I'm going to be blunt. When I interviewed in Berlin a little over two years ago I didn't like the city. It was gray and cold and covered in graffiti.
I was wrong about this place.
Melanie and I arrived in Berlin on the 16th of September and we already love our new home! So what's different? Well, we've made two additional trips here, and enjoyed it more each time. Beyond that, we love our apartment and the area where we live! And the cherry on top is that we've had some really beautiful weather!
On my first day of work I got up early, nervous with excitement and anticipation. I got dressed, had a cup of coffee, kissed Melanie goodbye and headed out the door. Despite the brilliant sun rising over the buildings on the horizon, the air was crisp and clear. The first ten minutes of my journey were along the river Spree, which flows through the middle of Berlin. It was all so beautiful I couldn't wipe the smile off my face!
This was my view as I walked to work on my first day at Wooga
And this was my view walking home...
The front desk at Wooga
Puzzle Studio VP Matt Roberts welcomes me to the company (he waved when he saw me snapping a picture)
This is what I found when I got to my desk...
We've always loved the food here in Berlin, it's filling, hearty, and delicious. We visited our favorite beer garden the day we arrived, and then tried out a new place close to our apartment called: Brauhaus Georgbraeu.
This place sells a METER of beer (12 glasses) for 19 euros!
The food was good, too. This is a picture of my schnitzel.
On Friday night, as my first week came to a close, we walked a few blocks and stopped at a restaurant along the Spree called "Marinehaus". We sat outside, and as the sun set we sipped ice cold beer and I told Melanie about my week. In the distance we could see an elevated train taking people in and out of Berlin and we imagined them rushing home to their loved ones after a long day. It was cathartic and relaxing and the perfect end to my first week.
This has quickly became our favorite place to eat in Berlin
We love the warm wooden interior, with candles on every table
The interior feels like the inside of an old ship
The food arrived and it was, hands down, the best German food we've ever had. We both ordered something called Berliner Haxenpfanne. Translated, that is: Berlin-style pan roasted pork knuckle, black beer sauce, sauerkraut and roasted wild garlic dumplings, served from the oven. It's probably the best pork dish I've ever had.
Berliner Haxenpfanne, or roast pig knuckle. It was super delicious! (Not my picture.)
Curious about Marinehaus I looked up the history. The "Marine House" - popularly known as the "Admiralty" - was the seat of the old shipping authority around 1900. In 1918/19, the building, for a short time, housed the staff of the People's Navy Division, whose armed formations of revolutionary workers and soldiers fought alongside the Berlin proletariat from January to March 1918.
It was beautiful on Saturday so Melanie and I walked over to the river to watch the boats. It was peaceful, warm, we could hear wind rustling the trees (a rarity in Paris) and Melanie suddenly announced, "I really like Berlin!" I said, "Me too!"
I reached over to grab a snack and almost instantly 5 or 6 small birds landed at our feet and hopped up on the bench with us. Made me laugh. We're talking about how much we love Berlin and the city suddenly turns into a Disney cartoon for us!
We left Paris today. It was pretty sad. We got all of our stuff packed up and Melanie took the elevator down first. After I locked the door I reached out and put my hand on it for a long time. We're very excited about our new adventures in Berlin, but we will miss this place for sure.
We did pretty well on our "leaving Paris bucket list", only failing to tick a few items. Melanie and I went to the Moulin Rouge a few weeks before we left and, despite the storm, we had a great time! We enjoyed the spectacle of it all and -- despite many warnings to the contrary -- the food was actually very good! Definitely not the best meal we had in Paris but certainly not the worst either.
I found this picture online -- it was raining cats and dogs the night we were there
They don't allow pictures inside, so I found this image online as well
Melanie wasn't feeling well so I took a tour of the Palais Garnier by myself. It was spectacular!
The Palais Garnier (two blocks from our apartment) is one of the most beautiful buildings in Paris
The interior is even more amazing than the exterior
This ornate chandelier took my breath away. There's a 7 ton statue hanging over the theater itself!
