lupestripe's lair

Erfurt - Sunday 5 April

2026-04-08T11:14:44Z

Sunday was my final day in Erfurt so it was an opportunity to see some of the sights that I didn't get to see on the Friday. I had toyed with going back to Weimar, but with a train booked early evening and not wanting to carry my bag with me all day, staying in the Thuringian capital was the best option. I got up for breakfast - the usual - then headed back to bed for three-quarters of an hour, the previous two days' exertions really catching up with me. I still managed to check out early though and left my bag behind the desk while I went exploring.

The Zitadelle Petersburg was my first port of call, and it's much larger than its Spandau equivalent, despite it being of similar crenelated and pointed design. I can see why the lady suggested I'd need longer than forty minutes to see all of it on the Friday. I went to the exhibition first, buying my ticket that gave me access to the whole complex. This basically entailed an introduction to the citadel in the Kommandantenhaus. It covered the period before the place was a fort, when a monastery was set up on this hill overlooking the city of Erfurt (the views across to the cathedral and church of St. Severi are definitely the best in the city). It also highlighted the lives of the soldiers in the city and the strict living standards they had to adhere to. There was also discussion of the gunpowder room, which was built as far away from the city as they could under a mountain of earth in case there was an explosion (gunpowder was only ever stored here during war time). This was the last place I visited, but there was a weird challenge thing where you had to do something so the gunpowder didn't go off and I didn't understand it. I also feared a jump scare in what was a rather dark room, although as I was on my own, for a while I did fear I was trapped there. The second place I visited was the Paradiesgärten – Gartenparadiese with its Adam and Eve mural on the eves at its front. This was a little disappointing from an exhibition point of view. Fully in German, it detailed some of the manicured gardens at various castles and estates throughout Germany. It didn't seem overly relevant to the Zitadelle although this was partially renovated for BUGA 2021, Germany's equivalent of the National Flower Show. There was an interactive meadow at the far end that didn't really interact with much, but we were encouraged to walk on it. I'm not sure why.

However, what was interesting was the building itself, and walking around there were a few QR codes that gave you commentary in English. This was done by an elderly sassy woman who was great value, and by clicking on one QR code, I unlocked many more chapters in this audio guide. This building was the former monastery church of St. Peter and Paul, and although it was heavily destroyed during the Napoleonic Wars, this spiritual center of St. Peter's Monastery has been partially restored. The highlight was the old paintwork depicting a menorah and two of the saints, in an ocre hew. The audio guide took me through how these were restored, and the religious background of each, while I also got to learn more about the construction of the building and the symbolism behind some of the pillars. There was also a lot of discussion about monastic life through the years, including when standards slipped and when new decrees added an even stricter lifestyle on the monks. This was all fascinating, even if I only discovered most of the audio guide after I had left the church. I could go back in and see the apostles though, which were beyond the paywall, so I sat there a while and just absorbed the information. After this, with a greater appreciation of the building, I looked at the external architecture before appreciating the Zitadelle as a whole. There are old barracks here, as you would expect, while the 1913-built military prison functioned as a police prison from 1925-33 then a "protective custody camp" for political prisoners. During the Nazi era, it acted as a remand prison for a Wehrmacht court martial in the Kommandantenhaus.

There were a few other highlights here too, including the Verkehrsgarten which is basically a driving school for children so they could learn the rules of the road. Think go-karting except with a serious edge. I also noted the wineries, bakery and other things that were needed to keep the bastion functioning, before descending past the huge ERFURT sign via the observation deck (I used the lift to get down due to my burning feet) and out towards the cathedral. As I did, I noted the myriad passageways through the fortifications that enabled swift escape if necessary, while I also took in the wonderful panorama afforded by being at the highest point in the region. Around the back of the restaurant, which looked a little incongruous against the older brick buildings, I saw the rather cute Fidi the bat looking happy with herself. Apparently, she likes the daytime more than the night.

I managed to visit the main cathedral and the church of St. Severi next door after my trip to the Zitadelle. Both had examples of fine stained glass windows and religious artwork, but it is the alter in the cathedral that's most striking (this is oddly behind you when you make your way in). However, these churches were very much like the countless others I have visited, so I didn't hang around too long. I could have gone and seen the big bell Maria Gloriosa on a guided tour, but I didn't fancy the 15-minute wait with my aching feet, nor having to deal with German. I was just too tired, so instead I grabbed a Thuringer Bratwurst and pilsner from a nearby sausage stand and sat on the terrace overlooking the funfair that had overtaken Domplatz. Later, I would have to navigate through that to get to my next port of call.

I wanted to go to the Topf und Söhne Memorial - they were the company that supplied the SS with the ovens that allowed for the disposal of bodies in the concentration camps in World War Two. It's a memorial to industrial complicity in genocide, particularly as they were more than happy to provide technical solutions to "optimize" the killing in the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp. This memorial was a long way out of town though, so my next best option was the Memorial and Educational Site Andreasstraße. This focused on repression and resistance during the SED dictatorship in Thuringia from 1949 to 1989. Over 5,000 people were imprisoned here for resisting the Communist regime, but on 4 December 1989, the people occupied the building and prevented the destruction of many files. It was the first occupation of a bastion of the "Stasi" during the Peaceful Revolution. There are a few photos on metal plinths outside the museum but I could not go into the museum itself as it was closed for the Easter weekend.

This left me with the Municipal Museum "Haus zum Stockfisch", which is in a beautiful late Renaissance house. It's rather striking, with grey and white tiles halfway up then yellow painted walls above it. Alas, nearly all of the exhibitions here were in German, which was a little frustrating as I understood enough, but not quite enough to fully comprehend everything. The one thing that I did manage to follow, though, was the destruction of the old city wall to make way for the railway station. With German unification in 1871, and the German lands largely set by 1848, Erfurt no longer really needed a bastion as it was in the centre of the country. I know that in the 1840s, there were huge debates about ploughing through the ancient walls of York to allow the railway station to be built - these were rebuffed at the time - so it was interesting to see that Erfurt went the other way. On the ground floor, there was the usual collection of ecclesiastical and religious paraphernalia from the Middle Ages, but some of the printed things were interesting as Erfurt as an early centre for this industry. The battered hands, with broken fingers, of some 14th century torture victim were pretty grizzly, as were the foot stocks taking pride of place in the centre of the room. The basement probably offered the best exhibit though, the Nabel der Welt (Navel of the World) which detailed some of the archeological finds in the area. These were in four separate display cases and you had to place your palm over a tablet to access them. Once done, a perspex box containing that artefact (a skull, a weapon, some coins etc) was then displayed, lit up for you to see. Fortunately, there was an English translation on each of these four cases, giving me some greater context too.

My feet were throbbing by this point and I ended up having a half an hour sit in the hotel lobby in an attempt to recover. The blue and yellow decor was far from relaxing, but it's a new hotel and a comfortable one at that. With over an hour still to kill, I thought I'd try and get some food somewhere, wanting something quick and simple. I had wanted to go to the McDonald's on Anger, but loads of teenagers went in simultaneously, so I decided just to go to Hauptbahnhof and see what was there. Maccies was the best of a rather meagre offering, but it was just a kiosk, with a single long bench to stand and eat. This wasn't great for my feet but I ordered a double cheeseburger meal anyway and scranned it down quickly. I then walked across the other side of the station, noting where the old city walls used to run, and being delighted to see a small metal bridge over a stream which hugged the side of the building. I then played Animal Crossing in the waiting room while two people ate pizza nosily, feeding it to each other on various occasions.

The train journey back was straightforward enough, although we were stuck outside Halle (Saale) for a quarter of an hour due to a train ahead of us having failing power. This meant I got back into Berlin at 8:30pm. With Wolfie having his exam at 9pm and needing two hours of silence in the house, I decided to make myself scarce and go to The Castle. I had arranged to meet up with Al and Fierce and had been in regular communication throughout the day. I had feared that Deustche Bahn would scupper these plans, but fortunately, a 15-minute delay was easy to deal with. We all arrived at around 9pm, where we had a few drinks and a chat. Fierce shared their olive pizza which was surprisingly nice, while I met a Canadian guy who was touring Europe, travelling from Amsterdam to Katowice to watch his brother play ice hockey. He was an interesting distraction while the staff changed the keg on the beer I had ordered, our conversation having started when he let me go ahead of him in the queue.

I received an alert that Wolfie had passed his exam at around 11pm, at the time when everyone wanted to leave anyway. This was probably best for me too, as I had work on the Monday, so we all headed off and I was back home by midnight. Wolfie was as happy as a wolf with a hat and we resolved to go out on the Monday evening to celebrate, not least because it was also our anniversary. So, after I had finished work (Wolfie was off as Monday was a holiday in Germany), we headed down to Alexanderplatz to check out Angry Chicken. This is a Korean fried chicken place we had been meaning to try for a while, so we were disheartened when we went there to discover that branch was undergoing renovation work. It was frustrating that this hadn't been mentioned on the website, but they do have another outlet near Kottbusser Tor so we went there instead (we only had gone to Alexanderplatz initially due to ease of access). We arrived just in time as despite it closing at 9pm, they had run out of chicken. They only had enough for one chicken bites meal, which we shared. I weighed up whether to leave or not, fearing this wouldn't be enough food, but they gave us the XXL 15 piece meal as opposed to the L 9 piece meal so it was more than enough (I ended up tipping the difference). I felt a little uncomfortable watching the staff turn away expectant customers, but the chicken was hot and delicious, while the cinnamon sweet sauce with sesame seeds really worked. This is one of their milder coatings and I think next time Wolfie will go for something spicier, but we have found recently that due to portion sizes, sharing a meal often works best for us. The fries were beautifully hot and crispy too, so we'll definitely be going back.

After this, we popped over to Biererei, one of our favourite bars in the city, and one where the barman recognised us. The only negative about this place is they only have one toilet, with me needing to go seven times due to the slackness of my bladder. They do have some of the best beer in the city, and we had many a DIPA and TIPA from Spanish brewery Noma. We ended on a couple of high-strength dark beers, including a 15.5% DDF M*rs beer from Vault City, which was afforded our 26th 5-star rating on Untappd. We hemmed over this for a while as it tasted more like a Snickers than a Mars to me, and the barkeep pushed us in the 4.75 direction as a result, but in the end, we couldn't work out how it could be improved. The barman looked after us by providing water too and we left at around 11:30pm in order to get back home, what with there being no holiday service but just a Sunday service on the trains. We had to go a bit of a convoluted route, but managed to make it comfortably, and we weren't particularly hungry after our epic meal, which was rare. We weren't too drunk either, but yesterday was still a sluggish day. It had been a bit of a boozy Easter though, so I'm looking forward to taking a few days off alcohol again, having progressed on this quite well in March.

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Weimar - Saturday 4 April

2026-04-07T20:50:52Z

For such a small city, I can't think of anywhere that has punched above its weight more than Weimar. Home to Goethe, Schiller and Liszt, the place where the Bauhaus movement began in 1919, and also where the Weimar Republic, Germany's first (admittedly failed) democracy was founded in the same year, it's fair to say that Weimar has been at the forefront of European history for the last 200 years. Before going there, I knew it was highly unlikely that I would be able to see everything in one day, even if I made as early a start as possible. The reality is that nearly all of the museums in Germany are open from 10am to 6pm and I knew Weimar would be a museum-heavy place. In the end, despite hitting the city shortly before 11am, I barely touched half of the things I wanted to see. All that means is that I'll have to come back.

Weimar is only a 10-minute train journey from Erfurt so after another tasty breakfast of chicken balls, potato rostis and Bierwurst sandwiches, I traipsed over to the railway station. My feet were throbbing somewhat due to the 21,000-plus step day the day before, but fortunately they did not have blisters. At least not yet. As a precaution, I ended up buying some blister plasters as soon as I got to Weimar, calling in on the pharmacy on the main road leading from the station to the city centre. The throbbing got worse as the day progressed and there was many a time when I just needed to sit down on a bench and rest my feeties. Fortunately, there were no blisters, but I am amazed that I used to be able to do whole weeks of touring like this, yet now I struggle with barely two days.

The Bauhaus Museum was my first port of call - a concrete slab of a building that's on your approach into the city. I had been to the Bauhaus Museum in Dessau, where the movement moved to in 1925 after being kicked out of Weimar, and indeed the most fascinating part of the exhibition was about this. Despite claiming to be apolitical, there were clear socialist themes running through Bauhaus. There were masters and apprentices rather than teachers and students, while they built some of the very first social housing for Germans in the 1920s. Of course, the politics of that time was fractious and the Bauhaus attracted a lot of criticism, particularly from the right and far-right of German politics at the time. Weimar was one of the places where the Nazis got their first foothold (along with Dessau as it happens) but conservative influences conspired against them throughout the 1920s. They were beholden to local parliaments for their funding which, with the rapid inflation of 1923, caused huge problems. In that same year, they put on an exhibition to highlight the studio and all their projects, and this too was fascinating. As well as architecture (which became an increased focus as the 1920s wore on), they did things like music and theatre shows with characters that don't look too far removed from other films from the Swinging Twenties. There were 1920s science fiction and lifestyle films shown on the walls, giving you a glimpse into life of that time, while the aesthetic of the Bauhaus movement which focused on geometric shapes and form was explored. We also got to learn more about some of the leading members of the Bauhaus, including its founder Walter Gropius, who withstood a savage beating from the press at the time. The 15-minute chronological running of newspaper excerpts highlighting the pros and cons of the Bauhaus were particularly fascinating and, as usual, I can't help but feel that people on the right didn't realise what a good thing they had until they had chased it out of town. The main complaint was Weimar was too small a place to have such an avant garde institution, but it also attracted some of the best artists and architects from the period to such a small place. The renown it gave Weimar was real, and seeing this play out socially had clear resonance with today.

As well as the politics, a lot of other things were covered too. The ethos of the Bauhaus, in particular, was highlighted and we got to see some of the architectural and interior designs that they promulgated. The use of tubular steel or the rounded lamps that have since become synonymous with 1920s style originated with this movement and so it was fascinating to see all of the things they created. It must have been an exciting if tumultuous period and it was one I found incredibly absorbing, so much so that despite this museum only having three modest floors, I ended up staying there for over four hours. There was also a lot of focus on design and painting, with the use of specific shapes and colours to denote certain feelings. It was truly a unique way of doing art and craft at the time, and you can see why stuffy conservative types didn't like it.

I had bought the Moderne Card, which entitles me to year-long access to three museums in the city. When I bought it, I just wanted to save money on the day, but the possibility of returning made this excellent value. In many ways, I should have gone the whole hog and gone for the card that covers every museum, but I did make use of the three modern museums that my Moderne Card covered. At €19, it was also a decent price. My next port of call was the Neues Museum, on account of it closing at 4pm, rather than the usual 6pm. Formally the Grand Ducal Museum, this impressive building was constructed in 1869 and was one of the first museums established in Germany. It covers the period before the Bauhaus, and specifically the two schools that merged to form it in 1919. The exhibition "Ways to the Bauhaus" covered this best, as it focused on pieces by the Weimar Painting School as well as avant-garde painters such as Claude Monet and Max Beckmann, who were supported by Harry Graf Kessler, the director of this museum. There is a wonderful Monet painting contained within, while there was also an exhibition dedicated to the cult behind Friedrich Nietzsche. There were three separate areas to the museum and, like with the Bauhaus one, there were audio descriptions available on your phone by scanning a QR code. I found this particularly useful, and this museum did a great job at setting the artistic tone in the area prior to the Bauhaus movement. The staff here were also really friendly, while I found the basement exhibit on book binding and the printing press particularly fascinating. I had never really thought about how books are bound before, so to go through the process in a step-by-step manner was good. I also enjoyed the big golden statue which greets you on the way in. There was also a lot of focus on Henry van de Velde, a Belgian painter, architect, interior designer, and art theorist. He introduced art noveux to Belgium and designed the Kunstgewerbeschule in Weimar in 1907. It was one of the few architectural projects he did. He moved to Weimar in 1899 while in 1907, he established the Grand-Ducal School of Arts and Crafts under the patronage of the Grand Duke Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. He suggested Gropius take over the group in 1919 after stepping down due to the First World War.

I hopped on a bus for the next stop, partly because it was nearly half an hour walk away and partly because my feet were in flames by this point. Having the Deutschland Ticket was also a huge convenience and soon enough I had made my way to the Haus Am Horn. This was the first ever house built by the Bauhaus movement, as part of their 1923 summer exhibition. Unlike many houses of the time, it had running water, a bath, and toilet facilities, while the kitchen was designed in such a way so everything was to hand. The idea was that the lady of the house would save time during the cooking process as she wouldn't have to scurry here, there, and everywhere to get what she needed. The interesting thing about this squat cubic building was that the living room was right in the centre, with all of the other rooms off to the sides. The children's bedroom was actually the biggest and it was interesting that the man and woman had different rooms of their own. The house was built for a family of three and again I found it fascinating, although the €7 was perhaps a bit steep (it was included in the price of my Moderne Card so it was perfectly fine for me). Most of the furniture in here was replica - indeed the house had been lived in as normal up until 1999 - but the child's jungle gym climbing frame, bookshelf and desk ensemble was an exquisite and efficient use of space.

The Haus Am Horn is on the eastern flank of the Park an der Ilm, a UNESCO World Heritage site as it's an English country garden heavily influenced by Goethe. This means there are quite a few sites to see dotted about, while it was pleasant to walk in the weak springtime sun. There was something of a bitter wind, but it was great stumbling across various follies and other things. The statue of William Shakespeare was something of a shock, but not as much as the stone column around which there was wrapped a snake. I didn't like that at all, largely because it was quite realistic. The main sight though was the Roman Haus, the basement of which contains the original snake stone column, largely to preserve it from weathering. There were stone knights down there too along with a stone lion sphinx. The Roman Haus itself is in Classical style and looks like a Roman villa. It was the summer residence of Duke Carl August, who was a friend of Goethe's and essentially designed this whole complex with him. It was great having a look around this small yet beautiful building. The summery yellow salon (a study with stucco lustro and animal-themed wallpaper) or the stunning blue salon (used as a ballroom and audience chamber with Duchess Anna Amalia's portrait dominating the wall) were probably my two favourites of the six, but then the right half of the building looked very paired back. I imagine it would have made for a fantastic summer residence.

Around the park, I also got to see the Soviet Cemetery, where some of their war dead are buried. This is from the final days of the Second World War, and it's interesting to note how drab and grey the gravestones are as opposed to the Commonwealth's stunning white. Going into the cemetery, there is a huge gate upon which two Soviet stars are adorned, while the gate which forms part of the pedestrian entrance has a hammer and sickle latch which I thought was a nice touch. Around the corner from here stands the Tempelherrenhaus, which was once part of the orangery. This used to be used by the Weimar court for balls and concerts, but it was mostly destroyed in the Second World War. It's now left in ruins as a monument of war, but the building must have been huge, and incredibly ostentatious for the times.

While strolling through the park, I also stumbled across the house of Franz Liszt. The Hungarian composure lived in Weimar twice, and it was in this house where he resided for the second time, up until his death. Ever since Liszt had left, the Grand Duke Charles Alexander was desperate for him to return and he was given the Hofgärtnerei (court gardener's house) as an incentive to come back. The interiors were designed by the finest designer of the age, while a grand piano sits majestically in the main living room. The house only has five rooms, and one of those was for his valet, but they are stunning. Liszt came back to give masterclasses to local residents, as well as students from further afield. He spent the summers of the final 17 years of his life in Weimar, saying he felt like it was coming home. There were a few striking paintings in this house, not to mention the clocks, which were also particularly fine. While the living room and study area were quite sumptuous, the dining area and his bedroom were both more modest and austere. The people running the museum were particularly friendly and let me stay as long as I wished - I only discovered this place at 5:20pm but you only need half an hour to look around. They also complemented me on my German, which was nice. Indeed, I had to use German throughout this three-day stay, barely speaking English, which was a nice challenge. Alas in some of the museums, particularly in Erfurt on the Sunday, I wished my German was much stronger as I could get the gist of the exhibitions and what I was being told, but not everything.

It was past 6pm by time I finished in the park, and I realised that I still didn't get to see everything here, with the underground Parkhoehle closing to the public. The entrance was still open but I didn't fancy being stuck down there, so I decided to press on. I also realised that I hadn't seen any of the main city by then either, so I decided to walk into the Altstadt to see what I could see. The southern fringe of the city, which I was entering from the park, is dominated by the castles. Sadly, most of these were closed for renovation, but it was still good seeing them. There's a huge black imposing clock tower outside one of them, while the Stadtschloss was very similar to others I have seen in the likes of Wurzburg. Opposite this, there is a Doggy Spa, which I thought would be of interest to Wilma and Henry, but I never sent the photo. In this area, there is also the Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, which is the jewel of the city. The ornate Rococo Hall, constructed in 1766, is the highlight with the three-story hall housing around 40,000 volumes. A fire broke out here in 2004, destroying 50,000 books, but the restoration has been executed perfectly. Alas, I didn't realise you had to book this for a specific time around a week in advance, so by the time I came around to booking, all tickets had sold out for the day. This, along with missing out on all the Goethe and Schiller stuff, makes another visit to Weimar desirous.

With everything closed, I decided to kill some time just walking around the city. There is quite a lot to see, while the place is so compact, that I had it covered within an hour. I did check out Goethe and Schiller's houses, where their respective museums are situated, while Weimar's central Markt was a delight. The market itself had shut up shop for the day, but this afforded a greater view of the wonderful buildings. The neo-Gothic Rathaus is undoubtedly the highlight and I rushed back from touring to hear the rare Glockenspiel made from Meissen porcelain chime the hour at 7pm. Porcelain bells are very rare and they had a more earthy, timorous tone. Interestingly, off to the side of the Rathaus, there was a British ER postbox. This was donated to the city by Stratford-upon-Avon upon Weimar being the European City of Culture in 1999. It's a nice story and a rather odd thing to see in the middle of a German city.

The Renaissance Cranach House, painted a dark green or grey, flanks the side of the square opposite the Rathaus and is now a theatre. It is so-named because it was where Cranach the Elder spent is final days, before his death in 1553. Even the pubs here are steeped in history, with Zum Schwarzen Bären being one of the longest-standing and best for traditional local food, and the Hotel Elephant, which has welcomed both Napoleon Bonaparte and Richard Wagner. Down the road, George Eliot also spent some of 1854 in Weimar.

