Berlin

I arrived in Berlin later in the evening and navigated my way over to Neukölln, where I was going to see my pal Jonathan Philips, who I worked with at Vicbooks in Wellington in 2012.

I hadn’t seen him since about then so there was much to catch up on. We gouged a bottle of wine with his Christchurch pal Seb before going out to a gig at a warehouse a few stops down the line. The bands were as interesting as you’d expect as you entered an unsuspecting warehouse in the middle of Berlin.

Luckily for me Jon is a mature gentleman who respects his body enough to not party heavily on a school night, and as he is a teacher at school in Berlin, when the bands were finished at 11:20 we were straight out of there and off to bed.

Due to his early schedule, I had farewelled Jon before bed, so in the morning I had a leisurely rising before going and meeting up with Stefan, who was flying in from the UK that morning. I found him in central Kreuzberg, and met with a warm embrace after 2 months of daddy separation. He had a couple of surprises up his sleeve for our Berlin adventure which he had been hanging on to.

We walked west through Kreuzberg and down an alley way into a courtyard and entered a lift. We found ourselves in the office of Stefs friend Marcus, who had lent us him central Kreuzberg apartment for the weekend!

After acquiring the key we walked down the street to the house, via a place to get some eggs. Marcus had forgotten to give us the key to the two doors to the building, so we had to jimmy our way in with a credit card, which eventually worked a treat. The apartment was a lovely one bedroom with a tasteful simplicity to its styling. We took a moment to sit and chill for a moment and have some eggs.

We left the apartment to go have a Berlin ramble around. We walked over to the east Berlin art gallery via gorlitzer park. I had missed the art gallery the last few times I had been in Berlin so it was nice to see some new bits and pieces.

We headed back to the apartment to drop some things off and grab a bit to eat before heading over to the arena to see Gorillaz, which was the catalyst for this meeting in Berlin. To my surprise, we were joined by none other than Steven Andrew, who had decided to join at the last minute, followed closely by Tan and Caleb Jaquet! We were an excited we crew and absolutely blown away by the spectacle that the dozen strong band put on, playing all the greatest tracks of the first three albums and a selection of tracks from the latest release. The whole thing was pretty overwhelming. Another musical hero ticked off the list – and in the nick of time.

We left the arena together and once in town went our seperate ways. Stef and I got some daddy kebabs which was super cheap and delicious and went back to the apartment to drink beers and fizz about the show. Steve showed up a little later and we drank and chatted until very late and each of us was sprawled on a surface asleep.

On Saturday we all ate and drank some coffee together before embarking on some sight seeing curated by Stefan. He was keen to show me Treptower Park to see the monuments commemorating the soviet soldiers killed in WW2.

It started absolutely pissing down with rain just after we left the park, so we took refuge in a vietnamese place for some Tom yum and spring rolls, which they charged us way too little for. Steve departed our company for a bit and Stef and I stopped at a record store to pick up a gift for Marcus as a thank you for lending us his place. Appropriately enough we found a copy of Blurs Modern Life Is Rubbish (Damon Albarn’s band before Gorillaz), so it was a no brainer.

Stef and I scuttled through the rain to Friedrichshain where we found a couple of bars in a rejuvenated warehouse district in which to drink a few beers and warm up. We met up with Steve again around 10 and walked back to the apartment, intending it to be a pit stop, but we ended up repeating what we had done the previous evening. A preferable way to spend an evening for us ageing partners.

On Sunday Stef was flying back to Liverpool in the afternoon, so after tidying up the house we went and walked around, eating kebabs and having a few beers and finding a hill to climb to get a bit of perspective.

I left Stef at the train station and went over to Wedding where I was catching up with a Freya who I met last time I was in Berlin, and who would be providing me a couch. We had some wine and caught up, blown away by how quickly 6 months can pass.

The next morning I made my way over to the central station where I got on a bus to Hamburg, so see and farewell my friend Lisa, who was my second host after leaving Liverpool back in May. Everything really came full circle with her, as she makes the beginning and the end of this European/US leg of the trip.

On Monday I flew back to the UK, to tidy up some loose ends and say a final goodbye to the people who have come to be my Northern Hemisphere family over the last 2 years.