A Lonely Wank In A Travelodge
Dec. 26th, 2021 03:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lupestripeHaving discussed the situation with Wolfie earlier in the week, we decided that despite his need to self-isolate, it made sense for me to continue with our Christmas plans as normal. This was with the view of me returning home on Christmas Day and spending the following 12 days isolating with him, in a period I am conveniently calling the 12 Days of Pupmas. Indeed, the 12th day of Christmas will be our last day of quarantine so it'll fit quite neatly, with us booked in for our Booster jab early the following day, on the morning of Friday 7 January, at the same Havelhohe clinic where we got our first two vaccinations. Today, Boxing Day, was always intended to be the day that Wolfie and I were going to celebrate Christmas alone as we tend to cook a big roast dinner every Sunday afternoon. I have all of the acoutremonts in, having stocked up for the next fortnight before he came back, so ultimately although the Festive Season has largely been ruined due to the new isolation requirements, at least I managed to honour the Christmas commitments, which was the main thing we had planned. Indeed, aside from having to cancel New Year, there is little else that will change, with the few Qualgeist events we wanted to attend similar to those we'll be able to attend in January (provided Germany doesn't tighten restrictions yet further, despite the ever-falling case rate).
All this meant that before Wolfie got back on Thursday evening, I had to get out of the house to ensure there was no contact. I ended up booking an Ibis Budget hotel over in Marzahn and as reception was closing at 10pm, I had to get over there swiftly after work. That made Thursday quite stressful, compounded by the fact that it was snowing quite heavily, delaying the trains. I got there with about twenty minutes to spare and it was quite telling that the receptionist, upon discovering I live in Berlin, asked whether I had fallen out with my partner as a reason why I was staying there. I detailed the situation, which he fully understood, and I soon checked in, getting a six-digit keypad number instead of a key to get into my room. Once there, I tried to grab a beer from the vending machine and spotted row where there was a beer hanging just off the rail, meaning there was a prospect of a free beer for my €2. Indeed, I did get two beers, but one of the bottles smashed on its way down, resulting in broken glass and beer all over the vending machine. When the reception said it was closed, it literally was, as there was no way of getting access to it so I had to ring a helpline to explain the situation. To be fair, they were understanding enough. It was only later that I noticed a sign on the vending machine urging the removal of bottles before making additional purchases due to this very thing. I also was distressed to discover no bottle opener, so I couldn't have my beer anyway.
The hotel room was pretty drab and having not seen anyone else apart from the receptionist, I started to worry I was the only person staying there. At breakfast, it turned out there were a few other people so I wasn't completely alone, although the sense of being locked in a chain hotel with no-one else there and heavy snow outside was a little discombobulating. I spent much of the evening playing Animal Crossing, as this was a good opportunity to make all of the changes to my island that I wanted, as there wasn't an awful lot else to do. Indeed, such was my use of my Switch during this period, I ran down the full battery by the time I got home. I also watched some TV but there wasn't much on in reality.
Trax, whose party I was going to on Christmas Day, kindly offered to put me up on Christmas Eve but he and his friend Miles were in Dresden and weren't due back until 20:42. They had tried to change the ticket to come back earlier, partly to see me and partly because the Christmas Markets were the main reason they went there and they were all closed, but the Deutsche Bahn staff were being most insistent. This gave me about eight hours to kill, with a heavy bag, on Christmas Eve, the one day where not much is open, at least not in the afternoon. Compounding this was the weather, which was rainy, with all of the lovely Thursday evening snow having disappeared by Friday lunchtime. Trax had asked me to pick up a few things from the supermarket - cranberry juice, spare ribs - which I managed to do before they closed at around 1pm. I then traipsed all the way to Ostkreuz from Marzahn, following the S-Bahn line, tempted just to get a train there. Still, at every stop I reached (there were four, five if you count the junction at Rummelsburg), I urged myself to keep walking even if my shopping was laidening me down. I thought there might be a coffee shop or a bar open in Ostkreuz and so it would be a good way to culminate my hour and a half walk. As I went, I listed to the My Dad Wrote A Porno Christmas special, which was its usual mirth and good fun. Anyway, once arriving in Ostkreuz, I realised that most places were shut, but spotted someone sat in the new Braugier bar so I chanced my luck. Indeed, this was open, but only until 5pm. Still, it was now 2:30pm and I was out of the rain, so was grateful, while this was a place we had been meaning to try for a long time. Turns out it was very good, with exceptional beer while their curry burger was also delightful. I did get asked whether it was too hot for me though, with the barman (with whom I befriended) telling me a German customer had demanded yoghurt because it was so hot. It was basically just madras curry powder and although had a little kick, wasn't too bad. It's incredible just how lacking in spice German food is. There were very few other people in the bar, although two doggos did turn up, including a golden labrador who sat in the most inconvenient place, in the aisle between the tables and the bar. He only let us get past with pettings. I was also delighted to see a beer called 'Paket fur Nachbarn' detailing the frustration of living in a flat in Berlin and getting your neighbour's post. By 4:30pm, I was the last person in the bar and the barman asked if I wanted another beer - I said it was up to him as I knew it was Christmas Eve and he may want to get off. He concorded, saying he wanted to get away sharpish for 5pm, but he insisted I tried a sample of a collab beer with an Irish brewery. This was free and was nearly 200ml of beer so I wasn't complaining. It was very nice too. I then left bang on 5pm, with the barman insisting I come back at some point.
