Dresden, part 2: !!

Finally, in the afternoon, we headed out of old town. By this time I was feeling quite fed up with the city and wondered whether it was just as dull everywhere. As Leonard Nimoy puts it on the Simpsons: “The answer is: No.” We jumped on a tram heading east and reached the Elbe Valley. My goodness, my opinion on Dresden changed immediately. It was absolutely breathtakingly beautiful. It actually reminded me quite a lot of Heidelberg, with which I am completely in love.

Elbe Valley

Castles!

The bridge Blaues Wunder (“Blue Wonder”), or officially Loschwitzer Brücke. A blue wonder means an unpleasant surprise in German, but I’ve no clue why this poor bridge carries such a nickname.

There were lots of cute birds on the bank. These swans weren’t even scary or vicious.
Also note the funicular! Guess how much I would like to ride it? A lot.

We took a break at Schillergarten, a biergarten by the Blaues Wunder before crossing Elbe. Lucky I wasn’t especially hungry, for the only vegetarian alternative the whole place had to offer were french fries... After that, we headed towards Weißer Hirsch (“white red deer”, heh), a posher villa area in East Dresden, higher up the valley. It was very bourgeois, but in a very pleasant way.

A very sympathetic sign at the Schillergarten, warning about falling chestnuts.

Weißer Hirsch, near the bridge.

Time for some climbing!

Come on guys, we haven’t got all day. It’s just a little steep.

A villa in Weißer Hirsch. A bit modest for my taste, but I could maybe show the mercy of living in a place like that, if I was asked very nicely (and if I were, say, 20 years older).

Another villa.

Street view.

After climbing up, we took the tram back down, to Äußere Neustadt (“outer new town”). There we wandered around in shops and eventually found a very nice flea market! I saw a cute Kiwi bird that just had to come with me. I named it Kiwa das Kiwi; “kiva” means nice in Finnish (but as the bird is German, its name would be pronounced “Kifa” if it would keep the original spelling, hence the w) and actually, the grammatically correct genus would be masculine. However, we had sarcastically been making jokes about postmodern feminism and its postmodern jargon, so I decided to take a critical stand towards the heteronormativity penetrating (!) our society, and went for the neuter instead. Very gender neutral, jawohl?

Kiwa! He... I mean, "it" was a bit nervous about being photographed, so I couldn’t get it to smile, but it’s really a very relaxed and easy-going fellow.
It actually also features in a previous picture, sitting on my bed.

There was also a baby at the flea market, but the sign explicitly reads that it is not for sale (“Baby = unverkäuflich”). Bummer.

Then it was time to head home. We had huge plans of going out for some partying, but everyone passed out in the train (just of exhaustion and fresh air) around nine, so the somewhat anticlimactic result was that everyone just crawled home to get some sleep. Maybe just as well, all in all it was a day well spent!

Dresden, part 1: Meh.

Ha, finally a post about Dresden, where we went for a day trip a month ago (that is, in the beginning of October).

Short introduction/FYI: Dresden is the capital of Saxony in East Germany near the Czech border, about 160 km from Berlin. It is situated in a valley through which the river Elbe flows. Thanks to the Elbe Valley, Dresden was granted UNESCO world heritage status in 2004. However, it lost it in 2009 due to the construction of a highway bridge. Dresden did mention the construction plans when running for the status, but the location of the future bridge was reported incorrectly – wtf? “Umm well we didn’t know where we were gonna build this bridge we’ve been planning since the 90s. Sorry bout that, UNESCO dudes.” When UNESCO found out that the futuristic-looking, massive bridge was going to be built close to the old town, it obviously went pretty berserk and eventually removed the Elbe Valley from the world heritage list. Quite an absurdly tragicomical story.

We started our day trip by wandering around Altstadt, the “old town” of the city. It actually in practice is the newer part, as it was completely destroyed in the bombings of WWII and thereafter rebuilt. I don’t know if it was precisely for that reason, but the old town seemed very impersonal and clinical, as if it were just a façade built for tourists. It didn’t have the feel of a place people live in. It was nice to see, but is hardly worth another visit.

View to Altstadt from the bridge Augustusbrücke.

Minerva at the Augustusbrücke, Altstadt and of course Elbe in the background.

A bit of the Füırstenzug (“Procession of the Princes”, but can also be translated into “train of princes”, which is much more amusing – at least if you’re humourly challenged as I am), a ridiculously big mural representing the Princes of Saxony.

Some disturbing statues/decorations at Zwinger, a baroque palace.

It got even more disturbing.