Three minutes up the road, around some winding cobbled streets, you come to the Church of St Peter and Paul (Herderkirche). This is an impressive white building that is almost too big for the square it is sitting on. The interior was quite nice, although the lady inside did try and get me to come back for their 11pm Easter service, which sadly I couldn't do. It is named the Herderkirche as there is a statue of the theologian, philosopher and poet situated outside. He was another influential period during the time of Weimar Classicism, which included the likes of Goethe and Schiller, yet he is not as well known as those two.

Wandering on, I also stumbled across the theatre in which the Weimar Republic was founded in 1919, with a museum dedicated to this directly opposite. This is on one of the main squares in the west of the city and I was glad to see this was more lively than other areas, which were starting to die once the shops had closed. To this end, I had tried to check out Hoffmann's Buchhandlung, which was founded over 300 years ago, but they closed at 6pm and thus the shutters were all down. On the square near the theatre, there was also an interesting clock with metal discs which recorded the temperature and air pressure, in a way that I thought was particularly unique.

I had a meal booked for 8pm at the Watzdorfer Geleitschenke, a wonderful timber-framed building tucked in one of the side streets. Like the night before, I thought it wise to book a table in advance, but this time they had no issues seating me. Indeed, with my barking feet and having seen everything I wanted to see of Weimar, I got there about fifteen minutes earlier yet they were still happy to seat me. They put me in the back conservatory, with one other group, so once they had left, it was a bit odd eating there on my own. It was also stiflingly hot and although when asked I had told them I wasn't too bothered where they sat me, in a way I wish I had been with more people. I grabbed a beer from a local brewery, which wasn't as nice as the one I had the night before, and opted for the schnitzel. This isn't particularly Thuringien, but it was close enough and was what I fancied. The portion size was huge, with a load of greasy diced potato too. There was some nice caramelised if slightly soggy onions and a modest salad too. Despite having had no lunch, it was still a hefty amount of food, which made running for my bus difficult. I couldn't be bothered walking the twenty-five minutes back to the station and I was just in luck, leaving the restaurant just in time to catch the half-hourly service. Again, the Deutschland Ticket is a wonderful thing. In fact, the food arrived so quickly, that I ended up being back in Erfurt about one hour earlier than anticipated. There were some loud kids on the station waiting for the stopping RB20 service (the train I had taken in the morning had sailed straight through), while it being a few minutes delayed, meant more endurance time on the platform. Still, I got back to my hotel just before 9:30pm with the thought of maybe going to the Irish bar over the road at some point. Alas, once I had got back to the room, I couldn't really be bothered and the bar looked a little too busy to be enjoyable. In the end, I just got a beer from the vending machine downstairs in the hotel bar (although the member of staff did have to cajole me into getting it as the touchscreen said the alcoholic pilsner wasn't available when there were clearly bottles there) then headed back to my room, taking a shower and heading to bed early. It had been another long, tiring, but rewarding day.

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Erfurt - Thursday 2 and Friday 3 April

2026-04-06T15:06:24Z

This Easter weekend, I headed down to Erfurt, the capital of Thuringia, as it's a city I'd wanted to visit for sometime. Wolfie was due to come with me, but due to his wireless engineering exam snafu, he had to stay behind and revise. This was probably for the best as it allowed him three days of quiet study time while I wasn't getting in his way. He booked the exam for 9pm on Easter Sunday - an odd time yet a time that was available - and the good news is that he passed, thus justifying his decision to stay behind. This still meant that it was a rather lonely weekend for me in the centre of Germany, but I suppose individual travel means you can do all the things you want, when you want, with ultimate freedom. I certainly took advantage, although after three days and 55,000 steps, my feet are not thanking me for it. They still ache today.

My train was at 19:54 from Hauptbahnhof on Thursday evening, allowing me to finish work and even cook a Hello Fresh meal before setting off. Wolfie walked with me to the train station, but needed a wee en route, so we said goodbye at the annoying traffic lights outside the Ibis Hotel. I boarded a train towards the main station, any train, then found out I had about 45 minutes to kill once there. I grabbed two expensive 500ml cans of Berliner Kindl - I got two as the €7 deal was far better than the €4.50 individual price - and enjoyed one of them on the train. As Wolfie was not using his seat, I thought I'd have an empty one next to me for the duration of the trip, but it was a busy train and I let a nice lady take it.

I got into Erfurt shortly before 9:30pm and made my way to the hotel, some 10-minute walk away. I had rebooked from the Mercure to the H2 Hotel on account of a cancellable booking and only needing a single room, which meant that Wolfie did not have to pay for the hotel costs. Walking around the disturbingly named Juri-Gargarin-Ring was an experience, but it seemed that Erfurt was largely dead. I got to my hotel and checked in, noting that it was on the corner of the delightful Hirschgarten, which has some ornate buildings down its sides and has a children's play area in the middle. There was also an interesting Irish bar directly opposite my hotel which I wanted to try, but in the end did not. The room itself was fine, but the open space outside must have been drafty as I could hear the wind whooshing past my window throughout my three-day stay. It was either that or the #4 tram that trundled past my window every 15 minutes or so. On the Saturday evening, I ended up saving a dozy duck from being run over by one of them. The driver had stopped yet the duck just sat there. One lady had tried to remove the duck before giving up, allowing me to step in. The tram driver beeped his thanks.

On the Thursday evening, I decided to go out for a short while, knowing there is a craft beer bar called Die-Bier-Rufer on the other side of the city. This is quite a good bar-cum-bottleshop as it has a wide range of craft beers on the shelves. It also has four beers on draft, although two were the standard German types rather than being anything craft. I went on both the Thursday and Friday evenings, but it was so busy both times, I had to sit outside. It was a little too cold for this and on the first day, there was a group of six men just standing about and smoking, who were a little intimidating when on one's own. Therefore, I only bought one drink here on both days, but on the Thursday I did take a can of the Ultjie Brewing Company's Bird of Prey IPA to take back to the room with me. While walking to the bar, I spotted a number of top sights, which I was going to take a much closer look at on the Friday. I also got to see the famous Bernd das Brot statue outside the main Rathaus. It is here because KiKA, the children's channel, is based in the city and so there are statues to many famous characters dotted about the place. I saw Die Maus and Elefant on the fantastically-named main street of Anger, Kobold Pittiplatsch near Krämerbrücke, the friendly Fledermaus Fidi up at the Zitdelle and Tigerente chilling on one of the main streets. Alas, I missed out on quite a few of the other characters though including Tabaluga, Rabe Rudi, Jan & Henry, Der Goldene Spatz, Herr Fuchs & Frau Elster, Moppi & Schnatterinchen, KiKANiNCHEN and Käpt'n Blaubär. Just more reasons to come back to the city.

The other advantage of the H2 Hotel was that breakfast was included, meaning I got up on most days. This was a standard buffet affair, but there were chicken meatballs and potato rostis too. I had those along with some warm bread with cheese and meat fillings. This was enough for me to survive most of the day, at least until dinner time. Alas, I was so tired on Friday morning, that getting up early didn't really help things as I went straight back to bed after eating breakfast. The bed was so comfortable to be fair and I spent the next three hours wrestling with myself, demanding I get up. In the end, I arose at about 1:15pm, a little pissed off that I'd spurned half a day, but aware that I am nowhere near as young as I used to be and my permanent sense of fatigue is making short trips like this all the more hard. In the end, I'm glad I did what I managed to do.

I found an online walking tour of Erfurt, which made sense to do as Friday was Good Friday so many things were closed. This is always a risk, particularly in Germany, but with lots of architectural delights in Erfurt, I didn't think that would matter too much. However, many of these were churches and, with it being Good Friday, were closed for services and the like. Still, I did get to see an interesting ritual at Saint Martin's Church towards the end of my five-hour walking trip as I heard the sound of clopping before seeing a carpet being paraded into the church. This is a Catholic church so I'm assuming its a Catholic thing, but it's not one that is known to me. At least I could observe this though, as the Dom was inaccessible due to masses, meaning I had to revisit on Sunday (Easter Sunday I worried would be fraught too, but services tend to be in the morning, allowing for afternoon tourist visits).

I started at the Hirschgarten and wandered through the city from there. This saw me see the likes of Westliches Wachhaus, a baroque three-story complex that highlights the wealth and grandeur of the city in the 16th through 18th centuries. This is next to the Haus Vaterland, the state capital of Thuringia. It is worth noting that the state parliament is in a modern glass building that was about forty minutes' walk out of town, so I couldn't be bothered going to see it. After seeing the sights around Hirschgarten, I walked down the fantastically named Anger, which is one of the main thoroughfares of the city. There are many fine buildings here, including the yellow-fronted Angermuseum, which houses modern art. The shopping centre Anger 1 looked a little like a train station while there was also a statue to Martin Luther outside the Kaufmannskirche - Sankt Gregorii, Luther having lived in Erfurt from 1501 through to 1511.

There are a few waterways cutting through Erfurt, including the River Gera, so there are quite a few ornate stone bridges. Roßbrücke is one of the oldest preserved natural stone bridges in the city, but it is the Krämerbrücke that is the most famous. This medieval arched bridge is one of the few remaining bridges in the world that have inhabited buildings, with them having been here for over 500 years. The original stone bridge dates from 1325, while it now forms a very lively shopping street between two of Erfurt's major squares - Benediktsplatz and Wenigemarkt. I had actually seen the Krämerbrücke on the Thursday night as it is around the corner from Die-Bier-Rufer, but there was a fat man shouting to his friends, which made me feel uncomfortable. The full majesty of the structure can only be appreciated in the daylight, while there was also the Stiftung Museum here which gave a few details about its history. You could also go down into one of the arches here and have a view of the river below. Rathausbrücke, which runs immediately parallel to Krämerbrücke, allows you to appreciate the structure side-on, while there are maps drawn into the concrete paving slabs down here too.

This area used to be the Jewish area, with the Mikwe around the corner. This ritual bath dates from the Medieval period and it is possible to enter via guided tour. Alas, the timings weren't right for me, so I just had to peer in from above through a glass partition they had cut through. Its main use was for ritual purification after coming into contact with the dead, blood or other objects that were considered unclean in a religious sense. There used to be a rather large Jewish community in Erfurt, with Jews and Christians living side-by-side. However, the pogrom of 21 March 1349, when Jews were accused of poisoning well water during a plague and were massacred, saw around 900 die. By 1354, there were some Jews living in Erfurt once again, but the municipal council revoked the protection of the Jews in 1453, with all Jews leaving the city around this time. By 1454, Jews were no longer tolerated in Erfurt. All of this was covered in the Old Synagogue, a fascinating building that was built in the 11th century, but was closed from 1349. It was used as a warehouse for the next 500 years and a restaurant in the 19th century. You can still see the green wallpaper and stucco statues dating from that time. There used to be skittle alleys too here. It was restored from 2003 to 2009 as an exhibition to highlight the Jewish history in the city. The interactive displays detailing the travails of the 14th and 15th centuries were particular fascinating, as were some of the printed manuscripts in Hebrew during that period. On the ground floor, there were displayed some archeological artefacts discovered around the site, including a stunning gold engagement ring with the synagogue in relief. While I enjoyed walking around here, I was also keeping a close eye on Middlesbrough FC, who were hosting Millwall in a top-of-the-table Championship clash. Typically, we went 1-0 up and peppered their goal with shots, but again failed to score, conceding a last-minute Millwall goal so they won 2-1. This probably ends our automatic promotion hopes, despite having been in the running for so long, which put a small dampener on my day. I pretended not to care though.

The neo-Gothic Rathaus, built in the 1870s, is a stunning sight although Fischmarkt, the square upon which it sits, is quite small. I stumbled up here on Thursday en route to the beer place and I was quite surprised this was one of the main squares in the city. Opposite it, there is the Römer, a statue in the form of a Roman warrior. He is holding the city flag of Erfurt in his right hand. I had also seen the Neue Mühle (New Mill) on the river on the Thursday evening too. This is a museum which is currently closed, and features the last functioning water mill in the city. There used to be sixty of them. It is called the New Mill as it was reconstructed after a fire in 1735. Around the corner, towards my hotel, there was also the imposing Barfüßerkirche. This was the old centre of Erfurt and the building is significant because it's largely in ruins, having been bombed in 1944. The choir was restored in the 1950s, beside the nave's ruin, but it has largely been left as a monument to war. It reminded me a lot of Coventry Cathedral and I was dismayed that it wasn't open to the public, or at least it wasn't at any point during my three-day stay in the city.

Domplatz is one of the main squares in the city, and it has the cathedral, a church and the citadel towering over it. Sadly, I couldn't get a full view of the square as there is a fun fair sitting in the middle of it. This obscured my view of the Erthal-Obelisk - an 18-metre-high monument erected in 1777 on the occasion of the first visit of the Archbishop of Mainz and Erfurt city lord Friedrich Karl Joseph von Erthal - nor the Minerva Fountain as both were obscured by attractions. The fair itself, which I wandered around on Sunday (it was closed on Friday as it was Good Friday), was typical of the type you get in Germany with the usual rides and concessions. I swear I had seen some of the very same rides in Spandau, while there were the usual eateries selling langos, almonds, garlic bread and bratwurst. The Thuringer Bratwurst, which is famous throughout Germany, comes from here and I did manage to try one at a traditional place overlooking the fair ground. This was in a permanent concession though and it was very much like all of the other sausages I had had in the country. On the Friday, I did walk up to the cathedral and adjacent church, but both were closed for visitors. I couldn't do the guided tour of Erfurt Cathedral's giant bell, the Gloriosa, either. On Sunday, I opted to have a sit down and a Bratwurst instead of doing this, on account of my aching feet. After being shut out of the churches, I went up to the Citadel, but the main attractions here were closing within forty minutes and I was advised by the kind lady on the front desk that it would be better to come back another day. Therefore, this was my first port of call on the Sunday.

This left me with a few things to see on the walking tour, most of them churches. I did enjoy getting lost in the winding cobbled streets of the city, while history oozed everywhere. The Sibyllentürmchen is a pleasant enough devotional column, built in the 1370s in Gothic style. It sits opposite a Tierpark that was closing when I got there. The bright yellow Christuskirche (SELK) was a bit of an anomaly in the suburbs of the city, but it was a striking building nonetheless. Meanwhile, the Theater was a giant concrete monstrosity and the Brühler Garten a pleasant enough small park in the heart of the city.

With it being Good Friday, I thought it best to book a meal in advance. Having gone through all of the recommendations, I settled on Zum Goldenen Schwan (The Golden Swan) conveniently opposite Die-Bier-Rufer. I had booked a table for 8pm, giving me an hour back at the hotel to recharge (both my phone and my body). This was just as well as I was starting to feel the need to go to the toilet during the final hour of my walking tour, which got progressively more uncomfortable the more I wandered. Once relieved, I had a quick nap, then headed out to the restaurant, where I arrived bang on time. The man manning the reservations was confused when I told him I had a booking, with another member of staff pointing out that I did indeed have a table reserved (although to be fair to him, my name wasn't appearing on his booking sheet). Anyway, he led me to my table and I ordered their Saisonbier, a chewy toffee and caramel offering which was probably the best traditional-style beer I have ever had in Germany. Upon asking what the 'Hunter's Luck (Jagdglück)' meat was for the day, I was told it was wild boar instead of deer, so I opted for that. This was served with Thüringer Klöße, the traditional potato ball dumplings, which soaked up the gravy quite well. The meat was served with cranberries, which cut through the richness well, but it was the brussels sprouts in rich Semmelbutter that really stole the show. They were so sweet and rich, possibly the best sprouts I had ever tasted. The food was very quick to be served, meaning I was in and out within 45 minutes, but I still enjoyed every bite. It was definitely a good choice of restaurant, even if the portion size was huge. Due to this, I could only manage a single beer at Die-Bier-Rufer, but drinking on your own is never good anyway. This saw me head back to the hotel just before ten o'clock, after a long and tiring, but ultimately rewarding, afternoon.

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At War With Computers

2026-03-31T21:33:24Z

Depression hit me hard at the start of last week, but things had picked up by Thursday, just in time for me to get knocked back with another annoying cold. This has occupied me throughout the weekend - reaching its peak on Saturday - but I had nothing specific planned and it didn't really impede my writing and editing. At the same time, though, things got worse for Wolfie as he realised that the wireless engineering exam he needs to pass in three weeks' time had been completely restructured without anyone telling him. Cue a massive panic and heavy revision over the last few days as he battles to get re-certified in time. As a result, it's looking unlikely he'll be able to accompany on our Easter break to Erfurt and Weimar.

There has still been no resolution from work on the ChatGPT allegation from two weeks ago, although it looks like I have been taken off half of the work from my main client. How this affects my earnings going forward is somewhat uncertain, but I guess we'll find out in due course. I don't really want to sacrifice money, but if I am taken off the one project I didn't really enjoy, then there could be advantages. I guess I'll just wait and see. I had hoped that client two could help fill any potential reduction, but it looks like there may be less work here too, at least over the summer. I’m hoping this won’t be the case, but things are starting to look a little concerning.

I got a new mouse last week and it’s working far better than the old one – at least I can now copy and paste. Wolfie advised me on it and what I hadn’t realised was the logo is three snakes intertwined. It still gives me the creeps a little bit looking at it. Wolfie has offered to cover it up for me.

The Brewdog form went dark on Monday, the last vestige of the old Equity for Punks community. In a way it’s sad, but it wasn’t unexpected. It also wasn’t unexpected that we were given no notice of the change either, so all the threads and posts are gone. I guess Brewdog never really gave a shit about us. Still, it’s the end of an era I suppose, one that’s best in the past. It’s just another brand now and I’ll take or leave it. With my significant reduction in alcohol intake over the last six weeks, it’s more likely leave it.

Today was a national holiday in Malta so there was no work to do for the first client. With my second client work done by lunchtime, this afforded me some time off this afternoon. I had anticipated this in advance, having rescheduled a dentist appointment from 19 March to today so I could go to Albania. This saw me traipse down there at around 1pm and both the hygienist and the dentist remarked on how much improved my teeth are since my last check-up seven months ago. They did some further cleaning and I left there pretty pleased, about fifty minutes earlier than I had anticipated. I did conduct the conversations in a mix of German and English, wishing I could just to it all in the former. I really should have more confidence.

I was going to go to Qualgeist tonight with Al and Wolfie, but with the latter's revision taking presidency, I just chilled with Al instead. The original plan had been to meet at Wilmersdorf Straße U-Bahn, but due to finishing the dentist early, I walked up to Richard Wagner Platz and we met there, noticing the pro-trans graffiti on the pavements to commemorate Transgender Day of Visibility. Before deciding what to do, we headed to the quaint cafe nearby where we had spent much of Al's birthday. The vibe in here is rather nice, even if the service is rather slow, although my multi-coloured strawberry matcha tea was delicious. We chilled here for an hour deciding what to do before resolving to going to Treptower Park and check out the Soviet War Memorial. I thought this would be a good and unique slice of Berlin that Al hadn't seen, but what I hadn't anticipated was the heavy rain and hail that befell us as soon as we had walked into the complex underneath the triumphal arch. Soviet architects liked straight lines and forms, along with no places for cover, so we got deluged as we walked around. A group of four people were huddled underneath the statue of the soldier smashing the swastika with his sword, sympathetically looking at us but not moving out of the way to let us keep dry. In the end, we just had to get soaked, with our coats and t-shirts particularly sodden. Al really enjoyed the history though, with the hammer and sickle being of key interest, and it was true he had never seen anything like it before.

After this, we had a stroll by the river, hoping that the thick black clouds overhead wouldn't lead to another soaking. We were largely lucky - indeed we happened to be outside during the only 20-minute heavy precipitation spell all day - and were soon back on the S-Bahn bound for Potsdamer Platz. Al wanted to check out the Mall of Berlin, the other option we could have visited earlier had we wanted to stay dry, which was pretty much like any shopping mall I have been in. Al tried clothes on in Hollister, then we went to Thalia's English language bookshop where we took a photo of Al in an inauthentic looking British telephone box. We checked out a tea cafe that was like a coffee shop except for tea - I had a black sugar chai latte which tasted like burnt Shreddies - and we ended the day in Smyths toy store looking at the toys. Sadly, the curly slide that allows you to drop from floors four to two was already closed for the day, while Al was told off by a security guard for moving a polystyrene boulder a handful of inches when wanting to take a photo in front of the Mario Galaxy Film poster. I also took a picture of Al stood next to a 4ft-high Lego man who was missing his right arm for some reason. At the Mall of Berlin, I particularly liked the inspirational quotes about Berlin from Barack Obama and Angela Merkel on gold plaques. The pictures of all the wildlife were heartwarming too. The 'Good Buy' pun over the door as we left, less so.

We exited the Mall of Berlin opposite Anton-Wilhelm-Amo-Straße station, a place that used to be called Mohrenstraße but was renamed for reasons of racial sensitivity. I had never been here before, so the illuminated side view of someone's face hanging on the side of a lamppost was interesting, as was the fetching statue of Fuerst Leopold von Dessau outside the station itself. We boarded the U2 here and headed to Mariendorffplatz via Bismarckstraße, to visit our favourite Ethiopian restaurant, Addis Ababa. As soon as we arrived, Al realised he had left his tote bag of groceries at the U-Bahn stop and went back to retrieve it, only to discover it had already been taken. Once returned, we grabbed a sumptuous banquet of Ethiopian food. I had ye-beri qey wot (cooked beef in Ethiopian spicy paprika sauce and homemade cheese), ye-bere alicha wet (cooked lamb meat in Ethiopian mild curry sauce) and ye- Tsom Beyaynetu (lentils in spicy sauce, white cabbage, chickpeas and kale). I also had a Coca Cola Light as I'm off alcohol again. The food was fantastic, but I'll admit I preferred the vegetarian options over the meat. Meanwhile, we had a wide-ranging conversation about racism in the furry fandom, with Al sharing perspectives I hadn't thought before. We also chatted a lot about envy and FOMO, two things I really struggle with.

We were the last ones in the restaurant, staying for a good hour longer than the other two tables had done. They probably wanted rid of us, so I ended up giving them a hefty €7 tip on a €43 bill. Still, it was worth it, their food is criminally under-priced. It was great to go back there for the first time in a few months, as well as to catch up with Al again. I got back home shortly after 11pm glad for the day out, even if it did mean I had to be in damp clothing and shoes for most of the day. Hopefully we can meet up again soon, just without the moist cold attire.

