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It has been a very busy week at work, my new role seemingly being a combination of my previous two at the company. This means that everything is stretched, but this may partly be due to many staff being off last week due to the Easter holidays. I suspect things will change in earnest tomorrow, particularly as we have a new member of the team starting too, but I won't lie that my heart is no longer in this company nor really this industry and I am looking to get out. The problem is, having been in this industry for over 15 years, it's hard to move to another one. Fortunately, I do have certain transferrable skills, but getting interviews is proving to be challenging. I just hope that some of the other irons I have in the fire could provide a stepping stone to where I want to be. It could be a slow burning thing though.
Thursday was the inaugural gastronomy furs meet-up arranged by Kamsirius, an event I really want to support. Alas, the first one was all the way in Kopernik, which was an hour and twenty minutes from me on a good day, but with the S3 enduring a rail replacement bus service for part of the route, was going to be beyond an hour and a half. I couldn't get there for the 19:30 start time and even arriving at 20:00 would have meant having to finish work forty-five minutes early, which turned out to be an impossibility due to my new role. It was a successful event though and I think the next one is going to be in Prenzlauer Berg, which is much more accessible. I did try and get down there but an over three-hour round-trip on a weeknight (and that's assuming all trains were running smoothly) was always going to be too much for me, which is why I bowed out on the day. I do hope to get to future events though as this is exactly the sort of thing I think the community needs here and it may address some of the loneliness I am feeling being in Germany these days.
Wolfie was away again on Thursday and Friday, while his busted foot has meant he hasn't been very mobile. This trip away really exacerbated this, meaning that he didn't get to go out as much as he would have liked this weekend. It also meant that I ended up doing the vast majority of the cleaning of the house before our visitors arrived. Petephin and his partner Travis hit Spandau at 20:48, just twenty minutes after Wolfie's colleague had dropped him off at the main railway station. I was still working, so I had to dash out, but fortunately I managed to meet people on time. Once we had hooked up with our friends, we went to Netto to buy some supplies (mainly alcohol) before going to Capuccino for some pizza. Fortunately, at 9:30pm, it wasn't too busy so there was easily a table for us, and we got to know Travis over some delicious food as well as catch up with Pete. We even shared a bottle of wine before heading back to the house, where we did more talking over some gin and tonics. Sadly, Wolfie couldn't join us, as his foot was so bad he needed to rest it, although he did at least make the pizza place. We ended up retiring shortly after 1am as it had been a long journey for our friends, while Wolfie's Neproxin had taken hold and he was fast asleep too.
We didn't get up too late on Saturday, allowing us to have a rather leisurely breakfast of the cheese and chicken I had bought. Wolfie had to stay in, but our friends wanted to look around the city, thankfully suggesting a few places which weren't typical tourist sites. The first was the underground catacombs next to Gesundbrunnen station, but unfortunately all German and English tours were fully booked for the whole weekend. This meant we had to go to our back-up plan, but not before stopping off at Blackstyle to check out their lube (which wasn't extensive enough) and Unser Cafe, where we got Pastel de Nata and in my case a chai latte. This Portuguese cafe is in Schonhouser Allee and has an odd name considering it's Portuguese nature. The pastel was adequate, but could have been warmer, but the staff made the place. I started speaking to the guy in German and he said he didn't speak the language (which was odd as we definitely heard him speaking it to other customers), saying he was Brazilian. This allowed Pete to order in his native Portuguese, meaning he didn't have to be shy about using German, while it turned out the staff member had been raised near Bray in Ireland, so I could have an in-depth discussion about that area, having visited. His English did have an Irish twang so it all figured. Sadly, the indoors of the cafe was full so we had to sit outside in the rain, although an awning did protect us from the worst of the weather.
