Omnia Mutantur

On my last night in Hamburg I went out drinking with the Unity folks and the guys from Nordic Game. Not entirely unexpectedly, it turned into a major geekfest. A guy was carrying a Magic the Gathering deck, someone else claimed to have a 1st Edition D&D tome, there were bets on if American Beauty or Fight Club had been released before (I won). What I did not see coming was when the bartender, a girl in her 20s, jumped in singing Where is my mind?, served everyone white russians while calling them Lebowskies, and pretty much won the whole my-library-is-geekier-than-yours thing when she said she had a 1st edition of Paranoia. And that was before we got into the flaming drinks.

It was a lot of fun.

Ricardo Travel geek, nerdcore, Travel

Weather was really nice in Hamburg. It wasn’t even snowing, and temperature was only -2 celsius.

Ricardo Travel Hamburg, Travel

I can’t get used to how most supermarkets are closed on Sundays.

Something else I’ve noticed is that groups seem in the habit of waiting outside a place until all their friends arrive, and then go inside once they’re together, instead of the Costa Rican way of waiting inside and the group growing as people arrive. Why a culture that has to withstand such weather would develop a habit of waiting outside in the cold is beyond me, unless it’s to encourage punctuality so that their friends don’t freeze to death.

Ricardo Travel Berlin, cold, Germany

I’d never seen Ron Fricke’s 1992 documentary Baraka, and only knew about it that it was one of a kind, so I got curious when I saw that the Berlinale was showing it as part of its retrospectives I decided to get a ticket for it. Mark Magidson, the film producer, was there for a Q/A session.

Turns out it wasn’t just a presentation of the film, but the first-ever projection from a new 70mm print. With DTS sound. Displayed on a huge screen.

If you haven’t seen it, the film is basically a slideshow of film vignettes set to music, filmed in about 26 countries. There isn’t a single word of explanation, and the effect of the impeccable montage superimposed with the music is stunning: since it is almost impossible to know immediately where each scene comes from, or what it will switch to in the next few seconds, you spend the whole movie wondering – is that Brazil or Indonesia? Mexico or Morocco? The stratification alternates between the obvious and the obscure, with the latter never detracting from the film, since one of its intentions seems to be precisely to have you question why the image is there and what your preconceptions about it are. Is the tattooed asian a yakuza gangster, or meant to be one, or is he just another example of how we brand ourselves to indicate our tribe, much like the young Australian aboriginals early in the film?

My only regret is I saw it sober.

Ricardo Books, music and film Berlinale, movies

We have an expression in Costa Rica, vergüenza ajena. It comes to mind when you’re sitting in a theater, and two german women begin calling excitedly konnichiwa! konnichiwa! after the young director and actress of Miao Miao, a Taiwanese film.

Ricardo Books, music and film Berlin, Berlinale

While off on Berlinerstrasse today looking for an asian supermarket, I found a small restaurant advertising itself as specializing in croatian food. I’d never had croatian food, and I was unlikely to be in the area again (nothing to see there), so I dove right in even though I’d planned to start eating lighter and go for some falafel. The croatian lady there did not speak English, but we managed with my smattering of German and a lot of grunting, menu pointing and chest pounding.

That’s the wiesse bohnensuppe, a soup with large white beans that was very good, and came with an excellent bread. The main course was called räuberplatte, which apparently translates to robber’s plate (In Sprachtools we Trust).

That’s three sausages, a lot of pork, some french fries, rice and chopped onions. Yes, the onion on top is on fire. And of course, the inevitable half-liter of local beer.

It was very good overall, if a bit heavy, and an indecently large amount of food for 16 euros. It actually reminded me a lot of Romanian cuisine, in that they share the same we’re-going-to-kill-you-of-a-heart-attack approach to nutrition. I remember now my mom mentioned that her serb uncle uses to prepare something similar to the Romanian sarmale, and the two countries are pretty close, so I wonder how much culinary cross-pollination there was.

That’s it right there – Adria Grill, Berlinerstrasse 141.

Ricardo Restaurants and bars, Travel Berlin, food

As in, they actually have an interest here.

Couldn’t get tickets for Orpheus Und Eurydike, they’re absolutely sold out. Not only tonight, all the remaining shows.

Ricardo Travel Berlin, opera

Movies be damned, it seems I’m here mostly to do culinary tourism (which is a very fancy way of saying Ricardo’s eating himself into either the poorhouse or an early grave), I’ve had the Brauhaus Lemke recommended on the Rough Guide To Berlin. The Guide seems to know only of the one in Charlottenburgh, which is way on the other side of town, but fortunately I decided to Scroogle before going – they have not only a website but a spanking new location in Hackescher Markt, not only closer to where I am but in an area I wanted to check out.

Mind the location of the photos, by the way, it’s not exactly within Hackescher Markt but a bit to the site.

The online menu looks very appealing, but when I got there they had a buffet lunch for 6.8 euros – very good goulash, vegetable soup, cheeses, paella (which was more arroz con mariscos than anything else), and some mushrooms in cream, as well as desserts. The start of the day were the beers:

I had the house beer (above) and a wheat beer. The latter was good but not impressive, and very close to an Oettinger (OK, so it was good beer, and I’m fucking spoiled); but the house beer really impressed me.

Good strong flavor without being overpowering – kind of like a middle ground between an Oettinger and a Guinness. Can’t wait to go back.

But since en la variedad está el gusto, I stopped by Lindenbräu at the Sony Center today after picking up my Berlinale tickets for the next few days. It’s a pretty good place, with an excellent goulash and a wheat house beer that is a bit better than Lemke’s wheat beer, even if it lags significatly behind Lemke’s own house brew. Also, while very nicely furnished, it had more of a mall feel, but I guess that’s to be expected of the area.

I guess I should start finding things other than drinking and eating to keep me entertained. Fortunately I’ve got a pretty good idea of what I want to do tomorrow night.

Ricardo Restaurants and bars, Travel beer, Berlin, food

Shock! Horror! The sun was out today – and visible at that! I didn’t even need my gloves, nor did I zip up my jacket once.

Ricardo Travel Berlin

You know, it took me 4 days to realize there was no TV in the flat, and I only noticed because I saw the stereo’s remote and began wondering where the screen was.

Ricardo Uncategorized entertainment, Travel