sausage at Ditsch and some incredibly expensive water at Relay (after spotting a far too lengthy queue at REWE), we managed to meet up with them outside the Asia Gourment on Erdegeschoss. Upon leaving the station, we soon found the river and were walking along its meandering banks, built up as they were with concrete. We saw the back end of the Reichstag along with some new modern buildings, before delving deeper into the heart of the city. We stopped off at a supermarket in Frederischshein station to pick up some water for Kamsirius and Trax, while we were accosted by a strange emasciated guy outside who just kept staring at us. We then headed on, urging Kamsirius to avoid the crowds of the cycling event which was happening in the city - we have successfully managed to avoid COVID thus far, we didn't want to pick it up just weeks ahead of our second and final vaccination.

Soon we found ourselves outside the familiar wide streets around Alexanderplatz, with this part of the city definitely having a more Soviet style infrastructure. There were trams in abundance, while we also saw the phallic TV tower which was like a familiar friend. The same could be said of Rotes Rathaus, down the road from which sits Stray's favourite fancy dress shop, where he spent nearly €150 on tat a few EFs ago. We also got lost down some of the preserved cobbled streets before heading further east, down past Ostbahnhof and Warschauer Strasse, seeing the remnants of the Berlin Wall along the way. We had been here before and the walk was starting to resemble a schlep - beforehand, we were looking at the river, its little harbour area and locks allowing boats to pass but we had soon swapped all this for a busy road which was too loud to be able to generate any meaningful conversation. As we were walking down here, I was checking the exit poll for the Sachsen-Anhalt election, and shortly after 6pm I was delighted to discover that the AfD had done far worse than expected. This set my mood for the rest of the day and soon we were heading towards Ostkreuz, where Kamsirius had booked a restaurant.

Katyusha is a Russian place that Kamsirius had first visited the previous Friday. He had told us it was good, but then he also told us the waiter spoke fluent Russian and there was confusion as to whether he actually did. There was confusion throughout as it turned out as even though there were only two tables of paying customers, the restaurant was understaffed and he was really struggling. He brought us the wrong drinks initially, and these were 45 minutes after we had placed our order, which was tantilsingly terrible considering the lengthy walk we had just done. The draft beer I wanted wasn't on, understandable as I guess they had only just reopened after six months, but then the bottled beer I got was out of date. Initially, he also said there wasn't enough sashlik, only for him to change his mind, meaning we all got a portion. This, to be fair, turned out to be delicious and well worth the wait, although it was very much on the oily side. Trax wanted some more sour cream and a serviette, but in the end we didn't want to trouble the guy, who we feared would have a breakdown if we added any more demands to his rather meagre list. He was very apologetic, but clearly frustrated and vexed at the staffing issues there.

We could have stayed, but Trax noticed a bar next door that was serving British cider, something that is very hard to find here. Called Home, it was clearly run by a Brit, and we got talking to him as Trax was picking out his tipples. He is not a beer drinker and I thought he wanted to sit outside the bar, but with table space at a premium, he just ended up getting cider to take out. Still, in our conversation with the propreitor, we noted that he was selling Yorkshire Tea at a reasonable price, Jacob's Cream Crackers at a high price and that he supplies our favourite burger guy out near where we live. Without even trying, I think we're getting into the heart of the British ex-pat community and certainly we're finding ways to get some of the products we miss back home. He also reassured us about the residency card procedure and, after I told him there was a brewery further down the road we wanted to try, he told us about a craft beer crawl we can do around the local area. With Brewdog coming soon, it promises to be a place we will definitely come back to.

It has been great seeing Berlin come back to life again and I have started to feel more comfortable about being here now we're doing things. We are also making friends here too, with two events already planned for next weekend too. Alas, I have to work as well so those may be curtailed slightly, but it's great to have people who want to see us. After our trip to Home, Kamsirius invited us back to his place, but it was a half hour walk away and with a pretty direct train from the nearby Ostkreuz station back home, we thought it made more sense to be on our way. It was also 9:30pm on a Sunday evening, with both of us having work the next day. Hopefully, we can swing by next week though as I would like to have stuck around. Indeed, had it been Saturday, we probably would have done.