Trip to Berlin
21-28 oct. and Warszawa 28-29.
Döner. Omarito!
kitchen talk every day before sleep, with Southern Comfort, Balzam and Diesel.
Saturn, a new/old Tuxedomoon album with CD and DVD. Dussman: a Kurdish
Sprachführer and a new novel. Heilerde. Duncker, and yes I can dance, and I
did. Flohmarkt too crowded to be enjoyed. Indian restaurant (okay, Maharadscha
ist no real original name...) with plenty of food, a hot vindaloo. Xtrax.
Apotheke (Bullrich). Comicstore Grober Unfug (55 € more comics). Asia Laden –
hot Korean noodles, Indian and Korean and Japanese all kinda food for 50 €. A’
Màgica, superb, gorgeous, delicious ai formaggi pizza with Omar and Ieva’s
parents. Turkish market. Martial Arts store: bought a knuckled kubotan and 2
rattan sticks. A belt too. We discovered that Sudanese shawarma with haloumi
and makali and peanut butter sauce is one of the tastiest things on earth.
Balzac – like one year ago – before the Throwing Muses’ gig. So great! T-shirt
and 2 Anthology USB sticks. Talked to Kristin, which I did not when I saw her
in 1991-1992 at yet another Thowing Muses’ concert (also in Berlin! is it
destiny?) nor at her solo gig in Barcelona in 2000 (or so). Reminds me of
younger earlier times, when I talked to Beate Bartel (and she sent me postcards
afterwards), Kim Deal, the Noir Désir drummer (who proposed for eel (now
ScalinE) to play as the support band for their next concert), Nina Gordon
(Veruca Salt) (who then spoke French with me and invited me to have a drink), Steven
Brown (whom I gave a tape of Quelque Chose de Bleu, my first music project) and
Chan Marshall (whom I gave a tape of eel, and wouldn’t look me in the eyes
hiding behind her hair – as she then was used to do). Memorable. KaDeWe (they
do have Mountain Dew in Berlin, and Dr Pepper). Saturn again. KFC (no such
thing in Riga!). Ullrich. Ate a stomach soup for the very first time at a
Turkish restaurant – well, not sure I’ll try again, but it was worth it
nevertheless. A new diary at Dussman. Three more comics. No Pergamon (too
expensive). Persian restaurant Roya with the parents – maybe not as tasty as
Indian food (question of taste of course) but interesting since it was a first
time, plus I got to say a couple of sentences in Persian to the waiter, who replied
in Persian once too. Plus the restaurant is decorated by a Farvahar, like on my
left inner arm.
Italian
restaurant in Warsaw: I did miss you, spaghetti... Rarely slept as well as in
that (a little bit hard to find and isolate) hostel. My first visit of Warsaw, a
much more modern city (not a *town*!) offering a lot more, culturally and
culinarily, than Riga (bet kā savādāk?). It does motivate
me to restart learning Polish this year, and – maybe? – to move there next summer.
Bought two more language learning books with CDs, and four Polish movies.
Polski bus Berlin-Warszawa was so great a trip compared to the tiring
Warszawa-Riga........ Back in Riga, uploaded some of the pictures, organised
all the newly bought stuff in the cupboards, and this means back to TV shows
and translations too, as well as language learning, now with Polish added
(again) to Persian – any time left for Zazaki? And no good gigs till the next
trip.
Current Music: Marquis de Sade, Eyeless in Gaza, Tanit, Tuxedomoon