Recipe: Comfort casserole

I used to have a cooking blog, but I eventually didn't have enough enthusiasm or motivation to keep it alive. My pictures sucked (and still do, admittedly), which of course is a bit discouraging as several other food blogs really have great pictures, and I just didn’t update it often enough.

Now I thought I might try to revive the food blog section. As this isn’t strictly a food blog, I won’t have to worry about not posting enough recipes, I’ll just post when I feel like it. And now I do! The recipes will for the most part be vegetarian, but occasionally some seafood might swim in too.

As autumn creeps in, I always start craving for stews, soups and casseroles – warm, comforting, hearty meals. I like to use seasonal ingredients, and when I saw delicious-looking string beans and Brussels sprouts in the grocery store the other day, I got the idea of a very cheesy casserole with sour cream. I had made wild mushroom bisque the other day and had still some mushrooms left, and I figured they would go along perfectly in this autumnal meal.

I don’t mean to brag, but by god, this was good! (Or is, I still have a good deal left.) I named it “comfort casserole” because that just sums it up. To add up the luxury and cosiness, a splash of white wine would not hurt at all. Smoked tofu would also go along very well, in the casserole itself or then served with it. But so, here’s the recipe:

Comfort casserole
Serves 6–8

ca. 300 gr string beans, ends trimmed
ca. 500 gr Brussels sprouts, halved
30 gr dried wild mushrooms
2 celery stalks, thinly sliced
2 small parsley roots (parsnip will also do just fine, or why not carrot), thinly sliced or cut into juliennes
2 onions, chopped
4 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
200 gr sour cream
1,5 dl half cream (15%), I used a wild mushroom & white balsamic flavoured, but you could use just regular cream and add a dash of balsamic vinegar, or all sour cream
(1 dl dry white wine)
200 gr strong grated cheese, I used mature cheddar and Emmentaler
3 organic eggs, lightly beaten
rosemary, salt, white pepper

1. Soak the mushrooms in warm water for about an hour, squeeze out the excess water and chop them very finely. Don’t throw away the soaking water! Pass it through filter paper or a cheese cloth and use it for the casserole.
2. Blanche the string beans in salted water for a few minutes. This is important, because even string beans may be toxic uncooked.
3. Sauté the onions, celery and garlic, season with salt and rosemary. Move into a large bowl along with the beans and parsley root.
4. Move the Brussels sprouts on the pan and fry until golden brown. Add the mushrooms and about a dl of the mushrooms’ soaking water. Leave to simmer until the liquid has evaporated and/or the sprouts are al dente, then add to the veggie bowl.
5. In a bowl, mix the sour cream, cream, white wine, some of the mushrooms’ soaking water, eggs and most of the cheese. Season with salt and white pepper, and some more rosemary if you feel like it. You won’t want the mixture to be too running, otherwise your casserole will run all over the place. If you feel it’s too fluid, you could add another egg or some all-purpose flour (just be sure to whisk it together with some liquid so that you won’t bump into yucky lumps).
6. Combine the two bowls and pour into a casserole. Sprinkle over the leftover cheese and bake in.. umm, 180°C for about an hour. I’m not too sure about the time, just check on it and take it out when it’s got a golden brown crust. Let it settle and cool for a while, and dig in!

Haha, it sure isn’t a looker. But it compensates in taste what it lacks in looks.

Nesting

”Like everyone else, I had become a slave to the IKEA nesting instinct.” (– Fight Club, 1999)

Haha, nesting indeed. Well, the quote continues quite in another way than I personally think (“If I saw something clever like a coffee table in the shape of a yin and yang, I had to have it.”), because I hate shopping and having stuff I don’t feel I need, and my style is definitely quite minimalistic.

Actually, precisely the seek for minimalism was what drove me to Ikea, quite paradoxically. As I noted earlier, I like the way this flat is furnished, it’s a very well-balanced whole. However, my landlady’s style is much more decorative than mine, and very, very blue for my taste. By blue I mean the colour (not sadness), and I had a very intensive blue phase as a teen, so I’m quite over and done with that colour, probably for the rest of my life. However, the walls are and remain blue in the living/bedroom, so I thought I’d pimp up – or should I say downgrade – the textiles. As a bonus, my landlady’s replaced textiles will definitely stay intact during my stay!

Obviously I didn’t want to spend fortunes on a flat where I’m staying for half a year, so the changes would need to be quite few and budget-friendly. It was actually quite hard to try and find something that would feel “me”, but at the same time work with what’s already in the flat and play along with the existing style. All in all I think I did quite well and am quite pleased, especially considering how little I actually did: I cut down the blue replacing it with green and red, and packed away some cloths and carpets. While I normally don’t fancy those colour combinations, nor would have chosen that cushion/cloth pattern if I were furnishing a flat from scratch, I find the result being quite in harmony with the prevailing style, and yet with a touch of myself. I feel at home :) Behold:

The hallway, entrance is to the right, next to that curtain.
The curtain was a very bright blue one, that one has birds and trees. Welcome to the jungle!
I always first see that picture as the Fair Trade mark, wtf?

