Berlin Diaries – Part 3

I have come to the realisation that Berlin summer is all about the bike rides, the parks, the socialising and the sprees (lakes). I’ve been crazy busy in my new job as Head Chef at the recently-opened restaurant, East London. As the name suggests it’s all about serving ‘good ole’ British food with that modern twist - bringing back the pies, the fish and chips, the bangers and mash; but not in the traditional pub grub kind of a way, but more giving it that fresh, modern twist. Making us the new kid on the block in Berlin and trying something completely different for the Berliner’s to try and love, and also making us super busy!

So whenever we can we are enjoying the sunshine and discovering many new and amazing secrets Berlin has to offer. The influx of friends coming to visit has begun and it’s great to be able to feel like a local and show them around and find new and interesting places to visit. So here are some of the amazing discoveries we have found and stumbled upon … The kooky fake beach at Wannsee, about 45 minutes on the train from central Berlin. You get off at this town called Wannsee where they have brought in sand and tried to make the lake a beach, the complete tackiness makes this kind of cool!

An interesting soviet war memorial in the middle of Treptower park, which has been put there to commemorate 5,000 of the 80,000 Soviet soldiers who fell in the Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945.

Bike rides to the outer superb of Grunewald (German for Greenforest), which is hard to believe it’s not that far from the city of Berlin as once you arrive there you are totally surrounded by instant forest, and the deeper you get in this forest, and the thicker it gets you find a magic lake in the middle, surrounded by hundreds of naked Germans, stumbling upon this was a shock to the eyes but feels so stereo-typically German! So when in Rome hey!

Close by we found ourselves getting directions from some local Germans saying ‘Find the hill and climb to the top and there you will find the allusive secret American spy-towers used after the second world war’. So off we went! We found a hill, no sign-posts, and we went with the hunch that this was where it would be, we ditched the bikes halfway, and kept climbing this hill with our burning calf muscles. We got to the top and were surprised to find the fence half bent open with a gap wide enough to fit through. Then we were presented with an abandoned, vandalized warehouse looking building, we explored and climbed over rusted old doors to the top of the tower to find some amazing graffiti and the listening station.

The acoustics up there were insane - the sounds your voice created, the crackling of the glass beneath your feet, the loud clang of your own footsteps. It’s so hard to describe how they sounded like an out-of-body experience, this needs to be seen and tried to really understand. Sitting in the sun, with a panoramic view of Berlin couldn’t really top any of my Berlin adventures so far!

Poland

Three weeks of constant work - sometimes 15 long days with only 1 actual day off - it was time for a break! Naomi’s father’s side of the family, the Jankowski’s, had organised a family reunion amongst the cousins, as some of them had not even met each other before, and I guess having Naomi’s brother in Europe and us around the corner in Berlin meant that the timing couldn’t have been better. We caught the Berlin to Warsaw express train Friday afternoon after work, and 6 hours later we are stepping off the train to be met and greeted by the Jankowski family. It was late at night so we went straight to bed and started the reunion over a traditional Polish breakfast of a selection of cold meats, cheeses, breads and fruit, and when you thought that was a lot, there were some sweet biscuits thrown in there! We then spent the first day exploring the city of Warsaw. We were given some insight by our personal tour guide Tomek, Naomi’s uncle, on the history of Warsaw. He took us to a small museum showing the before and after of the city pre and post war. The city was basically flattened and totally destroyed by the orders of Hitler, which is how Warsaw gets its modern, drab communist-looking buildings.

They have re-created what is called the old town to represent what Warsaw used to look like. After a full days sight seeing we stopped off for a taste of what Poland is all about to me – the food! We overloaded on an interesting selection of pierogi - Polish dumplings. The fillings ranged from soured cabbage to forest mushrooms and even mushy lentils. We left in a food coma to trek back to the family home to once again eat, this time a three-course dinner! Poland was all about eating, and I have now discovered the similarities between European families stuffing food down your throats! We decided to take a day away from the family and took a day trip to the romantic city of Krakow, which was once the country’s capital and for some reason kept un-touched during the war. We spent the day eating and walking around the city. We were recommended by Naomi’s parents to go to a Bar Mleczny (literally ‘Milk Bar’). These are small communist looking food outlets that served traditional Polish food at cost price during the country’s post-war depravity, and which still serve up generous bowls of soup and dumplings for all. You get the feeling you are in a Polish highschool cafeteria, but the food was so amazing that over the course of the day I tried and tested 5 dishes from these food venues! First there was Bigos for breakfast - a traditional Polish stew of soured cabbage and spicy sausage – then a Pork goulash with their version of gnocci, followed by beetroot borscht, and to end the evening of Jake’s food tasting of Krakow, I had to try the pancakes stuffed with cottage cheese and topped with a warm sweet strawberry sauce… amazing!

We woke early the next day to meet up with the other side of the family, Naomi’s mother’s family. We decided to make them lunch, so we got our supplies from Warsaw before jumping on the train and getting off at a small town around 40 mins from Warsaw called Prushkow, where Naomi’s mum Krystyna grew up. We went to their magnificent family home that has been in the family for the past 100 years, and is now lived in by Naomi’s cousin and his family. It was so lovely to sit outside in the amazing garden and get to know their welcoming family over a banquet of food we had created. Krystyna’s brother Krzysztof was full of stories and showed us a tree that Krystyna had brought to Poland from Australia on one of her visits. He said it was a very happy time of her life, she came she planted the tree and 9 months later Paul was born!

