Shortly before my surgery I spent a lovely couple of days in Berlin with ![[profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
oedipamaas84. I arrived fairly late on the Friday and we spent a little while catching up on the slightly shocking two and a half years since we'd see each other then headed to bed. On Saturday I was up bright and early for Parkrun. This was my last but one opportunity to hit sub-20 before the operation, and the Berlin course is pretty flat so I decided to shoot for it rather than be more conservative and then try to push harder the final week. Unfortunately, in typical wildeabandon manner, I had forgotton my barcode so couldn't get a time. My watch had me coming in very close indeed, and when I checked the results the people on either side of me were at 19.57 and 20.03! I think though that I was closer to the person behind me, so not quite there, but boding pretty well for the following week on a slightly flatter course with a bit more training.
After Parkrun I ran back to the flat for a shower, before we went out for breakfast. The rest of the day was quite touristy. We walked along the remaining section of wall and saw the artworks there, then to the Schwules Museum. This was primarily for "Rainbox Arcade: A queer history of video games", but they had two other exhbitions, both of which I found interesting. The first was a selection of Krzysztof Jung drawings. Jung was a Polish artist in the latter half of the 20th century, so given then environment he was creating in, I was surprised by how explicitly pornographic some of them were. I really really loved his St Sebastian series - inspired by the Derek Jarman film, which I now have a copy of waiting for me to watch. Secondly, "Objects of Desire" was a series of objects donated by sex workers with stories about how they related to their work. There was also a short talk in English, by one of the lead curators (who is herself a sex worker), about her approach and some of her favourite pieces. I liked the variety of voices, and the mixture of fairly obviously connected to much more mundane items. It felt very real, and engaged in some good discussion of the impact of the new law supposedly protecting sex workers by requiring them to register.
Rainbow Arcade was interesting, but would have worked better as a book, as it was mostly just text - there were some exhibits of playable games, but most of them were busy, and felt that if I started playing I would have wanted to spend more time on them than I really had to spare. It did make me want to do some gaming again, and I have now put some particular games into my to-do list, which ought to mean that I will actually get round to them.
In the late afternoon we had a bit of time to kill with no particular plans, so went back to hang out at Dan's for a bit, then realising we were getting peckish went out in search of cake, which we found at the Ramones museum of all places. Once suitably cake-enabled we went for a drink in a queer bar that felt somehow very familiar, but a sort of place that I haven't been to in a long time. We had some really good conversations about life and spirituality and identity that gave me some really important food for thought that I'm still chewing over now. Then we had a late dinner at a Georgian restaurant. One of the options was a sharing feast, where they brought you lots of different dishes to try, which is one of my favourite ways of eating. We really enjoyed the starters - cheese filled bread, with four different pate-like dishes, and amazing aubergine, plus a salad with a lovely walnut pesto dressing. The mains didn't quite match up, although that might have partly because because the generous starter portions mean we were already approaching full. Still decent though - a pork kebab cooked very well, extremely garlicy chicken, and herby chipped potatoes. Also a bean dish that I wasn't very taken with because I'm just not that keen on beans, but did have good length of flavour. Pudding was interesting, which is good, but had odd textures that I didn't much care for. There was good ice-cream though, with more walnuts.
On Sunday morning I had a bit more of a lie in, then went to church. I'd looked to see whether there were any English language services, but they were all quite a long way away, so instead we went to the Roman Catholic church just round the corner. There's something quite comforting about participating in a deeply familiar ritual in an language you barely understand a word of. I joined in quietly in English for most of the congregational bits, and just prayed as I let the words wash over me during the sermon. I got a wonderful sense of the universiality of the community we share in Christ.
After Mass I went for a long run, which was absolutely blissful. Sometimes going for a run is a real slog, most of the time it's a bit of a chore to get started, but becomes fairly pleasant once you get going, and then sometimes you just get these moments where the weather is perfect - bright sunshine, with just enough breeze to keep you cool without slowing you down, light streaming through greenery, another runner with a nice arse just in front of you helping you keep pace, rock and roll blaring in your ears, and for a while you're not running, you're flying. Once I got back to the flat and got showered and changed we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to see Metropolis, with the soundtrack played by a live orchestra. I enjoyed it lots - I struggled a bit to make sense of it, because although it's a silent film, it does rely on the intertitle text, which was of course in German, but Dan filled me in on some of the key points, and confirmed that the third act didn't make much sense even with the words. It was very visually interesting though, and I enjoyed the music. From the film we went in search of dinner, which we found at an Ethiopian restaurant on our way back to Dan's. It was pretty good - not quite up to Adulis in Brixton, but still one of my favourite cuisines, and a good reminder that I haven't cooked any of it in far too long.
