Today we met some friends for brunch at a nice cafe in Kreuzberg (another district in Berlin, about 10 minutes driving, NE of Schöneberg). We picked them up from their apartment (right across the street from Timo’s school) and then drove most of the rest of the way there.
About 5 blocks away from the cafe, the road was actually blocked off! Apparently, today was the day of the Berlin Bicycle Marathon, which is either 60 or 120 km (I never got a definitive answer from anyone about how long it was). So, we walked the rest of the way to the cafe after parking the car.
The cafe itself was about 2 blocks from a very popular park in Kreuzberg, where a lot of the youth in Berlin like to hang out (I’ll get to this in a bit). I ended up ordering the “Spanish Breakfast”, which entailed a basket full of Brötchen (fresh made bread), and a plate with different cheeses, a bit of salami, and fruit. I wasn’t exactly sure what made it “Spanish”…it seemed pretty german to me. Regardless, it tasted great, I just thought the naming was kinda funny.
When we left the cafe, the riders in the marathon were actually passing by. So we got to watch them go as they rode on.
A bit later, we walked over to the park I mentioned earlier. Apparently, originally there used to be a lot of empty houses (empty after the second world war) there, which were taken over by a bunch of students back in the 60s. Basically, the students just moved in, and refused to pay any kind of rent or for any utilities. So to retaliate the city (not exactly sure who was behind it) had the houses demolished, and a park was put in instead. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera on me for that part, cause there was some cool stuff to see (art, sculptures, a circus, bridges over the Canal, political rallying areas, among other things).
The weather started to take a turn for the worst, so we headed back to the car (not quite in time though – we got rained on quite a bit on the way walking back), and drove home. After that, I hung out in the apartment for a while, got some piano practice in, and took a nap. That night we had dinner, and then went for our usual walk (this time up near Potsdamer Platz, and around the embassies).
