Summer, sun and strawberries

My first month here in Berlin is turning to its end. I've had quite the time getting aquainted with work and my living surroundings. My flat mate noticed something about me though, that seems to be a pattern for me. She told me she'd said to a friend of hers: "My flat mate has only been here for a few weeks, and already she knows half the city!" I guess she was referring to the evening we went to have chinese food a couple of week ago, where we met one of my collagues on the way... But I do have a tendancy to get to know a lot of people in a short amount of time. Then again I am a what you in finnish would call "sosiaalihuora". Which translates into something as horrible as "social whore". I simply like to meet and get to know new people.

That was the case a week ago on wednesday on the subway. I was sitting on the bench, and this girl at the other end kept glancing my way. Finally she got up and asked me in English if my shirt was from H&M. She had noticed it becuause, she had the same one. It turned out she was a Canadian intern, who had been in Berlin three days so far and couldn't speak any German. We got to talking and decided to meet up for cocktails soon.

What I love about big cities is the commuter traffic possibilities. The subways, trams and trains are some much more comfortable than buses. As most people know, the Germans don't speak English all too well. I mean all even all their tv-shows are dubbed, so where are they supposed to learn it? I've noticed that the announcements in the trains and trams are quite interesting. I really don't know how the people who decide about announcement have thought that a person who doesn't speak German is supposed to understand the following sentence: "Please change here for a train service to Hauptbahnhof." Well you might be able to guess that Hauptbahnhof means main train station, but when you add a nice German accent to the announcement it all gets even more interesting.

The river Spree runs right outside of the main train station and a few entrepreneurs have taken advantage of all the free space. Since the main train station was built only after the wall got torn down, the city centre(s) aren't really located around the station. When you compare it with many other German cities, where the city is build around the station, it's quite different. The station is located in the government district, not too far away from the Reichstag (parliament building). So what I wanted to tell you about was the beach bar(s) next to the station. The first one to open at the location was BundesPresseStrand, which literally means national press beach. It was opened in 2003 by an unemployed journalist and after that a few others have followed with more beach bars. The beach bar is open every day, when you can come with kids and just enjoy the sun, and at night it turns to a beach club. I went there on Saturday with Matt and three of his friends, and it was divine!


Chilling at BundesPresseStrand


The best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between
East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War

Last weekend the final in the German football cup DFB-Pokal (Deutsche Fussball-Bund e.V.) was played at the Olympic Stadium here in Berlin. The game was played between Schalke 04 and MSV Duisburg. The city was full of football fans and we watched the game along with the fans at Kurfürstendamm. The atmosphere was great and Schalke 04 ended up winning 5 to 0. The fans were going crazy, but it was fun!

A nice cocktail/sheesha bar called
Chischkhan close to my place

Last week when I went dancing Thomas and Katrin told me about another dancing place, that's outside and open on Tuesdays. So this week I decided to check it out. The place is called Amphitheater, more commonly Monbijou. It's directly by the river Spree right across the Bode museum. Since the summer nights here aren't light like the one we have in Finland, it can get very cozy and romantic with coloured lights and music. They have dancing there every night with different genres. Tuesdays would be my nights, because then they have ChaCha, Walzer & Co on the menu. If you want to have a look, here's the link: http://www.amphitheater-berlin.de/tanz.html.

Matt and Yasmin enjoying the best sides of summer