New Parents, a Small Baby and a Van - the Tale of James Brexit
Berlin, Germany - 287 kms (from Hannover)
Total mileage - 1962.6 kms
New mileage - 242,349.8 kms
Jade
Berlin is where our camper dream started (or for Jimmi reignited) last summer when we flew out to meet our friend Red who was selling his beloved Frank to raise money to follow his amore back to Canada.
They had met whilst Red was touring Europe and had made Frank their first home together. This van has seen a lot of love in it’s lifetime! We spent two and a half weeks driving Frankie boy home which really gave us the bug and got us very excited for this trip.
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| Red - previous owner and lover of Frank |
Anywho, I digress. Jimmi has been to Berlin many times and has a good friend who lives in Kreuzberg, an area that used to be known for its artists and ‘guest workers’ as they were called... Turkish immigrants who were essentially invited to do work that Berliners didn’t want to do, but often not granted German Citizenship. We spent quite a bit of time with him and he told us stories of his life - I’ll let Jimmi take over here.
Jimmi
My turn to digress somewhat as I think it provides some context to our love of this amazing city.
I first met Alex when I came to support old friends of mine who are in a band called the Hussy Hicks in 2007 at Berlin Guitars, a cool guitar shop that empties the middle of the shop and puts out church stall style seating and becomes a live music venue at night.
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| Berlin Guitars - with Julz Parker |
Alex, a German man originally from Frankfurt but lived in Berlin since the early 70’s and in his mid fifties at the time, asked if he could plug is DAT recorder into the mixing desk to record our sets - something he often did with touring bands we later found out.
We caught up with Alex after the gig, and asked if we needed somewhere to stay. Our plan was for me and the two girls into their ex-Royal Mail postal van called Ruby they’d bought a few weeks earlier in London. A mattress in the back essentially. We kindly took him up on his offer.
We followed the eccentric German in convoy while he motored along the autobahn on his Vespa at a top speed of 50 km/hr until we reached his place in Kreuzberg. He had a spare apartment that he used to store all his stuff, which was like a museum of technology, with dot matrix printers dating back to the early 80’s and thousands of CDs. Turned out Alex and 6 of his friends squatted in the entire 5 story apartment block in the 80’s and never left.
Since then the girls and I have been back to visit him several times, and he’s even set up his own live music venue by invitation only to his basement that he has had over 100 travelling bands and artists to play - in his own words “It’s so bloody fucking hard for musicians in Berlin - so I want to help how I can.” Kreuzberg is right where the wall was in a ‘sheltered' part of the former West Berlin before it came down in 1989, where he tells an amazing story of the moment he walked through it for the first time. Just one of many of his life in Berlin. Alex is one of the kindest and most interesting people I’ve ever had the pleasure of meeting, and I’ll treasure friendship with this wonderful man forever.
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| The amazing Alex sans shirt - he calls Séamus 'Kleiner Schtinker' |
Jade
Our first day in Berlin was mein geburtstag! 31 years young. I was 22 when I first met Jimmi - just a baby. He’s had the pleasure of seeing me blossom into a mature (ahem) woman, lucky him! He found an incredible place for brekkie called Mauna Kea Frühstückscafé, our fave meal of the day. Séamus treated us to a long nap we got to really relax and enjoy each other's company, a rarity these days!
We also visited the Topographie Des Terrors, where you can follow a timeline of events that led to the second world war. Hitler really was very crafty, I can see why the Germans were taken by him and then when he became more extreme and obvious what his plans were it was too late; he’d already installed emergency laws and powers that forbid people to challenge the government. We especially liked that it was very candid, and honest representation of the events. In no way had they tried to not give a real account of the events, as we've found that war museums can be biased toward its own national interests or version of the events.
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| Surreal picture of SS officers celebrating some down time in a concentration camp |
After a few beers and obligatory bratwurst we tried to make our way home. The bloody S Bahn was running a replacement rail service only we couldn’t figure it out so 3 hours later we arrived home, frazzled and over tired. The public transport out foxed us a few times in Berlin, we were surprised at how difficult it was to move around, after living in London for so long we thought we were seasoned city dwellers! There is often lack of information available or people to talk to in the stations so our advice is to really research your journey before leaving camp.
