Frohe Weihnachten, Guten Rutsch im Neues Jahr

My first German Chrissie and New Years.


I spent Christmas Eve nervously baking a pavlova which I thought failed miserably but went down enormously well with everyone. The problem? No cream of tartar. So it just went flat. But if you don't mention it, it still tastes delicious.

The pavlova in its various stages of completion. Notice the promising texture in the left frame and the disappointing result post-oven. Nothing that whipped cream and fruit can't fix, however.

Went to a traditional German Christmas dinner at my friend Simone's house. Heiligabend is the first day (night) of Christmas. There are three of them. A bit like Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and Boxing Day.

The meal involved tomato soup, savoury muffins, spinach and cheese pastry thingies (Blätterteigtaschen mit Spinat-Käse-Füllung), Frikadellen (meatballs with fetta inside) and of course, a really delicious Kartoffelsalat (Potato Salad). After the mean, Baumkuche (cake.... oooohhh.... cake covered with chocolate.... even better) and hot drinks and it sort of turned into a party.

Christmas Day I decided to have a get together for some of my friends who would normally be chilling out with their families. The invitation said it started from 10 - not that I expected anyone close to then, but I had expected a daytime contingent. The Heiligabend had gone until about 7 however, so until about 3:30 we were a group of 3. Good in some respects - we ate all the good food :) From 3-6ish it was a merry group of about 6ppl, and then all of a sudden the floodgates opened and more people arrived, many of whom I had never met. God bless the ex-pat community. They came bearing mostly beer and potato chips (God bless the Americans :-)) and stayed until about 11pm when I kicked them all out. We did watch a cheesy 80's America Thanksgiving related movie with Steve Martin called Planes Tranes and Automobiles which was quite good.

This influx of people caused a small drama what with an impending dinner engagement I had thought I would be able to attend that night. Never mind. I will now know that when you put 10am on an invite, you should expect people at least 6 hours later. So my next daytime event will be starting at 2am.

I have seen many a Christmas market since arriving in Germany. I think my favourite is the Gendarmenmarkt, it is the most beautiful and atmospheric. Here are some shots of the delightful delicacies at the Christmas markets. 

Sharone and I were lucky enough to catch a New Year's concert at a gorgeous church in Berlin. It's quite famous because it was bombed in WW2, so one of the towers is still standing in its splendour, and then they've rebuilt another part of it in a more modern way, with blue stained glass panels across every wall. It's stunning.


The orchestra wasn't bad - they did some CP Bach which I liked a lot, and two Mozart Sinfonie.

Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, Ku'Damm

We also found a 3EU50 cocktail place walking distance from my house. Oh boy.

NEUES JAHR. Started off with a Persian Restaurant in Kreuzberg, as selected by the ever so talented restaurant finder among my friend in Berlin. Persian food is fantastic. Was joined by Sharone, John, Erica and Mahmoud. We then thought we would brave the crowds at Brandenburg Tor. We didn't get overly close to the ACTUAL party - about 300m from the gate they'd blocked off the entrance because they had reached capacity. But we stood Unter den Linden on Unter Den Linden (we stood Under the Trees on Under the Trees Street) and watched kilometres of professional and amateur fireworks with a relatively peaceful group of people (I say peaceful and I mean cooperative, rather than in a "how's the serenity" kind of way.) The only rogues were a group of guys from... Perth. Surprise surprise.

The trip home on public transport was ... interesting... we were packed in like sardines and couldn't move, but it was only 2 stops, and really, when you think about it, BVG successfully transported approximately 1 million people into and out of the city. That's no mean feat.

The crowds at Hallesches Tor waiting for our train... random ppl pashing too I've just noticed!

In the last few days I've been in tourist mode with Sharone. We don't have much luck with museums - they have all tended to be closed by the time we get there, because we are in the middle of a spate of public holidays (or they just decide to close). We tried twice to see the Reichstadt with no luck - the line was incredible. We tried to see the Topography of Terror but it was closed - saw it from the outside. That's the Gestapo bunker and it happens to be behind the last remaining bit of the Berlin wall. 

We did manage to see the Checkpoint Charlie and the Wall museum. Today we're hitting the East Side Gallery.

Guten Rutsch im Neues Jahr!!

Fleen xo