Berlin

I was in Berlin in early Feb for work. So yes, this is a late and lazy post :D

The flight was about 18 hours by KLM, with a transit in Paris. Upon arrival at Tegal airport, I had slept on and off for almost eight, nine hours. I continued to be in a daze when I took the transit flight. The big secret, and except for my travelling partner, no one knew, until now, I MISPLACED my passport on the transit flight! This is a bad place to share this because hubby would be breathing down my neck forever once he sees this; saying how right he always is about my clumsiness. And yes, I would admit it - somehow I am always get more clumsy when he is around. Probably it is because I know he would be looking out for me :) It was a dramatic experience. While English is commonly used in Germany, it was not easy to get the message across when you are worried beyond the ability to cry. In the end, being extremely blessed and lucky, after two hours of wait, I had my passport back in my hand. Advice to myself - put the passport STRAIGHT back into the bag after use. 

Moving on, we booked an apartment via Roomorama, and it was about 15 minutes from work. Berlin is neat and efficient, kind of reminded me a bit of Singapore, but that was where all resemblance ended. The building is mostly bricks and metals, a bit like Amsterdam, but the colour scheme is kept cold. I think the bricks takes out the hassle of repainting; pretty good planing. 

Work was around the Potsdamer Platz area; we walked quite a bit. It was pretty enjoyable as long as there was no rain and strong wind. Food and necessities in the area was cheap, just like Amsterdam. Shampoo that cost almost SGD18 was only slightly over 5 euros! Vitamin C effervescent was ridiculously cheap at less than 1 euro! Vegetable and fruits were reasonable, not as cheap as Amsterdam but they were not expensive. 

Cherry tomatoes that looked so bright and red that they almost looked fake!

This photo did not do justice to the fabulous dessert sight! 

Clothes weren't cheap. Dollar to dollar, pretty close to Singapore's price, but once converted back to SGD, they were simply too expensive to consider. 

I think Berlin would be a beautiful place in autumn with the orangey falling leaves. There are some many trees around, even with their bare branches, I could still felt their presence. 

I was kind of worry about the weather, especially when I saw -4 degree Celsius. It really got my attention and I started to stock up for proper winter wear. The coldest that I had ever experience was perhaps about 5 degree Celsius, and I was totally not dressed for that. I was definitely not keen to be in Berlin with a frozen brain; especially for a work trip. With the proper clothing and shoes, the cold was lot better managed. 

Check out their style of night market for food. The food was not exactly cheap at this stretch; if I do not remember wrongly. Instead the food outlets in the mall basement served some cheap and good food. The best food that I ever ate was a pork burger. The look is pretty unappetising; it was slab of fatty pork, dripping with oil in a hotdog type bun. But once I sunk my teeth into it, I went back the second day for another one. One thing to mention - once I had one of these burgers, I did not need to eat anything else for the rest of the day, and I had these burgers for lunch on both occasions. This pork burger was less than 5 euros; extremely good value. 

Below were work photos. The couple of days when we were in Berlin, we were at the convention everyday. Looking back at the film markets that I had (so bless-fully attended), this had to be the nicest in terms of building. 

Waking up in Berlin was not difficult, surprisingly with the cold weather. The view outside the kitchen window offered a glimpse to the sun rise. 

Besides work, we did not manage to check out any other part of Berlin; much regretted. There was simply not enough time; we were rushing for meetings even on our last day. I did not even remember to check out the german pyramid that I like so much...

I like Berlin for its efficiency, and cleanliness. The apartment owner booked a cab to bring us to the airport on the last day. As we made our way down, our few-doors-away neighbour came towards us to let us know our cab was here! Of course, he was right, that was our cab! How the heck did he know it was for us??? I am a pure Singapore breed, places that are clean, neat, efficient appeals to me. Of course, that does not mean I dislike places that do not fall into these categories; I just feel somehow more comfortable that feels like Singapore in one way or the other.