The Grand Foyer is 59 feet high and over 500 feet long
This is the theater that inspired "The Phantom of the Opera". There's even a kind of moat beneath the stage!
The ceiling in the foyer was intricately painted by famous French artists
This is the entry, above the famous white marble Grand Staircase. (It was designed to showcase the theatergoers.)
There's just something about Paris. I can't put my finger on it, but the city has a feel to it that is unlike any place I have ever been. I found this quote by Ernest Hemingway (and modified it only a little):
If you are lucky enough to have lived in Paris, then wherever you go for the rest of your life, it stays with you, for Paris is a moveable feast.
Melanie and I have been enjoying our little summer vacation in Paris, but my new job in Berlin starts on September 19th so several weeks ago we started to look for a new place to live.
Last Sunday we found a beautiful apartment and I submitted a request for more information. The next day the owner, not realizing we were in Paris, asked if we wanted to see the place on Wednesday. Melanie and I researched flights, trains, and hotels and early the next morning we were on a nine hour train trip to Berlin! We are never that spontaneous when it comes to travel, so this was kind of exciting!
After our train crossed the border, we were really impressed by the German countryside. It is breathtaking.
This is what the scenery looked like for most of our train trip (I found this picture online)
We loved all the mountain villages (I found this picture online)
After arriving in Berlin we, of course, had to visit a beer garden. It goes without saying that Paris has an amazing food scene, but we really do enjoy German cuisine, as well. It's so hearty and filling!
This meat plate was served with a side of beer gravy (that thing on the left is a pig knuckle!)
This is spaetzle, or as I like to call it: German Mac & Cheese
Before we started looking for a new place to live we made a list of features we hoped to find:
Furnished
Elevator (Melanie has a bad knee so stairs are hard)
2 bedrooms (so people can come visit)
Within walking distance of the office
Balcony that allows me to grill
Close to shops/restaurants
Here's a quick summary of the apartments we visited during our brief stay in Berlin:
APARTMENT #1
This place was tucked waaay back in the complex. We had to walk a block just to get to the door, and then there was a long hallway after we climbed a bunch of stairs. (The elevator was broken. Yay!) It was a nice apartment, but not really for us.
The living room and kitchen
The balcony overlooked the garbage cans... which wasn't ideal
APARTMENT #2
We liked this one but the street was dead. Many of the little shops we had seen on Google Maps were closed. Not a good sign. This apartment had an elevator and it was working! Unfortunately, it didn't take us all the way to the top so we had to climb three flights of stairs. Ugh. Still, it was our new favorite.
This penthouse apartment was beautiful, but really long and narrow
The balcony was spectacular!
APARTMENT #3
This duplex apartment was awesome, but we were a bit worried about the area. (It made Melanie uncomfortable, though she couldn't quite explain why.) There was a working elevator, but once again we had to climb a flight of stairs to reach the elevator, and then down a flight to get to the apartment. Seriously??? Despite the stair situation, and Mel's concerns about the location, this became our new favorite.
This isn't a great picture. The apartment was gorgeous.
Another fantastic balcony!
In Google Maps the entrance looks like this. Fortunately, everything has been painted and fixed.
APARTMENT #4 -- THE ONE WE PICKED!
Another apartment WITH an elevator... and another apartment with a flight of stairs. WTH Berlin???
It was a bit hard to judge this place because the tenants were still there and it was kind of a mess. We liked the apartment, but we LOVED the nearby river. There's a pedestrian bridge half a block away and Melanie and I found a little bench under the trees where we could sit and watch the water flow by. She said, "I could see myself coming here almost every day." (She LOVES water.)
We liked this place so much that after we got home we submitted a "booking request" and the landlady accepted!
The living room is quite spacious
These wooden shelves will be perfect for our travel souvenirs
The dining room has a couch that folds into a bed (which is important because there's only one bedroom)
The kitchen is long and rectangular. We're going to add a full size refrigerator and more storage.
There's a nice bedroom (we wished there were two)
We like that there is extra storage at the end of this hallway
The bathroom has a shower/tub and includes a dual washer/dryer
The balcony isn't huge but the landlady said we could put in a small gas grill!
