No Bridge Too Far, He's Got A Car

Due to the three-day delay in Manchester, my week was completely out of kilter, meaning I couldn't spend the day with Procyon as I had intended on Friday 1 September. This was also Wolfie's birthday, but he had to work, his probation period having passed overnight and no-one having said anything. Indeed, they still haven't, so we are assuming that he has passed his probation and are continuing on this basis. As it turned out, with Procyon heading to Australia for much of September, he had a few work things to be doing too, so the three of us just stayed indoors during the day on the Friday and did what we needed to do. Procyon and I did head out for an hour to take a look at the Spandauer Weinfest, which combined a similar festival last year with the Spandauer Havelfest, which seems to have been cancelled. There were numerous market stalls around the centre of Spandau offering a range of food and drinks, including four wine trucks, a beer one, the usual caraprinha stand and the Bowle Bowls which were the size of fish bowls. There was also plenty to eat and I did grab an empanada from the empanada concession, although the lady was a little perplexed by my Spanish speaking. Had Procyon realised you could order in Spanish, he told me he would have done the same. We perched on the odd concrete wave statue while eating our empanadas, taking the plates back once we were done. We also strolled around a little, soaking up the atmosphere. We ended up coming back on the Saturday, where we got the Hungarian spiral cinnamon bread thing which all the wasps were attracted to, while we also saw the delights of Mr Wiggly. I expected him to be a children's performer but it turned out he sang country and western. We left during his rendition of 'These Boots Are Made For Walking'.

We went back home at about 5pm on the Friday and waited for Wolfie to finish his work. The three of us then headed out to The Golden Fleece, a Georgian restaurant I had booked earlier in the day. This was very near Alexanderplatz and Kin-za, the first Georgian place to which I had introduced Procyon, and it is fascinating that it was again with us that he was going to have his second Georgian gastronomy experience. We sat outside near the door and the place did seem to be understaffed as while the main courses got to us quickly (eggy boat again for me, I can never overlook it), the dessert and bill took ages. Still, we were in no rush and when the thick unctuous flaky walnut cake came, it was definitely worth the wait. We also had some pretty average Georgian red wine with our meal, while my Kachipuri certainly didn't disappoint. I went traditional while Wolfie had a spicy one with additional toppings. It was certainly a very good birthday meal. While we ate, we noticed an odd looking rave over the street which we couldn't quite place our fingers on. It may have been for a fashion brand. Such things are common in Berlin, but I never know where one would go to find out about these things.

After this, we headed to Home Bar as it was the start of Berlin Beer Week, Here they were doing a Northern Monk tap takeover and meet the brewer, although the brewer was nowhere to be found. They did have six of their beers on tap though, four of which were new to us, and fortunately there were a few spare seats in the packed venue. We therefore chugged our way through them while the bartender who served us confessed he did not know of one of the best breweries in the whole of the UK. After this, we headed down to Strassenbrau for a few as we had taken Procyon to nearby Braugier before and he wanted to sample somewhere new. This was reasonable enough and we had a few pleasant beers in here too before catching a train back in the early hours. It is still one of the things I love most about Berlin.

We had a leisurely start to Saturday before heading down to the Weinmarkt as previously described. After seeing Mr Wiggly, we headed to the Berlin Chili Festival, which was in the grounds of the Berliner Berg Brewery. This meant we had a rather pleasant stroll in the sun through Treptower Park, watching the people having picnics on the green. The queue into the Festival looked a little daunting but it moved very quickly and soon we were looking at all of the stalls touting their wares. There were many chili vendors from a number of countries, including someone from Cornwall who now lived in Belgium. There were also plenty of opportunities to sample the sauces, with either tortillas, squares of bread or sticks the preferred methods. I was quite adventurous but didn't push myself too far - indeed only one sauce, Toxicity from a Slovak company, was too much for me - while Wolfie went full-on mad with all the hottest varieties. Before we started tasting, we grabbed a beer from the brewery, while it was great chatting with all of the stallholders about their craft. We found out the Crazy Bastard Man was Irish and discovered a few new flavours we hadn't had before, including mole chili and a Japanese yuzu paste. We bought both of these and I really wanted to try churros with the former, but alas the churros stall had sold out. We did get to try some food from other chili-based eateries though. I had a hot dog with kimchi and a two-chili-pepper-rated hot sauce as well as a Colombian cheese taco with exceptionally floury yet dry dough. The balance of flavours was wonderful in both. There were a few pro-LGBTQ+ stalls too and I remember wandering around the brewery with a huge grin on my face as everyone, particularly Wolfie, was so happy. I really enjoyed my time there.

Afterwards, we toyed with the idea of going to the Estrel as it was Eurofurence weekend and we were only one Ringbahn stop away, but instead we opted to go in the opposite direction to Braugier. Here was the Brews Cruise After Party which consisted of a USA tap takeover featuring breweries from Kentucky and Tennessee. There were four beers on tap, which we could get for €21 if we bought all four, while we also picked up a few cans too. We also shared some fries here as well. It was great just drinking good craft beer and people watching outside Ostkreuz station, with the range of outfits on display striking. I do love how this city just gives people the confidence to do and where what they like and I have started to adopt a similar style myself. It was also great just being sat around beer aficionados again. We decided not to do one of the six cruises, largely because we couldn't on the Sunday due to travelling to EF and the only one that was available on the Saturday was the French one starting at 11:30am. They were quite pricy which would mean heavy drinking and with it finishing at 2pm, I felt it would be something of a waste of a day.

After Braugier, we then went to Burgeramt for dinner, opting for just a burger as we had already had fries earlier. I went for the halloumi one, which I'll admit was a little disappointing, but the vibe and ambience was on point, as it always is there. Our drinking then continued at Protokol and The Castle, ending somewhere around 1am. We then headed back home, where I introduced Procyon to the concept of Mr. Blobby. Explaining to an American that this was not only a kids' character but pretty much the biggest celebrity of 1993 was a challenge. I also showed him Dream Bunny, as I did Blujay this weekend, and he was as horrified as anyone. We ended up staying up quite late but there were few plans on the Sunday. We had to get a train to Hamburg at 2:48pm while Procyon was due back at the airport at around 6pm. He left our house early to go and see Sandy, so we bid each other goodbye around lunchtime. This gave us a couple of hours to pack ahead of EF before we embarked on our next adventure.