We said our good-byes and went back to Warsaw to meet the last of the family, Krzysztof's daughters - Erika and Eliza. They took us on another small tour around Warsaw and it was great to hear their insights on the country’s capital. We started in Warsaw’s oldest chocolaterie where I had the thickest hot chocolate doused with rum! Then off to the famous bakery for another tasting session – this time a traditional Polish doughnut stuffed with melted gooey chocolate and cherries. Delicious! We then walked along the river-front to sample some of Poland’s finest honey-beer and soak up the last of the days rays. The perfect ending to our amazing time in Poland! Both sides of the family were so welcoming and I was glad to take part in this reunion and hopefully we can make it back in September for cousin Olaf’s wedding. I promise to start fasting now!!

Berlin Diaries Part 2

Back to Berlin and time to become a grown up and get a house, and a job and stop thinking about travelling to a new exciting destination every three minutes. Young man, you focus on Berlin!
The day prior in Budapest, I was torn between the decision of travelling to Transylvania in search of Dracula, or to come back to Berlin. But it seemed the stars were aligning for our lives back in Berlin, so I went back to that crazy city to sort out the details. Firstly, I received an email from a potential house rental in Kreuzberg – the suburb of suburbs to live in! Then there was another email requesting a job interview for a chef position at a new restaurant called East London that Annie our friend got a job at and suggested me as their chef. To top it all off I found an apartment to rent for the exact time frame until the Kreuzberg apartment was available to start renting, which was both across the road from potential work and around the corner from the new house!

So it all fell into place. We got the house, I got the job and Naomi was still away travelling around Europe with her brother and I was bored… So what happens when Jake gets bored… He buys a ring with diamonds on it! Yes I was going to propose to my lady.

A few days after Naomi’s arrival back to Berlin, I organised for her to hang out with friends and to catch up on what had been happening in each other’s lives for the past 6 or so weeks, whilst I was mad at home cooking and creating the most sensual, romantic picnic for the biggest day in my life so far! I got my list of ingredients, translated into German, hit the shops and tried my hardest to get what I needed. I picked up some French bubbles and real glass champagne flutes, raced back home and started to prepare the feast! I had an array of German cheeses from the Münster region, prosciutto-wrapped fresh figs and marinated olives for starters, followed by poached chicken and dill crème fraiche sandwiches and to top it all off, chocolate-dipped cherries and strawberries!

So the day arrived, and I woke up my love with the promise of a surprise. She saw the picnic basket, and of course guessed we where heading somewhere on this sunny day to have a picnic in the park – Naomi’s favourite thing! But she had no idea what was install…
We got on the train and got off at Potsdam, the former residence of the Prussian Kings, about 45 minutes from Berlin on the S-Bahn train. We got off and got a bus to Sansoucci, the former palace of Fredrick the Great. Think Versailles in France, but German, and smaller and more intimate. The grounds and gardens were so well manicured and beautiful, the perfect setting for my romantic proposal!

We snuck past the crowds of tourists and found a secret secluded spot on the grass in the Chinese gardens, where I set up our picnic. While Naomi thought I was just preparing the dessert to finish up the picnic of all picnics, I got on one knee and popped the question! There was shock and joy and tears and then the much-anticipated ‘Yes!’ that made me the happiest man alive!

In search of the finest Goulash!

After our time in the UK we booked some cheap flights to Budapest to meet Naomi’s brother Paul, where the two were planning on doing some re-tracing of their family history from Hungary through the Balkan states to Thessaloniki in Greece. I decided to go back to Berlin after our 3 days of exploring this amazing city to do the grown up thing and get us a house and an income.
We were meeted and greeted at Budapest airport by Paul and taken to the city, to our cute little antique filled apartment we rented.

Hunger set in and we started our search for the best goulash in town!! We were recommended this small local restaurant in the backstreets and I couldn’t resist the roast goose leg. I tasted Naomi’s venison goulash with potato dumplings and was pleasantly surprised although not the traditional goulash, the search must go on!!

We woke early the next morning and started our action packed day of sightseeing, the highlights were when we left Buda and crossed the danube and climbed to the top of the hill in Pest and basked in the sun looking at the amazing view of Budapest’s gothic looking parliament building from the top of Castle hill.

We remembered that a Kiwi lady we were speaking to in the boarding line for our flight told us we must find the caves underneath the castle, where we were to explore these dark, damp caves and be pleasantly surprised in the middle by a magic fountain that produced red wine! The mystery riddled everyone and there is no explanation as to where and why this happens, but we weren’t complaining! We emptied the water bottle, as water is not as important as magic red wine!!

After our amazing discoveries, we set foot for the most amazing discovery of Budapest – THE BEST GOULASH was found at the footsteps of the Castle Hill, away from the tourist traps, hidden in a residential street, we found this tacky restaurant that gave you the feeling you were sitting in your old wog Aunties kitchen, where we were presented with the traditional Hungarian Goulash, 0 for presentation, 10 out of 10 for taste.

The day just got better and better as our next discovery was the old traditional Turkish baths, which are famous in Budapest as this wonderful city lies on many hot thermal springs. We again were lucky enough to be there on a special Sunday that allowed male and females to mix, as you would normally be split up. The waters ranged from 15 degrees to over 60 degrees. The extreme temperature change was so relaxing and to end the most amazing day, we splurged out and got a traditional Hungarian massage! The end to an amazing 6 weeks of European travels. Now time for reality! Back to Berlin