And 10 things that didn't make their own post

As I've been running round Berlin over the last five months, I've seen lots of things that say something about the way of life here. Some are significant and/or special to this city, like the wall or massive breakfasts on Sundays. And some are less so, but still give some idea about what it is like to live here. Most I've been able to catch on camera in some way and post about. But there are some that I haven't - and so here are 10 final things that I think makes Berlin brilliant and different.

1. Spielplätze. Every afternoon playgrounds across Berlin are filled to the brim with children and parents (mums and lots of dads). This is not only is this because the playgrounds are amazing - pirate ship climbing frames, trampolines and zip wires - but because since everyone lives in flats, these are people's gardens. And their communal nature is no bad thing for creating a proper neighbourhood atmosphere (well, in Friedrichshain at least) that many people elsewhere romanticise about where kids play together and neighbourhoods stop and chat.

2. Those weird pink tubes. According to the Pollems website, these tubes that wind across move groundwater around and away from buildings.

3. Spätis. Not only do these off-licenses have a pretty huge selection of beer and soft drinks (including about 7 types of coke, no monopoly here Coca Cola), they can double up as a cheap bar in the summer if you don't mind sitting outside on their benches and tables. Where else can you get a round for 70 cents per person? Perfect place to unwind when you get your Feierabend at 3am.

4. Ice cream. I remember spending all my pocket money on ice creams during a German school trip 15 years ago, and the love of ice cream has not diminished here. All summer long (and even now into autumn) there are huge queues outside ice cream parlours. Everyone says the one in Falkensteinstraße is the best, but my fave is Eispiraten on Grünberger Straße. Two scoops for a euro!

5. Broken and empty bottles. You have to watch you put your feet/ride your bike on Saturday and Sunday mornings to avoid the broken beer bottles that pretty much litter the streets. The homeless bottle collectors do a good job at weekends, and council street cleaners in the week (as my four year old brother put it 'they've cleaned up the party'), but they never get it all.

6. Pong. They love a bit of table tennis here, and have a couple of tables in every decent neighbourhood park or square. Good thing about it is you can play even if you're complete crap - but just watch out for the regulars who might challenge you to a game only to scare you off. Man in white cap in Travelplatz did this to us.

7. Rain. This summer has been a bit of a washout at times. But while there has been some drizzle, mostly when the rain comes, it pours. Which means you are often cycling along at 100 miles an hour, looking over your shoulder, and trying to make it home before the big, black thundercloud unleashes its shower over you. If you do, you can enjoy thunder, lightning and then double rainbows from the dry. If not, drowned rat sums you up.

8. Swimming in the lake. There are tons of great lakes around Berlin that you can have a dip in. The bottom is a bit sludgy and squelchy in some, but once you get over it, they are great. You can choose tiny patches of bankside that are more secluded like Schlachtensee or the pine forested north bank of Müggelsee (you might have to walk round a bit to find a spot), nudist sections (FKK) of the main beaches if that's your thing, or the Badeschiff if you prefer a trendy-infused swimming pool over lake water. But for a lovely, open, sandy bottomed beach - its got to be Strandbad Wannsee.

9. Leisure time more generally. Maybe its because I'm not working full-time here, but I do get the impression that Berliners take their free time more seriously than Brits. Everyone wishes you a 'Schönen Feierabend' (literally celebration evening, or happy end of work) and there is tons of organised (e.g. climbing and parcour clubs), semi-organised (e.g. 32 urban beach bars, grill-boats to rent, flea-market kareoke and u-v crazy golf) and non-organised (picnics in the park) to do.

10. Helping out during house moves. I've already blogged about how flats come with literally just the kitchen sink and you have to deck them out with washing machine, wire the electricity and paint the floors/ceilings/walls. Well the nice thing is that whenever people move here, they invite their friends to help them out and take them out for some lunch/drinks afterwards. Pretty essential if you're moving from the second to the fifth floor across town - and Joe and I are slowly banking up some points for when we need some help to move out of our flat next year.

The Turkish Market and Landwehrkanal

I said right from the start that I did not move to Berlin because I was pushed away from a London that I could no longer bear. Quite the opposite. I was pulled by the attraction of doing something different which was just enough to tempt me away from the area of North-East London that I live in and love. So it is no surprise that I have ended up living pretty near an area that it pretty much Dalston's Berlin equivalent. Running or walking down the Landwehrkanal, which runs from the Spree in the east, through Kreuzberg to the Tiergarten and beyond, reminds me of the Lee Navigation that then turns off into the Hertford Union Canal as runs past Victoria Park towards Islington. There is a extremely strong Turkish community here, as there is in the strip of road between Dalston and Stoke Newington. Both sell great falafels, although the ones here are much more cinnamony. And there are concerned mumbles from the original community about the influx of young trendies to the area, especially Neukölln, pushing up rent prices and turning every second shop into the 'conceptual space'.

The canal is a pretty busy place. Pleasure boats go up and down it, joggers run alongside it, people relax by it, laying out on its banks in the afternoon sun, playing a game of pétanque just down from Glogauer Straße or mini golf by the inland harbour further along.

Every Tuesday and Friday, there is a huge Turkish market by Kottbusser Damm which sells fruit, veg, flowers, mounds upon mounds of feta cheese, olives, bread, dried fruits and baklava as well as fabrics, clothes, more types of buttons than I have seen in my life and handmade mustard (even whisky mustard). The real find though, that my Swedish friend introduced me to, is a guy selling Ghanaian food there. For 4 euros you can get a bowl of veg stew, beans, rice and cooked banana and some mind-alteringly hot sauce. Amazing.

