Un-blog-able Berlin

After visiting Berlin something like six times I can honestly say that Berlin is a giant mess of a city.

No? Let’s journey back into history, as this blog is wont to do.

Berlin – on the swampy banks of the Spree – suddenly became a capital of an empire and hastily went about building itself up to suit the name. Then the war happened. Since then it’s been starved, had its streets taken over by revolutionaries and reactionaries, became a decadent party city, then a National Socialist party city, got smashed into ruins, surrounded by communist terriory, had a wall slammed through the middle of it, then got jolted into the rest of the world.

Since the beginning, Berlin has been an exercise in urban improvisation. It simply had to adapt with the circumstances that have swamped it over time. Today, there’s a civic spirit of improvisation in the city. Just look at all those famous clubs in old factories and bunkers.

The easiest blog would have been to chronicle the many trips there, and the Discovery Walks that Kata and I have taken. I don’t like writing those sorts of travelogues. I was always looking for a theme to write about after every visit. In my view, this beautiful mess of city in the East has been unblogable. Then I realized we’ve been improvising our trips as well.

The program for any weekend visit was pretty loose. We‘d have a desire to visit an exhibition or go to a particular park. Mostly we just bought a beer at a kiosk and walked about. We’d stroll down side streets. There are plenty of corner bistros on the corners of those side streets for a quick lunch. We never had a bad meal doing that. There were always plenty of kiosks for a second roady beer.

We made plans as we went. During the spring and summer, we found shady spots in the parks, having lunch and sipping beer among the hipsters. All the while, we kept walking. Through flea markets in Prenzlauer, through grotty warehouse bars in Friedrichstain, a gallery in Charlottenburg, and along the Landwehr Canal (easily our favourite Berlin landmark).

This is the Berlin I know and grew to enjoy.

Berlin’s messy beauty wants you to throw away the itinerary and walk about. Rent a bike. Use your two feet. Ride on a double-decker bus. If you see a bar that looks cool, chances are it is cool. Take a chance on that restaurant on the corner.

Go to Berlin. Ditch the plan. Get lost in the mess.

The quiet, nearly derelict Zionskirche, near Bernauer Strasse.

East Side Gallery

More East Side Gallery.

The dark and shiny, beside the gray and grotty.

The frogs of Volkspark Weinberg.

Stuff happened here before WWII.
Remember Napoleon? This is a monument to his defeat.

Viktoria Falls.

Mitte.

I saw this many times on the ride into Berlin from Adlershof.

Uhhh... Somwhere in Berlin.

Mysterious obelisk in Charlottenburg.

Self explanatory, hopefully.

Moving to a new strange place

I almost didn’t come out to Budapest. It took the sage advice of two buddies to convince me to come out. Six months, I figured, I’ll see how it goes.

Twenty-two months later I am leaving Budapest with a mix of feelings. I’m excited about the next adventure in a strange place. I’m sad to leave an incredible city where I’ve made great friends.

Thankfully the sadness is softened by the fact that I’m only going to Germany. I will come back, which is good because I don't like goodbyes and I really enjoyed discovering this city.

Coming here was indeed the right decision. 

See you all again soon!

Marshall's Guide to Hungarian Cooking

Photo by  Katalin Varga

I recently tried cooking goulash. It wasn’t a failure, but I wouldn’t say it was a resounding success either. It was decent, edible... and we’ll leave it at that.

The edible goulash is my most recent foray into Hungarian cuisine. Scrambled eggs with onions and paprika was my first, and easiest, move – though it took a few attempts to get it right (fry the onions first, sprinkle in the paprika, wait a minute, add the eggs). I’ve made pörkölt – a paprika flavoured meat stew – with some success and no complaints (although I was the only one eating it).

Lately, my best dish has been the lécso. This is paprika-flavoured stew (yeah, I put paprika in almost everything) of onions, peppers, and tomatoes with meat or sausage, or meat and sausage, or meat, sausage, and eggs. 

All I knew about Hungarian cuisine when I arrived was goulash, but I’ve gotten good at making lécso. It’s cheap and healthy and you can put in as much meat as you want, because a meal ain’t a meal in Hungary unless there's meat and onions.

I’m a lazy cook too. I’m not good at fussing over ingredients or worrying about spices and all that junk. I just want to throw my stuff into a pot with a bunch of paprika and eat it. If I get leftovers for a few lunches, even better.

Lécso suits my laziness. it’s a breeze to make and what can go wrong with a food that includes a lot of onions and paprika? Start with the lécso and see how Magyar you get in the kitchen.

All you need is:

Fatty bacon (You can use oil, but you lose out on the Hungarian-ness)

A bunch of tomatoes

A bunch of large onion 

Two bunches of big red or green

A chili pepper

Smoked paprika (the spice)

Sausage (Hungarians use a sort of Frankfurter, I like spicy sausage. But really, almost any meat is fine.)

Cook the bacon until the fat is melted and add your onions. Cook those until they’re soft-ish and add two teaspoons of the smoked paprika. Cook for a little bit longer, then add the peppers. Drink some wine, let the peppers soften, add the sausage. Let those cook a bit then add the tomatoes and one more teaspoon of paprika. Put the lid on and let it all stew. If you're feeling adventurous, whisk a few eggs and stir them into the stew. Serve with a slab of bread (I like the dark rye) and have some more wine.