After dinner it was home and bed, and then an early start back to London in the morning. It was a splendid weekend all round, and I'm pleased with myself for thinking of putting our next weekend together in the diary before I left, so we won't accidentally leave it so long without seeing one another again.
oedipamaas84. I arrived fairly late on the Friday and we spent a little while catching up on the slightly shocking two and a half years since we'd see each other then headed to bed. On Saturday I was up bright and early for Parkrun. This was my last but one opportunity to hit sub-20 before the operation, and the Berlin course is pretty flat so I decided to shoot for it rather than be more conservative and then try to push harder the final week. Unfortunately, in typical wildeabandon manner, I had forgotton my barcode so couldn't get a time. My watch had me coming in very close indeed, and when I checked the results the people on either side of me were at 19.57 and 20.03! I think though that I was closer to the person behind me, so not quite there, but boding pretty well for the following week on a slightly flatter course with a bit more training.After Parkrun I ran back to the flat for a shower, before we went out for breakfast. The rest of the day was quite touristy. We walked along the remaining section of wall and saw the artworks there, then to the Schwules Museum. This was primarily for "Rainbox Arcade: A queer history of video games", but they had two other exhbitions, both of which I found interesting. The first was a selection of Krzysztof Jung drawings. Jung was a Polish artist in the latter half of the 20th century, so given then environment he was creating in, I was surprised by how explicitly pornographic some of them were. I really really loved his St Sebastian series - inspired by the Derek Jarman film, which I now have a copy of waiting for me to watch. Secondly, "Objects of Desire" was a series of objects donated by sex workers with stories about how they related to their work. There was also a short talk in English, by one of the lead curators (who is herself a sex worker), about her approach and some of her favourite pieces. I liked the variety of voices, and the mixture of fairly obviously connected to much more mundane items. It felt very real, and engaged in some good discussion of the impact of the new law supposedly protecting sex workers by requiring them to register.
Rainbow Arcade was interesting, but would have worked better as a book, as it was mostly just text - there were some exhibits of playable games, but most of them were busy, and felt that if I started playing I would have wanted to spend more time on them than I really had to spare. It did make me want to do some gaming again, and I have now put some particular games into my to-do list, which ought to mean that I will actually get round to them.
In the late afternoon we had a bit of time to kill with no particular plans, so went back to hang out at Dan's for a bit, then realising we were getting peckish went out in search of cake, which we found at the Ramones museum of all places. Once suitably cake-enabled we went for a drink in a queer bar that felt somehow very familiar, but a sort of place that I haven't been to in a long time. We had some really good conversations about life and spirituality and identity that gave me some really important food for thought that I'm still chewing over now. Then we had a late dinner at a Georgian restaurant. One of the options was a sharing feast, where they brought you lots of different dishes to try, which is one of my favourite ways of eating. We really enjoyed the starters - cheese filled bread, with four different pate-like dishes, and amazing aubergine, plus a salad with a lovely walnut pesto dressing. The mains didn't quite match up, although that might have partly because because the generous starter portions mean we were already approaching full. Still decent though - a pork kebab cooked very well, extremely garlicy chicken, and herby chipped potatoes. Also a bean dish that I wasn't very taken with because I'm just not that keen on beans, but did have good length of flavour. Pudding was interesting, which is good, but had odd textures that I didn't much care for. There was good ice-cream though, with more walnuts.
On Sunday morning I had a bit more of a lie in, then went to church. I'd looked to see whether there were any English language services, but they were all quite a long way away, so instead we went to the Roman Catholic church just round the corner. There's something quite comforting about participating in a deeply familiar ritual in an language you barely understand a word of. I joined in quietly in English for most of the congregational bits, and just prayed as I let the words wash over me during the sermon. I got a wonderful sense of the universiality of the community we share in Christ.
After Mass I went for a long run, which was absolutely blissful. Sometimes going for a run is a real slog, most of the time it's a bit of a chore to get started, but becomes fairly pleasant once you get going, and then sometimes you just get these moments where the weather is perfect - bright sunshine, with just enough breeze to keep you cool without slowing you down, light streaming through greenery, another runner with a nice arse just in front of you helping you keep pace, rock and roll blaring in your ears, and for a while you're not running, you're flying. Once I got back to the flat and got showered and changed we grabbed a quick lunch and then went to see Metropolis, with the soundtrack played by a live orchestra. I enjoyed it lots - I struggled a bit to make sense of it, because although it's a silent film, it does rely on the intertitle text, which was of course in German, but Dan filled me in on some of the key points, and confirmed that the third act didn't make much sense even with the words. It was very visually interesting though, and I enjoyed the music. From the film we went in search of dinner, which we found at an Ethiopian restaurant on our way back to Dan's. It was pretty good - not quite up to Adulis in Brixton, but still one of my favourite cuisines, and a good reminder that I haven't cooked any of it in far too long.
After dinner it was home and bed, and then an early start back to London in the morning. It was a splendid weekend all round, and I'm pleased with myself for thinking of putting our next weekend together in the diary before I left, so we won't accidentally leave it so long without seeing one another again.
