Berlin and tidying

Berlin was great. It definitely ranks as one of the best trips I've ever had out there.

The flight out on Friday was fine, no problems at all. After the food poisoning I was still a bit tired and headachy and didn't have much of an appetite, but by Saturday I was fine. We got to the apartment for about 5pm, and didn't do too much that evening apart from find something to eat. We ended up going to a place on Frankurter Allee called Reichard's that Rob and I had been to before. It was proper German food and it was really good. I had gorgonzola gnocchi, which was great but Rob had probably a third of it as I didn't feel up to eating it all. Em played menu lottery and got the biggest ham shank I think I've ever seen.

The apartment was great in some ways, weird in others. The bedrooms and kitchen were OK but the bathrooms were very weird. The main bathroom was huge and looked great, but was fundamentally flawed in that it had two sinks and no toilet, and no blinds or frosted windows, so making it difficult to not expose yourself to the neighbours. The other bathroom was built into a really narrow space and laid out very oddly. It worked OK though, and the shower was awesome.

On Saturday we headed down to the Tempelhof expo for Rob and Andy to sign up for the race and get their numbers. It was a warm day, and it was incredibly busy - far busier than any of the times I've been to it before. The throngs of people and heat in the building itself made it fairly uncomfortable so once the numbers were secure we beat a hasty retreat and went back to the apartment. Rob and Andy spent the afternoon chilling out while Em and I went out for a walk. We ended up getting the train to the Tiergarten S-bahn station and walking back to Alexanderplatz, which was a good long walk. That evening we went to the beloved Fliegender Tisch. It's pretty popular now but the manager let us have a reserved table with the understanding we'd be off it by 20:00, which was fine. We had a good meal there and then went to a slightly crazy corner shop near the hotel we stayed at last time. It has a somewhat eclectic selection of alcohol and sweets.

Sunday was of course the half marathon. Em and I escorted Andy and Rob to the start at Strausberger Platz, and then set off to watch the race elsewhere. We saw the race start and the runners go past from the S-bahn platforms at Alexanderplatz, and then got the train to the Tiergarten. We arrived there just as we saw the leaders of the race go through, which was pretty impressive. Again we saw them from the elevated platform, which was a great view. After that we hung around and saw the field go through and saw Rob and Andy, which was good. Following that we tried to get the train to the Ku'damm but everyone else was doing the same, so we changed plans and went to Checkpoint Charlie. The field was more spread out by that point but we managed to spot Andy and Rob again.

After that we headed back to Strausberger Platz to meet them after the finish. They did it in 2:44, which was mainly down to the heat and conditions. The afternoon was spent resting before heading out to find some food. We'd heard of a steak/meat place in Prenzlauer Berg called Fleischlust, and we went there mainly because of the name. Fortunately it turned out to be very good and we all had really tasty burgers. Dessert consisted of ice cream from a place called Hokey Pokey down the road. I had the pistachio, and it was magnificant, probably the best ice cream I've ever had. It was €1.60 a scoop too, not bad!

Monday was intended to be a quiet day without much walking, but Andy and Rob were feeling better than they thought. We headed up to have a look at the DDR museum, but it looked a bit shit once you actually got there, so we got on a boat instead and had a trip on that. It was something I'd never done before, and it was interesting to see the city from that perspective. We even got a student discount becuase the commentary was only in German. It was done by two people, a woman at the start and then the man. I could follow a fair bit when she was talking but he spoke a lot quicker.

Following that we headed to the Hauptbahnhof and had currywurst for lunch, before heading across the river to find a place we'd spotted from the boat that had deckchairs. It turned out to be a riverside bar and had a good range of drinks and things. The others had beers while I had a non-alcoholic mocktail thing that turned out to be really nice. We spent a pleasant hour or so there before heading back to the apartment, as Rob's foot started to play up. The afternoon was spent chilling before we went out to find some food. We had decided to try and find the bar that we failed to find in 2005, which has a stock exchange system for the beer. The more expensive a beer is, the pricier it is. We got there and had some good food, but the stock exchange took a little getting used to.

On Tuesday we did separate things for much of the day. Rob and Em went to look at art galleries in Potsdamer Platz, while Andy and I went to the Berlin Zoo. I'd never been before, despite hearing good things, so it was good to see it. It had a really good range of exhibits, and one thing I found interesting was that nearly all the enclosures had moats rather than fences, meaning it felt much more open and nice. This lead to a close encounter with an ostrich, which was tall enough to look over the side at us as we sat on a bench. In the evening after a rest, we weren't sure what to do for food. Rob fancied Chinese, so I looked on Google Maps for Chinese restaurants and found a highly rated one called Tang's Kantine. A bit of a gamble but it paid off as the food was excellent.

On Wednesday we tidied up the apartment and left our bags in a locker in Alexanderplatz. We'd booked a visit to the Reichstag dome that day, but over the weekend I got an e-mail to say it had been cancelled. We went and had a look at the TV tower to see if it was busy, and it looked OK, so we got tickets. We had to wait about an hour but got up there fine. The day was pretty nice with only a bit of haze, so the views were pretty good. The restaurant had free tables so we briefly considered going there but the prices are high so we decided to leave that for another time.

At a bit of a loss for something to do in the afternoon, we got some picnicy food and spent an hour or so enjoying the sunshine on the Tempelhofer park, before it was finally time to retrieve the bags and head down to the airport. The flight back was uneventful, although the airport was ridiculously busy which made things a bit tedious. It's about time they sorted out the new airport as Shönefeld really is showing it's age.

Since we got back I've mainly been sorting out the ignition problem on the Santa Fe and tidying the house. I got a new key made up for it after getting the code from Hyundai, but while it did get the ignition to turn eventually, it still doesn't work properly. I've had to leave the new key in the ignition permanantly and use the old key to trigger the immobilier and lock the doors. Having to hold the old key next to the new one is annoying, and took a few goes to get right the first time. This somehow triggered the Check Engine light and threw it into limp mode. Fortunately disconnecting the battery for a few minutes cleared the code and put it back to normal.

On Thursday it's going in for a new ignition barrel. It means it will have separate keys for the doors and ignition but that's not the end of the world. Otherwise it's still going OK although the fuel consumption is absolutely horrendous.

The tidying up of the house is going OK. I've burnt a load of stuff and thrown away a hell of a lot more. It does feel strange though, this house has been my home for so long and to finally be preparing to leave it (if it sells of course) is something of a strange feeling. However it's probably something I should have done a long time ago. If only I hadn't been such a financial idiot for so long. Oh well. I'm in a reasonably positive state of mind about it all though.