It was while we were outside here that Travis expressed an interest in going to the gay area, but with the U2 still annoyingly out of action at Alexanderplatz, getting there wasn't easy. He also wanted to go to a museum called the Designpanoptikum in the Nikolai Viertel, which was sort of on the way. Therefore, once we left the Portuguese cafe, we headed down there, stopping at a few of the market stalls we saw en route. One of these was a guy specialising in old cameras, largely from the 1980s and 1990s. Pete has one of these machines and thus questioned the guy about how easy it would be to repair the automatic timer on his camera, as it was broken. He also showed me some of the previous pictures he had taken with the camera of his family, with shots taken this year looking like images from thirty years ago. At the same time, Travis bought some Honig Punsch from a concession directly opposite, burning his tongue on the sweetened apple drink in the process. He was also lusting after tacos and African food, while Pete thought he heard a live bassist which turned out just to be a record being played. Before all this, though, we had gotten off the tram outside Hackescher Markt and I showed the duo the neat little courtyards, which are hidden off the main drag. Inside Courtyard V, there was Ampelmann, the original store dedicated to the famous East German traffic light signs. Pete wanted to buy a present for his folks, so we popped in, marvelling at the prices of this stuff. I do think it's quite ironic that a symbol of the old communist GDR has become such a capitalist endeavour. Travis wanted to buy the actual shields you would see in the traffic lights but they were quite expensive. Meanwhile, Pete and I split some fridge magnets, with me realising that our fridge was rather barren. It was here where, to my delight, I learned that the German word for thimble translates literally as Finger Hat (Fingerhut), which is exactly what I would guess that word to be if someone asked me.
Walking around the city means the city tends to reveal itself and we found ourselves down an alleyway at the end of which there was an Anne Frank museum. There was also an odd bar and some wonderous foxy graffiti of the kind we saw after the LGBT festival near Kottbuser Tor last July. Sadly, while walking down this alleyway, we also bumped into some Geordies saying "Are we goin' too the Trance bar? Are we goin' to the Transgender bar?" They were harmless, but annoying.
Navigating through Alexanderplatz, we eventually got to the Designpanoptikum, which is basically one guy's obsession with old equipment converted into a museum. He was certainly enthusiastic, bordering on the mad scientist, as he extolled the virtues of previous technology and how modern day marketing has made things disposable. He uses a range of things like cinema projection units and iron lungs to create modern art by juxtaposing these with other objects to make one wonder. Things like propellers, flasks, gas masks and heads of varying sizes littered the museum, which had two rooms upstairs and four downstairs. He gave us a little talk initially, giving us the option to leave if we weren't interested, but we decided to give it a go as he was so passionate. Maybe the €13 price tag was a little steep, and it was a little disconcerting when he closed the door and joined us in the dimmed back room of the museum, but it was a fun place to spend half an hour. Before we started, he also asked us to identify a strange object, saying he would reveal what it was when we returned from the basement, before we left. I was in the right ballpark with my guess, but I am not going to reveal what it is.
Needing the toilet and a sit down, after this we tried to go to Wilde Matilde, a pink-themed cafe on the corner of Nikolai Viertel. I saw this with Pinky last August and she really wanted to go, but unfortunately we didn't have time that day. When we arrived, the waitress on the door seemed quite reticent to seat us. She said it was reserved after 19:00, but considering it was 17:50 and all we wanted was a drink and some cake, we thought that would be fine. We were guided through to table 87, sat there for fifteen minutes and then ignored. We looked through the extensive cocktail menu, chose our drinks and then were told we had to leave as a family of eight had arrived for our table. It was 18:07 and thus well before the time the spot was reserved. We had to slink out embarrassingly, which was disappointing. I just wish they had told us they were busy in the first place, but what I do mind is being messed about like this. It was incredibly poor and I will not go back again, despite the luscious pink seating and the 1920s feel. As a result of this, we ended up in Coffee Fellows in Alexanderplatz, a place we tried with Taneli back in January. At least here we got a coffee and a seat, as well as some excellent cake which was recommended to us by the waitress. Access to the toilet here too was appreciated.