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Tirana - Saturday 21 and Sunday 22 March

2026-03-23T17:35:53Z

The need to stay awake to ensure my phone was charging properly, after I had dropped it in the magical green toilet in The Taproom by Pan's Microbrewery, meant that I didn't get to sleep until 2am on Friday night. This scuppered my plans to get up at 9am, with me surfacing it around 11am instead. I ate my cheap 7 Days chocolate croissant which I had bought the previous night from one of the blue kiosks that litter the city and lamented the fact it was soggy rather than crispy as croissants are supposed to be, then I threw on some clean clothes and headed back towards Skanderbeg Square.

My first destination was The House of Leaves, the spying and surveillance museum that shuts at 4pm, and thus I didn't quite get time to fit it in on the Friday. So called because of the rustling of leaves from people spying in bushes, the museum is in one of the former headquarters of the Sigurimi secret police. The building initially functioned as an obstetrics hospital, providing a safe place for Albanian women to give birth in the late 1920s and 1930s. Before then, home births were common and infant mortality was higher. However, after the Second World War, the house was acquired by the state and used for a much darker purpose. I engaged with this museum far more than Bunk'Art 2, largely because there was no AI to be found anywhere. In each room, of which there were 30 across two floors, there was a cardboard cutout of a young girl called Mia who explained the contents of the museum in kid-friendly language. This was a noble pursuit, even if talking about surveillance and propaganda was hard. It was also occasionally heartwarming, like in the room dedicated to spying on foreigners, where she highlighted the importance of friendship across cultures.

The museum started on a positive note, detailing its role was a maternity ward before things got dark rather quickly. Various types of surveillance equipment were on display and it was amazing to see that much of it came from Western countries including Germany and Japan. It was a real treasure trove of 1970s and 1980s recording equipment in particular. In other rooms, there was an expose on bugging devices and how they were integrated within every day objects, while there was a room set up to look like a typical 1970s Albanian living room with all of these bugs contained within. There was a demonstration on how neighbours were recruited to spy on their neighbours, with the techniques used to embed recording equipment in walls. There was even footage of black market details taking place, taken with some of this spying equipment, one of which involving the import of a Yugoslavian refrigerator. The sheer scale of the operation, with the number of people employed by the state, along with the various level of informants was truly breathtaking, while at the end, we heard personal testimony from those who had been interned in the work camps, as well as the relatives too. The bodies of some of these people still haven't been found or identified, and the interviews that were conducted were incredibly moving. We also got to see inside an old chemistry lab that was used to develop photos, break the seals of letters without detection, and even cut skeleton keys. There was also details of the two kneading devices that were used to destroy three-quarters of all secret files at the start of the 1990s.

The most fascinating part, though, was the area dedicated to propaganda. Whether this was through the official government publication Ne Sherbim Te Popullit with its idealised look at Albanian life or the feature films that the regime created to highlight the strength of the state over its enemies, it was all fascinating regarding the level of manipulation on show. And yet I also left the museum feeling a little sad too, wondering whether our enthusiasm to submit so much of our personal data willingly to giant tech corps was any different. I suppose, back then, you didn't know you were being spied on, but when you left the house, you were largely free to go unnoticed. Now, many of us have phones in our pockets that track our every movements, and data harvesting apps that build up accurate profiles of who we are and what we like and dislike. I don't know, it all just feels a little uncomfortable juxtaposed with this, not least because we know the political views of the tech bros and they aren't in alignment with ours. Propaganda here exists too.

There was a small bunker underneath the house, which was open but I wasn't sure whether we could go exploring. There was a sign pointing to an art exhibit down there, but aside from a few rusted steel squares, there wasn't too much to see. The catacombs were somewhat claustrophobic though and I didn't spend too long down there. After this, upon observing the giant green metal cones in the garden for some reason, I thought I needed a pick-me-up so I headed over to the Et'hem Bey Mosque, which I was able to explore, as I detailed in yesterday's post.

I then headed east to the market area around Pizari i Ri. This has recently been renovated, with a huge glass and metal structure sitting in the main square. Underneath, there were a load of stalls largely selling tobacco and tat, but walking around was pleasant enough. Dotted around the edge of this square, there were a load of different eateries and bars, but they did look a tad touristy. In the far corner, there were children playing football, while cyclists zipped back and forth across the pavement. They do have huge bicycles here with thick tyres that come barrelling towards you. They really should be on the road, but I won't get too grumpy. Anyway, it was around 2pm by now and I was starting to feel hungry, so I tried to pick out a restaurant that didn't look too touristy. It was then that I realised that one of my guide's recommendations - and one from the tourist page I was using as reference - was tucked away behind the street which flanked the northern edge of Pizari i Ri. Called Oda's Garden, this had a wonderful garden out back, and it was quite lively despite the time of day. Apparently, they have traditional music in the evenings, but I was happy enough with a beer and some lakror, the traditional Albanian pie. I opted for leek over spinach, feeling leek is a rather underrated member of the onion family, and for 400 leke, the slice I got was quite a huge portion. I pushed the boat out and had a dark beer, which tasted a little funny, but got the better the more I drank it.

Fully refuelled, I decided to head back to the hotel as the wind was getting rather bitter. March is an odd month for needing a coat, and I thought it was only going to get colder as the sun went down. I went for a short snooze too, but was fully refreshed by 4:30pm, albeit disappointed that Middlesbrough had again dropped points, this time to Blackburn Rovers. Having been in the Championship's top two since October, it's starting to look like we're throwing our automatic promotion chances away. With Ipswich and Millwall hot on our heels, I am not hopeful, but we are still ahead of them and we still have to play both teams. The reality, though, is that we aren't scoring goals. You can't have over 70% possession in games and then eke out goalless draws. It's all rather frustrating.

Not wanting to let that bother me though, I took a walk to Tirana Park, which was an interesting place to be in the setting sun. Kids were playing football, one child was having a game of table tennis with his father, and there were loads of families walking in the parkland and alongside the artificial lake. I overheard a woman having a loud argument with a cyclist. I thought the two must know each other, but I got the impression towards the end that they did not. I spied a monument to four members of the Frasheri family, prominent intellectuals in the Albanian National Awakening prior to independence, alongside their publicist, the politician Faik Konica. This area is also where the war graves are, of both the Germans who died between 1939 and 1944, and the Commonwealth soldiers who died during the same period. This is a really small cemetery of around 40 graves, all of the same white style you see in other places. Around the corner, there is also a white column dedicated to the founding of the Debatik, the United Boys of Communist Ideas (Djemtë E Bashkuar Anëtarë Të Ideve Komunist), in 1942. Until the fall of Communism in 1991, this was an important group in children's education. They organised summer camps and youth centres (called Pioneer Palaces) for children up to 14 years of age. They also ran annual national music, language, literature, and painting competitions, as well as publishing two magazines for 8-14-year-olds: Horizonti dedicated to science and and the more general Pionieri. The Holocaust Memorial is also in this park, three slabs written in Albanian, English and Hebrew. Due to the concept of Besa - meaning "to keep the promise" or "word of honour", it is a vow of trust, loyalty, and hospitality. This led to many Albanians sheltering Jews in 1943 and 1944 during the brief period when the Nazis occupied the country. There were many stories detailed in a special exhibition in Bunk'Art 2 which detailed the Albanians who had been awarded the Righteous Among the Nations award by the state of Israel for service towards protecting Jews. Many of these stories were moving, with Jews disguised as farmers or peasants, or taken up into the mountains to hide in barns. The honour of friendship that saw Albanians protect their neighbours was very heartwarming, and resulted in Albania being one of the few countries in the world to have a higher Jewish population in 1945 than it had in 1939.

I ambled my way down to the lake, stopping to take a look at the built-up skyline on the other side while a chud did some gymnastics on two rings he had attached to a wooden structure. There was a synthetic aroma down here, I think of strawberry from a lady's energy drink. I followed the paved footpath around the lake, spying bars and restaurants, and even another branch of Mon Cheri. There was also a Chinese pagoda and a small amphitheater down here too. I then headed over the causeway flanking the western side of the lake, spotting the fountain and the wonderful reflections of the dying sun creating yellow streaks across the clouds. Exploring a nearby complex of luxury flats and high-end restaurants was less fun before I doubled back and headed back into the Blloku district.

The rest of the evening, I largely detailed in yesterday's post. I checked out the Radio Bar where I had a nice cocktail, then called in at Enver Hoxha's front garden again to see what was going on. I sat with a Super Bock on a deckchair while watching five people trying to have a rave. I was expecting a poetry recital but wherever it was, it wasn't there. I left after one drink, not fancying paying 300 Leke for another can, while the evening was a bit cold not to be walking about. For food, I had a few options, and my heart initially wanted to swerve Albanian food having had it throughout so far. However, this was my last night in Tirana so I thought I probably should. I tried to go to a place that Skavi recommended called Peshku Nardi (after all, he had been right about Radio Bar - as I told him, taking a picture of my drink and sending it to him on Telegram). This was down some steps in the basement of a building by the river, but when I opened the door, I found it was empty. There was just one man, the owner sat there, and I didn't want to spend my evening in awkwardness. When he told me that all he had was fish and I couldn't pay by card, I decided to make my excuses and head elsewhere. I also walked past a pet shop which, on its front door, had a cat and a dog in full evening attire. The cat was drinking a whisky of some sort whereas the dog was holding a cocktail glass full of kibble. Wandering around, I also saw some fantastic graffiti murals including one of a brightly-coloured bird of prey in browns, blues, reds and yellows. There was also a picture of two steel characters, one with a crow's beak, balancing an apple on his hand,

Delibros was my next preferred choice - a Tirana institution serving smash burgers. However, Google suggested it was temporarily closed. I decided to chance it, knowing that Google is sometimes wrong, but alas on this occasion it was right. I then tried to go to a highly-rated trattoria over the road, but as I went up the steps, the waiter who had come outside for a cigarette audibly sighed at the intrusion. He told me there were only five tables when there were clearly at least double that, making it clear that I wasn't welcome. In the end, I ended up back at The Taproom by Pan's Microbrewery as it was on the same street. I ordered a beer and upon seeing that they served food, I decided to cut my losses and order some. I went for the local sausage, which came with those fries that curl back in on themselves. The portion was 800 leke and was probably meant to share as there was a load of meat on it. It was all the same, with small pots of mayonnaise and ketchup provided. It was all too greasy for me and with loud gob Cockney man hogging the whole atmosphere, I can't say it was an enjoyable experience. I left pretty quickly, going to N'Za Bar on my way home. It was nice sitting outside here overlooking the concrete channel that passes for a river, but my heart wasn't really in it and I was feeling a little tipsy anyway. Sick of being on my own, I just wanted to go back to my hotel and I got in before 10pm.

The only other thing I forgot to mention was on the Friday I also visited the castle area, which dates back to the 1300s. The only thing that remains here is the fortifications, with the castle having been raised by the Ottomans. Now, there are a load of trendy restaurants and craft stores tucked inside, which made for an interesting walk, but little else. Oh, and on one of the bridges over the river, there are sculptures of men and women, all of varying colours, depicting various types of relationship. They are made of small square tubes of metal about six inches in length, making for a variegated scene.

Wizz Air suggested I get to Tirana airport three hours in advance, which seemed a little extreme. However, with the bus to the airport only being every hour, in the end I had to get the 11am service for a 2pm flight. The bus itself was easy to find just off Skanderbeg Square and as I got there about forty minutes early, I had the opportunity to amble around and see a few of the blocks around here. There wasn't too much to report, while the blister that had developed throughout Saturday was really starting to hurt, despite the application of a padded plaster. In the end, I got on the roasting hot bus about half an hour early and just played Animal Crossing. The journey itself was fine, along roads that were flanked with car dealerships and businesses like stone masonry, graves and the like. It was interesting to see in the daylight, as I had taken a taxi after nightfall on the Thursday.

Once at the airport, it took about five minutes to get through the automatic passport gates and security, leaving me with over two hours to kill. Every shop on the top floor of the terminal was selling identical things, and beer at the same extortionate price (550 leke for 330ml, 610 leke for 500ml). I grabbed a Coca Cola and a cheese pasty with what was left of my Albanian money (opting for a second Pepsi Max later) and just sat and scrolled through the job boards. I didn't realise there were more restaurants downstairs, but at least I had quiet enough place to wile away the time. Wizz Air treated us like cattle once we had passed the boarding gate, making us wait in a narrow area for about twenty minutes while the plane was prepared. Meanwhile, despite the automatic passport gates working for me in Berlin on Thursday, they failed to work this time so I had a half-hour wait in the immigration queue before being seen. I was fuming, while I was also thoroughly miserable with the prospect of day-to-day life resuming again this week. Still, it was good to see Wolfie and we snagged a buy one get one free offer on two kebab pizzas from Domino's, which we could also use a discount code for. €5.50 each including garlic sauce was an incredible deal.

It was a great break away in Albania and I really needed it. The last month or so has been incredibly dark and it's reassuring to know that I still have things from which I derive enjoyment. I think next time, I'd like to bring Wolfie and maybe we'd go touring around the country. Two days is more than enough to do the main sights in Tirana and I'd like to see much more of Albania. Something to aspire for in the future.

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Tirana - Thursday 19 and Friday 20 March

2026-03-22T21:25:14Z

It's amazing to think that I hadn't visited a new country since October 2022. Back in the late 2000s and early 2010s, I was visiting new places all the time, but there aren't so many European countries I haven't visited and cons have taken precedence since the pandemic. Furthermore, living in Germany but still having UK outgoings has been a drain on financial resources (one I am increasingly viewing as a negative, what with the rise of AI severely threatening some of my paid work). It has therefore been great to have a few days free to be able to travel somewhere new, with Albania being on my list for a while. One of the reasons for this was that Wizz Air have a direct flight between Berlin and Tirana and it turned out to be quite favourable - 17:00 on Thursday, returning at 14:00 today. I would have rather the other way around - leaving Germany earlier and leaving Albania later - but you can't have anything. Thursday was a day off for my first client, but my second client still wanted work, so once that was completed I was on my way to the airport.

Wolfie stayed at home - he has been feeling quite ill of late and needed to study for an exam - so it was just me on this three-day trip. Armed with some research and tips from Skavi, who had visited at roughly the same time last year, I caught up at the airport having gone through security. Oddly, I was sent to Terminal 2, but then the gate was right at the far side of Terminal 1, necessitating a near half-hour walk. Still, there was plenty of time in which to do it and even the automatic barriers worked with my passport (this joy was sadly short-lived as on the way back, they failed and I had to wait in a queue for thirty minutes as everyone else was processed). The flight itself, however, made Ryanair look good. A plane with 40 rows of seats instead of 35, some families acting like it was a creche and me sitting in between an attractive young lady and a bawdy middle-aged man who kept eyeing her up every two minutes. It was all rather annoying.

I landed in Tirana at around 19:15 and after failing once to get through the ePassport gates, I tried a second time and was let through. Grabbing some Albanian Leke at the airport - and being ripped off in the process - I strolled into the arrivals hall to meet my contact. I had booked a taxi to the hotel which seemed just to be a bloke standing outside the airport then guiding me to one of the taxis already waiting in the taxi rank, but there was no additional charge and the €18 was cheap compared to the usual charges. It was also dark at this point and I just wanted to get to the hotel, figuring that if I were quick, I would be able to go out and get some dinner. The drive to the hotel was about 20 minutes and although I had to point out exactly where it was to the driver, I did at least get there. However, he did drop me off in the middle of the literal road with metal barriers separating it from the pavement, so getting to my accommodation proved to be tricky.

The guy on the front desk was quite nice and he soon showed me to my room. The Villa Klaus Hotel is in a former house, so my room was essentially two rooms, with one being a separate room for the bathroom with its own exterior door. The floor was all wood, even in the shower itself, while the glass partition separating the shower from the rest of the bathroom didn't really prevent the rest of the wooden floor from being flooded. The window high above was open, so it got cold at night, while there was no breakfast nor other amenities aside from a kettle. Still, the heating was good, the bed comfortable, and apart from the last night when there was a family of maraudering monsters down the hallway, it was largely quiet. I got settled in quickly and the guy at the front desk recommended I try a local restaurant called Jarna, which is exactly where I went. This was around the corner, about five minutes away, and specialised in Albanian cuisine. I didn't fancy much, but I got some Albanian craft beer from Birraria e Gjyshit which had a logo of someone who looked like Stray wearing a silly hat. This was pretty average stuff to be honest. The food though, was different. The corn bread was yellow and chewy, served with butter, and it paired well with the white cheese covered in olive oil. This did seem rather bland though, in contrast to the Fergese Tironse, an orange mix of peppers and cottage cheese. This was so rich, full and unctuous that it was probably the highlight of my trip in terms of food. The restaurant was moderately busy but the staff were really friendly, including one of them who referred me to another as he used to live in Germany and wanted practice speaking German. It was a great start to my trip, although I could have done without the eviscerating burning raki they kindly gave me as an aperitif.

One small negative about the hotel was that they shut the main gate at 11pm. This would be fine as they did give me a code, but there would be no one staffing it after then. This meant that if I got locked out, no one could rescue me, so I decided to get back before 11pm each night. I therefore had an hour after dinner so I decided to walk down to Skanderbeg Square, the centre of the city, which was about ten minutes away. En route, I picked up an ice cream - Lotus and Oreo - and chomped on it as I walked across this expansive space. I was going to see most of it on a guided tour the next morning, but it's always good to get one's bearings, and seeing a place lit up at night does give it a different feel. I noticed that near the statue of Skanderbeg, the famous one with him riding on his horse that used to form the main intro to Albanian news reports back in the day, that the state TV channel were just packing away after something. I wasn't sure what it was, but then a thought hit me. The day after, the Friday, was Eid and I was in a majority Muslim country. This was going to bode for an interesting holiday indeed. I left the square with that on my mind, picking up a store-bought croissant to have for my breakfast as the hotel restaurant was closed. Upon returning back to my room, there was a cat in the hallway trying to get in. He scuttled off into one of the unoccupied rooms and I had to get the manager to release him. He did go on his own accord in the end, but it made for an interesting end to the evening. Oh, but before I went back, I decided to have a sneaky quick beer in AlBar Taproom, a sort of craft beer bar in a green-tiled red-roofed building. There was a lady at the far end talking to her boyfriend about gender studies and a hairy bearded man serving the beer. The drink was pleasant enough, but I couldn't stay long.

I don't normally book tours, certainly not with Get Your Guide, but there were two reasons why I did. The first was that it would get me out of bed, with the tour scheduled for 11am. The second was that I only had two full days in Tirana and I needed to be efficient. To this end, both of these came to pass. Friday was a wonderfully sunny day, one of those days that makes you feel glad to be alive. It was also one of those days where luck was on my side. Every time I hit a road junction, the green man (in this case an eagle, the emblem of the Albanian state) flicked on immediately, while some of the random experiences I had were incredibly fortuitous (more on this later). The only negative was dropping my phone in the toilet and needing it to dry out for a few hours before the charger would work again, but even then, my phone is now doing fine. Plus the toilet had just been flushed, so thank heaven for small mercies.

I was awoken to a text from Sabian, who was running the "Tirana Hidden Treasures Tour". We were to meet outside the clock tower adjacent to the Et'hem Bey Mosque. This was built in 1822 by Et'hem Bey himself, with the clock mechanism changing throughout the years. The clock faces were bought from Germany in 1928, but sustained significant damage by the occupying Nazi forces in 1944. The tower was used by snipers too. It stands next to the mosque where, in 1991, Albanians gathered for mass prayers in defiance of the then-dying Communist regime. The mosque itself is small, but stunning beautiful. Its exterior is decorated by idyllic landscapes of forests and waterfalls, depicting the Islamic image of paradise. The colours are rustic browns and greens, which fit in well with the square itself, while inside, the reliefs follow a similar pattern. Tourists could visit at particular times for a Zakat donation, but Friday was difficult as it was Eid. In the end, I popped in on the Saturday, but it was quite a popular tourist destination. There were shoes strewn everywhere across the entrance, but inside, I did get a sense of tranquility. The huge chandelier added to the grandeur, as did the ornately crafted dome which followed the same countryside motifs. There were phrases in Arabic attached to each one, while in the main prayer hall, there were further images of paradise.

There were five people on our tour including me, and you could spot three of them a mile off. The fourth, a guy who was living in Baden-Wurtemburg, registered last minute and popped up out of nowhere. The other three were all ladies from Lithuania, so it was quite the group. Sabian was an excellent tour guide, even if he did keep touching my shoulder over and over. At one point, he did say "you're clearly not a lady" which somewhat stung, but he wasn't being malicious. Anyway, we started off at this corner of Skanderbeg Square and did a sweep around, taking in the aforementioned monument to the fifteenth-century national hero and general who repelled the Ottoman Empire and then taking in the Opera House and the National History Museum. The latter is being renovated, but you can still see the striking Communist-era mural which has a lady representing Albania in the middle with the warriors and farmers who have defended the land throughout the ages straddling either side. Just beyond the Opera, behind the giant Albanian flag, there is the Skanderbeg building. This is a modern glass and steel structure which is styled in the shape of Skanderbeg's head. It was a remarkable thing to see, particularly when lit up at night. Architecturally, I don't think I have ever seen anything quite like it.

We strolled down to the humongous Orthodox Cathedral of Resurrection, paid for by the Greeks. It is the third largest orthodox cathedral in the Balkans. It seems to be designed in the style of a Baptist church, which isn't too surprising considering it was an American who was chief architect. It was opened in 2012 and is quite a cavernous space on the inside, nicely cooling on a rapidly warming day. It's quite arched with a huge dome, upon which there is a figure of Christ on a stunning dark blue background. In the supports of the arch, there are murals highlighting the various stages of Christ's life.

We continued walking, ending up at a steel structure containing the names of the founding fathers of the Albanian state. Albania declared independence from the Ottomans in 1912, although their initial plan was for autonomy rather than full-scale independence. However, when the Turks attacked them, their priorities shifted while around 80% of the Ottoman army turned out to be ethnic Albanians who just laid down their arms. This memorial commemorates some key members of the independence movement and we were encouraged to do the Albanian wing symbol with our hands to showcase our patriotism. I buggered this up initially, embarrassingly, but in the end I got the hang of it. Interestingly, Mother Teresa's father's name appears on this memorial while her real name was Anjezë Gonxhe. She was born into a Kosovar-Albanian family in Skopje, which is now the capital of North Macedonia, and Albania is proud of its link to Mother Teresa. Indeed, the airport is named after her for some reason, while in Saint Paul's Catholic Cathedral, which we were to visit later, there is a portrait of her made out of sea shells and mussels. This was rather striking, as was the church itself, which had a stained glass window in the shape of an arrow. We got chatting to the main priest here and he was fascinating. Belgian-born, he is fluent in German, and loves the opportunity to speak the language with anyone who can. Considering our group consisted of me, a guy who lived in Ba-Wu, and the three Lithuanians who now live in Vienna, the conversation was lengthy. It was all rather interesting - he is 83 years old and had lived in Tirana for the last 34 years - and he told us a lot of interesting things about the church in Albania. Pope Francis also visited this cathedral in 2014 and conducted a sermon here, which is commemorated by his image on the wall and in one of the stained-glass windows. Oh, and as there was someone there from Baden Wurtemburg, we discussed those green stickers you see everywhere claiming it's nice, even spotting one in the wild on a lamppost.