The river "Spree" is half a block from our apartment
We've been looking at Google Maps over the past week or so, and within easy walking distance we found:
One of the best steakhouses in Berlin!
Three grocery stores (regular, Asian, natural)
A nice beer garden
Charter boats
An amazing soup restaurant
An Asian street food restaurant (a small bowl of pho is 3.50!)
A French cheese shop
A good Indian restaurant
Several parks
A cheap Italian restaurant next to the river
A public swimming pool
A restaurant on a ship
A bakery with good reviews
Multiple cafes and bars
A couple of small museums
APARTMENT #5
Strangely, every apartment we saw was the nicer than the one before. This was the most beautiful of all, unfortunately I forgot to check on the elevator situation. (It didn't have one.) The whole place was being renovated, and they were adding an elevator, but that meant months of stairs, construction sounds and mess, which just didn't work for us.
Another thing that was kind of strange... the lobby was full of pictures of nude women reclining. It's an old building and I'm wondering if it used to be a brothel... (Prostitution has been legal in Germany since the middle ages.)
This apartment looked brand new. It was huge and amazing.
There were two balconies, one off the living room and one off the master bedroom
Melanie and I wanted to spend a full week in Italy's Sorrento area, but we booked our trip at the last minute and couldn't find any rooms available for seven contiguous days. Our airport was in Naples, so we thought about spending a few days there, but my research included plenty of warnings about Italy's “Città del Sole” (city of the sun), and we were a little nervous.
Though there is some debate, Naples Italy is widely regarded as the birthplace of the most popular food in the world: pizza, so being fans of this culinary delicacy we figured it was worth the risk...
While staying in Sorrento we asked the locals about our next destination, and they told us lots of stories about the Mafia-style crime syndicate known as the Camorra, which has apparently controlled everything in Naples since the late 1800's. One of our drivers (who called himself "Tony the Penguin") explained that there is no terrorism in Italy because the Mafia grabs those terrorists by the ears and "BOOM!" they're swimmin' wit da fishes! This and his other stories did not make us feel better...
NOTE: I was very entertained to learn that Italian people really do say, "Mama Mia!" and when the men get mad they go, "AYYYyyy". (This is in contrast to our recent adventure in Ireland where we never once heard anyone say, "Top o' the Mornin' to ya!")
As we neared our hotel in Naples we couldn't help staring out the window. The city offers first time visitors a strange mix of putrefaction and pulchritude. Many of the narrow alleyways are crumbling, dark, oppressive, and covered in graffiti; and yet the city has a timeless charm that is beautiful, with its brightly colored clothes hanging out windows, or on lines stretched between buildings.
Naturally, I had done some some extensive research on the best places to get pizza in Naples, so I chose a hotel near some prime targets. Our plan, after checking in, was to walk to a nearby street called Via dei Tribunali, and get pizza at either "Gina Sorbillo" or "Di Meteo". (They are only about a block apart and both show up on the "Best Pizza in Naples" lists.)
Unfortunately, Naples is a pretty confusing place and we quickly got a little lost. Seeing our frustration a woman approached us. Melanie and I immediately suspected some kind of a scam, but she seemed pretty sincere about helping us. We managed to convey the name of the street we were seeking and she motioned, "Why?" Melanie blurted out, "Pizza", which made the woman shake her head. "No no no. I take you..." Danger alarms began to sound in my head, but we reluctantly followed.
The woman lead us about a block and then pointed at a pizzeria just down the street. "You go there. They know me. Is very good pizza." We tried to give her some money for helping us but she scoffed and refused to take it. Oops, we clearly misjudged this woman. I felt bad for being so suspicious...
The pizza restaurant she lead us to, Spuzzuliamm, wasn't fancy but we were tired, hot, and hungry, so we decided to give it a try. Boy are we glad we did. The pizza was extraordinary.