We did go to the gay area after this, utilising the final hour before the kink shops closed to buy a few things. Lube was purchased, as were a few other things, while we also noted that Woof now calls itself a 'Cruising Bar', which I don't think it did before. It wasn't open until 21:00 anyway. Once we had covered the entirety of the two main streets, we had an hour to kill before our restaurant booking, which Pete had made earlier (again in Portuguese as it was a Portuguese restaurant). The initial plan had been to walk there, which was fifty-one minutes, but the weather was still drizzly and inclement. As we started, it was revealed that neither Pete or Travis had been to a gay bar before, so we turned around and walked back to the gay area, deciding to go to Prenzknecht. We did get some looks as we walked in, theoretically because we aren't regulars (this was only the third time I had been), but these soon subsided, particularly from the single men who were there. We got to the bar, were pointed to the menu and ordered drinks, putting our coats on the convenient rack behind us. I made a pretty big deal about buying them their first ever drinks in a gay bar, an honour that can't now be taken away from me. Sadly, there were no seats but we did manage to perch at table number fifteen, under a TV screen that was showing 'Pig Fuck Orgy 2020', which was assumedly shot in the first two months of the year due to COVID. Sadly, that's all we saw. The bar did fill up as we stayed, with typical pop hits being blasted out, but the vibe was pretty chilled and Pete and Travis certainly enjoyed it, despite maybe their initial misgivings. This isn't a cruising bar as far as I can tell, and that wouldn't really be my vibe anyway. It was, however, reassuring to see men of so many shapes and sizes in Prenzknecht, including those with a similar build to myself. I have always felt very awkward in gay bars partly due to my body, so this certainly helped (even though that morning I did weigh myself and noticed I've put on a little weight this week).
We did then go to the restaurant, which was just off Walter Schreiber Platz, one way we get to Qualgeist. The initial plan had been to go to the fetish club but none of the events were suitable. The restaurant was Portuguese and called Carlos Caravela. We chose it as it was pretty easy to get to by train, meaning Wolfie didn't have an awful lot of walking to do. As it turned out, he got there earlier than we did and was waiting for us as we arrived. We were bang on time and were soon seated. The food was very good, with the bread and aioli and the garlic bread exactly what was needed, particularly as Pete had gotten a bit tipsy on his one cocktail, largely due to a lack of food. The main dishes were really nice but maybe a little overpriced. I had lamb cutlet with potatoes and a generous salad, while we finished off with Beirao, a sweet digestif which ended the mean perfectly. Pete also blasted the high-strength alcohol gel at the candle, causing quite the inflammation, which rattled against my wine glass. I don't think the lady behind the bar was amused. Still, the wine he picked was from southern Portugal and famed for its smoothness while it was definitely a good restaurant to try.
After this, we managed to hop on the RE2 service out of Zoologischer Garten, allowing us just enough time to pick up a small tube of toothpaste, which had been forgotten by our friends. We then ended up in Spandauer Bierbrunnen, where our friends had some reasonably priced cocktails and we had a couple of beers. Interestingly, the barman now recognises us so we now have a usual there, while it's quite a friendly place that's fortunately open late. For much of the time we were the only people in there, although another table was filled later on. It is also a non-smoking place, which is good, but it was also advertising Spargel-Saison, meaning the month-long German fetish for asparagus has started in earnest.
We went home after this, foolishly opting to drink some absinthe as everyone wanted to try some. I had been wanting to try it for a year, ever since reading Kyell Gold's Green Fairy, but for one reason or another, I never had. The problem is I really wanted to do it following the ritual in gothic style in a darkened room but alas this never happened. Due to other commitments, I also often need a clear head on weekends, which was another reason why we never got round to trying it. Anyway, we did last night and we did follow the ritual, pouring out measures of absinthe and dissolving the sugar with (non-distilled as that was all we had) water. This allows the absinthe to react and swirl, releasing some of the flavours. I'll admit it was far more pleasant than I was expecting, with a slight minty hit. It did hit my lethargy hard though, but then having walked nearly 20,000 steps (according to my iPhone as the battery on my Fitbit is dying and it conked out halfway through the weird museum), being tired wasn't a shock. I still went to bed at nearly 4am.
