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While last week certainly wasn't as busy as the previous ones, there has still been an awful lot going on, which has contributed to my mood. Friday in particular was another day of intense sadness, while I am struggling to shift existential angst from my personal circumstances and global events. The announcement last Monday that the German citizenship rules come with caveats that mean you have to have worked for 20 months out of the previous 24 came as a huge blow, not least because the write-ups suggested 'some states could take up to three years to see you'. We all know that this is Berlin, so should we go for citizenship, we may have a 36-month fear of not losing our jobs hanging over us. Considering that both Wolfie and I have been made redundant in our first three years of being here, and that we could be here for another five years before we will even be seen, I have started to wonder whether we would be best cutting our losses and moving back to the UK. Furthermore, if you are unemployed or even in your probation period, there's a chance the authorities may make you wait even longer. Added to this is how loathsome my current job is and just how much it is affecting my mental state, to the point that I know quitting is probably the best thing for me, despite the resultant financial worries. There may be something promising coming up on the horizon but right now, I am going to try and stick with my current role, if only to save money to buy me more time in the future. Ultimately though, I am not sure how much longer I can last (I even had a crying meltdown on Monday).
All of this is filtering into the relationship, which I have felt has been fraught these last two weeks. Wolfie and I did have a nice night out on Sunday though, seeing Metropolis at the Babylon Theatre. This 1927 sci-fi movie was a huge budget blockbuster and although it received mixed reviews, some of the messaging still stands up today. The political messaging in particular was fascinating considering the era, with Berlin being one of the main cities for 1920's decadence. We saw it with a live orchestra, it being one of the last films with no sound, and this really enhanced the performance. A lot of the time, you forgot it was there, and yet it made the emotional ride much more potent. The acting was overblown, as was the style of the time, while the pamphlet saying no to Tonfilme before the film began was a nice touch as it put the film in historical context. The film was three hours all told, with a break in between, while Wolfie and I grabbed some tasty popcorn to munch before the screening. The theatre itself is a little old and shabby, but it was a fantastic evening, with an engaging film. We had been meaning to see this for about 18 months and it was good to finally get to see it, not least because the weather was abysmal and what else would you do on a rainy Sunday in February? The film was in German but with English subtitles, but of course most of the words were just white text on a black background, what with there being no audio except from the orchestra. Beforehand, we did stop off at BRLO's Katsch bar as we were about an hour early, while our dinner plans were scuppered by the late finish of the performance. By the time we got to Frittenwerk on Rosenthaler Platz, they had stopped serving, despite the website telling me they had a ten o'clock closing. We were there at 9:30pm and there was not a fry to be seen. This is quite common in Germany - closing times at restaurants are when they shut up shop rather than when they stop serving, which seems counter-intuitive to me. Still, at least we got to go to the Mikkeller bar and meet the Buxton-born barman, who was pleasant company. After last orders at 11pm, we headed back to Spandau, picking up a doner box with undercooked chips on the way home. The doner place has definitely gone downhill since its rebrand this time last year, which is a shame.
Due to my depression on Friday, I wanted to avoid my experience the previous Saturday, when I laid in bed most of the day due to the sheer numbness. This meant I resolved to getting out of bed and doing something, noting the Berlin U-Bahn Museum was open on its one Saturday a month. This was another place I had been meaning to get to for a while and with the potential of leaving Berlin soon, I thought I should take the opportunity to visit. Saturday was also a beautifully warm and sunny day for this time of year, so it was good just being out and about. The Museum only cost €2 to enter and is run by volunteers who will happily discuss the workings of the signalling system, which a huge room is dedicated to. Sadly, my German is not strong enough to understand such intricacies and I was too scared to ask anyone. Still, there was loads of other interesting stuff, including old maps upon which I discovered that one station used to be called Adolf-Hitler-Platz as he once had a house there. There were myriad tickets on the walls, while you could trace the history of the various train carriages they used. As it was a Saturday, there were many kids there, with some acting as conductors, letting people into and out of one of the rooms which was blocked by some swing doors. The number of kids who kept saying 'Dieser Zug endet hier, bitte alle aussteigen' was surprising. There was a room dedicated to the staff, while there was a lot of hardware including signalling systems, track and cabs where you could pretend to drive a train. There was a video detailing key historical moments in the U-Bahn's history, or cab journeys down each of the lines, while the old ticket machines in the foyer were quite neat. The key thing of interest for me though was the maps, which charted the history of the U-Bahn. There was a small exhibit to the 1908 disaster at Gleisdreieck too, before they re-modelled the station, while the photographs of the network and some of the stations throughout the years were interesting too.
