Leaving Berlin Part 4 of 8: Things I’ll miss a huge amount

So I’m ‘home’, in lovely little Horsham. It’s a bit… dull. And my parents have stolen my old bedroom and given me theirs which is slightly odd.

I managed Saturday with only five tears. Two when I said goodbye to the last of the people to leave my fairwell lunch and three on the plane when we touched down in cold miserable England, so I think that’s good. It turns out the key is to think about two things: the super-short-term e.g. ‘what will I do tomorrow?’ and the super-long-term e.g. ‘where will I be a year from now?’. And whatever happens don’t think about Berlin and how awesome it is.

Certainly don't write about it... oh crap.

The Perfect Sunday: Frühstück

Berlin does breakfast like Michael does shouting in the faces of people he finds attractive – excessively. For a few euros you can normally well-acquaint yourself with at least three different cheeses, three different meats, a couple of different breads and some fruit. In Schwarze Pumpe, Chorinerstr there is a legendary Sunday buffet with eggs and sausages, cheeses, meats, salad, fruit, pesto, more pesto, ‘Helen I think you’ve taken all of the pesto there’ and various different breads, and it will cost 5€. At A-Horn, just over the river from Princenstr. U-bahn there are massive plates of all the same things which are served with freshly baked bagels of your choice: cheese, olive, tomato…

I miss rolling out of bed on a Sunday morning, reading a message from Sophie with a brunch suggestion, and heading to somewhere beautiful in Berlin to eat enough food to last until dinner.

Max’s House, Catanienallee – eating food, watching films and playing games

As winter started to descend on Berlin there were two beautiful weekends where the sun was out, the air was crisp, and you could forage through Sunday markets like a mouse preparing for hibernation, thinking ‘once the cold comes I won’t be back here until spring’.

On one of these weekends I met up with Kurt, and a new friend, Max, ate the aforementioned unlimited brunch at Schwarze Pumpe and spent a little time in Mauerpark Flohmarkt.

Wanting to get in from the cold Max invited us back to his nearby apartment to watch a film and eat soup.

It was around this time that I started my plot to kill Max and steal his apartment. Located on one of my favourite streets in Berlin, possibly my favourite at the time, I was incredibly jealous of his low cost two room flat. He was also one of the first real people I had met in Berlin. You know, he hadn’t just moved here, he wasn’t living with a family, or with anyone else for that matter, and he had a proper job. All this means that his apartment is actually full of things, like a real person! He didn’t sleep on a mattress on the floor, he didn’t cook in one pan, and best of all, he had a massive projector so we could watch movies on a giant screen.

The invitations to Max's house were repeated almost every weekend, and he would often cook, screen movies, and suggest we play board and card games.

The food we ate:

·        A massive thanksgiving dinner (and the subsequent leftovers from two turkeys)

·        Goulash

·        Carrot and ginger soup

·        Russian dumplings

It was also our Sunday games location where we whiled away hours and hours and… “oh dear, has it been eight hours already?” with our new love, Settlers of  Catan.

Max is an excellent host, and it’s been awesome hibernating all winter in his wonderful apartment. Despite the inspiration I got watching the Sopranos in his flat, I have decided it would be a little cruel to kill him and steal his apartment, because he uses his apartment powers for good and not evil. Also, because I don’t think I could manage it without getting caught. Mainly that actually.

Amazing, cheap and beautiful places to live

One of the best reasons to stay in Berlin or to live there in the first place, is the quality of accommodation. I love the intricate designs in the massive apartment blocks. I love the ornate ceilings. I love that no two buildings look alike.

But the best part is how affordable it all is. For 400€ a month I had my own flat, ten minutes from the city centre. It had a cute little kitchen; a pokey bathroom which I found out was installed after the wall came down and the buildings were sold; and a massive bedroom with a four-poster bed. All the furnishings were cute and inexpensive, picked up from local markets or online retailers.

I think best of all I liked that it was all mine. My temporary pocket of Berlin that I could come back to each night. So one day I would like to have that again. I would like to make that for myself. Like Max has, like Sophie is starting to.