Hallway, pt 2. The walls are the same colour as in the previous picture, it just looks more olive-like in this picture.

Living/bed/nerding room.

Living/bedroom. The sofa was the biggest change, it had a blue-grey cover and red and orange cushions.

Living/bedroom.

View from the sofa.

Kitchen. Note the grinders and herbs! And space!

View from the balcony!

♥

Ps. Happy 20102010!

Düsterer Abend

...is "gloomy evening" in German. The evenings begin earlier day by day, and the darkness is sometimes almost overwhelming in the poor street lightning here. Add heaps of fallen leaves in wonderful colours and drizzling rain, and the autumnal feeling is guaranteed. Time to cook some hot peppermint tea, huddle under a blanket and put on some warm socks. And listen to some dark, intense autumn music.

I put together an autumn playlist on Spotify: Düsterer Abend. Tracklist:

Deru – Next Door
Seefeel – Is It now?
Massive Attack – Special Cases
Bombay Dub Orchestra – Egypt by Air
Massive Attack – Future Proof
Portishead – We Carry On
Dinosauruxia – Safe (MISF*TS Remix)
Orbital – Petrol
Blamstrain – Linja
UNKLE – Caged Bird (feat. Katrina Ford)
Rinneradio – Kaikissa kaikkea
Portishead – Machine Gun
Disjecta – Bad Day for Wasps
Terry Callier – Sunset Boulevard
Seefeel – Come Alive (Climatic Phase No. 1)
Burial – Forgive

Picture: Lochinvar @ Flickr

Settling down

Aaahhh, it’s mid-October and I’ve finally moved to my Kreuzberg-flat :) It’s cosy, wonderful view, great location and it’s warm with central heating! G’bye 15°C bathroom, won’t miss you.

The moving itself was somewhat arduous, phew. I didn’t want to spend my money on a taxi, since I was in any case going twice to the Kreuzberg-flat; on Thursday to pick up the keys etc., and then on Friday I could really move in. So I figured I might just as well drag along my belongings. So on Thursday, I loaded my bike with two 29″ bike wheels, two large(ish) bags and my spare bed, aka a gigantic airbed, and with my backpack fully packed I begun my journey through Berlin leading my wheeled load. Of course I didn’t walk or ride the whole 10 km, but used the S- and U-Bahns. Luckily all three stations (S-Schönhauser Allee, S/U-Gesundbrunnen and U-Kottbusser Tor) had lifts, so I didn’t have to drag the whole lot down or up stairs, that would have been a torturous experience. Though I have to admit, I almost thought about it anyway, because waiting for the lifts was very frustrating :D Patience is definitely not one of my strengths, at least not when I’m trying to get things done or get from a place to another, then I(’d) want everything to be quick and efficient!

I received quite a good deal of puzzled looks with my moving load, haha. I’d like to think they were looks of awe and admiration, but probably they were just feeling sorry for me or at least thought I was losing my mind. Very many helpful hands were offered :) But well, comparing to that I would have dragged all that stuff just with my two hands, I would have needed a second round. So I’m actually a bit proud of my bike-moving-idea! And the effort surely paid off, now I’m in my new flat and won’t have to move anywhere until May <3

Mid-October also means that the six-week German course has come to an end. I can’t quite understand how time flies so incredibly fast?! “Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana.” The language course really has been very, very helpful, although it has required a whole lot of work. Well, maybe these two things are related... :) But in any case, it’s really encouraging to notice I’ve actually made some progress, especially with my spoken German and vocabulary. It still is a far cry from fluent, and especially when I’m tired I still tend to freeze. But at least I am better understood than six weeks ago, and also I understand better; I can follow TV programmes or films and understand pretty much everything. But I still suck :D But I believe it does me good to really suck at something, and still have to try to cope and get better. It’s quite humbling.

A weird thing related to the process of language learning is that my French has totally degraded. It's really weird, German and French are somehow in the same category in my brain, which is strange since my French is a lot stronger than my German. Or was, at least. Now when I try to speak French, I really have no guarantees whatsoever that I'll actually speak French?! I use German words and even sentences without even noticing (or at least noticing it when I've already blurted it out, and it thus is already too late), and when trying to think of the correct French words, all I can think of are German. Wtf...