The barman did inform me that Strassenbrau up the road was opening at 5pm, so after a quick call to my father, fearing I wouldn't have much time to speak on Christmas Day, I headed up here and settled in to trying a few of their beers. Alas, there was a rather loud Christmas party going on, containing around 15 predominantly Irish people, and this really only emphasised my sense of loneliness and missing Wolfie, who I hadn't seen for 15 days at this point. Still, with Trax frequently in touch, I whiled away the three hours enjoying some decent beers and getting to know a small scuttling dog in a Christmas jumper who became increasingly confident with me as the evening went on. Once we hit 9pm, it was time to take the tram to Trax's place, with us meeting at one of the tram stops near a pizza place where he got food. Against my better judgement, I asked for a small pizza, even though I was quite full but it seemed that Trax got me a usual size one. Anyway, I ate all of it once we got back to Trax's place, watching the delightful Aardman animation Robin Robin as we did. We then shared some aquavit and Berliner Luft, high strength spirits which were mistakes number two and three as overnight I had chornic stomach pain and diahorrea, necessitating frequent trips to the toilet. At one point, I was close to vomitting to and I was very worried I would ruin Trax's sofa. Still, fortunately, everything ended up in the toilet and I got some sleep, feeling a little better in the morning.
After a very light breakfast, some Bluey and a shower, I started helping with the preparation for the party. I peeled many of the potatoes with Trax and helped mouse build a lebkuchen train like a horrendous IKEA thing. Speaking of IKEA, we did have some mustard and meatballs from them, along with a self-construct chocolate moose, which only had three pieces. Still, this and the train made nice centrepieces. The party was due to start around 4pm, but a few people came earlier. However, this gave the chance to speak to my family as I walked around in the winter sun. It was good catching up with my brother and sister again, while my mother was particularly emotional that this was my second successive Christmas without seeing the family (she was also worried about a care package which, after nearly three weeks, has yet to arrive here). I walked around some allotments while I did this, with these little patches of land upon which little wooden cabins sit being particularly popular across Berlin. I then went back to see Trax for the festivities. There was a huge range of food, which was served at 6pm, starting with a smorgasbord of savoury treats. There was fish, meatballs, sausage, bread/butter/pate and a delicious Swedish cheese pie which had all the markings of a quiche but was so intensely flavoured. For dessert, there was Norwegian pancakes of cinnamon and butter, chocolate, a huge chocolate cake, lebkuchen and a whole host of different confectionary. There were a range of drinks too and I had yet more cocktails, along with some wine as well. There were 11 people there in total, including Trax's former recruiter Imogen, a fellow Brit who isn't really a furry but was happy to immerse herself in our world. It was great speaking with her and she wants to meet up again, largely because she liked my nail varnish and wants to find out more good bars and restaurants in the city. Most of the furs there I knew, with me having met Miles the night before of course, but there were a few new friends made. However, as the evening wore on, I did feel a little down that my German is nowhere near as good as it needs to be. Much of the discussion was in English, but things became more German as the evening wore on. I should have tried more to speak it really. I left around 10:30pm, just as they were making more artisinal cocktails, partly because I was feeling tired and bloated but partly because I wanted to see Wolfie for some of Christmas Day at least. It was a great day though and I am glad I could do it.
So that's it really. The only other things that happened this week was seeing Blackie again on Tuesday. The plan here had been to go to the Tipperary Irish Bar in Wedding, but once we got there, we found out it was closed. Therefore, instead we went to an Indian restaurant which again did very good mild curries but little with any spice in it. Also, their onion bhajis were basically onion rings in a red sauce, which was most strange. After this, Blackie wanted to see our flat, so we made it back over to Spandau, where we chatted for a while and snuggled for a bit too. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, it was the Brewdog Germany EFP tasting session, live on Zoom. I had already bought the five-beer pack for the reasonable sum of €4.95 and tuned in from 8pm. It was a two-hour session, all in German which I found useful from the point of view of my language skills, but they did somewhat race through all the beers. I certainly couldn't drink five cans of beer in two hours but as I had already sampled a number of these, I stuck with three. Even then though I felt quite drunk afterwards. Still, it was good to get the lowdown of everything that has been going on in the world of Brewdog and to find out their plans for 2022 as well. Definitely a good way to spend an evening alone at least. And speaking of Brewdog, Wolfie has brought the Version 2.0 visas back with him, after I was told (now quite rightly) that it may take six to eight weeks for them to arrive in Berlin due to Brexit issues. It's ridiculous that I know people on the messageboard who have already completed all of the challenges in the UK before we even got our books but it is what it is I guess. Still having connections in the UK helps I suppose.