Before we had gone here though, we also checked out the Pyramid of Tirana. This was meant to be a mausoleum for Enver Hoxha, the Communist dictator who led the country from 1944 until his death in 1985. However, the process of embalming put many Albanians off and in the end, it was just used as a cultural centre (from 1991) after its initial role as a museum (from 1988). Interestingly, it was used as a NATO base in the Kosovo War in 1999. Indeed, Sabian kept telling me how much he loved Tony Blair - it got pretty relentless in the end - and although he is persona non-grata in Britain these days, you can see why the Albanian population still think of him highly. Anyway, at the Pyramid, you can climb up the steps though - there are around 100 of them - and this affords an incredible view over the city. As well as seeing this during the day - the bright white surfaces are glistening in the sunlight - I came back at night time and watched the sun setting over the jagged mountain peaks that rim the city. It was quite a romantic place to be, had I had anyone romantic with me, while there were quite a few other people there too so it was rather noisy.

Speaking of politicians who are thought of highly, George W. Bush is so well-regarded that they named a street after him. He also visited Albania in 2007 when, during the melee, he had his watch stolen off his wrist. This took place outside the Mosque of Namazgah, which was funded by the Turks and is the largest mosque in the Balkans. It has a capacity of 10,000 worshipers, with an outside courtyard area acting as over spill. This was set up for Eid as a place where the children could be entertained. We entered, but the three ladies were not permitted, so we had to go back with our guide. It was the middle of Friday prayers, but I don't know why they weren't allowed as later in the day when I went back, there were women milling about here. At this point, I did decide to go inside the mosque proper, admiring the sumptuous blue carpet and the delicate blue artwork inside. Indeed, Istanbul's Blue Mosque is the main theme here, while the exterior is understated white marble with blue domes. It was all rather breathtaking and I'm glad I got the opportunity to see it, particularly on such a holy day.

Sabian doesn't like politicians apart from Tony Blair and for some reason Boris Johnson, presumably because he didn't have to live in the UK during his abysmal "leadership". The tour ended outside the Bunk'Art 2 project and we were having such a good time that it overran by about 15 minutes. Still, he was good value and I dropped him a tip, as the rest of us did. Later on, he was kind enough to give us some restaurant recommendations as well as some local foods we should try. I was quite faithful to his list. We then all headed our separate ways and I headed into Bunk'Art 2 itself. Bunk'Art 2 is set in one of Albania's many underground bunkers and details the history of Sigurimi, the Albanian secret service during the period of Enver Hoxha's dictatorship. The bunker itself was built in the 1980s under the government quarters - or at least where the main offices are. Interestingly, the Albanian parliament currently sits in an unassuming building tucked behind the Mosque of Namazgah. Apparently, today's politicians want to build a grander building. Anyway, the bunkers detail the history of the police from the formation of the Albanian state in 1912, through to the royalty period of 1925-29 and then on through the 1930s, into the period the country was occupied first by Italy and then Nazi Germany. We then get to the really harrowing aspect - which considering there were photographs of 'traitors' hanged in the 1920s says a lot - the period of the secret service from the 1940s onwards. The border police heavily feature - Albanians were not allowed to leave the country - so there was a whole section on the training of police dogs and the tactics they employed to keep Albanians interned. There was also a big focus on the work camps, with testimonies of those who worked there playing, highlighting the harrowing conditions. In one room, there is a list of over 5,500 names who were sent to these places. Another room detailed those who collaborated with the authorities by snitching on their neighbours, detailing the lengths the secret service went to in order to conceal their identities. Some of the techniques employed were also covered, including bugging devices and surveillance equipment hidden in every day objects like clothing, umbrellas and suitcases. Towards the end, there was also discussion of the various torture techniques employed at the time. Bunk'Art 2 was incredibly harrowing, and the narrow claustrophobic nature of the bunker didn't aid this. It was very restrictive and a sign of the paranoia of Hoxha and his entourage. The signs were in Albanian and English, but the English translations were a little off. These were still better than the audio guide though, which was clearly AI as the tone of the commentary was off, sentences were mangled, and some weren't even finished. This was dismaying as it's the first time that AI has impinged on my holiday and ultimately, I had to turn off the audio guide and rely on the signs. I was pointed to an AI chatbot for further context too, but I couldn't trust the accuracy of the information being given. I therefore left Bunk'Art 2 with a heavy heart, not just because of the disturbing things I had seen, but because the tentacles of AI are imposing themselves in this area too. I would have gone to Bunk'Art 1, the original installation, but this was on the outskirts of town and necessitated getting a bus. In the end, I didn't have time for that.

It was 3pm at this point and I was feeling hungry. I decided to decompress at Mon Cheri, a chain of Albanian coffee shops not too dissimilar to Starbucks. There are loads of these throughout the city, yet when I wanted one, I could barely find a branch. I did eventually though, only to discover that the menu had been covered by bottles of water. I don't like coffee so I asked what else they had, eventually settling on a refreshing mango press drink, while I also grabbed a turkey and cheese sandwich which was toasted to a luke-warm level. It was decent enough and the staff were friendly, although there was only me and one other girl in there. Still, it was a moderately okay lunch and soon afterwards, I headed back to my hotel as it was so close, partly to pick up my coat as there was a chill in the air of the dying day and partly because I needed a snooze, having done an awful lot of walking.

I awoke at around 5pm and decided to catch the last dregs of daylight. I headed over to the Tanners' Bridge, a small remnant of the Ottoman-era city. Built in the eighteenth century, this modest yet peaked stone bridge, it was the main route that farmers took their livestock to slaughter and the leather district (hence the name). It used to span the River Lena, the main river in Tirana, but this was diverted in Communist times and is now just a concrete channel sluicing its way through the city. Apparently, the river used to flood and so this was a worthwhile endeavour, but ultimately, it just makes the river one step higher than a sewage pipe. All rather disappointing. As I was looking at the bridge, a man in a green shirt was walking over it and challenged me as to why it was there, now bridging a nothing. I told him about the river diversion, he agreed, and we merrily went on our separate ways. After this, I climbed up the pyramid to see the sunset over the twinkling tower blocks and minarets of the city, which was a rather moving and evocative affair.

With the light now gone, I decided to walk around and see what I could see. The Twin Towers in Tirana house two banks, Otpbank and Finbank, and I wondered if they ever had a fierce rivalry where they threw things from the blocks at each other. I ambled past here and stumbled across one of the main stadiums (the Air Albania Stadium), right next to Mother Teresa square, which was essentially a roundabout with some decking in the middle of it. The buildings here were lit up well though - the one at the end in a dark blue and the Merriott hotel above the stadium in reds and purples. In the courtyard around the stadium, there were kids playing ball games, while there was a football lit up in the Vodafone colours. Indeed Vodafone do seem to have quite the presence in the Albanian capital as there was a bridge over the Lena that had arches placed along it in the shape of the Vodafone speech logo. All rather depressing, but lit up at night there was a magic to it. I walked around the stadium, tempted to look inside but I didn't, before moving on with my exploring.

After this, I headed into the Blloku district, which is the main area for bars, restaurants and nightlife. I was largely undecided on where to go, but stumbled across a party taking place in the gardens of Hoxha's former house. As villas go, this isn't the greatest, looking more like a condominium built in the 1970s, but for Albanian standards of the time this was quite palatial. The main government residences were all here, and ironically there is now a KFC opposite Hoxha's garden. I was looking for the house as I wanted to see it, so I was delighted to find out I could actually go inside. There was a special event on this weekend called Vila 31 Art Explora with a three-day open studios programme running from Friday through Sunday. I hit there just before 7pm, with the place shutting at 8pm, giving me an hour to explore. I got chatting with one of the curators on the front door and he explained what it was all about, while I then explored the house while looking at some fabulous artwork too. Some of the highlights included the hardcore gay pornographic drawings laid out in one of the offices and the table of food on the ground floor. This cookbook exhibition had recipes for things like baklava, corn bread and bread in milk, yet except detailing how these things were made, the recipes talked about the political and social issues during the Communist time and the privation of the days. In the swimming pool, there was a picture of a snake relating to an old Albanian myth while one of the artists, Dardan Zhegrova, had a film in the basement called "Anchored in the Drift" which was about a gay relationship. It was quite moving but also a little pretentious I found. Zhegrova also did a performance in the garden dressed as a red wolf devil creature, but I only got to see this from one of the balconies of the house rather than outside itself. I did, however, come back on the Saturday and grab a can of Super Bock beer they were selling from a van parked up on the grass. I sat on a deckchair and enjoyed the rave that was going on, expecting another reading, but not really getting one.

After this, I really needed to get some food, so headed down the road to Era Restorant-Piceri. Initially, they struggled to fit me in, and I said I'd walk around and come back later. Then I realised that all this would do would put people ahead of me in the queue, so I went back to the restaurant and agreed to wait for the fifteen minutes they said. This was about right, but I did feel a little guilty that I was seated on a four-person table when it was just me on my own. I bought a bottle of Korca beer - Sabian's favourite but a beer so average it makes you cry - and upon realising that most of the interesting dishes were lunchtime specials and thus not available, opted for the dollma. I could have gone for the really exotic like lamb's intestines, but I'm not the martyr I was fifteen years ago. Dollma, rice wrapped in grape leaves and served in a lemon sauce that looked like cum, are delicious and I really did enjoy the food. I also ordered some bread rolls, which I had with olive oil and an extremely tart apple cider vinegar. It was good grub, but probably not as good as my meal the previous evening.

It was 9pm after this and I thought about maybe going to Radio Bar next door. This had been one of Skavi's recommendations and apparently it's LGBTQ+ friendly, but when I went the day after, I saw little sign of this. The Pink Passion Rum cocktail I had was both sweet and tart, wonderfully delicious, and for 850 leke reasonable value too. The bar itself was bedecked in old radios and CRT TV monitors, a real blast from the past, although the conservatory area where I was was largely bereft of these accoutrements. It was brightly coloured though and the vibe was good, while they even gave me some peanuts to eat with the food too. They were the ones you had to break into yourself, cascading shells all over the place, but it gave me something to do and meant I didn't feel too self-conscious about being on my own. Anyway, this was at 6pm on the Saturday, rather than the Friday as I decided not to go here then. Instead, I went to The Taproom by Pan's Microbrewery. This seems to be the best craft beer bar in the city and certainly it was the best one I tried. While they did have about fifteen taps, only five were functional, but this was enough for a tasting flight. I found the two IPAs particularly tart, but the other three beers were very pleasant. Before getting my board, I decided to sit underneath an electric heater with a cat who was curled up there enjoying the warmth. Alas, about five minutes later, a group of seven young people turned up and were struggling for a place to sit. I had a table of four to myself, and there was another empty table next to me, with little other option for this posse. I volunteered to move, to which they were so grateful that they paid for my beers. I didn't know this until I got up to pay and thanked them profusely for their generosity. I also had some peanuts here, come to think of it.

With the gate closing at 11pm, I wanted to get back in time, but what had been a happy day took a turn for the worse as I dropped my phone in the toilet as I was leaving. Fortunately, the chain had been flushed and I hadn't yet used it, while I was able to fish it out pretty quickly. However, once I had gotten back to my hotel, I was alarmed to discover the charger wasn't working as there was liquid in the system. With only 25% charge, being in a foreign country, and all of my boarding passes on the device, I started to panic. I dabbed at the connection with tissue paper, I used a hairdryer on it, but it took about two hours before it was dry enough to start functioning again. Fortunately it did and although I ended up staying up until 2am to ensure it had reached 100% charge with no issues, I was very relieved that my mistake hadn't put a dampener on my trip. The only issue with this was that my planned get up time of 9am was pushed back later and later, with me not surfacing until nearer 11am. I had bought another croissant for breakfast, but the truth was I was incredibly tired after just one day of touring. Yes, it had been intense - I had been out for twelve hours and had walked over 26,000 steps - but I never remember being this tired and that really does worry me. Still, it didn't cause too many issues, even if I did feel somewhat foggy throughout my second day in the city.

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Rolling In Clover

2026-03-18T15:53:33Z

Last night, we broke our 24-day no drinking streak by going to the Spandau Brauhaus for a St. Patrick's Day event. This had been on the schedule long before we decided to be abstinent, and the whole purpose was reducing alcohol consumption rather than completely cutting it out. As is often the case though, it was a fraught day at work. Wolfie's overran, meaning we had to meet up with everyone in the restaurant itself, while I had an argument with someone who accused me of using ChatGPT for writing and described my work as 'shit'. I was therefore not in the best of moods, so some drink and company turned out to be wise.

There was music provided by Clover, a folk band clearly containing Germans, but specialising in Irish folk and rock music. I wondered just what trajectory gets someone there, but they were rather good, even if I didn't know that many of the songs. The acoustics were such that the lyrics were unknown - I didn't even know what language they were sung in - and the place was packed with joyous people. The banjo player played while walking around the top balcony area where we were seated, while a few of the elder patrons were doing country dancing at the top of the stairs, which didn't seem wise.

There were six in our party including us, and it was great chatting to some of our neighbours. I spent much of the evening chatting Germany and politics with one of the other gay couples who live on our floor. The stout that the brewery had brewed specially for the event was ordered by the pitcher and we ended up having five. It was a very fruity, cherry flavour, with what must have been quite a high alcohol content. It was quite delicious, as was the fish and chips. These weren't really in the British style - the cone of chips were those folded over ones that are popular here - while the fish was fish nuggets rather than one long piece. It was served with a salad and a pot of green parsley-based mayo, which made for odd mushy peas.

We left at around 9:30pm, making our way back home via the big Kaufland. We ended up going to bed quite early, after midnight, as the evening was pretty much done and although I have a little sore head today, it hasn't been too bad.

Aside from this, my taxes seem to be motoring on now, so hopefully I can get the permanent residence sorted out too. The work situation is uncertain on account of yesterday's unpleasantness, but I don't think that will resolve itself until next week at the earliest. I've been feeling very down of late, so I really need my forthcoming holiday. Therefore, I might as well just enjoy the next four days off, during which I have booked a small weekend break to a country I have never visited before. It'll be great to see another new place, my first since 2022, and I am very much looking forward to it, even if Wolfie won't be there this time. He needs to study for an exam while his cough has become rather hacky and unpleasant again. Still, we have plans for Easter too, and we won't be apart for long.

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Sweet Thing I Want You

2026-03-15T02:44:20Z

It's been three weeks without alcohol, the longest period without drinking in my adult life, and things have developed a pretty decent rhythm. This will change on Tuesday as we are going to a St. Patrick's Day event, but this whole thing was about reducing alcohol consumption rather than cutting it out entirely. We have also forgone any snacks and have reduced bread consumption too. With increased exercise - made a little more difficult this week due to an annoying blister on my foot which has only just cleared - I surely must have lost weight, but it doesn't feel like it. I doubt I'll ever be happy.

It's been another largely pedestrian week. Work has been work, while I have managed to squeeze some writing in too. I'm feeling a little pessimistic about this right now, wondering what the point of it is, but at least I am still motivated to do things. Hopefully I can harness this energy over the coming days and weeks. I am still very tired though and generally depressed, things have changed little from my negative post last week. I should probably go and get my ADHD diagnosis sorted out, but things keep cropping up.

The only other thing that's happened this week was Al Song came to visit on Friday. We met up at 7pm, after he had toured the Zitadelle, and I guided him around Spandau. We then met up with Wolfie at Cappuccino for dinner. They had run out of pizzas, which was a little frustrating but afforded us the opportunity to try their pasta dishes. They were quite delicious, although the mushrooms on mine became a little too slimy towards the end as they had spent minutes sat in the sauce. Normally, I would swerve pasta at a restaurant as this type of dish is much easier to make at home, but I'm glad we got to try some. Wolfie had been wanting to sample their pasta dishes for a while so this gave him the perfect opportunity.

We headed back to ours after this, via the supermarket, and Al stayed until around 2am. It was great catching up with him again - this was the first time we had seen him since late December - and I do hope he can stay another year with his current teaching program. He has fitted so well into Berlin life that I am somewhat envious - he has certainly found it much easier to make friends here than I have - but he has also been a catalyst for me doing things too. He wanted to come around tomorrow, but I'm too busy with writing, but we've arranged quite a few meet-ups in the coming weeks, which should be fun. I also managed to give him the Anubis mouse mat and the candy I bought for him while at Nordic Fuzzcon the other week.

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Suede - Antidepressants Dancing With The Europeans Tour

2026-03-10T00:04:37Z

This evening, Wolfie and I went down to the Uber Eats Music Hall to check out Suede. They were huge in the Nineties and have developed something of a cult following, but even then I was still a little surprised they came to Berlin (indeed this is their only date in Germany and they acknowledged they don't come here too often). I had never seen them before and at €56.15 for the tickets, I thought the price was good. Alas, Wolfie's foot has flared up again - the first time in three months - so he had to spend a lot of the gig sat on the seating outside. What didn't help was the staff confiscating his cane on entry, with him having to pick it up once the gig was done. Sadly, this meant Wolfie missed quite a lot of the show and I hope we're not going back to the misery of the last few years.

The support band, Swim School, were okay. Their songs were pretty decent, but they didn't have much stage presence, meaning the crowd was somewhat lacklustre. This changed when Suede were on, aided by the fact that Brett Anderson is the consummate front man. His charisma had the crowd in the palm of his hand and he frequently went into the crowd to sing songs. 'Disintegrate', the first track on the new album, was the perfect opener while 'Trash' was the third song they played, which got everyone in the mood. Although there was a little lull in the middle, they came back strongly. 'Life Is Golden', my favourite recent track of theirs, was hauntingly beautiful while 'Beautiful Ones' was the perfect way to end the gig. They did do an encore with a song that was unknown to me, which was a little strange, but the show itself was fantastic.

Alas, the crowd were a bit odd though. A lot of the time, I had to watch the show through someone else's mobile phone, while there was a lady in front of me who spent about half of the gig looking in the opposite direction to the stage. A dad was also there with his daughter on his shoulders which made visibility difficult from time to time. I have been highly irritable of late so I am sure some of that's on me, but there were a few inconsiderate people kicking about too. Anyone who wears a hat at a show, for example, is just making it more difficult for the rest of us to see. The show wasn't a sell out though, meaning there was plenty of room, but sadly the seating tickets had all sold out otherwise I would have tried to move Wolfie up there.

After the show, we toyed with the idea of going to Space Medusa but Wolfie's leg was bad and I had a painful blister which I sustained from all my weekend walking. We also are trying to avoid alcohol so we just headed home, getting some Skittles to eat on the S-Bahn and some bottles of Jever Fun (Fun as in Fun Run rather than any normal definition of that word) and crisps to eat when we got home. This means we're now 16 days into non-drinking and although I haven't seen any visible weight loss yet, Wolfie says he has. I'm hoping we can get to three weeks at least before a few events which are happening next week.

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A Week Of Nothing

2026-03-08T18:00:09Z

It has been a week of nothing. We're now two weeks into our diet, where we're having no alcohol and reduced bread and snack intake, and I don't feel any better for it. Indeed, I feel I may have put weight on, which makes no sense as I know I've had a calorie deficit. The weather has turned very Spring-like too, hitting 19C earlier in the week, meaning I have been walking an awful lot too, to the point of giving myself blisters as my new shoes seem to have less sole than the previous ones. I guess I'll just have to keep going as getting my weight down will improve my self-esteem, but my mental health has been in the gutter this week and it seems to be getting worse. I should probably try and get some sort of help before it gets exceptionally bad, but I'm caught in a spiral from which I'm unsure how to escape. Global events are contributing significantly to this, while I am tempted to get off social media for a while too. Part of this is the news, but part of it is that everyone seems to be on broadcast mode and it's easy to get overlooked. I hate having to compete for attention and yet that seems to be how things are these days.

This weekend was always going to be quiet. I had my rearranged writing group last night which went well, while we were going to go and see Hoppers today, the new Pixar movie. Alas, despite buying the tickets, I have decided not to go as Procyon alerted me to its snake-heavy content. There are no snakes in the trailer, nor on the main advertising posters, so I appreciate the heads-up as it would have been horrific had I walked in blind. However, it is frustrating that this is now three major furry movies - The Bad Guys 2 and Zootopia 2 being the others - which have snakes as a central theme, meaning I feel like I'm missing out again. However, when I googled what these snakes looked like last night, I knew I would find them terrifying on the big screen. I feel bad for Wolfie that we're missing the movie but he seems philosophical enough. However, it hasn't helped my low self-esteem.

Another issue is I feel somewhat lost here. Berlin is one of the greatest cities in the world and yet, in five years, I have precious few friends. I'd like to hit the pup and kink scene more, but Wolfie seems more interested in VR, and I have no-one to go with. My German is acceptable but still not great, and while I am committed to a German language course from next month, I doubt it's ever going to be good enough. Then, of course, there is the whole self-esteem issue as previously mentioned. I have always hated myself, but have been very good at running away from it. What I hadn't realised was just how much I hate myself. I'm hoping weight loss is one way of improving that, but I know it won't be a panacea. Changing my job will also help.

Speaking of which, work is work - no breakthrough on a new job - while my main client may be forcing through redundancies in the coming weeks. Whether I am affected, I am unsure, but I'd be happy either way. I've wanted to get out for a while, but the money is useful, so I guess we'll just see what happens. My UK business may be starting to take off though, meaning I may have to leave anyway, so I'm just going to take each day as it comes and see where I end up. No doubt everything will settle in due course, but this could be a positive in the mid-term at least.

