Tag Archives: Berlin

As Spotted in Berlin

Journaling Life Abroad

So I haven’t taken a single photo since we got back to Berlin. I guess, sometimes, you live life by capturing it, moment by moment, like butterflies in a net. And sometimes, you live it by participating – the greatest gesture of affection is to simply be.

Since our return a week ago, we’ve gone on long walks through the park, got our Asian food fix at Monsieur Vuong’s, went on a 4-hour hunt for Thai food hunt to make coconut soup, curry & yum nuea at home (with a rhubarb crumble for dessert!), went clubbing in Kreuzberg, ziplining, had a writing date, joined in the party at Karnivale de Kulture, saw Men in Black 3, took a boat tour, made friends with a prominent Iranian, and…today, we’re doing laundry.

Photo by hubby, Toby Keller

One thing, I definitely have to hand it to Berlin, for the variety of bars & clubs they have. On Friday night, we went to one situated in and around some abandoned buildings right on the waterfront. It was such an eclectic mix of graffiti art and comfy couches, party lighting and river views. We got there early (and by early, I mean we arrived a little after midnight). Most people didn’t show up until about 1 or 2 a.m. (when bars would normally close in CA), and the party really began to heat up around 3:30. We started to tire out soon after that, such old married fogies as we are, so we left a little before 4 a.m., just as the sun began to light the sky. There was still a long line of people to get into the club as we were leaving. We had to catch the subway back home so it was nearly 5 and the sun was actually up by the time we stumbled in.

Sunday was the Karnivale de Kulture, a parade of sorts celebrating different nations and other cultural things, like swing dancing and hula hooping. The part of the parade we saw wasn’t totally exciting. It was clear that the Karnivale was basically an excuse for a party in the streets.

Photo by T.

Lucky for us, Toby’s cousin Susi lives in Kreuzberg, right near the parade and she and her flatmates were having a party that day. They invited us over and we could sip mojitos and beer while watching the party from above.

Photo by T.

And tonight we have tickets to see the Blue Man Group. I’m very excited. Toby has seen them before, performing in New York, but this will be my first time. Other than that, we’ll try to keep things a little more low key through the rest of the week and enjoy our remaining days here.

We fly back to Thailand on Saturday night…and it’s going to be evil. Pure evil. Our flight leaves just after midnight on Sat. night/Sun. morning and arrives in Moscow at 5:30 a.m., where we will then have a FOURTEEN HOUR layover. I don’t even remember what time we’re supposed to get to Bangkok, but then we will still have to hop on another flight to get back to Chiang Mai.

(Today, I shall be downloading plenty of books for my Kindle and make sure my iPod is fully charged.)

But then we will see Dot!!!! God, I miss that mutt.

Anyway, that’s what’s up from over here. If we were really meeting for coffee, this is probably the moment where I’d realize I’d been talking way too much and my cappuccino has grown cold, and then I’d turn the floor over to you. Tell me, what’s going on in your part of the world? I am, as they say, all ears.

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A New Way of Seeing

Around the dinner table, during coffee breaks, on long garden walks, and over hot kitchen stoves, we’ve been talking. Here we meet in Berlin, Toby and I and his parents, all transplants from sunny southern California, now living in Asia and Europe. And repeatedly the conversation turns back to comparisons: how convenient life was in the States while here it takes hours to get any errand accomplished; the greater access to culture and history and ease of travel in Europe; the unparalleled food and low cost of living in Thailand; transparency on one side, polarized politics on the other; to-die-for fashions and dreamy weather juxtaposed against injustices and stilted freedoms.

We see America differently from having lived abroad, now appreciating some things we used to take for granted, yet also taking taking advantage of other things we previously could not access.

This trip to Germany is not my first, but I’m getting the sense it will be a first. It’s my first time coming here after living in Asia. Where once, from the perspective of a flight from LAX to Tegelhof, stepping on German soil felt exotic and foreign, now it feels comfortingly familiar – so much so I’m often caught by surprise by the fact that I don’t speak the language and that I have to re-learn basic things like how much to tip and to stop smiling so much at strangers.

