Send The Bugger Back

I did indeed head back over to ‘Hoolywood’ though it wasn’t great really. There are quite a lot of these English terrace fashion inspired shops on the continent and some are excellent with bargains galore, this one had it’s own Hoolywood bumbags though so I’ll say no more.

Amongst the dross there was some good clobber but while not really over priced it was no cheaper or rarer than stuff back home. I did see that Fred Perry shirt that I spent pretty much my last few bucks on in New York, it was €75 (about £65) so I now feel vindicated in getting it for about £25 Stateside.

Alas I did not leave without a purchase though. I’m trying to cut out any extravagance on this trip to save funds for future trips but I have probaby come away a touch light on tops to wear so was on the lookout for somet decent but cheap. In the sale section of the shop there was a Ben Shernan skinny fit polo that fitted both me and the bill, it was about 30 quid. Fair play to that brand, after years of some very banal or down-right horrific gear (granted, they have always had some good threads) they have started putting out nice stuff under their new logo.

Right, now we’ve got fashion weekly out of the way let’s talk Berlin. There were a couple of other East Berlin districts (Kreuzberg and Friedrichshain) Pekka had said were worth looking up that were next to each other and also the East Side Gallery (which was still on my hit list) was in one of them. So that’s where I took myself off to next.

As I wouldn’t get much opportunity to eat tonight (with the flight and that) I decided to stock up at lunch and stopped at a little Italian cafe called ‘La Romantica’ near the Schlesisches Tor U-Bahn stop. I opted for the spaghetti alla marinara (shrimp, prawns, tuna, mussels, tomatoes and garlic) washed down with a bit of Berliner pilsner. The spaghetti was great value at only €4.60 for a very generous portion. Job done.

Then it was over to The East Side Gallery, it’s a 1.3 kilometre stretch of the Berlin Wall running along side the River Spree which has been left standing as a memorial. It’s covered in thought provoking paintings by lots of international artists and makes for a very interesting sight. If you go to Berlin it should be high on the list.

After that I walked through Kreuzberg which seemed a really cool area with lots of trendy bars, cafes etc but I didn’t have any time for anything but a quick walk through. I managed to get some replacement iPhone earphones (complete with remote) for 10 Euros (not sure how long they’ll last!) from a little dodgy electronics shop, just as well as I’m getting quite the pile up of podcasts.

My last visit was to the Topography of Terror which is an open air exhibition (while the permanent housing is being built for it) located on top of the former Gestapo and SS headquarters. It was very grim as you’d expect. Unfortunately I had to abandon this half way through as time was getting a little tight to make my flight. I had hoped to make it to the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche as well but it wasn’t to be.

I’ve seen some good stuff today but it’s all been a bit rushed, 1 more day would have been perfect.

I’m about 2 and a half weeks in to this trip and as yet I haven’t purchased a single tram, tube, underground etc. ticket. Pekka informed me that in nearly a year in Brussels with daily use of the metro he’d not encoutered a single inspector so I certainly wasn’t going to bother then and I’ve continued in the same fashion in Deutschland. The penalty in most of Europe is about 40 Euros so I reckon in the unlikely event I do get collared, I’ll still be well up overall. This strategy shall continue as and when possible.

My pal Topi is in Tallinn at the moment interviewing Kaka, Robinho, Daniel Alves and friends prior to their International friendly game with Estonia (how cool is that!). I’m not sure how long he is there for but it’s only about 3 hours away from Riga on the bus, still that’s a 6 hour round trip which would mean I wouldn’t get to see much of Latvia so it’s a non starter really. I would have definetely been up for it if I’d not already been to Tallinn (with Topster funnily enough) but with limited time and money (or limited time because of money) I’m making sure every place is somewhere previously unventured by myself.

So I liked Berlin a lot and would have liked to sample the alternative night life that I’ve heard is great, but I didn’t fancy it on my sen so that’s one for a return trip.

To country number 4 we go.