The next weekend, as spring was starting to show up on the balcony and Manja still limping a fair bit, we headed over to view a flat in Spandau. It was not looking too bad at all! Just one small issue – it has a large pine tree next to the building and one of the branches is above the balcony. The current tenants were telling EVERYONE that the owners refused to take down the branch and that this was the reason they were moving. It seemed a bit to far-fetched to me, and I think that we would consider the flat if the branch were removed, so we put in an application.
It was the weekend of “Superbooth”, a world-famous Synthesizer conference in Berlin, and Stefan had come to Berlin for it. Synthesizers are sort of his thing: He builds hardware and software versions professionally as a freelancer. Really it’s a festival of electrical engineering creating all sorts of digital modulation for music, speech and all sorts of sound. The place was fantastic, and Stefan was an excellent guide. We had a great time learning about things which I knew nothing about, and I can totally see how people get fascinated by this topic. Eventually it came time to leave and we headed over for some dinner at an asian place before we split ways.
Sunday evening we all met up again, this time at Katrin and Kilians place for dinner and boardgames…. and Jägermeister, because Stefan brought a bottle to drink. We settled on an escape room in a box, which I had unfortunately played before but which was seriously difficult, so I sat back and provided “wise sage” advice to help the group along when they started to get stuck. It’s surprisingly fun to just watch the game 🙂
In the following week we were surprised when they offered us the flat, and things suddenly got real. In talking about it at length we realised that we live very comfortably where we are now, and that the lack of space really isn’t affecting us as much as we expected. Plus the flat is very central and not too pricey. Given this we decided that we would go back to Spandau on the weekend and walk about a bit more, which we did.
The next weekend would be our first step in preparing for Costa-Rica: getting immunised! We headed over to the Tropeninstitut to get jabbed. Of course, I have no idea what immunisations I HAVE had and which I didn’t, so I went in saying “Hey, just immunise me for the stuff we need for Costa Rica, which I didn’t need in Nepal”… Turns out it’s not quite so simple and so the doctor on duty suggested that I get some bloodworm done with my GP to determine if I need further jabs. Fiiiine. Manja, being an organised German, had her Immunisation booklet with her and was immediately jabbed with the relevant jabs.
Being all immunised-up, we headed down to a street party where a friend of Manjas was performing with his band. The party was basically the neighbourhood getting together and various shops and clubs having stands and selling things. We grabbed some food while we waited for the performance to start, and checked out all the stalls once. One of my favourites: Rubber duck racing for kids. The performance was pretty good – they performed their own songs on a street corner, and plenty of people stopped to watch them play.
Sunday we relaxed, but also used the excellent weather to spend some time in the park, where Manja played with her new hand-held metal detector… Finding plenty of beer caps :D. After this we decided on some ice-cream at a local ice-cream parlour
On Wednesday we tested the idea of living in Spandau. I caught the train after work and so did Manja, meeting at the flat we were considering. Turns out living here would be entirely possible, so we went to a local pizzaria to chat about it and consider our options. The nice thing about this place would be that we would have waaay more space and could have people over anytime. And we could get all my stuff sent over! The not so nice thing is that it was about €1000 more a month than we pay at the moment – which is not because it’s super expensive, but rather because our current flat is super cheap. Where we are is very central (15 minutes by bike to our workplaces and 15 minutes by bike into the CBD) and has loads of trendy restaurants.
In the end we decided on visiting the real-estat agent and have a conversation about the branch. If they are willing to remove it, or put in the contract that they would if it bothers us, then we take the place. If not, we don’t and we stay where we are and take more active advantage of the cullinary options – speak restaurants – and hire a storage unit to store my stuff locally.
The next day Manja called them and we got an appointment for lunchtime on Friday. So on Friday we met for lunch at the Königliche Gartenakademie, which was close to the realestate agents, and headed over to speak to them after having some food. The lady seemed nice, but she “only just took over” this property and “would have to get herself across” the “potential issues with the branch”.
