New Years in Berlin

I'm always a fan of New Year's Eve.  Most folks think there is a lot of hype around the holiday, but I think it is an important one to observe.  Luckily, everyone and their brother in Berlin agrees with me and I was treated to one of my most memorable nights in the city.  I had been warned of the citywide celebrations on Silvester (or New Year's Eve) on many occasions during the time "between the years".  (A common German phrase regarding the period between Christmas and New Years).  Apparently, the local residents spend millions of Euros stockpiling powerful fireworks and then fire them off from every conceivable location at the stroke of midnight.

And so on the big night, Karen and I made our way through the city.  First we strolled down Unter den Linden to see the massive crowd partying at Brandenburger Tor, but the police barricades were a kilometer deep.  Fortunately, we were able to join some artist friends in the Northern part of the city called Wedding.  After a lovely meal where we wished each other einen guten Rutsch (a good slide) into the new year, our host rose to beat a large gong and ushered us, champagne in hand, to the balcony.  And as the church bells rang, the sky lit up with hundreds of huge explosions.  For over twenty minutes we stood in the cold, toasting each other and cheering on the colorful pyrotechnics launched in every direction including underneath us.  It was like a dozen 4th of July firework displays all at the same time.  We were amazed.

Like all good things, the celebrations slowly came to an end in the wee hours of the night and Karen and I tromped back through the bottles and burnt paper casing to eat our Berliner Pfannkuchen and get some rest.

~Kyle

Unter den Linden all lit up.

Ich bin ein Berliner.

A quiet Berlin Christmas

(Needless to say, we're a little behind here with the posting...New Year's resolution to recommit to the blog:)

As my job wrapped up and most of our friends headed home to visit family, Kyle and I settled in for a peaceful Christmas weekend. On Friday, we searched Berlin high and low for bagels for our favorite Christmas breakfast of bagels and lox. We finally got lucky at Barcomi’s, a bakery and deli opened by an American woman in the 90s. Next we headed to Kochhaus, a brilliant store that provides you with interesting recipes and sells you the exact amount of high quality ingredients you need to make them. We opted for some Guinea hens in a Madeira sauce for our Christmas Eve dinner.

On Christmas Eve we trekked through the rain to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church to hear a concert of Bach freshly arranged by a very energetic organist. The excellent acoustics in the 1960s addition to the church made for a dramatic experience.

Few people were out and about as we traveled through the city on Christmas weekend and Berlin was uncharacteristically quiet. Speaking with our German friends, we learned that Christmas Eve and the two days following are usually spent with family and center around meals together (hey, that sounds familiar!). Kyle and I were both missing family that weekend, but lucked out to have a very nice Christmas dinner with some American friends in Berlin. 

The alter in the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church on Christmas Eve

Prague

A few weeks ago Karen and I were able to spend a wonderful weekend in Prague.  We have heard from so many people that this was a must-see city and it's proximity to Berlin was almost too easy, so for my birthday we took a four hour train across the border to the Czech Republic. (Luckily, my passport was returned the night before we left after spending a month getting passed around the governmental visa departments.)  On advice from some friends, we booked a charming room at a small B&B called House at the Big Boot.  This family run hotel is in a perfect location and our balcony looked up to the Castle and various embassies.  Despite the sporadic rain all weekend, Karen and I wandered the curving cobblestone streets of Old town, toured the vast Prague Castle and it's many churches, drank fine Czech Pilsners and ate Trdelniks at the Christmas markets.  I fell in love with this magical city and enjoyed exploring the different neighborhoods.  The architecture of the city is a mash of Medieval and Modern with Gothic spires next to Cubist offices abutting Art Deco apartments and Art Nouveau cafes.  The main areas are best experienced on foot, so we logged many miles hunting for quirky sculptures from artist, David Cezny and visiting the former studio of pop-up master, Vojtech Kubasta.  To cap things off, on our final night we witnessed a bizarre adaptation of Faust performed by a local long-standing black light theater group.  This trip will truly remain one of the most memorable birthday gifts I have ever received.   Thank you Karen.