All this meant that before Wolfie got back on Thursday evening, I had to get out of the house to ensure there was no contact. I ended up booking an Ibis Budget hotel over in Marzahn and as reception was closing at 10pm, I had to get over there swiftly after work. That made Thursday quite stressful, compounded by the fact that it was snowing quite heavily, delaying the trains. I got there with about twenty minutes to spare and it was quite telling that the receptionist, upon discovering I live in Berlin, asked whether I had fallen out with my partner as a reason why I was staying there. I detailed the situation, which he fully understood, and I soon checked in, getting a six-digit keypad number instead of a key to get into my room. Once there, I tried to grab a beer from the vending machine and spotted row where there was a beer hanging just off the rail, meaning there was a prospect of a free beer for my €2. Indeed, I did get two beers, but one of the bottles smashed on its way down, resulting in broken glass and beer all over the vending machine. When the reception said it was closed, it literally was, as there was no way of getting access to it so I had to ring a helpline to explain the situation. To be fair, they were understanding enough. It was only later that I noticed a sign on the vending machine urging the removal of bottles before making additional purchases due to this very thing. I also was distressed to discover no bottle opener, so I couldn't have my beer anyway.
The hotel room was pretty drab and having not seen anyone else apart from the receptionist, I started to worry I was the only person staying there. At breakfast, it turned out there were a few other people so I wasn't completely alone, although the sense of being locked in a chain hotel with no-one else there and heavy snow outside was a little discombobulating. I spent much of the evening playing Animal Crossing, as this was a good opportunity to make all of the changes to my island that I wanted, as there wasn't an awful lot else to do. Indeed, such was my use of my Switch during this period, I ran down the full battery by the time I got home. I also watched some TV but there wasn't much on in reality.
Trax, whose party I was going to on Christmas Day, kindly offered to put me up on Christmas Eve but he and his friend Miles were in Dresden and weren't due back until 20:42. They had tried to change the ticket to come back earlier, partly to see me and partly because the Christmas Markets were the main reason they went there and they were all closed, but the Deutsche Bahn staff were being most insistent. This gave me about eight hours to kill, with a heavy bag, on Christmas Eve, the one day where not much is open, at least not in the afternoon. Compounding this was the weather, which was rainy, with all of the lovely Thursday evening snow having disappeared by Friday lunchtime. Trax had asked me to pick up a few things from the supermarket - cranberry juice, spare ribs - which I managed to do before they closed at around 1pm. I then traipsed all the way to Ostkreuz from Marzahn, following the S-Bahn line, tempted just to get a train there. Still, at every stop I reached (there were four, five if you count the junction at Rummelsburg), I urged myself to keep walking even if my shopping was laidening me down. I thought there might be a coffee shop or a bar open in Ostkreuz and so it would be a good way to culminate my hour and a half walk. As I went, I listed to the My Dad Wrote A Porno Christmas special, which was its usual mirth and good fun. Anyway, once arriving in Ostkreuz, I realised that most places were shut, but spotted someone sat in the new Braugier bar so I chanced my luck. Indeed, this was open, but only until 5pm. Still, it was now 2:30pm and I was out of the rain, so was grateful, while this was a place we had been meaning to try for a long time. Turns out it was very good, with exceptional beer while their curry burger was also delightful. I did get asked whether it was too hot for me though, with the barman (with whom I befriended) telling me a German customer had demanded yoghurt because it was so hot. It was basically just madras curry powder and although had a little kick, wasn't too bad. It's incredible just how lacking in spice German food is. There were very few other people in the bar, although two doggos did turn up, including a golden labrador who sat in the most inconvenient place, in the aisle between the tables and the bar. He only let us get past with pettings. I was also delighted to see a beer called 'Paket fur Nachbarn' detailing the frustration of living in a flat in Berlin and getting your neighbour's post. By 4:30pm, I was the last person in the bar and the barman asked if I wanted another beer - I said it was up to him as I knew it was Christmas Eve and he may want to get off. He concorded, saying he wanted to get away sharpish for 5pm, but he insisted I tried a sample of a collab beer with an Irish brewery. This was free and was nearly 200ml of beer so I wasn't complaining. It was very nice too. I then left bang on 5pm, with the barman insisting I come back at some point.