While I'm on the subject of canals, if you're looking for an altogether different canal experience then you should give the Spreewald a try. Its an area of tiny waterways and canals about 100km south east of Berlin that were created when the land was irrigated. I spent the weekend there with friends, paddling around in the sunshine, past meadows with baby goats and cute little houses and places to stop off and get a beer. All very wholesome and wind and the willows.

 

Currywurst

Ok, so Currywurst might be on every tourist's to-do list, but locals eat it too! And contrary to what every Currywurst virgin I've met thinks, it is not made out of curried meat. Rather it is a normal sausage with either a very mildly curried tomato ketchup and curry powder, or tomato ketchup and curry powder.

It is pretty popular - according to Wiki, 800 million portions are served each year. It is a firm part of Berlin popular culture - and it has a book, song, film and museum (in Berlin) dedicated to it.

I was a total sceptic at first, but am now a complete convert. There is much debate about where serves the best Currywurst in Berlin. This Curryfenster in Lichtenberg unfortunately does not feature in any of the top ten lists, which are headed by Curry 36 in West Kreuzberg (Mehringdamm 36), and Konnopke's in Prenzlauerberg (Schönhauseralle 44) (the oldest one in town). You can pretty much find them anywhere, and if you're in a queue for a club, they can often come to you. Late at night, guys with a mobile grill worn as a rucksack, wander around the streets serving currywurst. It might not be the best, but at 4am, it works.

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Schrebergarten and DDR era housing estates

I've been wanting to post about Schrebergarten for ages. Although I've seen these collections of small gardens when I've been out and about, this is the first time I've come across them while running. They are a bit similar to allotments that we have in England and elsewhere, but they are a) nearer or in the city itself and b) not just about the veg.

Because the majority of people live in apartments, with or without balconies, some people also have a Schrebergarten where they can not only grow fruit and veg, but also just hang out out in the summer (and even stay overnight). And so the ones I've seen have loads of flowers, garden sheds, inflatable paddling pools and deck chairs. Apparently (according to my German teacher), they can get very bureaucratic, with precise measurements of how tall things can grow and what can be planted. But they look great to me, especially having run through southern Lichtenberg, which is made up of road after road of later DDR era housing estates.

 

I can see how planners in the 60s and 70s thought that this made sense - it feels logical, fair and practical. You have your flat to live in, your garden to relax in and amenities close by. But for me, it does miss something that makes it individual, organic and less, well, planned. Like this random hunting couple atop a brass hippo fountain that I passed as I came back under the bridge to Friedrichshain.

Recycling and fleamarkets

Running round the same suburban streets as earlier in the week. Normal people leading normal lives in an unremarkable sort of way. So seems sensible to write something about a very normal, and nearly everyday activity here - recycling. Germany is really into recycling. Lots of sources say they are the number one country for recycling in the world, with the average consumer recycling 76kg every year. There are laws that support it - in the early 90s a law was passed which meant that food and drink producers have to take back their packaging for recycling. And as even Lord Alan demonstrated this week, waste management is big business. In Germany, the sector makes 50 billion euros a year.

So what does it practically mean for you or me? Firstly you have to sort your household rubbish into bins for paper, food, glass, plastics which have a green 'recyclable' dot on them, and other. So you have to have lots of bins! Then you have to sort your glass. Brown, green and white can go into bins in the street - but not on Sunday - when it is against the law to make a loud noise. But you can also make some money out of it. Stores will buy back empty bottles - for about 8 euro cents each. After a good weekend that could mean nearly two euros! This hasn't passed some entrepreneurial types by. There are plenty of homeless people out and about on Friday and Saturday nights picking up the discarded bottles of trendy hipsters on their night out.

The recycling philosophy doesn't just stop at household waste. It feels very much like an engrained way of life here. There are tons of great flea markets across Berlin where you can pick up anything from antiques like 19th century globes, 1950s armchairs and 1930s radios, to more modern items such as shower heads, inline skates and even 1980s jumpsuits! There is a good, but bit pricey one on Boxhagener Platz every Sunday, a bigger more eclectic one at Mauerpark again on Sundays and my favourite in Treptower Park (Eichenstr 4) on Saturdays. There are no nice cafés and its a bit dirty (think I did see a rat) but its cheap, you can bargain and where else can you buy a collection of toilet wheelchairs?

Breakfast on the run

Bit of a bleak start today. In London one thing that would make me feel better as I walked from Westminster tube to where I worked was a pret latte and croissant. And while Starbucks and other chains seem to be confined to the more central and western districts of Mitte and Charlottenburg, Germans do go in for breakfast in a big way and here are tons of cafés and stalls selling all essential ingredients for a breakfast on the run. You can either pick up a pretty good value breakfast for 2.90€ or separately at stalls like these at Ostbahnhof station.

Main difference between here and England is that fruit makes a much more significant appearance in breakfasts than in our greasy spoons (if a tomato counts as fruit in your book). Particularly when you've got a bit more time on breakfast like on Sundays when loads of people go out for brunch. Favourite ones near me so far are Café Intimes (Boxhanger Str. 107 - review from brilliant blog on Berlin cafés) and Casero (Gabriel-Max Str. 18). Thought I had better throw in a photo by way of example! So impressed with breakfasts when we were here in 2004,  "Frühstück" became our word for great, much to the bewilderment of Germans on the S-Bahn as we called it out every time we saw something cool.