I like the art-deco design of Olympia-Stadion U-Bahn station as it reminds me of the Charles Holden architecture of a similar time on the London Underground. I was headed to Grunewald next though so I had to go to the S-Bahn station which I always find eerie as its eight of its ten platforms are only ever used when there's a big event on at the Olympic Stadium. There were quite a few white buses parked outside the stadium, which looked as dominant as ever, while I was delighted to see every AfD poster had been spray-painted black. This was ahead of the second re-run of Berlin's state elections on Sunday, where the CDU and AfD sadly made modest gains. Anyway, the Olympic Stadium was largely desolate, but I got to the S-Bahn station and, after grabbing an Amerikaner at Westkreuz, got on the S7 to Grunewald. I was headed to Gleis 17, a memorial to the thousands of Jews who were transported from here to the concentration camps in Eastern Europe. On the platform, there are metal gratings upon which state the date, number of Jews and destination. The tracks itself are now overgrown with trees and weeds, signifying that no train will ever leave from this platform again, while at the far end there was a memorial upon which was sat some white roses. On the road leading up to the platform, there is a concrete wall with hollowed-out humans carved within it, which was quite powerful. I had only found out about this memorial when Wolfie mentioned it earlier in the week, but as it was close, I thought it was worth a visit. I was also surprised to discover the range of restaurants down here, including a Bosnian-themed one staring Vucko, the wolf of the Sarajevo 1984 Olympic Games.
Wolfie had been playing VR until 7am, so didn't get up with me to look around. I felt a little saddened by this, my heightened sensitivity putting strain on the relationship. What hasn't helped is I have overreacted to a few things he has said, although on occasion he has been overly direct. He was still in bed by the time I got back, but I did pick up a McDonald's Happy Meal book about bees and wasps which was left in the downstairs stairwell, which will hopefully see me improve my German. For dinner, we got a smashed burger and fries from Plancha 1, a highly-rated restaurant the other side of Spandau railway station. The gherkins were lumpy and triangular rather than round, but the burger itself was nice, while the fries were perhaps a little too thin and crispy for my taste. Their green special sauce was good but it was the luminous orange cheese dip that was the highlight. We decided to eat in as Seebass confirmed that no-one we knew was going to the Spandau Pool Hall Stammi that evening. This was a little frustrating as it was the second cancellation in two nights, as our trip to the rock and metal night at Zita was also called off when the neighbours that either forgotten about it or were too tired to attend. This suited me as I was feeling quite tired as it was, with me just watching Crime Spree on Nebula, which is a show I had been meaning to watch for the best part of a month but I was too busy to do so.
The only other thing of note last week was Tuesday evening, which saw the first Fureigners Craft Beer night. This is hopefully going to be a monthly gathering in a different craft beer bar, with Muted Horn the destination this time. There were seven in attendance, with Wolfie arriving first as his place of work is a mere four stops away. He called off at Burgermeister at Kotbusser Tor before he arrived, while I just cooked a store-bought pizza. I was only four minutes late, which was good for me considering how difficult I find it to get out of the house on my own. Boddinstrasse U-Bahn station was sketchy as fuck though, with a load of people loitering, but Muted Horn was warm and friendly, with us sat near the door. At one point, a man left his dog just wandering around the bar as he went for a slash, with said dog standing very near me while he stared at the door through which his Master had just gone. I got to stroke his bum for a while. Aside from this, Wolfie and I got sample trays of about ten beers, deciding to share each tray rather than get two of the same. This meant we could get more beer and the barman said this was more cost-effective. We were also pretty good as we left shortly after 11 o'clock, deciding to get home as Wolfie needed to be in the office the next day. Seebass, who only arrived at 9:45pm, was a little shocked by our early departure but Fiasco had already gone and it made sense to be sensible. I know he would prefer a Friday or a Saturday night but the bars are usually packed and I don't think it's viable. The next one will be early March, when hopefully Snowi will join us too.
