alternative Berlin

There are many great restaurants in Berlin and many not so great ones. After living here for almost 2 years now, I have singled out some of the best that I keep going back to again and again.. I recently came across a brilliant Indian restaurant in Charlottenburg. It’s called SATYAM.

One thing that Berlin has no shortage of is good Indian restaurants.. but this one thus far, has proven to be exceptional! I am a vegetarian or rather pescatarian as I occasionally eat fish. I also very much like the ideas behind Ayurvedism, so this place really suits me, but may not really be great for the carnivorous type as there is absolutely no meat on the menu. The entire menu is not only vegetarian, but also vegan! My partner actually found it and told me it was “insanely good”, but it wasn’t until I tried it myself that I found out just how insanely good it really is.

Also, the pricing is very fair indeed. The other day we went there and I had my usual favourite, the chickpea curry which is a starter, with a puffed up indian bread, shared between two, followed by an aubergine curry with rice. I could not even get through half of the main course and had to take a ‘doggy bag’ home to eat for lunch at work the following day. The chickpea curry is only €4.50 and I think it could make a more than adequate main course. The main courses are between €5.50 and €8.50, which is really inexpensive. Also, their glass red wine is pretty amazing..

I have already recommended this place to all my work colleagues and friends. It is extremely authentic- it even has a religious type indian shrine in the courtyard in the garden. The chef/ owner has come out almost every time we have been there and said, “Guten Appetit” and the service is pretty good. Give it a go.. you won’t be dissapointed.

For information and a peek at there menu, go to: www.mysatyam.de

Have you ever seen the car that drives around capturing footage of the streets for Google? Well, I have.. here is my proof.. car seen in Torstrasse, Berlin.

The cars drive around and capture footage for google street view, which then allows users to really zoom in to check out what is happening closely in many parts of the world.

I wondered how they captured all the stuff in such detail for google earth.. now I know. Google earth and street view are so awesome, from what I have seen from my little bit of dabbling on it! I never really have the time to spend much time on it though. But there are people out there who clearly have a lot more free time than me, or perhaps just can really get into this sort of thing. There is even a blog online for these people who have documented their findings on google earth as well as some crazy stuff captured on Google street view. Here are some examples of some of the wierdest and craziest stuff captured on Google street view..

Car covered in post-its

Guy with blowup doll on the streets of Paris

Used car kebab

WTF???

My personal funniest- We’ve found Waldo!! from “Where’s Waldo?”

And the there’s Horse Boy who has actually gathered some world acclaim from being seen on Google street view fairly frequently. He has appeared in Aberdeen, Scotland, and has generated considerable buzz and speculation by Internet users around the world who want to know just who horse boy is.

The BBC writes, “Dozens of BBC news website users have e-mailed from across Europe to say they know who horse boy is.” Some have even sent in photos of the mysterious “Horse-Boy.”

I will post another blog soon about sightings on Google Earth next.. till then..

Went to Yaam yesterday after Germany slaughtered Argentina. Actually, we watched the game in the courtyard of Cassiopeia- which we thought would be a good idea, but couldn’t see the screen as we were late and got the last places available. The glare from the sun did not allow us to see the screen, and the place was packed so we couldn’t edge any closer to see the screen. We watched the game, sort of, well, we knew what was happening just by watching the reactions of the on-lookers, but couldn’t actually ’see’ anything.

Anyway, we got out of there just as the game ended to avoid the crazy onslaught of fans.. from the street it was awesome, with people running wild, playing loud music, singing and yelling though loud speakers.. and not to mention all the wigs and outfits. The funniest thing that I saw were some guys in the street stopping the cars and trams with their massive German flag.. that was awesome.

But after that mayhem, we wanted to go somewhere for a quiet drink and there is no better place for that than YAAM (Young African Art Market) near S-bahn, Ostbahnhof. We could walk to YAAM, so we walked all the way along past the ‘Eastside Gallery’ and when we got there, we were relieved to enjoy a nice cold mango beer.

I love YAAM- I have never had a bad time there. For those that have not been there, YAAM, is a beach bar, but is different from most other beach bars in Berlin as it is also has volley ball courts, many bars, a club, sporting events, graffiti contests, a basketball court, hundreds of fabulous bands and DJs playing there, workshops, exhibitions, great music and amazing african/ Jamaican cuisine. What more could one ask for?

We wanted to eat some sweet potato fries there yesterday, and ended up eating 2 full plates of veg rice, with sweet potato and plantain chips, with an amazing bean sauce- YUM!! Absolutely LOVE YAAM food!! It also has a really laid back african/ jamaican vibe and it is a place where all cultures can mix together in one place next to the river. The staff there are also really friendly and we ended up having an interesting debate about life in Germany vs life in Africa and of course we dicussed current football game politics too.