Mid-October also means that next week, the academic year starts. I’ve got quite interesting courses ahead: a seminar in social/labour market/economic policy, a couple of courses in environmental policy, a course about politics of memory (i.e., political history), and then a German course. I’ll actually be able to get quite a good deal credited in Helsinki, so also my master degree studies are advancing here :)

I guess everyone recognises the slightly frustrated longing for a change from time to time, a boredom with everything being always the same. But I must say, more than the acute change with all the new things, I like more the phase thereafter, when things aren’t all new and strange to the point of intimidation. It’s exciting but very tiring, and I do, however, need some sort of routine and familiarity in order to feel... well, I guess “safe” or “comfortable” are somewhat the right words. It’s quite a perfect balance: life is not (yet?) in a boring rut, but has a freshness along with a nice familiarity to it :) A long story short: life’s good <3

Temporary residence and music enthusiasm

Greetings from Prenzlauer Berg! I moved last weekend, as my flat in Kreuzberg won't be available until 15 October. It's a really nice place, near S/U Schönhauser Allee. What sucks is that it has coal heating, meaning it's preeetty cold. Or well, I guess I could heat it as much as I want, but I don't have the heart for it as the amount of coal needed seems so immense :F. Thank goodness for warm socks and peppermint tea!

Another downside is that there isn't any Internet connection (actually I'm writing this at the university, so the greetings from P-Berg are remote), which theoretically isn't a problem, cause I bought an Internet prepaid-stick for a month. The problem was that I didn't choose the right prepaid-mode, and it charged me by minute, so I used my whole prepaid during Monday evening :D Well, now I know better, and luckily the pack came with five free days, so I guess I'll just have to get along with them. (However, some blame I do pass on to Saturn, where I got partial and confusing instructions, to say the least. And it wasn't the first but the third time.)

I briefly expressed my satisfaction with Moderat's gig last Tuesday. It was held at Volksbühne, where I had never been before. At first it didn't seem it would have any chance of success, as we found out to our great devastation that there were only seats, no dancefloor whatsoever! During the warm-up act (Shed from Ostgut Ton) everyone was still sitting and the atmosphere was quite lame (although Shed's live was good, no complaints there).

But by golly, when Moderat started playing, it was five seconds and everyone was standing up, and eventually it was one hell of a gig! Everyone was dancing despite those stupid chair rows and we even ended up dancing on the stage :D <3 True Volksbühne (= stage of the people)!

Next Friday it's skweee day! Prkl! macht Skweeertisch #2 @ Raum20! With Mesak, Joxaren, Karl Marx Stadt, Roko and Naks. S(kw)ee you there :)

Also other sssssuper stuff coming up. Like FLYING LOTUS!!!!! at Maria am Ostbahnhof on 22 October. Like, you know, oh em geeeee, I'm maybe gonna faint. Flying Lotus was absolutely mindblowingly good at Flow Festival 2008. I'm SO gonna be there.

On 31 Oct Yeasayer is playing at Maria! The same day Mulatu Astatke & the Heliocentrics would be playing at Volksbühne though... Hard decisions ahead, in other words. Luckily I've still got nearly a month to decide. :)

Now I've had enough of sitting in the computer lab for today, so until next time. Ta-ta!

Cutting through the red tape (part 1)

There, I did it! Finally the post I've promised to write!

But first I'll quickly tell you a bit more about my to-be flat. As I mentioned earlier, it's situated between U-Kotti and U-Prinzenstraße, which will shorten my way to the university a tiny bit. Although the neighbourhood isn't the most hip & coolest like e.g. Graefekiez in the neighbourhood of Graefestraße (also in Berlin, maybe about a km from where I'll be living), which is super popular, it's location is excellent. Public transport is near and plenty, Kottbusser Tor and Oranienstraße with their numerous Turkish markets, bars and restaurants and such are just around the corner, but far enough to keep it calm and nice. I have a lovely park view, which can also be admired from the balcony (!). Central heating, and according to the woman whose place it is, the flat is very warm even in winter, aahh! The building itself is exceptionally ugly and high, I think it's got ten storeys or something. And a lift, quite a modern one even! Practically no houses have lifts here, and if they do, they're so old and unsteady (and slow) that you'd just better take the stairs. I for my part am very glad to have a lift from the 20th century, for I'll be living on the eighth floor, and the washing machines, which are in common use, are on the attic :D It's huuuuge, 39 m², nicely furnished, and has enough place in the kitchen for a humane cooking experience! I just can't wait to move in :)

So, enough of that and let's proceed, or maybe precede? to the process of renting a flat in Berlin. University enrolment was also one hell of a bureaucracy process, but I'll dedicate a post of its own to that.