Sunday was a slow day, starting around lunchtime with freshly baked Brotchen and more cheese and chicken. Wolfie's foot was still buggered so I ended up showing Pete and Travis around Spandau on my own. We did most of the usual sights, walking by the Havel, seeing the wall and then walking back through the city to see the Church, Marketplatz and Rathaus. We also got to see the Zitadelle, deciding that the €4.50 entry fee was worth it. It certainly was, but it was strange to see the central area so empty, as when I've been before, it's usually had a Christmas market or other concessions in it. Still, we did manage to walk around most of it, as well as see the military museum where a range of cannon, mortars and other military equipment is stored. We also got to climb up and enjoy the views from Juliusturm, with its winding wooden spiral staircase being particularly mindfucky in such an enclosed space. The views were worth it though and Travis remarked how he would like to see them at sunset, which I admit would be nice.
Their train back to Wurzburg was due at 16:46 but was running roughly twenty minutes late. This meant our visit to the Zitadelle was a little fleating, but we did manage to see a good chunk of it, and I think our friends will be back. We walked back to our house to pick up their bags before I got them to the station on time, with the twenty-minute delay being just enough time for them to buy some snacks for their journey. Having said goodbye to them, I went home and tried to hop on Pony Chat but no-one was around. I was feeling pretty tired after such a strenuous weekend so had to cancel a proposed plan with Ninji, who has been visiting Berlin this past weekend. I only noticed this on Friday and did say for him to drop me a message on Sunday if he was free. He said he had a few things to do here so I didn't want to pressure him, but in the end, he did send me a note shortly before 18:00. I was keen to meet, but I collapsed on the bed as soon as I got home and have been not particularly sure on my feet since due to the tiredness. I certainly couldn't have gone out, while I have barely seen Wolfie all weekend either (plus he was away Thursday and Friday). It's a shame, but we should be able to meet up at CFz at least.
It was great hosting Pete and Travis, and hopefully we can meet them down in Wurzburg soon. We've never been there before and it's part of my effort to visit more places in Germany this year in case we move back to the UK. It's interesting to hear his experience and ours about the fandom here are quite similar, as well as some Germans in general, which has given me much to ponder. I think we'll see how things transpire in the coming months, particularly when I am back in the UK in May, as my doubts about being here are only growing. As I've said before, I do want it to work, but there are so many worries that I cannot dismiss that it's becoming very hard to function properly. I wish I could just relax about things, but alas, it's something I've never been able to do. I guess we'll see how things go and whether we can join a few more groups to try and be more accepted.
Thursday was the inaugural gastronomy furs meet-up arranged by Kamsirius, an event I really want to support. Alas, the first one was all the way in Kopernik, which was an hour and twenty minutes from me on a good day, but with the S3 enduring a rail replacement bus service for part of the route, was going to be beyond an hour and a half. I couldn't get there for the 19:30 start time and even arriving at 20:00 would have meant having to finish work forty-five minutes early, which turned out to be an impossibility due to my new role. It was a successful event though and I think the next one is going to be in Prenzlauer Berg, which is much more accessible. I did try and get down there but an over three-hour round-trip on a weeknight (and that's assuming all trains were running smoothly) was always going to be too much for me, which is why I bowed out on the day. I do hope to get to future events though as this is exactly the sort of thing I think the community needs here and it may address some of the loneliness I am feeling being in Germany these days.
Wolfie was away again on Thursday and Friday, while his busted foot has meant he hasn't been very mobile. This trip away really exacerbated this, meaning that he didn't get to go out as much as he would have liked this weekend. It also meant that I ended up doing the vast majority of the cleaning of the house before our visitors arrived. Petephin and his partner Travis hit Spandau at 20:48, just twenty minutes after Wolfie's colleague had dropped him off at the main railway station. I was still working, so I had to dash out, but fortunately I managed to meet people on time. Once we had hooked up with our friends, we went to Netto to buy some supplies (mainly alcohol) before going to Capuccino for some pizza. Fortunately, at 9:30pm, it wasn't too busy so there was easily a table for us, and we got to know Travis over some delicious food as well as catch up with Pete. We even shared a bottle of wine before heading back to the house, where we did more talking over some gin and tonics. Sadly, Wolfie couldn't join us, as his foot was so bad he needed to rest it, although he did at least make the pizza place. We ended up retiring shortly after 1am as it had been a long journey for our friends, while Wolfie's Neproxin had taken hold and he was fast asleep too.