The fallout from the Brewdog sale has been interesting, with a lot of righteous anger on the Brewdog forum. The new owners, Tilray, seems to be making decent-enough overtures towards those who invested in Brewdog and I accept they probably saved as many jobs as they possibly could. I'm not overly enamoured with the situation though, but that isn't Tilray's fault. While access to Brewdog products will now be very difficult in Berlin and Leeds, there has been talk of opening bars again so I do hope Leeds will have a venue in a different location. It would be nice to see, certainly, as travelling to Manchester or Hull to go to a Brewdog bar simply isn't viable. The introduction of new U.S. craft beers is of interest though, but for me the jury's still out. Let's see how the rest of the year goes.

Next week promises to be a busier one, with Suede tomorrow night and a chat with a student journalist about the history of LeedsFurs on Wednesday. I'm hoping I can survive another week without alcohol, but there are some social events on the horizon the week after next, where I will be back on it again. Still, this whole thing is about changing my lifestyle rather than being a monk - no alcohol and snacks in the house will have a big effect - so I'm hoping I can find a good equilibrium. In the meantime, I hope I can sort my head out as this cannot go on for much longer either.

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On Brewdog II

2026-03-02T17:07:21Z

The news this afternoon that Brewdog has been bought by Tilray Brands should leave me feeling upbeat, but sadly it's the opposite. The news that 38 UK bars are to close, making nearly 500 staff redundant on no notice, is a bitter pill to swallow and my heart goes out to all those who have lost their jobs. I guess it was inevitable when these things happen, but it's still not nice. The communication throughout all this has been abysmal and I can only hope the staff were treated better than us shareholders. Judging by previous form, I'm not convinced they were.

While I figured I had lost my financial investment some months ago, I regret having become so emotionally invested in a brand that betrayed its own principles. I have happy memories of many of these 38 bars and their closure does sting a little. Travelling Europe visiting all the locations was fun back in 2018 and I don't regret doing it. I do regret believing the hype longer than I should have.

Back when I first invested in 2011, Brewdog was a nice craft beer community, rather than the sterile, distanced behemoth it became. The beer back then was interesting too, now it's just mass-produced and disappointing. And all of this was before the issues with the management, the delisting as a B-Corp, the U-turn on the living wage commitment, and a host of other widely reported scandals. My love for Brewdog had already waned, but now it's burnt out. The fact that the founders pocketed a hefty sum of cash off the back of our investments following a piss-poor deal with a venture capitalist firm in 2017 rankles even more. They'll be alright, I'm sure. Hell, they made more than what Brewdog was sold for today. It was a good deal for them, bad for the rest of us. I should have cashed out when I had the chance. Brewdog was sold to us as a way of doing business better, a beer club with positive values based on community. It's the subsequent hypocrisy that hurts the most. Betrayed is the adjective I'd use.

Tilray Brands do seem to have some semi-decent craft beer breweries on their books and there could be upsides. This will be an easy route into the UK market for some potentially good American craft beers and at £33m, they have done a good deal, particularly as they can utilise all the spare brewing capacity in Ellon. Some bars will at least remain open and some jobs have been saved. No shade to them at all, but regardless, I am done with Brewdog. The truth is, I was done on Friday when the German business closed. With no means to get Brewdog here any more - either in the bars or supermarkets - and with the nearest bar to Leeds now being in Manchester, this is the end of my involvement. The one Manchester bar that's surviving is the very worst one in the estate, while five of the remaining 10 non-franchise bars will be in London. I am also a little pissed off that Manchester again gets everything whereas Leeds gets nothing, but that's just how it's been in almost everything for the last 20 years. Fortunately, the franchise bars do seem open for now, but when the nearest one of those is in Hull, again, it's just not viable. Tilray Brands have said they'll still honour EFP discounts (notably calling us 'ambassadors' rather than 'shareholders') but with no nearby bar to use them, there's very little point. I'm not travelling 60 miles to a different city to get a free beer on my birthday and a 10% discount.

Fortunately, there is enough good local craft beer in both Leeds and Berlin to be able to swerve Brewdog pretty easily. The likes of Fierce, Vocation and Northern Monk are all easy to find in Yorkshire and BRLO and others will suffice in Germany. Small, independent craft brewers have always produced better quality beer and they're the ones to support. It's sad it's ended this way and I'm glad that some jobs have been preserved, but ultimately, I'm done. I don't want to support a brand that's now just one name in a portfolio of others on a NASDAQ-listed American company. I'll stick to small and local, as I should always have done. I wonder how many of my fellow investors feel the same.

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It's A Baby Bungle!

2026-03-01T03:54:00Z

After three weeks of travelling, it has been good to stay in the same place this week, although all of the usual issues with day-to-day living have returned too. I'm still no further ahead on the job front, I still have all of the same doubts as before, and I'm still wondering what the future will bring. One thing we have done this week is to cut alcohol out completely. Twenty-two pints at Scotiacon (plus a beer tasting session) and sixteen at NFC was definitely too much. I've wanted to lose weight for a long time and I've decided the only way I can do this is to ban alcohol in the house completely. I'll still drink in social settings, but there aren't too many of those over the coming weeks. We have also decided to eat only healthy snacks (carrots and hummus this weekend) and reduce bread consumption too. What hasn't helped has been the con crud we picked up after NFC too. It has been more low level and annoying, but again I'm not sleeping, and have not felt my best.

It has been a little difficult swerving alcohol, but tonight's Jackbox session wasn't too bad in this regard. I have been drinking carbonated water with cordial and it went quite well. Unlike the January event, which ended abruptly, tonight we were on for six hours. Most of the games we played were from the most recent, eleventh, iteration of Jackbox. Doominate was probably my favourite as it had similar vibes to Quiplash, plus it had a unicorn. Suspectives I was unsure about until the very end, when the clues and answers somehow came together, making deducing the criminal much easier and fun. You could also be dogs in that one. Cookie Haus was okay, although the cow character was a little annoying, while Legends of Trivia was absolutely fantastic. This is a three-part RPG game where you have to answer trivia questions to beat monsters. I got to be a dragon in a yellow flowing dress and although most of the questions were frustratingly too geeky for me, the fact we had to work as a team rather than against each other, meant we completed the game. Ultimately, though, it's just been great to get all of our friends back together again - this was the highlight of the lock down years - and it's cementing my view that we should probably move back to the UK (even if nearly everyone we know inconveniently lives in Manchester these days).

On Friday, Brewdog announced the immediate liquidation of their brewery and shop in Germany. This wasn't too surprising, but it is disappointing. I suppose it will make the no drinking thing easier, but we've lost about half of the decent craft beers in Berlin in the last two years, and the place was hardly replete with them in the first place. I'm more pissed off than I thought I would be about this, but with the final Leeds bar having closed in January, the whole brand is now dead to me. They'll likely be bought out by a macro brewery, with their UK operations surviving (although I think the bars will close), but I doubt I'll patronise them again. They will become everything they railed against, while the owners cashed out nicely.

It has felt very Spring-like today, with temperatures approaching 19C, so I've been enjoying the sun. It was great getting out and about, and with it now being March, it does feel the worst of the Winter is behind us. The weather tomorrow is cloudier and cooler though. I was tempted to go to the post-NFC anti-PCD fursuit walk around the city centre, but this was moved from Saturday to Sunday due to a BVG strike and I like to keep Sundays free. Instead, I am hoping to do some more writing tomorrow - having made some requested revisions to another story midweek - while I'd like to relax a little more ahead of another full working week next week. I am hoping for more luck on the job front too, but it's been two years since I started applying for jobs seriously, and still there is little. I'll keep going, but it is affecting my confidence.

What else? World events are also starting to intrude again - it's a shame we couldn't have one month without the threat of global war hanging over us - but the situation in Iran is desperately worrying. I have no idea how it will go from here. At least Reform lost the Gorton and Denton by-election in midweek and I hope Labour will pivot to the left after the Greens' convincing victory there. I doubt they will, but they really need to, as their Blue Labour tripe is clearly convincing no one. Aside from that, we have the usual right-wing threats from the usual right-wing people, which has me feeling riled and irritable. I don't like being like this, but it's hard not be at times. Certainly, I have become more cynical and bitter of late, and I do need to rein that in. I have no idea how, but it's something I should try and work out.

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Nordic Fuzzcon - Cirque Du Nord

2026-02-22T16:54:31Z

We arrived at Nordic Fuzzcon late on the Wednesday evening, with something of a sour taste in our mouths. What we hadn't realised that we had if we wanted to pick up our con badge after registration had closed, we needed to do this in advance. This was a new thing and I had thought to enter the main con area on the Wednesday evening, no badges were required. This had been the case in previous years, but was not the case this. This meant that by the time we realised we would be frozen out of the con until the Thursday, it was too late, as we hadn't noticed this due to travelling. The trip itself was fine - we took an Uber from Pudsey to Manchester Airport on account of Manchester Piccadilly being closed, resulting in rail replacement bus services. This meant we were at Manchester Airport a good three hours earlier than we needed, so we had a lot of time to kill. Most of this was in The Bridgewater Pub, while the slight delay to our SAS flight meant we were there even longer. Fortunately, it was in the much better Terminal 2 and thus it was a semi-decent place to be. Interestingly, I was stopped at security and had my bag searched as according to the attendant, my snoot set off the alert. That's the first time I've had that happen and I've taken my fursuit head through many airports over the years.

Getting to our hotel was easy enough, although the cancellation of one train over the Oresund Bridge to Malmo meant we had to hang around Copenhagen Airport for the best part of 45 minutes. This saw Wolfie get a bit tetchy, but once on the train, it was smooth sailing and we got to our hotel, The Comfort, at around midnight. We were initially put in a room the size of a postage stamp, with the bed being pushed against the wall so one of us would have to clamber over the other in the middle of the night should they need the toilet. Upon getting to the bar and getting a drink at extortionate Swedish prices, we bumped into Coal, who we hadn't seen for a long time. Procyon popped along a little later and so we ended up having a few nice drinks instead of needing to go over to the main con venue. Indeed, the Comfort acted as an auxiliary overflow venue with panels and events there too. Furthermore, its proximity to Valhalla made it the ideal place to be. Wolfie also managed to speak to the nice lady on the desk and we managed to snag a bigger room, with this proving more than adequate for our needs. We even invited Coal and Procyon back there for an impromptu room party, having grabbed four cans of Brooklyn IPA at the airport in Copenhagen, fearing we wouldn't have much drinking opportunity that evening.

The con itself was much more drinky than I thought it would be, but then I hadn't really planned any sexual or kink-based activities. On Thursday, I headed down to the Padded Social at Valhalla, where I got to chat with loads of friends including Marbles and Foxxy. Indeed it was those two I ended up spending most of the day with, as after sharing a few of the adequate furry-themed lager that had been brewed by the Hyllie Brewery for the con, we ended up going for dinner together. This was at a place called Spoonery in the main town. Marbles had been there the night before and had hit it off with the server, who was a gay guy from Swansea who now lives in Malmo. He was really chatty and friendly, so much so that I didn't mind the twenty-minute wait just to get a table at this small establishment. Indeed, we had to cobble something together where I had a high chair while everyone had a smaller one around a table in the waiting area. Still, it worked. The bibimbap had sadly sold out so I opted for meatballs which were served with potato and cranberry in a brown gravy. This was fantastic and definitely a place to check out next year.

The plan was to visit the After Bark Market after this. This was in Valhalla too, so we made our way over there after dinner. Alas, the queue to get in was quite long and so we grabbed a drink in the Comfort Bar in the hope it would die down. Indeed, the close proximity of our hotel bar to Valhalla made this a viable option and reduced the amount of time we had to stand in the biting cold, with the bitter wind being the worst aspect. The queue had moved on a little so at around 10:30pm we stood in line and got through relatively smoothly. Alas, we were told the dealers' den queue was over an hour in length (and we weren't allowed to join it anyway) while the dance just sounded awful. There seemed to be little else going on there - it was just an opportunity for people to wear gear, but for me, wearing gear is part of foreplay to something else - so we headed back to the Comfort Bar a little dejected. Still, we made the best of it and it was fun socialising, before I went to bed at the quite early time (for me) of around 1am.

We have started getting up for breakfast and then going back to bed for a few hours, what with most of the con happening in the afternoon and evening. This was the case here too, particularly once we realised that the final half hour of breakfast was absolutely rammed. Getting there for 6:45am on Friday when there were only two other people there made it more a relaxed affair. The breakfast itself was an adequate selection of hot food (bacon, chicken sausage, scrambled eggs, beans) with some very nice cold cuts. I had pate and crusty bread every day, while it was great to discover this was available from 3:30am should we want it.

The bed gravity had been strong on the Thursday - I only got up at 3pm needing to register, fearing being locked out of the con again - but I was more spritely on the Friday. This was partly because there were some interesting events going on in our hotel, which meant I didn't have to go out into the cold. The first was a detailed history about French animation, starting with The Tale of the Fox from 1937 and La Bergere et Le Ramoneur from 1953/80 and going through to the present day. The Intermarche wolf of course featured while I learned a great deal about how French animators had influenced Japanese anime and manga. I also discovered a lot of interesting films that I hadn't heard of before, which I will definitely have to check out.

The second panel was an introduction to Ancient Egyptian animal deities, which I thought would be fun as Televassi has been introducing me to these through his excellent erotic stories. This covered a few of the main deities, but of the seven that featured heavily in the talk, quite a few were the more minor ones that I hadn't come across before. Wawepwet was one I had though, again through Televassi, and it was great hearing more about the Opener of the Ways.

In between these two events, I had an hour and a half to kill, so headed over to the Dealers' Den, which was again in Valhalla. Al Song wanted me to pick up a comic on his behalf, but when I went to the vendor, he was away. I hung around for around half an hour for him to return, only to be told that he had sold out of this particular title. He did say it would be available online soon though, so I hope Al wasn't too disappointed. I did pick up an Anubis mousemat for him from Ultra Violet's store, while he also asked me to procure some Bubbs candy, which I managed to do too. Meanwhile, I also picked up a light blue puppy t-shirt with the phrase 'Fragile, Handle With Care' on it. I had seen these at ConFuzzled last year, so was glad to finally be able to pick one up. There were loads of cool stores in the Dealers' Den, with the apparel and fursuits being particularly good, but it was a little sad to see not one furry author nor bookshop represented. There were a few comic books for sale, but I didn't see a single novel or short story collection. I hope this changes next year.

The deities talk ended slightly early, so I headed back upstairs to see Wolfie. On the way, I realised that many of the parties on the fourth floor of the Comfort weren't that accessable as you needed a keycard to use the lifts. I had already tapped someone in earlier in the day, while this time there was man stationed downstairs asking whether anyone needed assistance. Once back to the room, we decided to grab some food, with Wolfie taking me to a fantastic sandwich shop selling a wonderful pork belly sandwich. He had visited the place the day before with Procyon, when I was at Spoonery, and he said it was worth a visit. This was certainly true, although I could have done with the cucumbers which formed the base of the sandwich (they did add some much needed acidity to counter the richness though). The sandwich shop was in the food hall - which had extended opening hours due to the con - and we managed to perch right on the counter and watch the chefs at work. We also grabbed some smashed potato covered in unctuous cheese and a delicious, if expensive, west coast IPA. It was a truly fantastic meal and set us up well for the rest of the evening.

Wolfie disappeared at this point, but I bumped into Blue Otter in the main bar of the Clarion. I had an hour to kill before Grimner and it was great catching up with him. I then joined the queue for the folk metal band's show, but the signposting was odd and I entered the start of it rather than the end. Upon hearing that the show was postponed by an hour, Baloki suggested we go to the Terrace bar to grab a beer while we waited. This is an outside bar and there was currently a snow blizzard going on - while my t-shirt and skirt ensemble wasn't the best clothing for the conditions - so we just sat inside instead. I got to meet quite a few of Baloki's other Manchester friends and soon we were back in the queue for the show. I had actually spoken to Grimner earlier that day - they were doing a meet and greet in the Comfort bar and I saw Trax speaking to them. Once he disappeared, I was kinda left alone with them, so got chatting to them about their influences, what they thought about the furry fandom and why they decided to come back. I also got a photo signed, but only by three of them, not realising they were actually a six-piece (despite having seen them two years ago and despite there being six of them on the card they signed). I get in a panic I guess. Anyway, the show itself was incredible, with a hearty and robust moshpit. At one point, they were all rowing, while I was stood right on its edge quite near the front. I was on my own for most of the gig, with Wolfie going up front too, but it was another overwhelming show. They came out in fursuits, while I shouted 'come back!' when they talked about the Vikings invading England, which I think amused them. The show itself was lively, fun, bouncy and incredible, taking me on quite an emotional journey. It was one of the highlights of the con.

After the show, I was tempted to go to the Littles Disco. I thought that was over in Valhalla, but it was actually in the main hotel. That would have been more convenient, but I didn't have my gear with me, so in the end, we just grabbed a few drinks and hung out in the Artists' Alley section. The ale we had here was particularly poor, but it was good annoying Notefox with puns while she tried to edit the photos she had taken during the furry opera (which sadly I didn't see) and other events. We hung here for a couple, seeing Grimner enter too, before Wolfie and I headed back to Procyon's room to share some special beers he had brought. It was here where we were reacquainted with his roommate Ethan, who I had first met back to Nordic Fuzzcon 2014, and he enlightened us about a place in Edinburgh that serves vegetarian haggis curry. He was looking to go to bed, so we didn't stay too long, just enough time to share three of the four cans Procyon had brought, before we headed back to the main hotel to grab pizza and bed. I would have preferred to have taken the convenient shuttle bus between the Clarion and Valhalla - which conveniently drops us right outside our hotel too - but the last bus had been and gone by then so we had to walk back in the snowstorm. We bumped into Shiyan on the walk too, so chatted to him a while. We never once did use the bus.

Saturday was due to be my fursuit day but I awoke to the news that the Parade was cancelled. This was disappointing, but the sludge-covered roads would have ruined my new paws. This meant that I didn't get to fursuit for the second con in a row and I am going to have to work out what I can do to incentivise myself to get into suit more. The lack of decent hand and feet paws was a good excuse, but with that now resolved, there really is no excuse at all.

This meant that Saturday was a pretty easy day up until 5:30pm, when I had agreed to meet up with Evi and Namonium for our usual Furry Brew Crew drinks. Brewdog Malmo was the venue and before heading there, I ambled around the con space looking for the con shop (which I was unsuccessful at) and stumbling into the Creators' Corner which was effectively a modestly-sized art show. The works here were all pretty decent, but none jumped out at me. I also chatted to Kitty Sam while standing outside in the bitter wind and sludge, but it was good to catch up and compare notes on the cons we had attended and the cons we are likely to attend. With a little time to kill, I ended up back in the hotel room around 5pm and picked up Wolfie before heading to Brewdog via Pressbyran for a hotdog. We went French style, with the sausage wrapped in a condom of bread, and it was a delicious pre-drinking snack.

We arrived at Brewdog at exactly the same time as Procyon, Evi and Namonium. I had invited a few others, but it was only to be us five for the evening. This made getting dinner later easier, although sadly there was no space in the Hyllie Brewery Taproom. I had wanted to try the fish and chips here - discounted for Nordic Fuzzcon attendees, one of the many offers for furries across the city - but we did end up at a place called Ukrainian Beer Bar where we had lard on brown bread and spicy sausage soup with olives. I would have thought the olives would perhaps make it too salty, but this was not the case. The beer at the Ukrainian Beer Bar was all from Ukraine too, while it had a vibe very similar to Ambrosjia in Bradford before that closed. Indeed, it very much reminded me of the restaurants we visited in Ukraine and I reminisced with the owners about the three trips I had done there. In the urinal, there were also Putin and Trump figurines you could piss on, while the toilet brush had a Putin figurehead too. Above the urinal there was a Carlsberg sign.

This was a great way to end our evening, which began at Brewdog Malmo as I had said. This was surprisingly busy with a strong guest tap list, making it reminiscent of Brewdog of old. It was odd to think, with the company collapsing, that this was probably the last time we'd be there but we went out with a bang with some good beers and company. The barman was particularly friendly and gave me a free pin badge for being an EFP, while it was great chatting properly to Evi and Nanonium again, having only seen them briefly at ConOps prior to the Grimner concert. After our trip here, we decided to go to The Bishops Arms, a British-themed pub chain that's big in western Sweden. The beer list here was even better - with Leeds Pale and Ilkley's Joshua Jane on hand pull too - and while we weighted up getting food here, in the end we went to Hyllie (then the Ukrainian place).

We split up after this, with everyone but me heading to the Clarion and I heading back to the hotel room. I wanted to check out live furry metal band Wildpact in Valhalla and after having a short snooze, I bounced over there at around 11:10pm. I was about ten minutes late, but they were playing a metal version of the Pokemon theme tune so I was sold quite quickly. They did a lot of covers, albeit slimmed down versions of them, and their musicianship was fantastic. There were a few awkward moments, but it was a fun hour and a half set, with Fonz doing the whole thing in his bunny suit and Pepper Coyote as a partial coyote on drums. Aerials by System of a Down and Sonne by Rammstein, were the two highlights for me. The whole theatre was pretty much packed, and it is great to see metal is finally getting some recognition in the furry fandom. Nordic Fuzzcon is very much the music con and their diversity was great in this regard.

Jev had asked whether I wanted to join him and Kitty Sam for drinks in the Clarion, so after the concert, I headed over there. I was going to go to the inflatable panel on my way out of Valhalla, but the animals were all flat on the floor and looking sorry for themselves. Therefore, I skipped through the slush and headed to the main bar, which was very rowdy. I found my friends near the bar, grabbed a drink, and chatted to them for a while. I also managed to catch up with Pinky too, before ending the night having a heavier chat with Procyon over a few beers. I was sat in front of a giant LED screen board that burnt my retinas, but it was a good chat nonetheless.

I am now halfway through a seven-hour train journey back to Berlin via Copenhagen and Hamburg. It's running smoothly enough right now, although it was an absolute free-for-all in the Danish capital. There are loads of furries on this train with luggage and a last-minute platform change from 5 to 7 meant we all had to traipse up an escalator to go back down another one. I feared there would be no space for our bags, but we got lucky. The 25-minute delay shouldn't affect our connection to Spandau either.

