Tiergarten and Victory Tower
Of the 7 months we've been here, we have gone to the west-west of Berlin exactly twice. Once, to walk along Ku-Dam and drink an expensive coffee, and second, to visit the Christkindlmarkt at Schloss Charlottenburg.
[I don't count Kreuzberg and Neukölln as West, like some people do, still thinking of the city in terms of it's old 'east-west' division along the wall. I say things like 'south of the river' and people look at me like they've never heard English.
"Oh!" they say, "you mean WEST Berlin!" and I'm like, "No, fool. I mean south of the god-damned river. Get over it, it's not 1989 anymore."]
But habits will be habits.
One of my vacation wishes was for a nice outdoor breakfast at Freischwimmer on the Canal, but the sluggards don't open until 4pm on Fridays. We ended up going to nest, next to Goerlitzer Park in Kreuzberg. I ate there when I came to Berlin on my own a few years ago, and remembered it being a cute and scenic place. Lucky that they let us order breakfast, though, as they only serve it til noon. Commence grumbling commentary on the lack of all-day breakfast in Berlin. Annnnd cut.
Ruminations on the love of runny eggs
WHY?
Yeah yeah, to each their own. Eggs are a disgusting concept anyways. They always seemed to me like something a French person would have discovered, in cooked form at least. Why? I don't know. I really just don't know. Considering how long eggs have been around, I'm sure they are one of the oldest food sources too. However, I digress.
Eggs should be firm. They should not remind you of eating a slimy group of unfertilized cells that bear a resemblance to jellyfish brains.
I ordered a typical breakfast, which came with fried eggs. Knowing the European predilection for runny yolks, I asked for my eggs hard. Transmission down. Server non-comprende.
'Yoghurt?' she asked, hopefully.
'No. Yolks.... hard..... you know the middle of the egg? I want it firm. Hard. Not runny.'
'I'll get my colleague.'
Colleague comes out, asks what the issue is.
'No, there's no issue, I just wanted to make sure that my eggs are well done. You know, with the yolks firm.'
He seems to understand, but comes back in 5 minutes.
'The eggs.... do you want us to put them in the oven?' (really? seriously?)
'No, you could just.... fry them for longer.'
My eggs came out slightly burnt on the edges, but *mostly* firm. It was as if they didn't know that eggs could be cooked.... ON BOTH SIDES.
Next time I'll just get them scrambled.
We biked up to Tiergarten next, where we followed the Rousseau Route (because we totally fit the description of people who know anything about Jean-Jacques Rousseau.) The Tiergarten is big and has a lot of trees. Hurray!
We came to the Victory Tower next. It was only 3 euros each for the privilege of climbing 783 stairs or so to the top. Jed depleted the batteries taking a 5 second movie in miniature mode so I don't have any good pics really.
Okay, this post is getting long and I have to go climbing now. Second half of our awesome Friday is coming up.