There.
Picture: DBR62 @ Flickr

Most of the people in Berlin live in rental flats, meaning that for the most part flats aren't owned or given for long-term lease by private persons. Instead that is taken care of by a Hausverwaltung, which literally translates into house administration or something. They are (numerous) companies, ranging from small family businesses to huge, posh companies on Kudamm, that at the same time are housing companies, housing agencies and house managing/maintenance agencies. They normally own numerous flats in many different houses around the city, and thus aren't like the very locally operating housing companies or house managing/maintenance agencies e.g. in Finland.

If you're renting a flat just for a fixed period as a subtenant from a private person, you'll probably get away with the whole flat renting thing relatively easily. You necessarily won't be needing more papers and certificates than a nice personality (or at least the ability to give that impression) and a sublease contract. You might find a flat thats (nicely) furnished, maybe even with a washing machine, fridge, stove, oven, sink and such.

"Yeah, okay. Furnished is luxury, washing machine isn't something necessarily found in every rental flat, fridge... stove... what?" That's right. Often flats are rented just with their walls, and all the rest is the lessees problem. Well, maybe there are a couple of windows here and there, some flats have a sink, and maybe a floor and a bathroom that need some redoing. On the lessees expense. With a contract obliging the lessee. So don't expect to walk into a ready-to-live-in flat, you'll be doing some serious shopping for very basic domestic appliances to a start.

Or well, actually that isn't the start, since you'd of course have to had gone through the rental appliance process. With Hausverwaltungs, you won't be doing anything with a pretty face, since you won't be even meeting them during the process, as it is the current lessee whose responsibility it is to find candidates to be the following lessee. But don't bother to put immense effort on impressing him/her, for he/she won't be making the decision, just shows the flat and forwards the PAPERS to the Hausverwaltung.

And the Hausverwaltung definitely does not care about anything but the papers. As a start, you'll need to fill in a form where you state that you are interested in the flat and fill in every possible information about yourself. Attached, a copy of your ID (passport or such) and evidence of your incomes for the past three months. You will also want your former landlord or -lady to fill in a form that you have no rental debts (Mietschuldenfreiheitsbescheinigung, don't you just love the language :D), you can find one e.g. here.

Then comes the tricky part. Almost without a doubt, the Hausverwaltung will want a SCHUFA-Auskunft, your German credit information certificate. To get one, you'll need a German bank account (I applied for my SCHUFA-Auskunft at the same time when I opened my bank account). To open a German bank account, you'll need to be registered as a Berlin citizen and have some sort of proof of what you're doing in Berlin (studying, working, else: what? etc.). To be registered as a citizen, you'll need an address in Berlin.

Well, the good news is that at least I wasn't asked for more papers at the Bürgeramt (the registry office) than my passport and my rental contract, and my temporary flat was just fine by them. And I didn't need to wait in some dodgy office for hours, but to my extreme surprise Berlin is totally 2058 and has an internet booking system! The first time available wasn't until in the next week, but I wasn't in a hurry so it was ok. The registration process itself took maybe 10 minutes or so, so that part wasn't especially torturous.

Summa summarum: if you're looking for a long-term flat in Berlin, I suggest you begin by renting a flat for 1–2 months. That's possible even from abroad, and you'll at least have some place to live in before you find The Flat. You'll also have the time to get all your papers in order and get to check the flats out yourself. And it's much more stress-free to be looking for a flat for e.g. a month, instead of a smothering "it would be great if I could find a flat in two-weeks-ago's time" timetable and living in a hostel.

Rents have gone up quite a bit, a couple of years ago it wasn't at all a utopian thought to find a studio flat in a nice area for 250–300 Euros, but nowadays 400 Euros isn't all that rare. There still are (unfurnished) flats for <300 Euros, but there are lot of applicants also. Well, compared to Helsinki the rents are still ridiculous (or rather it's the other way around), there rents for tiny studios start from almost 600 Euros... As probably everywhere, the bigger the flat, the cheaper it proportionally it is. Two-roomers' rents start from about 400–450. There are in theory two rental sums: the Kaltmiete ("Cold rent") is just the rent, whereas Warmmiete ("Warm rent") includes the Nebenkosten (side costs), which usually consists of heating and (warm) water costs, sometimes also gas and/or electricity. So check the Warmmiete for the actual rental costs.

A good site when looking for a flat is WG-Gesucht.de. I warmly recommend also putting in your own ad.

Phew! There you have it, a short (?) guide for flat renting in Berlin. Good luck! And, good night, and good weekend. I'll be spending the weekend moving to my temporary flat in Prenzlauer Berg and in Dresden. So until next week, ta-ta!