Saturday we headed over to meet up with Tina and Stefan to go to a concert in an old farmhouse outside of Berlin, where an American band was playing. They even had some Alpacas on display for people to get to know these awesome animals. The Barn/farmhouse which the band was playing in reminded me of a LARP group in a big way: The whole thing had a distinct King Arthur Theme about it – massive round table and backdrop included!
The following Tuesday we got the reply from the realestate agent, which basically said that they “confirmed the previous tennant had issues with the branch” but offered no solution to this problem or mention anything even slightly solution oriented. We quickly decided that we did not want to have to deal with such an unresponsive agent and would just stay where we are. In conversation we agreed that we would invest in a kitchen too, because this was the only real painpoint about the small flat we have :).
That week I also got a letter from my Parents, which I was not allowed to open.
On the weekend, after an awesome Egg/salmon/Rocket/Avocado breakfast, we went off to vote (my first time in Europe!) before hitting the shops to try and find me a summer jacket. Something to wear in Spring or Autumn. We found something but it wasn’t fantastic, so we decided against buying the first thing we saw. In the afternoon we headed over to Ilkas place to celebrate her birthday in the garden.
The following Wednesday it was time to head off to Manjas festival – aka Immergut Festival – which is a three-day music festival across three stages in the middle of a forest in Brandenburg. Most people camp while there, and Manja had volunteered the last 10 years. Given her broken foot this year, the organisers were kind enough to give her backstage access, including parking and we rented out a holiday home for the three days. This time Manja had to drive, because my license hadn’t been approved yet and I could only drive on the international permit for 3 months 🙁
We arrived in the afternoon and started by making lunch, before heading over to the festival. We explored the whole area and Manja showed me backstage. This first night is still quite relaxed and not too full, so we checked out all the sights and activities early. We watched a couple of bands before heading back into “town” and walking along the sea in search for some dinner. Along the way we found this abandoned looking building with a sign saying “Paradise”, which I though was very funny. Given that we had a big lunch, Manja chose a smaller sweet dinner while I decided on a burger. Full of food we headed back for the evening bands before calling it a night.
On day two we started slowly by spending some time at the local lake and having breakfast (we had the beach area almost all to ourselves, win!). We would have wandered along the forest a bit more, but didn’t want to strain Manjas foot more than we had to. Toward noon we drove back to go into the festival and check out the afternoon bands, and on the way we found this old “Mental Hospital” called Domjuech, which is now being maintained and slowly restored by a local club. Unfortunately it was closed this weekend, but there are tours available. Next time we’re in the area I’m keen to check it out! Back at the festival we watched a couple of Bands before heading to town to explore the palace gardens and grab dinner, before heading back for the evening set.
On Saturday we had a lazy breakfast before picking up Ivo from the trainstation just before lunch. We headed over to get his tickets and had lunch in town before spending the afternoon listening to Bands and relaxing at the Festival and checking out the hammock collection. We walked past one stall which had cardboard boxes one could sit on, properly reinforced as super-light stools. Manja managed to get permission to borrow on to give her foot a bit of a rest. As the afternoon gave way to night, Ivo already had to head off. We dropped him off at the trainstation and enjoyed the sunset over the sea. We headed back to see the main act for the night, and enjoy the festival atmosphere. We may have even used the photo-booth to make some silly pictures.
Eventually we returned home, tired but happy.
Sunday was time for our return. We left quite early in an attempt to avoid some of the traffic, deciding to drop by Ilkas new workplace, the Forsthaus at Schloss Sommerswalde to have brunch instead. The place is quite pretty, we really enjoyed the food and the scenery. We had some more time with the car in the afternoon, so we decided to check out the touristy “Spargelhof Kremmen“, which was great. Amongst a lot of animals, we also saw a traditional horse-drawn-post-coach!
Eventually we drove home and I dropped off the car, after which we dropped into bed exhausted from an awesome weekend. And just like that, it was June already.
Leave a Reply