Despite the issues, particularly regarding communication (the NFC app kept adding random events that weren't there before, while it wasn't until halfway through the con that I realised I had to toggle the Explicit section on the mobile website to see the NSFW events in the app), it was another great con. I didn't get to do half of the things I wanted though, largely due to timetable clashes, and I probably drank way too much. Indeed, it's been three weeks of heavy drinking what with Scotiacon, visiting family and hanging around with friends on the Tuesday before NFC too, that my guts are in a right state. I have also been concerned about my weight, so the next few months, I'm not going to buy any alcohol or snacks for the house and reduce my consumption outside it. If I can get slimmer for SinFur in early May, I think it would help with my body dysmorphia and self-confidence issues. I did enjoy the unicorns in the circus tents that were littered about all venues, but otherwise the theme was quite muted. The blip game was always fun, even if I only blipped about eight times. NFC in particular has loads of side challenges and other things going on that I'm sure I missed out on something, but then I barely had any time to fit anything else in.

Whether we go back next year or not, I'm unsure. Fortunately, there is a three-week, rather than a two-week, gap between Scotiacon and Nordic Fuzzcon next year that will help. Also, we must arrive earlier than we did this time around, probably on the Tuesday. I'm happy to miss Dead Dog, but it's clear there are loads of cool things happening prior to the con starting and I'd like to do some of them (the Hyllie Brewery tour being one of them). It's still a lot of money though and the cold weather makes wearing skirts that much harder. I spent more time in jeans than at any con over the last few years and that does suck a bit. Still, the events are unique, there's always loads to do and maybe I can do things like the Maid Cafe again next time. That was fun but I didn't do it this year so I could do the Parade instead, so it was sad it was cancelled. Indeed, doing the Parade would be fun as I've never done it in Malmo yet. So, lots to consider, but it's definitely on the list of possibilities. I guess we'll know nearer the time.

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On Brewdog

2026-02-16T17:49:57Z

The news about Brewdog this weekend was not surprising. It has been clear for a while that the company is not doing well and ultimately, I would not be surprised if it goes under. It is clear, at the very best, that there will be some sort of asset stripping, but then there aren't that many assets left to strip. It all looks doomed, but then I might be wrong.

I invested in the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th iterations of the Equity For Punks scheme, sinking £475 into the business. I'm aware I am not going to get any of this back, but then that's investments for you. It's all just gambling in a suit. And ultimately, I have made more than £475 back in discounts and merchandise so I can't really complain. I also don't regret travelling around Europe to get my beer visas stamped. We spent a good chunk of 2018 doing this and it was a good opportunity to go to places we had never been before. Was it pointless? Perhaps, but then it was a hobby. I don't understand the appeal of other people's hobbies, this was something that Wolfie and I could do together.

Do I regret investing? Not really, certainly not prior to 2017 when most (if not all) of my investments were made. The truth is that Brewdog changed after a significant chunk of money from a venture capitalist company that year at very onerous terms. These devalued my shares significantly. I probably should have cashed out then, but the valuation was poor. At the same time, community was discarded and everything became corporate, as is often the case with such deals. Ironically, this also happened to the company where I was employed at around the same time - it was bought by a group owned by investment bankers and everything became about bottom lines and spreadsheets. It became a much less dynamic place to work and ultimately I was made redundant during the first lockdown in 2020.

I was fully on board with the Brewdog vision prior to 2017 and I am still thankful for their huge role in popularising craft beer in the UK and beyond. Prior to 2010, there was very little and now you can even buy decent ones in supermarkets. When the bars opened, they were great places to try exciting guest beers, and they did offer a leg-up to many small breweries at the time. We became friends with the bar staff, had regular pub meets there, and it did feel like a community. However, the last few years have also proven that the best craft beer is local. I was out in Bradford last night and this was highlighted again. By trying to conquer the world, the Brewdog senior management clearly made many poor business decisions and it is these that have directly contributed to the current malaise. Spirits, sours, seltzers, spice rubs, and expanding quickly into certain territories are just some examples. They also diluted their offering, brewing poorer quality beer.

Brewdog was largely dead to me before this announcement. The closing of the final Leeds bar last month, coupled with the shuttering of their German online shop at the start of February, has narrowed down my options significantly. What's sad is that should the other two Brewdog bars in Berlin close (which is likely - the one in Friedrichshain fell in mid-Janaury) then the number of craft beer bars in the German captial will have halved in three years. That's not a good trajectory. You also see the same in cities like Birmingham and Leeds, which does make me fear for the future. Furthermore, there's no longer a place to get reasonable craft beer at reasonable prices in Berlin. I guess this will help me with my weight loss goals if nothing else.

You can point to COVID, the cost of living, higher energy prices, and lower hop yields due to climate change as all being contributory factors. You can also highlight reduced drinking in general - although the rise of non-alcoholic beers should mitigate a good chunk of this - but ultimately Brewdog failed because of poor business decisions and trying to become a macro while discarding the community that helped found it. Poor quality at a high price point with reputational damage to boot.

Do I feel betrayed? Certainly. The senior management cashed out nicely. But then this disappointment is just one in a long line of disappointments. The well-publicised allegations against certain people in the business, the removal of their B-Corp status, the withdrawal of their commitment to being a living wage employer, trying to open a bar in Dubai while claiming to be pro-LGBTQ+ rights, and shutting bars with merely hours notice all left a bitter taste in the mouth. They even stopped promoting local guest breweries too, resorting to their own now poorer-quality offerings. However, what also leaves a bitter taste is a few furs celebrating the company's demise when there will likely be a large swathe of people left unemployed as a result.

Ultimately, then, I have mixed feelings. I'll be sad to see Brewdog go, but then they long ago abandoned their principles. Furthermore, by trying to compete with tha macro breweries, they have brewed below-par beer for years. By forgetting about community, particularly the one they needed from the start, I do not lament their demise. I just hope all of the good people who worked for them will be able to find new roles should the worst come to the worst.

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Lamentations

2026-02-15T22:19:22Z

There's a guy living in the semi-detached next to ours who is learning to play the guitar. He does this regularly, usually every night, and we've tried to accommodate him. Not being in the UK most of the time, I'm very happy for him to learn a hobby, particularly as he has suffered from mental health issues in the past. He has certainly gotten better while we have been away. The problem is that when we're back, we get very little respite from it, and it has somewhat overtaken my life over the last few days. I know we need to approach this with him at some point, but I fear that when we move back, this will be the established pattern. I'm sure he'll be reasonable - he probably doesn't know we're back and we have never complained before - but I hope it'll all work out. This is the sort of thing I worry about though as my house doesn't really feel like a home with this noise going on in the background.

I've been back home since Thursday, having travelled down from my mother's place. I had fish and chips followed by a selection of British cheeses in The Spotted Dog before my train, with there being not enough crackers to accommodate the three exquisite slabs of local fromage. I still don't know why they skimp on the cheap things. The trip to my mother's place was fine, except she lives in the middle of nowhere so there's not much to do at the best of times, not least when it has been non-stop raining for two weeks. We just stayed in and I worked, which was largely the plan anyway. It was good seeing them, even if my step-father has become increasingly curmudgeonly of late.

Being back in my own home was great and this weekend I made the most of it. I had initially planned to visit someone in Birmingham, but they preferred to go to the football instead. This was equally gutting and a relief, not least because the trains were going to cost over £100 and there were rail replacement bus services. Add to this the con crud I picked up at Scotiacon and staying back in Pudsey made sense. This also meant that I got to spend a lot of time in the house, which is why I've been noticing the issues with Jimi Hendrix next door. There aren't many places you can go at this time of year, although at least yesterday was a nice sunny day.

I took advantage of the sun to go for a walk, taking some clothes to a charity bank along the way. Alas, the one I usually use near the rock climbing centre was no longer there, and Google proved to be absolutely useless. The top two links were clearly dodgy spam sites and that was after it kept suggesting places in Salford, some 60 miles away. The next link was the local recycling centre where you can only deposit clothes, not shoes. In short, Google was absolutely useless, a perfect example of the enshittification of that service. In the end, I decided to go to ASDA and see if there were options in the car park. I needed groceries anyway and I was in luck - three bins, one for the Salvation Army, one for the Tickled Pink cancer campaign and one for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance. I gave Wolfie's Minions pyjamas (along with other stuff) to the air ambulance people.

Walking around Pudsey was quite pleasant. There are a load of hobby shops these days and some nice cafes too. It has definitely gentrified and I suspect this is because working from home has become a much bigger thing. Later in the day, we got some fishie chippies from the Weatherby Whaler and these were every bit as delicious as they always are. They are certainly worth coming back too. While I was waiting for my food, I was alerted to the fact that Brewdog is being put up for sale. The glee from some furs was incredibly disheartening, almost as if they were celebrating the potential decimination of a number of retail jobs, and I had to mute references on social media. I did know this was likely - the company has been in dire straits for a while and although it's a shadow of its former self, and the former owner is less than to be desired - it's still sad that an icon of the craft brewing scene in the UK is likely done. With the shuttering of the German online store earlier this month, this makes the ability to get decently priced craft beer in Berlin much harder, but then we've resolved to really lose weight in the Spring so maybe that's for the best. I've known my shares in Brewdog have been worthless for some time and that I should have cashed out in 2017 when venture capital got involved, but it is what it is. I saved more in discounts than what I paid for the shares over the last 15 years, it's just sad that an integral part of what was my community in my early adult years is likely to cease to be. Of course, the Leeds bar closed down earlier in the year, so I'd drawn a line under it then anyway.

Today we headed into Bradford to check out the Turner Prize exhibition. This was in Cartwright Hall as part of Bradford's 2025 City of Culture celebrations. As soon as I realised this was happening, I booked tickets. We were originally slated to go two weeks ago, but when I had to shift the order of this trip around, I cancelled and rebooked. We took a taxi down to Cartwright Hall, one of those imposing 19th-century manors that was built with industrialists money. We were about half an hour early but that didn't seem to matter and soon we were ushered in. The first of the four exhibits we went to see was Zadie Xa. Here, we had to wear special slippers on our shoes, or foot condoms as I called them. This was my favourite exhibition as it was based on seashells and alternate worlds. The floor was coated in reflective gold tiling and there were seashells dangling from the ceiling, some with apocalptic environmental messages and others with wave sounds. There were pictures with dolphins and dancing skeletons while in the centre there was a 3D model of a shell made out of little trinkets suspended from the roof. There was lots of colour here too, including a perlescent surface underneat the suspended shell.

The work of Rene Matic was next, which was far more political. This focused on right-wing populism and identity, with a heavy black and transgender theme. Violence and political hypocrisy was also explored, symbolised by the 'No Place' and 'For Violence' flag in the centre of the room. Over the speakers there were speeches and the peels of bells from Berlin's Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin's Zoologischer Garten. Living with vulnerability was a core theme too and this made sense when we watched her five-minute introduction video in the main foyer. Each of the four artists had these and we watched them at the end, adding a great deal more context to the instillations we had seen. It was also great seeing two original LS Lowry paintings upstairs too - I didn't realise Cartwright Hall had these masterpieces.

Mohammed Sami's work upstairs focused on memory and conflict, which perhaps wasn't too surprising considering he's originally from Baghdad. This collection of seven paintings was particularly fascinating. Without clear narratives, it was up to the viewer to discern what they meant and Wolfie and I spent quite a while debating what we saw. If good art challenges perspectives and focuses the mind, then this was certainly it.

Finally, we went to see the work of the winnter Nnena Kalu. She has learning disabilities and is supported by a charity down in London. I didn't really get this collection, if I were being honest, with the large-scale hanging sculptures difficult to disentangle. These are made from repurposed fabric, rope, tape, cling film, paper and VHS tape, and are certainly varied and colourful. On the wall, there were paintings of swirling overlapping lines that formed powerful vortexes. As I say, I didn't really connect this one, but then art is subjective.

We left Cartwright Hall shortly after 5pm and caught a bus into town. Taneli was going to meet us, but we're both a little ill and we decided to just wait until our planned meet-up on Tuesday. We didn't have to pay as the driver just waved us on and soon we were on the northern fringes of the city centre. We got off here and decided to go to The Record Cafe, a former haunt when we went out drinking in Bradford pre-pandemic. This seems to have gotten homelier over time and the pineapple milkshake IPA we had was exquisite. It was SpaceShake from Makemake, a brewery I'd never heard of before, and the drink was so good we decided to stay for a second. This was a Sijhuan pepper stout called Glacier by an Estonian brewery called Puhaste. This wasn't quite as good as SpaceShake, but it was certainly up there. We also grabbed some fried corn and left the bar very happy.

Our next stop was Boar & Fable, a place we hadn't visited that often. This was another warm and homely place, where we got to try Vocation's Bread and Butter Pudding White Stout and a double coffee stout called Imperial Affogato. Sadly, The Sparrow has closed down, as has Dime Bar, leaving this end of the city feeling a little less lively than it had previously been. This was nothing compared to the city centre though, which was bascially dead, particularly by Kirkgate Market. Everything has been sucked into The Broadway. Still, there have been big changes in Bradford, with new road layouts and a new indoor market development that was sadly shutting when we were strolling by. Our aim was to go for a curry and thus we needed to get cash out of a machine. We then headed over to the Kashmir, noticing that the scaffolding around the old Odeon cinema has finally been taken down. The curry itself was rough and ready, the restaurant a dive, yet the food exquisite. We were given a poppadom each without asking, and this was accompanied by ubiquituous yoghurt sauce which just kept coming. We grabbed some onion bhajis, which at £1.60 a portion were exceptional value, and we both had rogan josh, Wolfie meat and chicken for me. This was Wolfie's recommendation and he was not wrong. The spice level was just right and the delicate mix of flavours were unlike any of the curries in Germany. The curries in the UK are one of the things I really miss and eating these with chipatis rather than rice definitely made sense.

We had planned to go to Sunbridge Wells after this, but we were so full after the curry, we just got a taxi home. I needed to sleep, but Eric Clapton next door was still going. This was frustrating, but I stuck in some earplugs and had a short nap. Aside from the guitaring, it has been a pretty perfect weekend. It's been a great day today, yesterday we had fish and chips, while I also got to do a lot of reading too. All in all then, I'm pretty satisfied. It's just a shame it's work again tomorrow.

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Licky, Licky, Licky

2026-02-11T17:48:27Z

I'm now halfway through my trip to the UK and the weather has been the dullest, dreariest grey I have ever known. It has barely stopped raining, which has been prohibitive, so I suppose having to work has been a blessing. I don't particularly like working when staying with my parents - I was at my father's place before Scotiacon and I'm at my mother's place now - but with so little to do, it's a trade-off I can live with. Of course, with both parents having dogs, they are proving to be quite the distraction while my wrist sprains sustained a couple of weeks ago from falling over seem to be getting worse rather than better. This has made typing painful and I may have to go for an X-ray once I get back to Germany.

The benefit of working at my parents is I can spend longer with them. I spent four days with my father for example. While I was kept busy during the day, it meant I was able to chat during the evenings, even going on the occasional walk with Edward the dog. He was a bit weird, at one minute affectionate, the next disinterested, but he was largely nay bother. We also managed to go up to The Murray Park for another fantastic barmeal, although I did swerve the Chicken Highlander with haggis as last time I tried it, it was dry. The fish and chips were divine though, as was the selection of Scottish cheeses, but as ever these never come with enough crackers. You would think that this would be the cheapest part of the ensemble and yet the cheese was overloaded. Still, I couldn't complain for £10. With my mother, we have largely been watching the Winter Olympics, with us trying and failing to understand the figure skating scores. The performances were something else and despite initially struggling to get into it, I did find myself getting more involved the more the competition progressed.

My parents living in different parts of the country has made visiting more tricky, thus necessitating working from theirs, but I suppose that means longer stays. I'm only with my mother for two days though - there's less to do in her rural farmhouse than my father's medium-sized town. It has been jarring switching between my real name and he/him pronouns with my parents compared to she/her and my fur name at the con, but I guess it's something I'll have to live with for now. After the harrassment I endured from normies on Friday, it's particularly jarring though. I'm still unsure where I want to take my gender and although my parents will probably be supportive, there's probably no need to tell them yet. The only other negative is the alcohol and heavy food that's being plied on me, particularly after a convention where I drank 22 pints and did a craft beer tasting too. I may cut drinking out completely post-NFC and see if I can get my weight down as that would be a huge boost to my self-esteem and gender issues. Seeing this beer belly enhances my maleness and causes a load of discomfort. Losing it will definitely help me.

Aside from this, I have been trying to sort out my professional situation, but two more full-time job rejections during my time away has hit my confidence. Still, there could be a few positive changes with my two main clients, plus I may get more freelance editing gigs inside the furry fandom too. This was one of the reasons behind the creation of my business cards which I distributed at Scotiacon, although I know that full-time furry editing is unlikely to generate the income I need. Still, I feel I may be able to construct something that works, but I'll have to see.

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Scotiacon - Howl At High Noon

2026-02-10T22:23:55Z

I am currently staying with my mother following Scotiacon, having travelled down from Glasgow to County Durham earlier today. We had initially planned to stop off at the Greggs pub in Newcastle, The Golden Flake, but we had five bags with us and we didn't fancy lugging them through the city centre. Add to this that we didn't know where we could store them and they were conveniently ensconced in the luggage racks and we decided to travel on to Darlington and skip the pub. We both got off here and headed to the cafe, noting that the building works that should have been done for the 200th anniversary of the railway last September still hadn't been done. Once in the cafe, we had a hot chocolate and some cheese and onion McCoy's while Wolfie booked his train back to Leeds and we listened to a bunch of four builders talking about their cocks.

Scotiacon this year was something of a mixed affair for me, but this wasn't really down to the con itself. We stayed at The Courtyard by Marriot, about five minutes' walk away, but unlike last year it was busy with loads of normies. The usual caravan event was taking place, but Strictly Come Dancing was on tour, while the Chinese Shen Yuen ballet was being performed in the Armadillo. In addition, a number of bands were playing in The Ovulation Arena, so there were loads of people about. This meant that wearing skirts and expressing oneself became much harder, while on Friday a number of people shouted abuse. Others just stared at me in disgust and by the time it got to Sunday, it really wore me down. What hasn't helped is my weight, which has triggered my body dymsorphia. Adding to this was the previous week's stay at my father's, which was quite boozy and rich in food, with the weather being so atrocious as to not be able to get out and walk anywhere near to the amount I'd like. Indeed, the weather in the UK since I arrived on 1 February has been as dismal as I've ever known, with thick cloying cloud and rain. This too made traversing between The Courtyard and The Crowne Plaza difficult.

Wolfie was meant to arrive on Friday morning, with the lack of direct flights between Berlin and Glasgow proving very restrictive. In the end, he didn't arrive until late on Saturday evening as Berlin Brandenburg Airport was closed due to black ice. What changed in the weather compared to the previous month of cold frigid conditions I don't know. In the end, he was close to not coming at all and had to take a £84 taxi from Edinburgh Airport to our hotel in Glasgow but at least he made the convention before ConOps had closed for the night at 10pm, meaning he could enjoy some drinks in the bar and catch-up with friends. I bought him some bog-standard chips just to tide him over. Him being away on Friday sort of helped though as I was asked to do a little more work for one of my clients ahead of the Super Bowl. After a heavy night on Munich Red Lager on the Thursday evening, I woke up to the worst hangover ever and a need to calculate the best way of maximising sleep. Alas, I had invited Blacksnip over for breakfast, thinking I had one spare due to Wolfie. Little did I realise or remember that breakfast wasn't included so I had invited the horse over for food that cost him £18.95. What made things worse was I had left my cards in my hyena bag in the room so he had to pay for us. I compensated with beer later in the day though. Friday then was a tough day, but after registration, I settled down to work and got done just before our Writers' Social. The neat selection of sweets wrapped in a blue bow was mighty handy.

It was a fundamentally social and drinking con, probably one of the drinkiest I'd ever known, which hasn't helped my weight issues. I am going to really have to slim down ahead of ConFuzzled I think as it's really hitting my confidence. What's not helping is the 'he' pronouns as I visit my parents. I haven't told them and I am not sure I can, but then I'm also not sure what the hell I want. This has really been burning up inside of me for the last six months and, what with my frustrating professional situation, it's manifesting itself as deep self-hatred. On Sunday, I struggled to get out of bed until 5pm and wouldn't have even done that had I not planned a beer tasting session, while on Monday I went for a ruminating walk through Govan on my own, as well as walking along the riverside and a dual carriageway. The exercise did me good at least and friends saved both days, but I am far more mentally ill than even I realised and I need to do something to address this. Still, Doveux dancing outside the main entrance to Junior Senior's 'Move Your Feet' while wearing his tail condom will live long in the memory, so there were flashes of happiness around that time on Monday too.

The Sunday night craft beer tasting was particularly good. There were about 10 of us and Ipequay kindly let us use his suite for the festivities. The last time I had seen him was MFF 2024, while Wolfie hadn't seen him since we had first met back at BLFC 2017. It was great chatting with whisky and beer brewer Rutan here, while it was fantastic having all of our friends around the table. Due to the presence of Rutan in particular, it became a whisky-tasting party later on, and I was surprised to discover I could drink all of the whiskies proffered. Sunday was also the first anniversary of our friend Entei-rah's death and it was good to be able to toast his memory. The drinks we had were all rather tasty, particularly the maple stout at the end. While I was expecting this to last maybe two hours tops, in the end, we kept going for five, even ordering three sub-standard pizzas with the runniest garlic sauce I had ever seen. The margharita was particularly unpopular, but we did all have a slice each of the three different toppings. We retired to the bar after this with more beer and socialising, until I could drink no more, such was my stomach feeling like razor blades slashing through it. While we drank, we kept up-to-date with the score in the Super Bowl and were delighted it was a pretty straightforward win for the Seattle Seahawks. I also enjoyed the far-right meltdown at having Spanish-speaker Bad Bunny host the half-time show. Due to the drinking, I couldn't really attend any of the other events I wanted to on the Sunday. I sadly missed Amethyst Mare's two writing panels that evening, as well as a rubber social, although I got the impression that one was full body cover and I didn't have my suit with me. I also need to get an animal one anyway.

Monday was Dead Dog Night and as seems to be tradition, we went to the Lebowski's burger restaurant in Finnieston. There were six of us there and we were cramped into a table that ideally was made for four. This was immediately after my lonesome walk and I was feeling somewhat fragile and prickly, but being around friends did perk me up. The burger was fine, although the pulled beef I could have done without, while the blue cheese and bacon dip was certainly divine. Alas, Patter didn't get his fries until most of us had finished our meal which was somewhat inconvenient. After this, I went to someone's room for some fun, catching up with them in the process, before ending the night back in the bar. Here I met up with Blacksnip and we ventured into the final 20 minutes of the Dead Dog Dance, for which you needed to queue. This was quite a new thing, but the con has grown so big now, that I guess it's inevitable for the popular events. After the queues of last year, they had also installed a virtual queueing system for the Dealers' Den, but this seemed to put loads of people out of action in case their number was called and they could join the real queue. It was a good idea, but a number of fetish plans were either delayed or cancelled because of it. As for me, I didn't even bother with the Dealer's Den as I was either being too busy or too morose. I suppose saving money is wise, but then it has also been a cheap con, as so many people kindly bought me drinks.

