And with that we got to August already. On the first weekend we decided to rent a car for the day and walk around a lake. We’d not spent a day at a lake yet and given that this is the thing that every Berliner does in summer, we definitely felt the need to head out at least once. We also checked out the area of Caputh, where we had looked at a house a while back.
The next day we chilled a bit and made apple-rhubarb crumble. Yum!
On Tuesday we headed out and saw yet another house. This one was in the outer northern suburbs of Berlin. The biggest drawback was that it was on a main road, and that it had the strangest lounge room. I eventually figured out that it used to be two odd-shaped rooms and they had just taken out a dividing wall. This resulted in a narrow middle part and two “deeper” sections which went around the corner either side somewhat. Hard to explain. Like this:
The brown line represents a sliding door, and the narrow part was about 2,5m wide. Either way, we decided against making an offer.
On Friday evening we were invited to Vincents place for a BBQ with some colleagues. We had a great night and Manja got to meet some of the people I work with, which was nice too. My home-made dips may have had a little too much garlic though… Whoops!
On Saturday we headed off to Cottbus to meet up with Hagen and Kai, so that we could all go to Sophias Polterabend together.
What is a Polterabend? You ask, my international friends? Well, I’m glad you asked.
In German there is an old adage which says “Scherben bringen Glück” (“Shards bring luck”). As a little Side-note to this aside: Back when this adage became popular, shards referred to all pottery, not just broken pieces. Anyway, I digress from the digression. Back to the point.
To create lots of luck for the couple, and simultaneously send the evil spirits running (which is done with noise, obviously, hence bells and fireworks) the guests all bring some pottery, Porcelain or even masonry to smash with a simple premise: More noise & More Shards = More good.
Besides the breaking of things, it is also supposed to prepare the couple for working through tough times together – after all, they must clean it all. It’s the job of the guests to not make this too easy, many will walk right through the piles of shards which the couple has swept up, to spread it right out again. Or offer assistance, say with a broom, and use this to sweep the shards all over the place again. In Polterabend as in Marriage: Sometimes society just makes your life a bit harder 😁
Finally it’s important to note that you don’t get invited to a Polterabend. It’s for close friends and family only, and for every single person they can think of inviting. If you know of a Polterabend, says tradition, you are welcome to come. After all, more guests bring more shards, which brings more luck, right?
As the weather was still fantastic we decided to head over to Cottbus a little earlier to meet up with Hagen, Franzi and Kai. We had some light lunch in the form of pancakes at Franzis before heading over to a beautiful local lake. When we got there, ready to jump into the water to cool off before the Polterabend, we were disappointed. The lake is a Reservoir lake, and it was very recently partially drained – ostensibly it’s job but not ideal for the whole swimming thing. Some people had waded out about 100 m into the lake, and were still standing. The water wasn’t all that inviting either, as the remaining water was a bit sludge-like. So we cooled off our feet and walked around a bit before heading over to the Polterabend.
As you can imagine, a Polterabend with Corona restrictions is not exactly easy, but Christians Family hosted and did this really well. When you arrived you had to disinfect your hands and register your details (for contact tracing purposes) before coming in. They had setup the courtyard with benches and tables, which were disinfected every 2 hours and gave everyone plenty of space. When we got there we smashed some porcelain – we brought along some old espresso cups, which was all that fit into our luggage that day and wished the couple all the best. We were slightly outdone when a truck pulled up and dumped a literal truckload of ceramics including tiles, a toilet and such things!
After that we caught up with a few people we hadn’t seen in a while and a small group of us decided to go for a walk for a bit too. Along the way Carmen found a grasshopper and Kai a cat.
When we returned we sat down for dinner and caught up with Ruben, Manjas cousin who had recently returned from Singapore. We talked about all sorts of things, including work, career and international long-distance relationships, which he was just entering into. Eventually it came time to leave and Hagen dropped us off at the train station just in time for us to catch the last express train, so we made it back home by around 1 am, exhausted but happy.
On Sunday we headed to Ilkas place to take some photos of her loft, as Kais studies are likely to bring him to Berlin where he will need to find some accommodation. Katrin and Kilian also dropped by with the kids. We had some coffee and cake, and even found a cool looking spider. After my spider-photoshooting session, we had a really nice BBQ enjoying the warm summers night, during which I may or may not have taught the kids some magic. Oh, and we also picked some apples from Ilkas apple tree.
The following week we turned the aforementioned apples into apple sauce! Some we left plain, others we spiced with Cinnamon in preparation for wintery snacks!
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