We didn't get up too late on Saturday, allowing us to have a rather leisurely breakfast of the cheese and chicken I had bought. Wolfie had to stay in, but our friends wanted to look around the city, thankfully suggesting a few places which weren't typical tourist sites. The first was the underground catacombs next to Gesundbrunnen station, but unfortunately all German and English tours were fully booked for the whole weekend. This meant we had to go to our back-up plan, but not before stopping off at Blackstyle to check out their lube (which wasn't extensive enough) and Unser Cafe, where we got Pastel de Nata and in my case a chai latte. This Portuguese cafe is in Schonhouser Allee and has an odd name considering it's Portuguese nature. The pastel was adequate, but could have been warmer, but the staff made the place. I started speaking to the guy in German and he said he didn't speak the language (which was odd as we definitely heard him speaking it to other customers), saying he was Brazilian. This allowed Pete to order in his native Portuguese, meaning he didn't have to be shy about using German, while it turned out the staff member had been raised near Bray in Ireland, so I could have an in-depth discussion about that area, having visited. His English did have an Irish twang so it all figured. Sadly, the indoors of the cafe was full so we had to sit outside in the rain, although an awning did protect us from the worst of the weather.
It was while we were outside here that Travis expressed an interest in going to the gay area, but with the U2 still annoyingly out of action at Alexanderplatz, getting there wasn't easy. He also wanted to go to a museum called the Designpanoptikum in the Nikolai Viertel, which was sort of on the way. Therefore, once we left the Portuguese cafe, we headed down there, stopping at a few of the market stalls we saw en route. One of these was a guy specialising in old cameras, largely from the 1980s and 1990s. Pete has one of these machines and thus questioned the guy about how easy it would be to repair the automatic timer on his camera, as it was broken. He also showed me some of the previous pictures he had taken with the camera of his family, with shots taken this year looking like images from thirty years ago. At the same time, Travis bought some Honig Punsch from a concession directly opposite, burning his tongue on the sweetened apple drink in the process. He was also lusting after tacos and African food, while Pete thought he heard a live bassist which turned out just to be a record being played. Before all this, though, we had gotten off the tram outside Hackescher Markt and I showed the duo the neat little courtyards, which are hidden off the main drag. Inside Courtyard V, there was Ampelmann, the original store dedicated to the famous East German traffic light signs. Pete wanted to buy a present for his folks, so we popped in, marvelling at the prices of this stuff. I do think it's quite ironic that a symbol of the old communist GDR has become such a capitalist endeavour. Travis wanted to buy the actual shields you would see in the traffic lights but they were quite expensive. Meanwhile, Pete and I split some fridge magnets, with me realising that our fridge was rather barren. It was here where, to my delight, I learned that the German word for thimble translates literally as Finger Hat (Fingerhut), which is exactly what I would guess that word to be if someone asked me.
Walking around the city means the city tends to reveal itself and we found ourselves down an alleyway at the end of which there was an Anne Frank museum. There was also an odd bar and some wonderous foxy graffiti of the kind we saw after the LGBT festival near Kottbuser Tor last July. Sadly, while walking down this alleyway, we also bumped into some Geordies saying "Are we goin' too the Trance bar? Are we goin' to the Transgender bar?" They were harmless, but annoying.
Navigating through Alexanderplatz, we eventually got to the Designpanoptikum, which is basically one guy's obsession with old equipment converted into a museum. He was certainly enthusiastic, bordering on the mad scientist, as he extolled the virtues of previous technology and how modern day marketing has made things disposable. He uses a range of things like cinema projection units and iron lungs to create modern art by juxtaposing these with other objects to make one wonder. Things like propellers, flasks, gas masks and heads of varying sizes littered the museum, which had two rooms upstairs and four downstairs. He gave us a little talk initially, giving us the option to leave if we weren't interested, but we decided to give it a go as he was so passionate. Maybe the €13 price tag was a little steep, and it was a little disconcerting when he closed the door and joined us in the dimmed back room of the museum, but it was a fun place to spend half an hour. Before we started, he also asked us to identify a strange object, saying he would reveal what it was when we returned from the basement, before we left. I was in the right ballpark with my guess, but I am not going to reveal what it is.
