For the bleary-eyed … Delayed Berlin weekend write-up. 24th of June, 2008 POST·MERIDIEM 05:14

A quote that made me smile:

“Remember that sleep is our natural state in which we were first created, and we only wake to feed our dreams.”

Anyway, news; my cousin M. came over to visit with three of her friends the weekend before last, and it was excellent; good conversation, beer, laughing, and doing lots of tourist stuff that I hadn’t got round to. Among which:

Borchardt, restaurant, Französischestr. 47. The place has a reputation and history as a good but expensive place to eat, something which the food certainly lived up to. All five of us had excellent food—it tended to be a conservative selection, nothing smacking of Thailand or India, but excellently prepared and tasting amazing. The service, though, was bad. They didn’t confirm our reservation, just guided us to seats despite that we’d given the wrong name, the food arrived quickly, but we were sitting around for ages waiting to pay, and the waiter counted the cash at the table at the end.

White Trash Food, Schönhauser Allee 6-7. This place has menus that swear at you and ridiculously attentive and cheerful staff. I had a burrito, which I liked, and several beers; everyone else liked their food too, and it was a small fraction of what Borchardt cost a day later. This is the sort of place to go to regularly, and I intend to start, hah.

Tadschikische Teestube, Am Festungsgraben 1 (in the Palais). This Tajik tea house has a huge selection of various styles of tea, with agreeable, cosy furnishings (cushions to sit on, low tables, lots of carpets, no shoes), and good prices. We ended up sharing a samovar with lots of sweets, biscuits, jam in the tea, and shots of some very good vodka. A great way to spend an afternoon.

Russendisko, Kaffee Burger, Torstr. 60. This is Wladimir Kaminer’s club night, with former-USSR music and a packed venue. Beer and cocktails were cheap, and the clientele were actually pretty cosmopolitan. I had actually been to the events a couple of times before—I remembered after seeing the 3m tall relief of a Soviet soldier’s face between the bar and the club floor, as one does—and it seems to be lots of fun on a regular basis.

Word of the day: la sartén is Spanish for “frying pan.”