And this trip to Europe will actually be my longest stay in Europe yet. Instead of just popping by, I’m getting an opportunity to truly immerse. You orient yourself differently when you know you will be in a place for just a few days versus several weeks. It’s a different way of traveling; a different way to be.

Henry Miller once said, “One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.”

I wonder whether and how a month in Eastern Europe will change my way of seeing. Already I begin to sense the addition of more cultural milieus into my thoughts, awareness, and orientation. I begin to sense that the more you’ve been everywhere, the less you begin to fit in anywhere.

But that’s okay. If the world is a book, I’d prefer to read the whole story, not just one page.

“Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take,
but by the moments that take our breath away.” 
- Author Unknown

What moments stole your breath away this week? 

Each Thursday, we come together to celebrate living life with intention by capturing a glimmer of the bigger picture through a simple moment. Have you found yourself in such a moment lately? Share it with us! 

Live. Capture. Share. Encourage.
This week we’re linking up at Sarah’s!

As Spotted en Route to Berlin

Journalling Life Abroad

Is it true that travel vacations are kind of like dreams in the sense that we are never so interested in other people’s as we are in our own? Well I’ll try to make this interesting anyway. That photo up there was taken as we were flying over Kabul. As soon as I saw it on the flight monitor that we were flying over the capitol of Afghanistan, I whipped out my phone camera, because hey…we were over Afghanistan. How often does one get a chance to say they’re flying over a freakin’ war zone – and, you know, not be dodging bullets?

Most of the country looked like an endless sea of brown, but right there? It was gorgeous with the Hindu Kush mountain range (a subrange of the Himalayas) extending out into the horizon, dotted by white clouds.

Now, I say it’s the Hindu Kush mountain range as if I know what I’m talking about, but I totally had to wikipedia that. My knowledge of world geography is shameful and humiliating. There were two whole countries (Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan) between Afghanistan and Russia that I could not recall the names of – other than to say they were a couple of “Stans.” And as we flew over Khazakstan, I thought it was Mongolia.

But, after a 10-hour flight, we landed in Moscow, which incidentally is remarkably swampy and flat (who knew?)…

…and, desperate for drinks, we grabbed some sodas and a beer at…TGI Friday’s.

The world is strange. But thankfully they took credit because we didn’t pack any rubles.

Anyway, after a 4-hour layover and another 2-hour jaunt, we made it to Berlin – another home away from home. Berlin is just so comfortably western and familiar to me that sometimes I totally forget I’m in a foreign country until I remember that I can’t speak the language and there’s that awkward moment where a salesclerk is looking at me expecting me to say something to them and I give them a feeble smile and they wonder who this dope is that’s just staring and smiling at them. Yeah, that happens often.

Lucky for me, Toby can do the talking.

So far, it’s been a busy vacation though, because every day we’ve gotten up, grabbed some coffee and croissants (with prosciutto and gruyere, or liverwurst, or fresh jam) and hit up at least two museums in one portion of the day, took a break for lunch (asparagus soup is my favorite), and then taken long walks around lakes, or in vast, cultivated castle gardens.

There was one day though, where Toby and his younger sister wanted to go to the computer game history museum. I took the opportunity to go shopping instead.

And oh, the fashion in Berlin is awesome. I could easily spend all my money there.

(I discovered a new photo filter, so please pardon my excitement as I overuse it.)

I’ve been very glad for the long walks, though, because it gives me a chance to work off the prosciutto and gruyere (and marzipan). And yesterday, we went to one castle garden modeled after English gardens, so I spend the afternoon pretending quite convincingly that I was in a Jane Austen novel.

But Toby can always be counted upon to bring things closer to home.

All right, I’m sure I’ve long abused my visit by now. Thanks for stopping by for coffee and a chat. There’s a cappuccino with my name on it. What are you drinking? Tell me what’s going on in your part of the world!

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