The food in Berlin is worth a note. Obviously you can get your typical clichéd German fare but here you can also feel the influence of immigration. Asian, Turkish, Mexican, Italian, you name it, and cheap too. We may have had four doner kebaps (not a typo!). Don’t judge, they were de-lish! The Vietnamese place that Jimmi and the girls have been going to for years though in Kreuzberg called ‘DUC THAM Quan’ is particularly special and incredibly cheap. Really reminded us of the beautiful pho we had everywhere in Vietnam.
On a recommendation from our Alex we went on a boat tour that circled the centre of Berlin. If the weather is good, then this is such a great way to see Berlin. Lasting up to 3.5 hours, the ‘Bridge Tour’ as it is known is great - we did Reederei Riedl tour, who have been in operation for decades. However, all the commentary was in German so maybe check for an English one. To be honest we weren’t bothered as we relaxed, had some Hefe-Weizens and enjoyed the beautiful and sometimes gritty Berlin scenery.
Séamus has been a little legend in Berlin. His colic seems to have disappeared and his reflux is under control. He’s also decided that he’d like to sleep for 8 consecutive hours during the night followed by another nap after a quick feed. Yes, I am in to this! What we have found though is that he doesn’t like to be out too late, he’s obviously not a night owl like his mam.
On our last day Jimmi got all his gear together and went out busking, mamas gotta eat right?! And by eat I mean drink Aperol Spritz! I’ll let Jimmi tell you about the experience but I’d like to share a little moment with you first. Séamie and I went out to Ostkreuz station to see Jimmi play. He was stood along the walkway to the station facing an open piece of wasteland with a street on the far side. Now I know he had been a little nervous about playing so it was good to see him really getting into it and the positive reaction of the commuters. Many turned back to put money in his case. After a few songs I decided to take Séamie for a walk over to the street on the far side. Jimmi had just started playing Revolution by Tracy Chapman. From where I stood I could see a small crowd gathering and I felt the pride, admiration and awe swell up inside me. It takes a lot of balls to stand up and sing in an unknown place in front of strangers. I hope Séamus one day looks back at this and is inspired by his Dad to do something outside of his comfort zone and live life! What a role model for our son.
Click this link to see a video of Jimmi busking in Berlin on Facebook playing 'Miracle with Eyes' about Séamus
Jimmi
We absolutely love Berlin, and there is so much to do and the place just oozes vibes. It’s also cheap compared with other European capital cities - including other German cities. I’ve been so many times, and always see or learn something mind blowing. It’s so rich in history obviously, albeit much of it troubled, but also the recent artistic history as well. You can grab a beer and drink it anywhere, and anything seems to go. Easily one of my favourite cities in the world, and appreciate we’ve only scratched the surface with it on this blog. I definitely recommend doing a tour of Berlin, whether it be walking, by bike with a Berliner or by boat. But don't do a bus tour, they're terrible and you'll get no real sense of this incredible city. Already I can’t wait to go back again.
Observation: Germans are absolutely perplexed and somewhat (by somewhat I mean very) amused by Brexit, so if visiting be ready to talk about it. They cannot understand why the UK would want to leave the EU….neither can we but this isn’t the time for politics!
One lovely, older German man in the campsite was enamoured with our Séamie. The day after meeting him, he got on his bike (his motorhome was parked just 100m away from our van) rode over to us and exclaimed “I’ve got it, I will call your son James Brexit! Hahaha!” He promptly turned his bike around and returned to his motorhome. (For those of you who don’t know Séamus is gaelic for James, and is pronounced Shay-mus, Séamie = Jimmi.)
Observation: There is an air of right wing, UKIP-esk movement going on in Germany right now. Seems like the UK isn’t the only place where politicians are scaremongering people into believing that foreigners are to blame for everything. Pretty scary place for it to be developing though with it’s history.
Breastfeeding tolerance: Whip ‘em out the Germans say! I really do like German culture, very liberal (Jimmi constantly had his wang out), especially in Berlin, on it with environmental issues and so far all the ones I’ve met have a great sense of humour. If the Germans made bread like the French I could see myself living there, they need to get over rye bread man.
Campsite - the choices for such a big city are limited for camping, and in fact we stayed in a Stellplatz which is essentially a motorhome stop with showers It had some grass for tents but the gates stayed open all night so not overly secure. However, ‘Koepernicker-hof’ Stellplatz was a short S Bahn ride into Kreuzberg (apart from the replacement bus service) and was 15 euros a night. One of the burger vans that was stored on site randomly caught on fire which was dramatic! See video below.
Next stop - Kraków!
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