Needing the toilet and a sit down, after this we tried to go to Wilde Matilde, a pink-themed cafe on the corner of Nikolai Viertel. I saw this with Pinky last August and she really wanted to go, but unfortunately we didn't have time that day. When we arrived, the waitress on the door seemed quite reticent to seat us. She said it was reserved after 19:00, but considering it was 17:50 and all we wanted was a drink and some cake, we thought that would be fine. We were guided through to table 87, sat there for fifteen minutes and then ignored. We looked through the extensive cocktail menu, chose our drinks and then were told we had to leave as a family of eight had arrived for our table. It was 18:07 and thus well before the time the spot was reserved. We had to slink out embarrassingly, which was disappointing. I just wish they had told us they were busy in the first place, but what I do mind is being messed about like this. It was incredibly poor and I will not go back again, despite the luscious pink seating and the 1920s feel. As a result of this, we ended up in Coffee Fellows in Alexanderplatz, a place we tried with Taneli back in January. At least here we got a coffee and a seat, as well as some excellent cake which was recommended to us by the waitress. Access to the toilet here too was appreciated.
We did go to the gay area after this, utilising the final hour before the kink shops closed to buy a few things. Lube was purchased, as were a few other things, while we also noted that Woof now calls itself a 'Cruising Bar', which I don't think it did before. It wasn't open until 21:00 anyway. Once we had covered the entirety of the two main streets, we had an hour to kill before our restaurant booking, which Pete had made earlier (again in Portuguese as it was a Portuguese restaurant). The initial plan had been to walk there, which was fifty-one minutes, but the weather was still drizzly and inclement. As we started, it was revealed that neither Pete or Travis had been to a gay bar before, so we turned around and walked back to the gay area, deciding to go to Prenzknecht. We did get some looks as we walked in, theoretically because we aren't regulars (this was only the third time I had been), but these soon subsided, particularly from the single men who were there. We got to the bar, were pointed to the menu and ordered drinks, putting our coats on the convenient rack behind us. I made a pretty big deal about buying them their first ever drinks in a gay bar, an honour that can't now be taken away from me. Sadly, there were no seats but we did manage to perch at table number fifteen, under a TV screen that was showing 'Pig Fuck Orgy 2020', which was assumedly shot in the first two months of the year due to COVID. Sadly, that's all we saw. The bar did fill up as we stayed, with typical pop hits being blasted out, but the vibe was pretty chilled and Pete and Travis certainly enjoyed it, despite maybe their initial misgivings. This isn't a cruising bar as far as I can tell, and that wouldn't really be my vibe anyway. It was, however, reassuring to see men of so many shapes and sizes in Prenzknecht, including those with a similar build to myself. I have always felt very awkward in gay bars partly due to my body, so this certainly helped (even though that morning I did weigh myself and noticed I've put on a little weight this week).
We did then go to the restaurant, which was just off Walter Schreiber Platz, one way we get to Qualgeist. The initial plan had been to go to the fetish club but none of the events were suitable. The restaurant was Portuguese and called Carlos Caravela. We chose it as it was pretty easy to get to by train, meaning Wolfie didn't have an awful lot of walking to do. As it turned out, he got there earlier than we did and was waiting for us as we arrived. We were bang on time and were soon seated. The food was very good, with the bread and aioli and the garlic bread exactly what was needed, particularly as Pete had gotten a bit tipsy on his one cocktail, largely due to a lack of food. The main dishes were really nice but maybe a little overpriced. I had lamb cutlet with potatoes and a generous salad, while we finished off with Beirao, a sweet digestif which ended the mean perfectly. Pete also blasted the high-strength alcohol gel at the candle, causing quite the inflammation, which rattled against my wine glass. I don't think the lady behind the bar was amused. Still, the wine he picked was from southern Portugal and famed for its smoothness while it was definitely a good restaurant to try.