I ran two writing panels with Huskyteer at the con - the Writers' Social on the Friday and the Writing Historical Fiction one on the Saturday. The former took a different format to usual. Instead of congregating in one group around a large table, we were allocated a corridor with loads of smaller tables. This meant the conversations were siloed and Huskyteer and I had to bounce between them to ensure everyone was okay. Our liaison, Atlas Collie, was very professional and helpful, even pointing to the coffee machine that served an excellent hot chocolate. He was on hand on the Saturday when we were in the main event space of the Hilton. This served as the overflow hotel this year, with a convenient shuttle bus operating in between. I never took that, but wonder whether this would resolve the skirt wearing around normies issue I had. Anyway, we actually got microphones for this talk and once the balances were set, we discussed writing historical fiction and answered questions. The audience was of modest size, but engaged, and they asked some great questions, including why I write about gay persecution particularly from the 18th century. There is an answer to that coming on my website later in the week. I think Huskyteer and I work well together and it was great catching up with her and her friend Dai. On the Friday after our social, we ended up going for pizza together in the Radisson Red, which proved to be top value. For £14.95, I got myself a ham and roast potato pizza, which was nice enough but maybe had too many carbs. A dip, particularly a garlic one, would have been fantastic here. We also grabbed some haggis won tons - a fusion of Scotland and China no-one realised they needed. These were served with a nice red salsa dip. The two panels from Guest of Honour Todd Aldrington were also fascinating, even if it felt being shouted at from time to time, and I picked up some really useful tips and pointers. I hadn't really read his fiction before either, so I look forward to picking some of his stories up soon.

There were a few events I had to bail on - Birdy's Wine and Cheese being one as the queues to get in were just too long. This was back at the overflow again and with the bitter wind and driving rain, the comfort of the Crowne Plaza often had great appeal. It was a great opportunity to see friends again though and I must have given out around one hundered of the business cards I had made. There are too many to mention but I enjoyed seeing Taneli and Procyon as I always do, along with Blacksnip, Patter and Doveux. Seeing Furble for the first time in a decade was a true delight, as was catching up with Ranfox who looked so adorable in his dresses and fursuit. Alas, I didn't get the opportunity to fursuit despite wanting to. This was partly because I couldn't pick up my new fursuit paws from Uno Raccoon until the Saturday evening, but mainly because the weather made getting into suit in The Courtyard prohibitive. I also struggled for time, so perhaps at NFC. The paws themselves look amazing though and I cannot wait to try them while I need to be a little more visible to counteract the appearances of 'fake Lupe'. The weather when the fire alarm went off wasn't great either, not least because it tripped just as I was going to go to the toilet. I was speaking to Furble and scranning some of Ipequay's Jollibee at the time, but fortunately, the false alarm was declared thus swiftly and I could go for my slash. It was a tough few minutes though.

There were a few other things I missed. Lunar Belle had a suite of events on that I couldn't really attend, while the Jet Lag: The Game panel was attractive but not at 10am. There were a couple of clashes too, but of course that cannot be helped. Drums and Roses was another highlight (I particularly enjoyed the green, blue and red styrofoam glowsticks that can best be described as landfill), albeit one when I was urging Wolfie to get to the venue as swiftly as he could so he could register, while 'Over The Hills' by Nightwish is always a poignant end to the con even if I can take or leave the cheese preceding it. I would have liked to have gone to the inflatable wearing panel but after my issues at Pawsome, I lacked the confidence to try again. I also should have attended more of the rock and metal sert from Alec DeLoup but that was at the time my stomach was in ribbons.

I am not sure whether I will attend next year yet, I think it may depend on the hotel situation. The con has gotten so big now that everyone is somewhat spread out, but the inability to dress in the way I want was a dampener. Wolfie suggested I pack a bag and take it across - which I could do - but then I fear forgetting it somewhere. It's something I am doing more often now and in 2024, I left my suitcase at the main stage area for ConFuzzled for over 24 hours. The queuing is also another major drawback, while the theme (Massive in the Metropolis) doesn't do too much for me. However, it was a great weekend with friends, albeit a boozy one, and with my father living nearby, it does make sense to come back again. I guess I'll see how the year pans out.

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A Nice Cup Of Snoot-Tea

2026-01-31T18:55:30Z

It has been an incredibly busy and exhausting week, to the point of being overwhelming. I have still felt lethargic after the tail-end of last week's illness, but pushed myself through work despite my better judgement. This was despite sleeping exceptionally poorly on both Monday night and Wednesday night, with an average of two hours' sleep each night. I've also been applying for jobs, while on Friday, I submitted all the details for my tax return to my accountants. Now that's done, I'm hoping to get the final document I need for the immigration people for me to secure permanent residence. It has taken longer than expected, but I'm hoping I'm reaching the end of the bureaucracy, at least for now.

Tomorrow, I head back to the UK for 18 days, largely to see family and attend Scotiacon. The direct flights to Glasgow have all been seemingly cancelled so I am going via Edinburgh. I'll be seeing my father before the con, and I'm glad I opted to fly on Sunday rather than Friday night (there were no flights today). There were a few reasons for this - I wanted to do more writing today and there is an online Jackbox event this evening - but it has given me more time to do all the chores I needed to do. One of those was on Friday when I went for my usual yearly trip to the sexual health clinic. I always go in January and had wanted to do it earlier in the month, but the illness, lack of sleep and falling over on the snow twice pushed things further back. I tend to feel sick when I have my blood taken and I didn't want to risk fainting. The service is really friendly though and I got all the tests I needed, with the results coming on Monday. Fortunately, I didn't fall on the snow again. After last Saturday's tumble on the packing strap, I slipped down a hill on Tuesday when carrying my shopping home. I fell on my bum, which at least cushioned the blow, but pulled muscles in my right wrist and thumb. This didn't hurt as much as Saturday's fall, but it has resulted in having two painful wrists for most of the week.

Aside from that, I haven't done as much writing as I would have liked this week, due to the illness and bureaucracy. Wolfie is still sick with his cough, which is now starting its fourth week, so I had to do most of the chores again, including picking up parcels from the local pack station when they couldn't be bothered to ring on the doorbell. I also wanted to meet up with Al and the crew this week before going back to the UK, but ultimately, I ran out of time. Still, I had a productive writers' group meeting last night and my writing website has had its best month ever. Furthermore, there may be a few more freelance editing gigs coming my way, which will hopefully mean I can ditch my least favourite client. We'll see what happens on that regard, but I would really like to move into professional editing of fiction and non-fiction than the soul-sucking stuff I'm doing now.

I'm also glad that January is now over as it seems to have lasted half a year. With two cons and family visits in February, I'm hoping for a good month, while I'd really love my professional situation to improve. I am trying, that's all I can say, but things are tough on the jobs market right now. I just have to keep going I guess, but I'd like a bit of luck soon.

Early Sunday morning update: It's been a fun evening on Jackbox playing the likes of Gartic Phone with the usual crew. It felt very much like the one bright spell of the pandemic again and I am glad these are coming back every month. It did end quite early though, with Procyon, Doveux, Wolfie and I staying on for another few hours to play a few more games. It was great catching up and I'm looking forward to the next one.

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Do You Schniff Schnoff?

2026-01-26T12:28:10Z

It's been a terrible week, largely because I've been laden with cold. It's probably the same one that Wolfie has, which also had a resurgence last week following a benign weekend last weekend. At least that meant we could go to Winter's Embrace, but the upshot is that I've had to cancel most things this week. I was due to go to an escape room with Al on Thursday and then meet up with my Dutch friend Dumdeedum, who was staying at Arakin's from Thursday through today. The plan had been to meet on Saturday for dinner, but I was still feeling acute dizziness. Instead, I thought a walk would help (and I needed to take the bins out anyway), but this turned out to be a mistake. I ended up tripping on a circle of white plastic strapping - of the kind you bind heavy boxes with - which someone had thoughtfully left on a dimmed path. I went arse over tit and swore, not noticing the child nearby. There was a very nice Indian gentleman who helped me up, but suffice to say I sprained my wrist. I was in complete agony for the rest of Saturday and I still feel the pain now, albeit in twinges. When I woke up on Sunday, I marvelled at the miracle of my own body as there was no pain for the first five seconds, before the throbbing return.

This threw everything out of whack basically, as I also had to take three days off work. I did manage to speak to my accountant and sort out a few tax issues ahead of submitting my 2025 return. The only other thing that happened was Burn's Night, which was yesterday. When looking for things to do at New Year, I noticed this happening, and thought it would be good to do instead. I had to confirm my attendance on the Saturday and we ended up going, despite my wrist and Wolfie's persistent cough. Had we not already paid the €39 in advance, we may have stayed at home. Anyway, we were on our own little table for two, which was good, and I'm glad we went. We were given a welcome drink of blended whisky from Copper Dog followed by a three-course meal of cullen skink. haggis and cranachan. They were all delicious, particularly the smoked haddock soup, although the haggis was a little moist for my tastes. It had been made locally though, so it was a good job from a German butcher. Between courses, we were entertained by Elgin-born but Berlin-residing drag queen Gieza Poke. She introduced herself table by table before proceedings and was delighted to discover we were furries who are heading to Glasgow the week after next for Scotiacon. Between the courses, there were poetry readings from a pamphlet of Burns poems on the table (which unfortunately I left behind) as well as a book containing Burns' entire works. I was too shy to stand up and give a reading, but there was a quiz at the end, where I answered a question and got a free whisky. Gieza also addressed the haggis in a proper manner, while her brother, who was visiting, read some Ivor Cutler poems. He has many hats. Most of the people there were Anglophone, but it was a good crew, plus I did enjoy chatting with Wolfie about a range of things (although I could have done without the hypnosis-themed conversation). With four IPAs drunk and various whiskies ordered, it has been a bit of a fuzzy day thus far, but it was definitely worth it.

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Winter's Embrace

2026-01-18T18:19:04Z

We've just come back from Hamburg, where we attended the inaugural furry rock and metal dance, Winter's Embrace. I've been yearning for such an event for almost 20 years. The furry dance scene is very well-established, particularly in Germany, but many organisers have been very sniffy when it comes to anything outside of the usual electronic genres. I have always thought this was a mistake - the metal dances at NFC and CFz are both very popular - so there was no reason why a dedicated rock and metal dance shouldn't work. This was where Winter's Embrace came in, which sold out within the first week of tickets opening, meaning it was a full and riotous occasion. It lasted for ten hours and took place in the Stellwerk Club at Harburg train station. This is a club between platforms 3 and 4, which you can see on the main dance floor. It was fascinating watching all the trains pull in and out, as well as dancing in fursuit in front of the smokers who were sat on the bench outside. The signal box theme of the club (Stellwerk is the German for signal box) with a real semaphore signal in the corner was also fantastic.

The dance area itself was quite small but there was room for a dedicated moshpit. The styles of music varied between rock/metal and hardstyle, but it was quite synchronous. Unfortunately, due to technical issues, proceedings didn't start until about 40 minutes after they should have done. We had sponsor tickets so we were allowed to enter the club early, meaning we were hanging around for over an hour and a half just chilling and chatting. The bar were serving bottles of Ratsherrn craft beer for €5 a pop, although they did have an odd 50 cents Pfand system which didn't make much sense, while I did have an interesting chat with one of the bar staff who preferred cash over card for data privacy reasons. We also caught up with DASPRiD, who was hosting a heavy metal set at 8pm (moved to 8:40pm due to the delay). I decided to get into suit for this, spending the full two hours moshing and rocking on the dance floor. I have been very fatigued since summer though and it was quite difficult to remain in suit for so long, but I pushed my way through and rewarded myself with some Haribo suppositories at the end. There was a load of free food on offer, both in the fursuit lounge and near the bar, so I spent a lot of the evening grazing on Haribo and paprika-flavoured crisps, while at one point in suit, I was asked "Femboi or Scottish?" on account of me wearing a kilt. "Why not both?" I replied.

We ended up staying until 2am, eight of the 10 hours, largely because of my tiredness. Wolfie's leg, which has behaved all weekend, was starting to give him some issues by this point and with the music turning to hardstyle and the like, I had less interest. The highlight of the evening was DJ Fuchs's metal mix, which included loads of nu-metal bangers along with some pop punk too. I would have liked to have suited for this too, but alas I was too tried. Also, annoying, as soon as I had gotten into suit the first time, I needed a pee, which is a challenge as I have no zippers. We managed, but my aging weak bladder is starting to become an annoyance. Apparently, there was a reward for the best fursuit there - we were given stickers to give to your favourite one - but I don't think many people participated in this. Anyway, I didn't win, I know that. There were only a handful of full suiters there, so the changing area was pretty well-sized for us. It was in the main bar area, away from the smaller club area.

All in all then it was a fantastic event and one I really hope returns next year. Hansa Furs did a great job, while EF donated all of the equipment. I'm glad to see that a rock and metal furry rave is not only possible, but popular, and I hope more will spring up. I also hope it will convince other cons that there is demand for this type of music and there is nothing wrong about having some more diversity. Let's see what happens.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful, but no less fun. We got into Hamburg about 20 minutes late at 10:30pm and checked into our hotel, the Holiday Inn niu. This was around the corner from the usual Premier Inn we stay at in Hammerbook. I wanted to try somewhere new and it was a little cheaper. I signed up to their membership program to get the free late check-out to 2pm, which was useful today, even if room keeping knocked on our door twice beforehand. They apologised at reception, saying sometimes people are drunk and forget to wake up, but it was a little annoying. As we had a bit of time before our train back today, we grabbed a burger at Burger Heroes, a local smash burger chain that conveniently had a branch right outside the train station. This was very juicy and tender, but the fries were the best, with the aioli sauce incredible. Once sated, we ended up in a simple bar at the train station as we had an hour to kill before catching our train. We sat with a beer and watched live coverage of three Bundesliga 2 matches simultaneously, with the coverage switching between all three.

On Friday evening, after we had checked in, we headed to Craft Bier Bar, a place we usually go as it's the best craft beer bar in the city. So it was again, with a range of interesting beers on tap. Most of these were 250ml pours and Wolfie and I had one each. We usually share, but Wolfie still had the remnants of the cold that's been plaguing him for over a week. Towards the end, the man wearing flags was back singing Nessum Dorma. We stayed until closing and there was one angry man who told him to 'fuck off' and I don't know why. The barman tried to persuade this guy no to do his usual party piece, but he asked whether he could sing it just once. The barman acquiesced and I'm glad that he did. This guy is a bit strange, but harmless, and it adds character to the place. We also spent a good amount of time marvelling at a Namco Japanese shooter game from 1995 with shonky graphics and an even shonkier story line.

Little else has happened this week. The Trump tariff threats have overshadowed the weekend a little bit, but hopefully Europe will stand up to his insanity. I had a palaver over picking up a copy of The Wideness of the World, the Furry Historical Fiction Society book in which I appear. UPS said they couldn't deliver it on Monday, despite me being in all day, so they sent it to a pack station 35 minutes' walk from my house. They said I just needed my ID, but when I got there on Thursday, they insisted on a QR or eight-digit code, neither of which I had. I tried to ring customer service but it wouldn't connect, so I sent them an email once I had gotten back home, annoyed. Fortunately, they did send me a code on Friday and that meant I could pick it up, but it was a huge chunk out of both days. The only other writing thing that's happened this week is the launch of the Ursa Majors, in which I have two stories in the running. I'm currently canvassing for nominations, as it would be great to make the shortlist.

Conveniently, little is happening at work, at least with the main client. I am not sure how long this is going to last though and I think it won't be long before the arrangement comes to an end. This would be annoying financially, but I wouldn't lament losing the work, although it would be nice to find something else to replace it beforehand. I have been applying for many jobs, but have had little come back. You either get ghosted, rejected, or the job is no longer available. This latter situation has happened twice in the last six weeks now and is particularly annoying as both of these jobs looked very good. I spent a lot of time on the applications, so it is frustrating, but I guess I've just got to keep ploughing on. I would like a break though as a dedicated professional purpose would probably improve my self-esteem somewhat.

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My Toys? Your Toys?

2026-01-10T20:07:34Z

The one thing I've learned this week is the importance of friends and specifically the importance of face-to-face relationships. We spend our lives mired in our phones and over the last decade I've become increasingly prone to doomscrolling. Current events are making me feel incredibly nervous and insecure, yet we are seeing disturbing comments and images blasted across social media every minute of every day. Ultimately, social media has become an addiction to me, one where I'm consuming so much time that it's alarming, while the psychological effects have been debilitating. All week, sleep has been the best option, but the nightmares have returned in various flavours. This is putting strain on my relationship - which was already strained enough - while Wolfie is now ill and thus the overwhelming cycle continues. Work is dissatisfying yet I can't seem to break out of this sector and I had another story rejection mid-week which is making me wonder why I bother. The fact that last week was the first full week back to the drudgery of work fills me with dread for the next 12 months and beyond. I also perceive threats everywhere, I've been scared about the weather and how it effects my UK home, and I'm consciously aware I'm overweight and this is affecting my gender dysphoria. The increasingly sadistic attacks against trans people, particularly in the US but also the UK and elsewhere, are starting to get to me too and my mindset has become increasingly bleak. I've just been feeling angry and hopeless all week, with no real constructive outlet. The fact it's dark and mid-January also doesn't help. I've been in a bed a lot as, apart from the nightmares, it's the most comforting place to be. Oh, and for some reason, I've had The Tweenies theme tune stuck in my head for the last 48 hours.

Therefore it was good that Blujay was coming to visit as it allowed me to break out of my restlessness and fug and actually do something constructive. He was meant to arrive at 19:25 on Thursday, but Deutsche Bahn being Deutsche Bahn meant that he didn't arrive until well after 21:00. He was here because he was celebrating a friend's 40th birthday on Friday and needed a place to stay over. As we knew we would get little time to chill as Friday was also a work day, he suggested coming a day early and grabbing a meal somewhere. In the end, that meal was a kebab as it was the only place that was open, but it was good to go back there again (even if the proprietor did think I was Ukrainian rather than British).

Once we had eaten and dropped Blujay's bags off at home, we decided to grab a few drinks. Alas, we couldn't get beyond Spandau, and it being the first week in January, everywhere was either closed (Spandau Bierhaus) or dead (Charlotte). In the end, we ended getting on the U-Bahn to Zitadelle and picking up some Brewdog cans from Kaufland and skid-arsing back home to drink and have a catch-up. We talked about a lot of things, including Destination X and Jet Lag: The Game, while Blujay also took me through the permanent residence application procedure. I did this on Friday and am now waiting to hear back from the authorities.

Wolfie was feeling groggy, a prelude to his illness I feel, so he didn't join us on our walk around Spandau on Thursday night looking for bars. He also worked from home on Friday. I had pointed Blujay in the direction of the Deutsches Teknik Museum but he was tired and it was below freezing outside, so in the end, he just hung around while we took various breaks from work to chat to him. Wolfie also installed the curtains in the office so at least the heat can now be retained, while I can masturbate without the fear of anyone watching me (not that I did this anyway).

Blujay left about 3pm to see his friends and we finished work about three hours later. I was so tired, I ended up going for a nap, then we stayed up and waited for our friend to return. He was out past 3am in the end, despite fearing he may not enjoy the smoky rock and metal bars they had planned to visit. It was good to know that there are some good ones over in the Friedrichshain district and we may have to check them out. Last night, as we waited, Wolfie and I ended up watching train videos and dreaming of holidays. Once Blujay was back, we had another hour of conversation and shared some sour cream and onion Gitters before heading to bed about 4:30am.

Today, we had intended to go to the PladeLu Festival at Columbiahalle, but when checking the website for times, the date said 6 June. I had noticed this when I had been emailed the tickets last week too, but thought it was a mistake. We certainly hadn't received any correspondence about a change of date - or at least I hadn't seen any - but upon checking Eventim, the Columbiahalle official website, and the headline act's site, it was clear that the date had been changed. This was slightly annoying, as although it's a day we can do, we'll have to sacrifice not doing something else, neither of us were feeling too energetic for a seven-hour metal festival. Wolfie in particular, who has spent most of the day in bed with a heavy cold, probably couldn't have done it so the switch is beneficial on that level. I could also have gone to Club Animalz at a push - a last-minute one had been arranged for this evening - but again I don't have the energy. It has meant that I've got nothing on this weekend though, so once Blujay had left at around 1pm (he and his friends are off to visit more rock and metal bars in Leipzig), I ended up going for a walk as it was quite a nice yet very cold winter's day. I feel that the lack of sunlight may be one of the reasons for my depression - a minor one relative to the geopolitical hellscape of the world but every little helps I suppose - plus I need to get more exercise too. I'm glad I went out, even if I did just go straight back to bed shortly afterwards.

It's odd when a friend comes around and leaves at the start of the weekend rather than the end of it. I'm glad Blujay came around though as I needed to remember the importance of face-to-face friendships in a world that's increasingly on fire. I'm not sure what I'll do for the rest of the weekend - it may depend on whether I get sick myself - but the plan tomorrow had been to do some writing. My motivation is low, but I guess we'll see.

The only other thing that happened last week was Thursday lunchtime, when we were invited around to a neighbour's house for a post-Christmas lunch. It was basically pumpkin soup with pumpkin seeds, along with breads and cheeses, and it was a nice break to the working day. It was fantastic catching up with some of the people on our floor, while we also got to see a couple's new kid for the first time, who spent most of the time crawling about. Apparently, this may become a semi-regular thing going forward, perhaps monthly, which I think would be a really good thing.

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It Didn't Last Long

2026-01-04T02:04:49Z

I had hoped that the post-Festive period would last until at least the end of Sunday. I have been working throughout, but real life rarely impedes during the Holiday Season and things were sedate enough that I have felt reasonably content, or as content as I can feel these days. All of that was decimated this morning with the latest geopolitical news and now all I feel is existential dread.