All of this is filtering into the relationship, which I have felt has been fraught these last two weeks. Wolfie and I did have a nice night out on Sunday though, seeing Metropolis at the Babylon Theatre. This 1927 sci-fi movie was a huge budget blockbuster and although it received mixed reviews, some of the messaging still stands up today. The political messaging in particular was fascinating considering the era, with Berlin being one of the main cities for 1920's decadence. We saw it with a live orchestra, it being one of the last films with no sound, and this really enhanced the performance. A lot of the time, you forgot it was there, and yet it made the emotional ride much more potent. The acting was overblown, as was the style of the time, while the pamphlet saying no to Tonfilme before the film began was a nice touch as it put the film in historical context. The film was three hours all told, with a break in between, while Wolfie and I grabbed some tasty popcorn to munch before the screening. The theatre itself is a little old and shabby, but it was a fantastic evening, with an engaging film. We had been meaning to see this for about 18 months and it was good to finally get to see it, not least because the weather was abysmal and what else would you do on a rainy Sunday in February? The film was in German but with English subtitles, but of course most of the words were just white text on a black background, what with there being no audio except from the orchestra. Beforehand, we did stop off at BRLO's Katsch bar as we were about an hour early, while our dinner plans were scuppered by the late finish of the performance. By the time we got to Frittenwerk on Rosenthaler Platz, they had stopped serving, despite the website telling me they had a ten o'clock closing. We were there at 9:30pm and there was not a fry to be seen. This is quite common in Germany - closing times at restaurants are when they shut up shop rather than when they stop serving, which seems counter-intuitive to me. Still, at least we got to go to the Mikkeller bar and meet the Buxton-born barman, who was pleasant company. After last orders at 11pm, we headed back to Spandau, picking up a doner box with undercooked chips on the way home. The doner place has definitely gone downhill since its rebrand this time last year, which is a shame.
Due to my depression on Friday, I wanted to avoid my experience the previous Saturday, when I laid in bed most of the day due to the sheer numbness. This meant I resolved to getting out of bed and doing something, noting the Berlin U-Bahn Museum was open on its one Saturday a month. This was another place I had been meaning to get to for a while and with the potential of leaving Berlin soon, I thought I should take the opportunity to visit. Saturday was also a beautifully warm and sunny day for this time of year, so it was good just being out and about. The Museum only cost €2 to enter and is run by volunteers who will happily discuss the workings of the signalling system, which a huge room is dedicated to. Sadly, my German is not strong enough to understand such intricacies and I was too scared to ask anyone. Still, there was loads of other interesting stuff, including old maps upon which I discovered that one station used to be called Adolf-Hitler-Platz as he once had a house there. There were myriad tickets on the walls, while you could trace the history of the various train carriages they used. As it was a Saturday, there were many kids there, with some acting as conductors, letting people into and out of one of the rooms which was blocked by some swing doors. The number of kids who kept saying 'Dieser Zug endet hier, bitte alle aussteigen' was surprising. There was a room dedicated to the staff, while there was a lot of hardware including signalling systems, track and cabs where you could pretend to drive a train. There was a video detailing key historical moments in the U-Bahn's history, or cab journeys down each of the lines, while the old ticket machines in the foyer were quite neat. The key thing of interest for me though was the maps, which charted the history of the U-Bahn. There was a small exhibit to the 1908 disaster at Gleisdreieck too, before they re-modelled the station, while the photographs of the network and some of the stations throughout the years were interesting too.