YAAM (Young and African Arts Market) began in 1994 when activists of the creative fields music, arts and sports brought the deserted area and the former bus garage (now-Arena) back to life and introduced a new cultural context to this before unused location.

If you feel to have a chilled out summer day in Berlin, with great food and a great vibe- and if you wanno stay and party in the evening too, with excellent musicians from all around the world, then YAAM is definitely a Berlin summer destination of choice. Even in the winter there are also still things going on there too ,but relaxing with some sweet potato chips and a mango beer whilst watching some sport, live volley ball or some other exciting thing, just can’t be beaten.. go there!!

Alternative Berlin sometimes also run street art workshops for large groups/ student groups at YAAM – in these you can learn to make some of your own street art.. see www.alternativeberlin.com/streetart for more details.

Also see www.yaam.de for more details about YAAM.

Up north, in Berlin, we are not blessed with the greatest weather all year round, but when it is good, like today, I really appreciate that I live here and not somewhere else, like London, one rarely sees the sun and in some countries, like further up north from here, there is literally very little sun for 1 month only in some parts. At least here, we have clear skies and hot days like today. It is a perfect day in Berlin, with just a light breeze. The weather report says 25 degrees, but it seems hotter. Anyway, not to brag, but my man and I pay out of our asses to stay in an apartment with a roof garden in the centre of Berlin and it is so awesome on days like this. I was writing this blog whilst tanning on the roof, but I had to come downstairs to watch England vs. Germany.

So, we have blown up the pool again. We bought it for the summer last year. It served us well last year. It is just so nice to lie in when it is really hot and look over the Berlin skyline. Around this time last year , and about 3 days after we bought the pool, I was at work, when I heard a crazy storm brewing up. The thunder was so loud it souded as if we were actually in the thunder cloud. It was the craziest storm I have ever experienced.

The night before, husband and I had been sleeping in the pool as we did not yet have a hose pipe to fill the pool up and the weather was so great the night before that we thought that we would sleep beneath the stars. Before I left for work, I asked him to please take the bedding that was in the pool out in the morning. When I hard the crazy storm begin, I tried to Skype and phone him to remind him to take the bedding out of the pool. He didn’t answer for like 15 mins and then when he came back, he told me all about what had just unfolded with the pool.

When the wind picked up, husband heard a sudden ‘Swish’ sound coming from the roof, ran upstairs to find out what it was and found that the pool was gone.. clearly it had blown off the roof. So husband ran downstairs and could not see it anywhere. He saw no one but one guy sitting outside the african food store in our road. So he asked him, “Dude, have you seen a pool?” He stared blankly back at him and after a while replied.. “Ahh, yeh.. I did see a pool- it’s in there.” he said, pointing toward Kaffee burger- a famous bar in Berlin that has been around for bloody ages. And has seen even the likes of Madonna gracing it. (http://www.kaffeeburger.de)

So husband was like where? And the guy pointed him to the door of Kaffee Burger- as he opned the door- there was the pool, intact except for a few scratches, having a drink at the bar. I think the manager and staff were hoping to use it for a party coz they looked quite dissapointed when husband asked to have our pool back. He then lugged the entire 3×2M pool up the stairs by himself. I was pretty impressed.

So, this year, we decide to take the pool out again as the weather got much warmer again. So, we blew it up only to see that the bottom panel kept slowly deflating every time we blew it up.. we did the soap puncture test with no success- we found no puncture. Yet, it kept deflating. So we came to the conclusion that the air was escaping from the holes from which we blew up the pool.

Anyway, eventually we gave up and thought we would just make do with the 2 panels which still remained inflated. This held the water fine for about 2 days until one day husband was at home again and heard a rush of water which sounded like rain. When he went to see what was happening there was a wall of water gushing past out kitchen window. The phone rang a couple minutes later and it was the landlord concerned and checking that a pipe hadn’t burst.. It was the bloody pool again which had just collapsed.

It has been lying flat upstairs ever since with bricks on it, but today husband was adamant to revive it and used some tape and super glue to fix the punctures. He also glued the air hole together, so I guess this will be the last time we will be using the pool.. I tried to tell him not to bother as I think it will not last long, but he insisted that it was a waste if we don’t try to fix it. So it is upstairs now without water in it, looking rather battered.

I wonder what it will do next?

Came across a pretty cool exhibition the other day on Torstr. There seems to be quite a lot going on on Torstr. these days with clothing shops and new bars and cafes popping up every day at the moment..

There are quite a few art galleries that have opened too, one of them called the Panatom gallery..They are currently hosting an exhibition called Materials Utopia. I was walking home from a birthday party, where I stuffed myself with chocolate cake and smarties on Sat afternoon and from outside the exhibition looked quite interesting so I decided to pop in and have a quick look.