Margherita pizza only has three toppings: marinara sauce, mozzarella, and a little basil
Italy actually has laws regarding their pizzas. First, you need to have a 3 mm thick disk of dough with a 1-2 cm high crust. No other working tools other than the hands of the pizzaiolo are allowed, no rolling pin or mechanical press machine can be used. The sauce must be made using San Marzano tomatoes, which grow on the volcanic plains to the south of Mount Vesuvius, and mozzarella Campana, which is made with the milk from water buffalo raised in the marshlands of Campania and Lazio. Finally, it needs to be cooked in a wood-brick oven at 485°C for about 90 seconds.
Oh, and in Italy you eat your pizza with a knife and fork! That's probably a good thing because the center of the pizza is so full of sauce and olive oil that it gets pretty drippy.
When Melanie took her first bite she almost immediately said, "Oh my..." And every few bites after that she would say, "Oh my God..." I nodded in agreement.
The sauce was delicious with a lovely tang, and it blended perfectly with the mozzarella, which was still fantastic even after the pizza cooled down. The crust was light, with a slight charred taste in places (that was a good thing!), and it was a little chewy (also a good thing!). I can't really pick one reason why this pizza was so good... it was a combination of everything.
Bottom line, this pizza was downright addictive. Sometimes you eat something with explosive flavor that blows the back of your head off, but after a few bites you're kind of satiated. This was different. It was like eating potato chips or popcorn... by the time you finished one bite you couldn't wait to take the next one. Melanie was so happy with the meal she hugged the waitress/owner before we left.
Though still a little full, that night we had a nice dinner at the hotel.
The restaurant in the hotel is in an open air palatial cloister that is over 800 years old!
Large pasta with rock fish
Fried potatoes with rosemary
This Limoncello Baba looked a little dry, but it was SUPER moist and delicious
The next day, we set out again to find Via dei Tribunali, and this time we succeeded.
Via dei Tribunali is a street in the old historic center. It was the main decumanus -- that is, the main east-west street -- of the ancient Greek and then Roman city of Neapolis.
The bust celebrates a character named "Pulcinella", who later became known as "Mr. Punch" (of Punch and Judy)
We saw this bronze skull in front of an opening to some kind of underground passageway
There were countless shops and restaurants up and down the street
The Church and Convent of the Girolamini
The Cattedrale di San Gennaro, named for Saint Januarius, Naple's patron saint
When we found Gino Sorbillo's pizzeria at the end of the street, it was, unfortunately, closed. As it was another very hot day in Naples we really didn't want to wait for over an hour, so we headed back to the hotel and had some cold drinks.
The other pizza place in Naples that we really wanted to try is called "L'Antica Pizzeria da Michele". Some people have said this is the best pizza on earth, while others have called it an overrated tourist trap. We wanted to find out for ourselves. (This is the restaurant Julia Roberts ate at in the film "Eat Pray Love").
Yelp says Pizzeria da Michele is the least busy between 4:00 PM and 5:00 PM. Unfortunately, when we got out of the cab we found this:
There must have been 60 people waiting outside the pizzeria
Looking around we were surprised to see that Spuzzuliamm was only a block away! We thought about going there instead, but I was really curious to see how Michele's pizza stacked up, so I took a number and we got in line.
Strangely, they only call out the numbers in Italian, so we felt a little lost. After about fifteen minutes, with very little progress, we decided to get takeout instead. We were directed to another line on the left. We hoped this would be much faster, but this line was even slower than the other one. Just as we were about to get called inside to place our orders we heard our number. "Here!" we shouted in unison.
Pizzeria da Michele is a busy place
We ordered 2 cold beers and 2 margherita pizzas -- total price: 13 euros!
So what was our verdict? It was a very good pizza, for sure, but it was NOT as good as Spuzzuliamm. The biggest difference was the sauce, which wasn't as tangy. Still, we're glad we braved the long lines to try it out. Now we know!
Despite our reservations, we never felt threatened or in any danger. In the end, it's probably just like every other big city in the world. There are thieves, and pickpockets, and purse snatchers everywhere. You just have to be careful.
We thoroughly enjoyed our time in Naples, and when we return to Italy for our anniversary next year we will definitely spend a few more days there, eating pizza and soaking up the wonderful Italian culture and history.