The barman did inform me that Strassenbrau up the road was opening at 5pm, so after a quick call to my father, fearing I wouldn't have much time to speak on Christmas Day, I headed up here and settled in to trying a few of their beers. Alas, there was a rather loud Christmas party going on, containing around 15 predominantly Irish people, and this really only emphasised my sense of loneliness and missing Wolfie, who I hadn't seen for 15 days at this point. Still, with Trax frequently in touch, I whiled away the three hours enjoying some decent beers and getting to know a small scuttling dog in a Christmas jumper who became increasingly confident with me as the evening went on. Once we hit 9pm, it was time to take the tram to Trax's place, with us meeting at one of the tram stops near a pizza place where he got food. Against my better judgement, I asked for a small pizza, even though I was quite full but it seemed that Trax got me a usual size one. Anyway, I ate all of it once we got back to Trax's place, watching the delightful Aardman animation Robin Robin as we did. We then shared some aquavit and Berliner Luft, high strength spirits which were mistakes number two and three as overnight I had chornic stomach pain and diahorrea, necessitating frequent trips to the toilet. At one point, I was close to vomitting to and I was very worried I would ruin Trax's sofa. Still, fortunately, everything ended up in the toilet and I got some sleep, feeling a little better in the morning.
After a very light breakfast, some Bluey and a shower, I started helping with the preparation for the party. I peeled many of the potatoes with Trax and helped mouse build a lebkuchen train like a horrendous IKEA thing. Speaking of IKEA, we did have some mustard and meatballs from them, along with a self-construct chocolate moose, which only had three pieces. Still, this and the train made nice centrepieces. The party was due to start around 4pm, but a few people came earlier. However, this gave the chance to speak to my family as I walked around in the winter sun. It was good catching up with my brother and sister again, while my mother was particularly emotional that this was my second successive Christmas without seeing the family (she was also worried about a care package which, after nearly three weeks, has yet to arrive here). I walked around some allotments while I did this, with these little patches of land upon which little wooden cabins sit being particularly popular across Berlin. I then went back to see Trax for the festivities. There was a huge range of food, which was served at 6pm, starting with a smorgasbord of savoury treats. There was fish, meatballs, sausage, bread/butter/pate and a delicious Swedish cheese pie which had all the markings of a quiche but was so intensely flavoured. For dessert, there was Norwegian pancakes of cinnamon and butter, chocolate, a huge chocolate cake, lebkuchen and a whole host of different confectionary. There were a range of drinks too and I had yet more cocktails, along with some wine as well. There were 11 people there in total, including Trax's former recruiter Imogen, a fellow Brit who isn't really a furry but was happy to immerse herself in our world. It was great speaking with her and she wants to meet up again, largely because she liked my nail varnish and wants to find out more good bars and restaurants in the city. Most of the furs there I knew, with me having met Miles the night before of course, but there were a few new friends made. However, as the evening wore on, I did feel a little down that my German is nowhere near as good as it needs to be. Much of the discussion was in English, but things became more German as the evening wore on. I should have tried more to speak it really. I left around 10:30pm, just as they were making more artisinal cocktails, partly because I was feeling tired and bloated but partly because I wanted to see Wolfie for some of Christmas Day at least. It was a great day though and I am glad I could do it.
So that's it really. The only other things that happened this week was seeing Blackie again on Tuesday. The plan here had been to go to the Tipperary Irish Bar in Wedding, but once we got there, we found out it was closed. Therefore, instead we went to an Indian restaurant which again did very good mild curries but little with any spice in it. Also, their onion bhajis were basically onion rings in a red sauce, which was most strange. After this, Blackie wanted to see our flat, so we made it back over to Spandau, where we chatted for a while and snuggled for a bit too. Meanwhile, on Wednesday, it was the Brewdog Germany EFP tasting session, live on Zoom. I had already bought the five-beer pack for the reasonable sum of €4.95 and tuned in from 8pm. It was a two-hour session, all in German which I found useful from the point of view of my language skills, but they did somewhat race through all the beers. I certainly couldn't drink five cans of beer in two hours but as I had already sampled a number of these, I stuck with three. Even then though I felt quite drunk afterwards. Still, it was good to get the lowdown of everything that has been going on in the world of Brewdog and to find out their plans for 2022 as well. Definitely a good way to spend an evening alone at least. And speaking of Brewdog, Wolfie has brought the Version 2.0 visas back with him, after I was told (now quite rightly) that it may take six to eight weeks for them to arrive in Berlin due to Brexit issues. It's ridiculous that I know people on the messageboard who have already completed all of the challenges in the UK before we even got our books but it is what it is I guess. Still having connections in the UK helps I suppose.