I like the art-deco design of Olympia-Stadion U-Bahn station as it reminds me of the Charles Holden architecture of a similar time on the London Underground. I was headed to Grunewald next though so I had to go to the S-Bahn station which I always find eerie as its eight of its ten platforms are only ever used when there's a big event on at the Olympic Stadium. There were quite a few white buses parked outside the stadium, which looked as dominant as ever, while I was delighted to see every AfD poster had been spray-painted black. This was ahead of the second re-run of Berlin's state elections on Sunday, where the CDU and AfD sadly made modest gains. Anyway, the Olympic Stadium was largely desolate, but I got to the S-Bahn station and, after grabbing an Amerikaner at Westkreuz, got on the S7 to Grunewald. I was headed to Gleis 17, a memorial to the thousands of Jews who were transported from here to the concentration camps in Eastern Europe. On the platform, there are metal gratings upon which state the date, number of Jews and destination. The tracks itself are now overgrown with trees and weeds, signifying that no train will ever leave from this platform again, while at the far end there was a memorial upon which was sat some white roses. On the road leading up to the platform, there is a concrete wall with hollowed-out humans carved within it, which was quite powerful. I had only found out about this memorial when Wolfie mentioned it earlier in the week, but as it was close, I thought it was worth a visit. I was also surprised to discover the range of restaurants down here, including a Bosnian-themed one staring Vucko, the wolf of the Sarajevo 1984 Olympic Games.
Wolfie had been playing VR until 7am, so didn't get up with me to look around. I felt a little saddened by this, my heightened sensitivity putting strain on the relationship. What hasn't helped is I have overreacted to a few things he has said, although on occasion he has been overly direct. He was still in bed by the time I got back, but I did pick up a McDonald's Happy Meal book about bees and wasps which was left in the downstairs stairwell, which will hopefully see me improve my German. For dinner, we got a smashed burger and fries from Plancha 1, a highly-rated restaurant the other side of Spandau railway station. The gherkins were lumpy and triangular rather than round, but the burger itself was nice, while the fries were perhaps a little too thin and crispy for my taste. Their green special sauce was good but it was the luminous orange cheese dip that was the highlight. We decided to eat in as Seebass confirmed that no-one we knew was going to the Spandau Pool Hall Stammi that evening. This was a little frustrating as it was the second cancellation in two nights, as our trip to the rock and metal night at Zita was also called off when the neighbours that either forgotten about it or were too tired to attend. This suited me as I was feeling quite tired as it was, with me just watching Crime Spree on Nebula, which is a show I had been meaning to watch for the best part of a month but I was too busy to do so.
The only other thing of note last week was Tuesday evening, which saw the first Fureigners Craft Beer night. This is hopefully going to be a monthly gathering in a different craft beer bar, with Muted Horn the destination this time. There were seven in attendance, with Wolfie arriving first as his place of work is a mere four stops away. He called off at Burgermeister at Kotbusser Tor before he arrived, while I just cooked a store-bought pizza. I was only four minutes late, which was good for me considering how difficult I find it to get out of the house on my own. Boddinstrasse U-Bahn station was sketchy as fuck though, with a load of people loitering, but Muted Horn was warm and friendly, with us sat near the door. At one point, a man left his dog just wandering around the bar as he went for a slash, with said dog standing very near me while he stared at the door through which his Master had just gone. I got to stroke his bum for a while. Aside from this, Wolfie and I got sample trays of about ten beers, deciding to share each tray rather than get two of the same. This meant we could get more beer and the barman said this was more cost-effective. We were also pretty good as we left shortly after 11 o'clock, deciding to get home as Wolfie needed to be in the office the next day. Seebass, who only arrived at 9:45pm, was a little shocked by our early departure but Fiasco had already gone and it made sense to be sensible. I know he would prefer a Friday or a Saturday night but the bars are usually packed and I don't think it's viable. The next one will be early March, when hopefully Snowi will join us too.