The plan today had been to go to the Furry BDSM munch at Qualgeist, but I have pulled a muscle in my arm and Thursday and Friday were both rather painful. In addition to this, the nightmares have returned, having not really been plagued by them throughout December. This has led me to feeling incredibly tired, incredibly irritable and incredibly depressed, which has not been a great way to start the new year. It has also been bloody dark and gloomy, which hasn't helped either, but at least the snow has added a little brightness to proceedings. I also managed to do some writing today too - editing two stories based on writers' group feedback - but even there I'm starting to lose hope. When I see writing posts getting far fewer likes than people taking random photos of things on the wrong shelves at the supermarket, it's hard not to be discouraged.

New Year's Eve was the usual. Rarely, we were invited to a few parties, but Berlin is quite feral and we wanted a quiet one. Oddly though, of the six New Year's we have now experienced here, this one was the most sedate by a long way. Usually, the fireworks endure for about three days, but this year it was for barely three hours. The highlight was just after midnight where we went to watch the fireworks from our balcony, with glass of Sekt in hand. We met a few of the neighbours and wished them happy new year, while one toddler was arsing about with a sparkler. Wolfie suggested that it would be a 'miracle' if we were still in Berlin for next new years and I felt quite indignant - there must be some dream I'm clinging to that's wanting me to stay. That is still up in the air of course (see my 2025 year in review), along with so many other things. I can see the pros and cons of both the Germany and the UK. Aside from this, we spent the day on VR, seeing in the new year with loads of our virtual friends. I have fallen out of love with virtual reality of late, but I'll admit that Wednesday was a good evening, and I stayed online well past 6am.

The only downside to this was the day I was most looking forward to, Thursday with Wolfie, didn't really transpire. I had spent most of Christmas Day locked into family commitments, so didn't have much time to myself. Indeed, by the time we had finished cooking the food, it was past 9pm. New Year's Day was going to rectify that, but Wolfie didn't get out of bed until 7pm and I didn't surface until after 4pm. I ended up watching an old Ross Noble documentary on YouTube where he is touring around Australia while we did get to cook the pork steak with pistachio crust Hello Fresh meal as part of our Festive selection. We had some red wine too. It was quite a relaxed day, but waking up at 4pm does make you feel there's not much of it left as it's practically dark by the time you get up. I'm sure this isn't helping my mental health, but at least we've had the twinkly lights on.

Sunday will likely be just another writing day as I have a few stories to finish and January is looking quite busy now. This is nothing compared to February though, which will see me be in the UK for two-and-a-half weeks followed by Nordic Fuzzcon. I fear I have spread myself too thinly again, particularly as I'll only be in Pudsey for three days, but we'll see. In the meantime, January is largely a work month, with this coming week my first five-day spell since November. Considering I have to deal with the immigration people, sort 2025 taxes out, and try and get booked in for an ADHD appointment, it's all going to get stupidly busy. January is also sexual health check-up month so I'll need to go and do that too. Plus I should really try and find the time to learn German, lose weight, and find a new job as well. No wonder I'm feeling overwhelmed.

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2025

2025-12-30T17:10:00Z

Looking back at my review of 2024, you can pretty much copy and paste most of it for 2025. It's incredible to think that so little has been resolved in the last 12 months, which at least suggests a more even keel. And yet, it doesn't really. We spent most of the first half of the year oscillating over whether we should stay in Germany or return back to the UK, ending up deciding we would see through the five years and make a decision then. This was in November and I am still in the process of dealing with the authorities to renew my status. Wolfie hasn't even started. We said we weren't going to make a decision until we got this sorted, so it's clear we'll be here until deep into 2026.

Some things have improved, particularly socially. Ever since Al Song arrived in Berlin in September, my social life has significantly stepped up. He's encouraging me to go out and do things, some of which for the first time. He encouraged me to go to Club Animalz and Berghain in November, while I went to my very first escape room just this past week. With Notefox also wanting to meet up more, I feel we have developed a nice group of friends here, so this is encouraging. I don't really go to any of the main events any more - the BDSM munch is always too early on a Saturday and the Fureigners meet-ups are registration events and I never know how I will feel three weeks in advance - but I did go to my first Berlin Fursuit Walk in November too and I'm happy doing my own thing.

Things have been pretty relentless since June and I have felt incredibly fatigued. I'm sure the main issue is worry and I know I'm getting increasingly paranoid about a range of things despite always seeking and following professional advice. The UK house being broken into in January hasn't helped in this regard, but I'm just concerned I'm doing something wrong somewhere. Cross-border tax is complicated, as is having a footprint in two countries, while financial pressures are never far away. To that end, I've made a good stab at my freelance business though. Having set this up to accommodate my first client in November 2024, I now have three clients on the books and a fourth is looking likely in the new year. Despite this, this was only meant to be a temporary thing. I would like a full-time job and have applied for nearly 70 this year. Unfortunately, many of these have either been non-jobs or data harvesting schemes, while some I'm sure have already been recruited and the job posting is just a legal formality. It has been quite disheartening, not least because I desperately want to switch industries, but I just have to keep going. Having some publishers on the books, particularly Fenris Publishing, will certainly help position me where I want to be professionally as I'd love to be a full-time editor and proofreader for a major publisher. This is now my aim. How likely that is, I don't know, not least because of AI infecting literally everything, but I am still going to give it my best shot.

2025 has been the best year for my writing, with four stories having been published in various anthologies. I formed a writing group back in the Spring and we meet once a month. I've learned a lot from their feedback and I hope I have been as insightful in return. I also feel I have developed as a writer, having written my best stories in the first half of the year. While I have submitted more stories for consideration than ever before, this means I have also had more rejections too, and I have taken some of these to heart. Still, I feel I have become more established as a furry author this year and my website seems to be doing quite well, so I'm hoping to increase this trajectory in the new year. I've already submitted some panel ideas at some of the conventions I'll be attending, so hopefully this will help too. I do wish that writers were more valued in our community though. I love the little writing niche we have in the fandom, but it's sad that we're not really seen on a par with musicians and artists.

Politically, it has been a terrible year, but at least the AfD did not gain a foothold in the German elections back in February. The current CDU/SPD government seems to be on a pretty even keel so there should be no horrible surprises coming. The situation in the UK and US is more despairing though and the anti-trans panic in particular is one of the reasons we have stayed put in Germany. Seeing the rise of fascism in real-time and the pain it is causing to minorities is heartbreaking, as is the knowledge that I may not be able to see my friends in the US for quite some time. I didn't go to MFF this year as a result, but the positive was I got to see my SE Asian furry friends for the first time in six years and I had forgotten how much I'd missed them.

Wolfie has had a checkered year regarding health, with his legs and feet causing considerable issues. This came to a head in the summer when he finally went to see a doctor. They prescribed anti-gout medication, which seems to have resolved one of the issues, but the muscle problems persist. These are more erratic, so he's going to the doctor again next week. This has severely limited what he has been able to do and he has not gone on that many trips as a result. He sat out SE Asia, couldn't come back to the UK for my birthday (this was the first time we hadn't been together on my birthday during our 18-year relationship) and he couldn't visit Blujay or Petephin in the Summer. It has stopped him going to a range of local events too, while our kink relationship is pretty much non-existent. There have been times where I've had to do nearly all of the housework as he's been too incapacitated to do anything, and I have found this frustrating on occasion. It has certainly put a strain on our relationship and I wish I could be more accommodating and supportive than I am. This year has seen a lot thrown at me though, particularly in the latter half where I've been trying to pinpoint the reason for my chronic fatigue along with having to go through routine medical and dental checks. Ultimately, I think I have ADHD, but despite finding people willing to help, when push came to shove, they fell through. I really should get this sorted in the new year.

Something else I should sort in 2026 is learning German, at least to B1 level. If we decide to get citizenship - for which we are now eligible - I'll need to pass this exam at the bear minimum. I'm not sure whether we will, nor am I sure how likely Wolfie will attain it, but this is a question for the new year. I do kick myself at just how lax I have been regarding learning the language, not least during times when I am lost in conversation, but in Berlin it's rarely needed and that has really hit my motivation. Being stupidly busy has done the same. Losing weight has also fallen by the wayside, as it often does. Indeed, I have probably put weight on this year as I am doing less walking through focusing on writing. This is something else I need to work on in the new year as it's affecting my self-esteem (but the reality is bugger all will probably change).

So it's been a year of treading water really, no different to 2024 aside from the existential dread of politics and the rise of AI. You've got to hope for better in 2026, but with Labour disappointing in the UK and the CDU terrible here, my expectations are low. Still, we do have a good community and I have many close friends, so I'm sure I can get through it. However, things like age verification laws and digital surveillance threaten even that. These are two more reasons why I have not yet decamped back to the UK. I guess we'll see how things go and take them one step at a time, but it would be nice if I felt able to relax. Alas, that doesn't seem like it'll be happening for quite some time.

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Anubis Is My Daddy

2025-12-29T17:13:15Z

Christmas Day was the usual affair of commitments, dinner, and then realising that most of the day has been used up. Granted, I don't often get up until about 2pm on a day off, but speaking with family always takes most of the day. I guess this is to be expected though - I haven't spent Christmas with them for a long time and it is always good to catch up. I even had lengthy calls with my brother and sister, who I should probably speak to far more often than I do. Aside from that, Wolfie and I largely had a Christmas together. We drank on Christmas Eve and watched train videos while we cooked strip-loin steak from Hello Fresh on Christmas Day itself. We also swapped Christmas presents, with Wolfie getting me a gas mask inhaler from Blackstyle and me buying Wolfie a year's membership to Wolf Watch UK alongside a visit to see the wolves. He's sponsoring Bosch, a male wolf who enjoys eating frogs from a pond, and we have booked to see him in May. I'm usually quite lazy when it comes to Christmas presents, buying him whisky or hot sauce, but with his desire to cut alcohol down, I thought I'd be creative. He was incredibly grateful, almost tear-inducingly so, and his kiss on my muzzle was the best thing about Christmas.

Boxing Day was a busy workday, what with the NFL having Saturday matches now, and I ended up missing my regular monthly writers' group meeting. For some reason we had scheduled this for 8pm rather than the usual 11pm and I hadn't realised. A lot has happened in the last month, so we have rearranged for this coming Friday. This was a little frustrating as I'd wanted to get feedback on the story I had written during the weekend before Christmas, but in the end, I used Saturday as an opportunity to finish another story which has been pending for some time. There was talk of going out to a gin bar with Notefox in the evening, but she didn't realise it opened at 8pm and she'd wanted to go for 6:30pm. In the end, we didn't go out and ended up staying in the house.

Sunday was a busy day though as it was Al's birthday. He is in Berlin over Christmas and I felt a little sorry for him as many people use the weekend between Christmas and New Year to travel from family to friends or vice versa. This means there weren't many people around to celebrate his birthday but Planke and I could oblige, while Wolfie joined us later as he felt a whole day out and about would ravage his feet. Al had been firing ideas at me most of the week and although I ruled out karaoke, he did end up booking an escape room. I was very apprehensive about this, but decided to go with the flow. The main issue was that the only time the room was free was 7:45pm, meaning we had a long time to wait, particularly as Al wanted to meet up at 1pm.

We started at VVE Cafe, a place right next to Richard-Wagner-Platz U-Bahn station. This only opened up this year so we couldn't have visited when we were living in 2021 (and that's despite the COVID situation at the time). Specialising in Jamaican food, this cafe is around the corner from Al's place of work and is where he often goes to write. The owners therefore know him and opened up specifically for his birthday. They also gave him two cakes - one tiramisu and one black forest gateaux - which considering there were only three of us, resulted in us carrying them around with us for the rest of the day. I don't much care for coffee but its flavour was subtle in the tiramisu, while we also got free Aperol-like shots and wine from the owners too. Considering I only bought a spicy chai latte and a dry chocolate-chip scone with tasteless butter, I thought this was overly generous, but the cafe had a good vibe. While here, we played Flip 7, a very interesting card game that is a bit like blackjack without the gambling. I won two of the three games we played.

The plan had been to go to a museum, but we spent so long vibing in the cafe, that we ran out of time. We decided instead to go to Khinkali House, the third of three Georgian restaurants in the city and the only one I hadn't tried. We arranged to meet Wolfie there but he was having a nightmare on the trains, resulting in him arriving a full hour after we had intended to meet there. Fortunately in a way, the cafe was very busy, meaning we had to wait about 20 minutes for a seat. This killed some time and allowed Wolfie to join about five minutes after the food had been served. I knew what he wanted though - Khatchapuri Atchaluri, the famous one with the egg in it - and I got him some Georgian wine too. This was overly sweet but pleasant enough, certainly far better than the cha cha shots that Al got for his birthday. This was probably my favourite of the three Georgian restaurants in the city and as it's around the corner from Protokoll in Friedrichshain, we'll have to go back. Note that before Wolfie had arrived, we had also killed a little time taking a group photo in one of those analogue photo booths dotted around the city. What I hadn't realised was that they were quite cramped so three of the four photos taken had me hovering in the corner largely out of frame. The fourth looked half-decent though and I did like the black and white photos they produced, even if it did take ages to wait for them. I'd never used one of these old 1950s booths before - I've used plenty of the modern ones - and I did like the nostalgia element. Paying €4 for four photographs seemed a decent deal too.

We got to the escape room about half an hour ahead of time, as the bus we needed was every half hour. We were due to meet two other furs there, so we ended up hanging around the lobby watching the same advertising video on loop with the same catchy music. I also went to the toilet three times. I was quite nervous as I'd never done an escape room before, but was reassured by the fact that Planke had never done one either. We also didn't know what the theme was and I was concerned about jump scares (and snakes for some odd reason). Once the others joined, we paid our €25 each and were guided to a hotel-themed place. We were given a rundown of the rules and were told that we had walkie-talkie communication should we need it. There were four rooms in this challenge and we had 75 minutes to complete it. In the end, we were done in 62, and apparently this was one of the harder ones. The first ten minutes didn't bode well as we were stuck in the reception area of the lobby. It was only when I looked through a keyhole and found a number we had to ring that we started to motor. Getting such an early contribution really boosted my confidence and in the end, all six of us played to our strengths. Six may have been a little too big a crowd and at times I got a little irritated, but ultimately it was all fantastic fun and I really want to go to another one soon.

Speaking of challenges, I have been watching a lot of Jet Lag: The Game of late, with the latest series being Hide and Seek in the UK. It's odd watching a show and knowing where they are, particularly these first two episodes as they are in the north of England. Al is interested in doing Hide and Seek across Berlin with their card game, so I bought this last night in the hope of doing something in the Spring. I have no intention of standing for hours in the freezing cold at this time of year - the last few days have been particularly icy.

Wolfie had ripped his jeans in the escape room and although the owner did lend him a stapler with about three staples in it, it didn't fully close the hole. The fact he was wearing bright blue boxer shorts didn't help either. Still, it was closed enough that he could get away with it and we went to Strassenbrau nearby. This was at the recommendation of one of the two other furs and here I discovered his partner lives in Ingleby Barwick, near where I grew up. It was an incredible piece of coincidence and we'll likely meet up again before he leaves for Teesside on the 11th. In Strassenbrau we ended up having three drinks, drinking past when the couple left at 10:30pm and Planke left shortly after 11pm. We ended up staying until our last train. I enjoyed Strassenbrau as we had the big table at the back, where we played Flip 7 again. This wasn't as good with six people, but it was still a fun evening. In the end, we left after midnight, with Wolfie stealing my hat to keep his crotch warm as his staples had burst. Still, we got back home pretty safely, although today has been a very groggy workday. Last night I did have an incredible dream though. I'd bought a horse and while riding it in North Carolina, I realised it was a magical talking horse. I was so happy, but then I feared I couldn't keep him, with the plot following the same trajectory as when Bart got a replacement dog for Santa's Little Helper on credit in an early episode of The Simpsons. There was also odd US sports that involved hitting the backsides of toned women wearing bikinis that rode up their bottoms.

Tonight we're looking at doing Jackbox with Stray's group, trying to distract ourselves from the fireworks that have already started. We may try and limit the alcohol though as yesterday in particular was quite high. We could have gone out for New Year's but I hate the city at this time of year so I think we'll just stay in. Aside from that, apart from Thursday, this will be another regular working week before everything returns to normal next year. There's loads to do in 2026 and it's another uncertain year, but for now, we'll just take things as they come.

Late Night Update: Jackbox was a lot of fun - it was fantastic reuniting with the same group who got me through the pandemic through similar means. It was also great playing some of the old games including The Wheel of Incredible Proportions (which has gone more luck-based) and Gartic Phone, which had a head, torso and feet picture round as well as a 10-line story round we could play. Some of the music and film games towards the end I struggled with, but it was a very enjoyable few hours indeed. Stray is looking to do one of these on the last Saturday of every month and it would be great if they were reinstated. It's great just being able to catch up with so many of our UK friends.

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Christmas Markets

2025-12-24T13:33:45Z

I have been back in Germany just over a week and thought I should take in a few Christmas markets before they close to the public. Most of them did this yesterday, although there are a few that go on into the new year. I ended up going to three markets, two of which with social connections, and it has been a nice distraction from all of the work, admin and bureaucracy I've had to catch up on. Indeed, since Al arrived in Berlin in September, I have been more social than I have ever been here. It highlights how sometimes you just need one person to be a catalyst for things to happen. Sometimes he invites me places, sometimes I invite him, and things have snowballed from there.

The first market was last Thursday, which coincided with the Fureigners Meet-Up. They gathered at Kulturbrauerei at 6:30pm, but that was always going to be too early for me. I rocked up shortly before 8pm and spent the next half hour struggling to find everybody. I did avail myself of my very first boulette - basically a hamburger patty in some crispy bread - and felt this could have been more uniformly cooked. The Bratwurst I picked up was of the usual quality and I very much enjoyed it. After this, I did manage to find people and ended up speaking with Al Song and an Italian fur for most of the evening. We were gathered next to one of the fires, which blew a pleasant aroma of smoke and wood over us. We ended up staying at the market until it closed at 10pm before popping over to a nearby Boba Tee place called Boba Cuppa. Sadly, they had run out of tapioca balls, meaning about one third of their menu was no longer available. I ended up just having brown sugar in milk, which gave it a burnt caramelised flavour. It was rather pleasant, but the poor lady was clearly overwhelmed by the 15 furs who had descended on the store, not least because she already had a group of eight to serve. Most people headed off after this, but Notefox had swung by late as they had had an accordion practice. We therefore decided to head to Manifest for a brief beer before we needed to head back home before the trains stopped running.

On Saturday, Wolfie was feeling well enough to try and get out to the Spandau Christmas Market. We think this is one of the best markets in the city and so it proved again. I think Wolfie has started to feel somewhat stir-crazy being trapped indoors, while his leg has definitely been better recently. I wish he had seen the doctor long before now, but at least he has an appointment booked in for the new year. We had a pleasant walk around the market, enjoying some of the live music and picking up a sausage en route. We also called in at our favourite empanada stand, where I had a brief chat with the lady in Spanish. We were also delighted to discover a stall offering Georgian food for the first time. One of these things was a katchapuri pasty, with flaky pastry not dissimilar to those you get in Greggs. I thought €8 was a mite spendy, but then I didn't see the sheer size of these things once they had been plucked out of the fryer. They drooped over a big paper plate and we had to carry them back home delicately. The flavour was spot on - very much like the katchapuri we had tried in Georgia - while I had a nice time chatting with the Georgian owners of the business. They offered us some pretty rancid cha-cha which I struggled to drink, but all in all, it was a welcome addition to the Christmas Market.

We also headed out on Tuesday and Wolfie was able to join us again. Our main objective was to go to the Cheese and More store at Kurfstendamm. We had checked out this place on the night of my birthday meal, but didn't want to buy anything as I was going to SE Asia two days afterwards. We had always intended to pick up something for Christmas, so we thought we might as well make a night of it as the Christmas Market at Zoologischer Garten is literally over the road. With the likes of Fierce (Fiasco), Al Song and Notefox all wanting to socialise more during the Festive Period, I thought it would make sense to have a bit of a gathering. Al met us in the cheese shop while we were sampling their wares, with four separate members of staff asking if we needed assistance. One said that instead of buying the full truckles, we should just get wedges cut as they would be far cheaper. This was useful advice and we picked up three cheeses at reasonable prices, while Al also grabbed some lavender-infused cheese.

We then walked around the Christmas Market, sampling little blocks of cheese from a plastic tub, noting how disappointing it was relative to the Spandau one. As we did, we showed Al the sights including the church, the memorial to those who lost their lives in the 2016 Christmas Market terrorist attack, and the green water clock in the Europa Center. We also grabbed some food, in our case a decent sausage and an incredibly delicious Handbrot. We picked up the latter after Fierce had joined us, looking all dapper in his hat and pink scarf, and we soaked up the atmosphere while wandering around.

The market was due to shut at 9pm, meaning we had to make plans for after. Drinking was always on the cards - I feel a little bad for always dragging teetotaler Al to bars but he seems to enjoy the company - and when we discovered that Fierce had never been to Biererei, we opted to take the U1 from Kurfurstendamm over there. As we did, we munched on chestnuts that Al shared with us, with me not realising I had to peel them from their shells before eating. This made for quite an unpleasant crunchiness in my mouth. Once we had gotten to Kottbusser Tor, I prepped Al for the general grittiness of the area, but he seemed unperturbed and indeed wanted ice cream when he noticed a place we were passing had ube flavour. He let me sample this plum/apricot flavour while I opted for White Snickers which sounded incredible. Indeed it was - think mix of Snickers and vanilla ice cream - and even though it was odd to eat ice cream in the freezing cold two days before Christmas, I am glad we bought it.

We got to Biererei shortly afterwards and had to finish our ice creams outside. Once inside, we sampled seven different beers, including two incredible Barrel Aged stouts. This place is spendy, probably the most expensive bar in the city, but alongside Muted Horn and Manifest, there is no better bar in Berlin. The barman here is very knowledgeable too and even brought us over some water as we were sampling those two high percentage dark beers. Fierce and Al headed off around 11:30pm, an hour later than Notefox had joined us. They were incredibly delighted to see Wolfie - Note has been asking me for so long where he was - and so we opted to stay a little longer, particularly once we found out that the U-Bahn had switched to its 24-hour Christmas service that night. So, in the end, we chilled until near 1am before getting our trains home. I would have happily stayed later, but I had some work to do today, while I didn't want too much of a hangover either.

This should now be it for Christmas. Work is done until Friday, the weather is looking sunny, and we have a load of food and drink in. I'm hoping I can put all of my worries to one side, at least for a few days, as the weekend was dominated by a painful headache which I think may be stress-related. As I say, there's still loads to do and I'm feeling a little overwhelmed, so hopefully a nice mid-week break will help me relax.

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