We’ve all been pretending it already happened, but spring in Berlin didn’t officially spring until today. It was warm, almost muggy, and all of Berlin was out to enjoy it. Lines spilled out of ice cream shops onto the sidewalks (I love how Berliners love ice cream) and humans dotted the soft slope of Volkspark am Weinbergsweg near our apartment, reminding me of sheep on a Cotswold hill.
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| Volkspark am Weinbergsweg, Berlin |
I started my day in the café at the bottom of Soho House with a cold-pressed beetroot, carrot, orange, apple, lemon, ginger, pineapple juice (I jest not, have a look at the bottle in the picture below). It was delicious if slightly disturbing to be eating breakfast that was indistinguishable both in content and setting from any restaurant on Abbot Kinney in Venice, California. I guess it’s official: hipsters have homogenized the world and they did it with avocado toast.
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| Breakfast at ‘The Kitchen’ in ‘The Store’ at Soho House Berlin |
Next I did some shopping. That the warm weather went to my head is the only explanation I have for how I ended up with both these pairs of flip flops. Bimba y Lola, where I picked them up, is my new favorite store. Apparently it’s Spanish and there are a few of them in London, but it was new to me.
On my way home I spied these birdhouses in the park and was charmed by the fact that even the birdhouses in Berlin have graffiti. I noticed the inscription “Morgenvogel-Haus 157” on one of them and did a little Internet sleuthing. From what I could tell with the help of Google Translate, the birdhouses are part of a long-running artist’s project to ensure birds retain habitats in Berlin despite the relentless development since reunification. There’s a cool animation of all the birdhouses that were installed as part of the project here. Very sweet. Very Berlin.
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| Morgenvogel “Real Estate for Birds” |