I was greeted by a friendly girl who instructed me on how I could take part in the exhibition. She advised me not to chew on the gum once I had put food colouring on it as she had done that and her mouth had remained blue for days. Handy tip

The idea is that you chew on some Amazonian Bio chewing gum and use your old gum to make a sculpture with which you then paint with colourful dust and food colouring. You can then exhibit your master piece amongst all the others on a pin in a large display shelf for all to see your master creations.

I wanted to catch the football game, but had 45 mins to spare, so created and painted myself an apple. It was pretty fun. I would recommend it. The artworks will be photographed and displayed on a website at the end of the exhibition. For more info go to: http://gallery.panatom.com/

I am sure you know by now what that annoying sound in the background of the football games- the constant buzz that sounds like the drone of a million bumble bees. Well, in case you don’t know, it is the Vuvuzela.. is a blowing horn, approximately one meter in length, commonly blown by fans at football matches in South Africa.

I am from South Africa,currently living in Berlin, a city which I also really love, for just over a year and a half now, and I have to admit that, although I never liked too many tourists in Cape Town, the city I am from, as it is a small harbour town in actuality and gets really cramped with too many people, I am pretty gutted to not be there right now as I have been watching all the videos on the internet and feeling like this is such a historical time in my home country and I am here, in Germany. I am not really complaining as I love it here too but I am a bit sad that I am not celebrating at home with my people that I grew up with for 28 years of my life.

Watch this video here to get a taste of what is happening there now… looks like so much fun!!

But, needless to say, Berlin has also proven to be very lively at this time too, as whenever a ‘Weltmeisterschaft’ (World Cup in German) is on, around the world we all suffer from World Cup fever together like a global epidemic sweeping the entire planet.

Crowds in South Africa have been blowing Vuvuzelas at matches since the early 1990s because they believe it intimidates opposing teams.

From the first to last whistle the ‘vuvu’ can clearly be heard as South African fans blow the €2.50 plastic trumpet to a constant and quite deafening rhythm.

The horn is regarded as their special weapon and the the three foot long horn – which gets its name from the ‘vuvu’ noise it makes – has this week greeted fans arriving in South Africa by planes, trains and automobiles.

The 3ft long, ‘vuvuzela’ is 127-decibels loud-louder than a chainsaw, noisier than a lawnmower and even more ear-splitting than a referee’s whistle – and it could damage your hearing in as little as 15 minutes.

Commentators and broadcasters at the games have complained of suffering from severe headaches after the barrage of noise from the vuvu had lasted more than four hours before, during and after the game.

Recent reports in South Africa told how scientific tests revealed that extended exposure to the vuvuzela could result in long term hearing loss.

This type of plastic horn or trumpet has been used in Mexican stadiums since the 1970s. Originally made out of tin, the vuvuzela became popular in South Africa in the 1990s. Well-known Kaizer Chiefs FC fan Freddie “Saddam” Maake claims to have invented the vuvuzela by adapting an aluminium version as early as 1965 from a bicycle horn after removing the black rubber to blow with his mouth. He later found it to be too short and joined a pipe to make it longer. Maake has photos of him in the 1970s and 1980s at local South African games and international games in 1992 and 1996 and at the 1998 World Cup in France, holding the aluminium vuvuzela. He says the instrument was banned as authorities ruled it a dangerous weapon, which prompted him to find a plastic company that could manufacture it.

Vuvuzelas have been said to be based on kudu horn instruments and thus rooted in African history, but this is disputed. During the last quarter of a match, supporters blow vuvuzelas frantically in an attempt to “kill off” their opponents.

A huge Vuvuzela has been placed on the highway that was never finished that I used to see practically every day while living there, in Cape Town’s CBD and near to a very popular tourist spot called ‘The Waterfront’..

It is said to sound off every time a goal is scored.

The ‘Vuvu’ may be deafening and annoying, but is an integral part of South African football culture.

Finally, the sun is out and Berlin really heats up in more ways than one, so Alternative Berlin will be right here by your side through the summer months, guiding you with cool info on exciting things to do with your outdoor months of warmth.. YAY!!

If you love movies and the outdoors as much as we do, what could be better than combining the two? There are three outdoor cinemas in Berlin, one in Kreuzberg and two in Freidrichschain, with one in the beautiful Volkspark. I may go and see ‘A Single man’ showing at the Kreuzberg one tomorrow night in English. Movies cost €6,50 and start every night at 21h30. Most of the movies are in German, but at the one in Kreuzberg there are movies in French, Italian and English too, with subtitles in other languages, so be sure to check this before you go..

See you there?

