Journey Through Berlin 2014 - Part 1

While in Budapest during the first half of this year, numerous signs were presenting themselves to point to Berlin as the next destination.  Accompanying the inner voice telling me to come to Berlin were a solitary book on the bookshelf next to my bed in French entitled 'Mon enfant de Berlin' ('My Berlin Child'), a van which pulled up in front of the taxi I was in one day with "Berlingo" emblazoned on the back and a pair of underpants in a shop window on the street of the apartment in Budapest with 'Einfach Berlin' ('Simply Berlin') written on them.

Returning from the crematorium to the apartment in Budapest, I also knew I was to carry on this journey when the main SoulJahm theme song came on in the taxi - George Harrison's "Got My Mind Set On You".

A - Apartments-Maison Am Olivaer Platz
B - Hotel-Maison Adenauerplatz
C - Apartment, Käthe Niederkirchner Strasse
D - Hotel Les Nations
E - Novum Style Hotel Berlin Centrum
F - Hotel Comenius
G - Hotel Friedrichshain
H - Pension Reiter
I -  Hotel Atrium
J - Hostel City Bed am Kurfürstendamm
K - Hotel-Maison Am Olivaer Platz
L - Hotel-Pension Rheingold am Kurfürstendamm
M - Hotel Panorama am Adenauerplatz
N - Hotelpension Margrit
O - Apartment, Katzbachstrasse
P - Apartment, Sonntagstrasse 

Arriving in Berlin at the beginning of June, it was becoming pretty clear something was going on, as I was being led to stay very close to places Kate and I had previously stayed.  On our first Berlin stay in 2010, our first stop was Citadines apart-hotel near Olivaer Platz.  This time my first stop was a few streets away so I found myself walking through familiar territory.  The second hotel I stayed was still in this area before I got an apartment.  I booked the apartment in Prenzlauer Berg but did not realise till I arrived that it was just off the street Kate and I walked up and down with our groceries and laundry on our second Berlin visit during the winter of 2011/12.  Greifswalder Strasse was where Kate first began showing signs of difficulty walking.  My apartment this time turned out to be on a street just off this main road and directly opposite the bio supermarket we shopped at.

Käthe-niederkirchner Straße

Greifswalder Straße

After a month there and going through some sort of physical 'death process' I found myself going through another crazy hotel period lasting almost two weeks and staying in a new place nearly every night.  It was during this period I began noticing sunflowers everywhere in Berlin.  The most unusual was when I spotted a solitary sunflower in the corner of the dark corridor just outside my hotel room one day.

Katzbachstrasse

Finally an apartment showed up - in fact two on the same day - which had a piano.  I went for the cheaper apartment in Kreuzberg area, first time I'd stayed there.  It was on a street called Katzbachstrasse and the name on the doorbell was 'Helene', although this was not the owner's name.  Kate's middle name is Helen.  The month long stay in this apartment opened up a whole new dimension - The French Connection.

Sonntagstrasse

After this, I found myself back in familiar territory, building number 7 on Sonntagstrasse in the area of Friedrichshain now with brother Mark.  This apartment happened to be just around the corner from the "I love you 7UP" graffiti and I must have walked past here the day I came to take a photo of that graffiti a couple of months earlier.   I also took a photo of Bob Marley painted on a cafe shutter that day (see 'Definitely Berlin') and now Bob was there to greet us in this apartment.

Yesterday's Bar