It's raining, it's pouring

Despite the week starting out so well with a day off and pretty much tropical weather, by Wednesday it was as if Berlin suddenly noticed it was October and switched to Autumn mode. This involves a lot of rain, so here are some rain related observations:

Rain in Berlin really brings out the smell of the drains. Berlin, you are an internationally renowned capital city- I know you were originally built on a bog, but really, is it really that hard to sort out your sewer system?!

When it rains you can see people cycling who are holding the handlebars with one hand and holding an umbrella in the other. Given that I have difficulty maintaining a straight line with both hands firmly gripping the handlebars, I am incredibly envious of their skills, even if it does make them look quite odd.

It is not bad luck to open an umbrella inside in Germany, which means that a little campsite of umbrellas appears in the centre of the office floor, making it fairly difficult to get anywhere without nearly tripping over them. Given their love for practicality, you'd think that they'd want to enforce this 'no open umbrellas inside' rule, as then the umbrellas could all be stacked neatly out of the way against a wall. Italians share the same superstition as the British, as they also believe it is bad luck to open umbrellas inside, so I wonder what other nationalities make of it.

And finally, my extensive research (noticing other people in the street, and looking at the umbrellas set up in the campsite at work) leads me to believe that the most common umbrella in Germany is the Rossman €2.95 navy umbrella, which is also the one that I have, alongside pretty much everyone else who sits near me. It's all about the little things to help you blend in with the locals!

Three Day Weekend!

The Tag der Deutschen Einheit, a bank holiday celebrating German reunification, meant a three day weekend. Even the weather seemed to be celebrating, as it was so sunny and warm, despite being the beginning of October. I spent most of the weekend in the park, reading and enjoying the heat, and then on Sunday there was a free festival at the Brandenburger Tor.

I'd seen the poster on a bus stop or a bin or somewhere, and after checking it out online (to check it was definitely free entry!) thought it seemed like it was worth checking out. Deciding my weekend activities based on what I've seen advertised on a bin isn't my usual way of doing things, but maybe it should be, as the festival was really good! We got to see German acts like Culcha Candela and Jennifer Rostock. Culcha Candela are a boy band in the sense of wearing matching outfits and doing choreographed dances, but their songs have a bit more attitude and some of them make political statements, so I wouldn't exactly equate them with Westlife or anyone... You can hear what they sound like here. Jennifer Rostock is tattooed and pierced to the max and a really great performer, getting the audience involved - particularly one man, who she dragged on stage to perform a love song at, whilst stroking his cheek, and then sitting on his lap. Poor bloke looked like he didn't know what had hit him. Her songs sound like this.

The whole thing was sponsored by Coca Cola, so there were adverts for it everywhere. I am not sure what the psychological impact of staring at Coca Cola adverts for about 6 hours straight will be, but apart from taking a free can on my way out, because I was really thirsty and I just can't resist free stuff, I don't seem to be suffering from any kind of sudden Coca Cola urges.

Three day weekends are always good, but sun and a free music festival just made it that bit better - Happy Tag der Deutschen Einheit!