Check out www.freiluftkino-berlin.de for more info

Probably not the best to be thinking about on a Sat morning, or ever in fact, but I came across this museum and had to blog about it.. even though I feel a little ill while writing it at the mere thought of cockroaches, but never the less. I simply had to write about this as it is just too bizarre not to be mentioned.

Piano, Texas- Michael Bohdan, owner of the ‘Cockroach Hall of Fame’, an exterminator by trade, gives Autographs and wears a hat that has some dead hissing cockroaches on it- apparently he’ll let you wear it for photos.

The cockroaches Hall of Fame is home to dozens of displays of “roach art”. These displays of cockroaches consist of real (deceased) cockroaches that have been dressed in costumes to portray various themes. For example, as featured at right, an 85 year-old lady in Fort Worth dressed up a dead cockroach with a white mink cape and sat him at the keyboard of a tiny piano. She named him Liberoachi.

In addition to the “dead” cockroaches, Michael also displays Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches that are very much alive. These African Cockroaches are three to four inches long and nearly an inch thick. When you pick these cockroaches up, they hiss.

Personally, I would most likely give this museum a miss unless I randomly came across it whilst in Texas, which is quite unlikely, but you never know.. But in case anyone else would like to go, here are the directions.

Take I-75 north from dallas, Exit at the 15th street off-ramp. The museum is about 1.5 miles west at the northwest corner of Custer and 15th streets. It’s just a small glass door in a series of shopfronts labeled the “pest shop.”

I am sure it would be quite the sight and I hear that the owner, Michael, is quite a card.

I saw all this blue paint in Rosenthaler straße the other day and I thought it looked a bit strange and I wondered what happened and even asked my partner what he thought had happened.. he had no idea either.

There were lines of coloured paint everywhere and they looked as though a paint truck had had an accident and all the cars tyres were painting the streets after them as they drove through the paint with their tyres. I came across 2 videos though, which explain a bit more about exactly where the coloured paint marks came from.. If you watch the videos carefully you will see the person with the paint on a bicycle..

Watch another great video about it here:

I am quite sunburnt as I really took the opportunity to soak up the sun while it was around briefly on Sunday.. It’s been quite wierd without any planes in the sky due to the disrupting bloody Volcano- how inconsiderate of it- I used to see one land at Tegel from my rooftop every 20 minutes.. I did, however see one land today (Monday) just after 20h00 but that may have been a test flight.

Anyway, after tanning (or in my case, burning) at home for 2 hrs, we went down to Mauerpark as my mom is currently visiting from way over the seas and I wanted to show her a truly Berlin experience before she goes home. We have already covered almost all the main stream touristy stuff..

For those new to Berlin, Mauerpark is a very well known Fleamarket which happens every Sunday come rain, snow, or whatever das Wetter, and is a mix of not only cool, mostly inexpensive stuff and yummy food to buy, but also a mish mash of all that is Berlin- celebrities, coolsters, performance artists, circus performers, fire jugglers, dogs, art, cheap beers, drummers, kids, music and the list goes on- every ‘Typ’ comes out especially on a warm day like Sunday was. They all lull about on the grass, play sport, do trapeze art, juggle or whatever they feel really, as here, anything goes, in the true multi-faceted sense that Berlin is so well known and admired for.

Mauerpark has come a long way from it’s strong historical past as the Berlin wall and it’s ‘death strip’ used to run through this area. Now this history is a vague (though not forgotten) memory, as it is now home to such a vibrant, fun and peaceful flea market and entertainment area.

I have been there many times and occassionally sell some stuff at the flea market too, but I had never been to the all famous live karaoke session that I have heard so much about from so many people.

It was difficult to see what was going on as the entire crowd space infront of it was packed to the brim with people and we had difficulty seeing through the crowds, but when we did see people perform their chosen tracks, they were highly entertaining indeed. The best part about Karaoke is that one does not have to be a good singer to do it. In fact, the worse a singer is, the better they are for Karaoke. The performers were breaking loose to tracks from Backstreet boys, Michael Jackson, as always, and many other well known tracks that the whole crowd sang along to. Some b-boys flexed their awesome breakdance moves. But the best was after we had just gone to get some beers, and we came back for some more karaoke action, when we saw a woman do the track ‘Big Butts’ by Sir-Mix-a-Lot. She was so awesome!!- she did all the booty shaking moves and all.

The crowd there was really great and cheered wildy no matter how bad the brave performers were, so when they were good you can imagine how the crowd went crazy.. it was so great. The ‘Big Butts’ girl made them go mental!! I am so totally learning new tracks and gonno get my Karaoke on as soon as possible.. See you there?

for some more pictures we took of the Karaoke session and chillout last Sunday at Mauerpark click here