After this, we managed to hop on the RE2 service out of Zoologischer Garten, allowing us just enough time to pick up a small tube of toothpaste, which had been forgotten by our friends. We then ended up in Spandauer Bierbrunnen, where our friends had some reasonably priced cocktails and we had a couple of beers. Interestingly, the barman now recognises us so we now have a usual there, while it's quite a friendly place that's fortunately open late. For much of the time we were the only people in there, although another table was filled later on. It is also a non-smoking place, which is good, but it was also advertising Spargel-Saison, meaning the month-long German fetish for asparagus has started in earnest.
We went home after this, foolishly opting to drink some absinthe as everyone wanted to try some. I had been wanting to try it for a year, ever since reading Kyell Gold's Green Fairy, but for one reason or another, I never had. The problem is I really wanted to do it following the ritual in gothic style in a darkened room but alas this never happened. Due to other commitments, I also often need a clear head on weekends, which was another reason why we never got round to trying it. Anyway, we did last night and we did follow the ritual, pouring out measures of absinthe and dissolving the sugar with (non-distilled as that was all we had) water. This allows the absinthe to react and swirl, releasing some of the flavours. I'll admit it was far more pleasant than I was expecting, with a slight minty hit. It did hit my lethargy hard though, but then having walked nearly 20,000 steps (according to my iPhone as the battery on my Fitbit is dying and it conked out halfway through the weird museum), being tired wasn't a shock. I still went to bed at nearly 4am.
Sunday was a slow day, starting around lunchtime with freshly baked Brotchen and more cheese and chicken. Wolfie's foot was still buggered so I ended up showing Pete and Travis around Spandau on my own. We did most of the usual sights, walking by the Havel, seeing the wall and then walking back through the city to see the Church, Marketplatz and Rathaus. We also got to see the Zitadelle, deciding that the €4.50 entry fee was worth it. It certainly was, but it was strange to see the central area so empty, as when I've been before, it's usually had a Christmas market or other concessions in it. Still, we did manage to walk around most of it, as well as see the military museum where a range of cannon, mortars and other military equipment is stored. We also got to climb up and enjoy the views from Juliusturm, with its winding wooden spiral staircase being particularly mindfucky in such an enclosed space. The views were worth it though and Travis remarked how he would like to see them at sunset, which I admit would be nice.
Their train back to Wurzburg was due at 16:46 but was running roughly twenty minutes late. This meant our visit to the Zitadelle was a little fleating, but we did manage to see a good chunk of it, and I think our friends will be back. We walked back to our house to pick up their bags before I got them to the station on time, with the twenty-minute delay being just enough time for them to buy some snacks for their journey. Having said goodbye to them, I went home and tried to hop on Pony Chat but no-one was around. I was feeling pretty tired after such a strenuous weekend so had to cancel a proposed plan with Ninji, who has been visiting Berlin this past weekend. I only noticed this on Friday and did say for him to drop me a message on Sunday if he was free. He said he had a few things to do here so I didn't want to pressure him, but in the end, he did send me a note shortly before 18:00. I was keen to meet, but I collapsed on the bed as soon as I got home and have been not particularly sure on my feet since due to the tiredness. I certainly couldn't have gone out, while I have barely seen Wolfie all weekend either (plus he was away Thursday and Friday). It's a shame, but we should be able to meet up at CFz at least.
It was great hosting Pete and Travis, and hopefully we can meet them down in Wurzburg soon. We've never been there before and it's part of my effort to visit more places in Germany this year in case we move back to the UK. It's interesting to hear his experience and ours about the fandom here are quite similar, as well as some Germans in general, which has given me much to ponder. I think we'll see how things transpire in the coming months, particularly when I am back in the UK in May, as my doubts about being here are only growing. As I've said before, I do want it to work, but there are so many worries that I cannot dismiss that it's becoming very hard to function properly. I wish I could just relax about things, but alas, it's something I've never been able to do. I guess we'll see how things go and whether we can join a few more groups to try and be more accepted.
