Vienna

Everything in life is happening in cycles or seasons.  It started to become clear to Dave & Kate in Prague that there was a pattern to what was going on.  This period was feeling very much like a previous period they'd went through back in Paris.

Back then they'd come to the end of the money they had, they were staying in hotels and there was a lot of confusion and misunderstanding around.  Towards the end of Dresden it began to feel like this all over again.

This was more than simply a feeling.  After the storm in Paris, an apartment showed up for them which had a PC.  Perfect for emailing, of which they had a lot to do.  Now this apartment in Vienna also had a PC at a time when they really needed one.  The Truffaut apartment in Paris was in the 17th district.  This apartment was in the 17th district of Vienna.  The owner of the Truffaut was called Elizabeth, the owner of this apartment was called Elisabeth.

As they entered the apartment they were both struck by how it reminded them of the Truffaut one.  Yellow and orange colour scheme, about the same size overall, the bedroom was arranged almost identically, there was a glass coffee table in each apartment with a guest book on it... these features weren't in every apartment they had stayed in.  The 3 butterflies of Paris had also returned, this time on a mug which Kate would drink from...

Maybe more bizarre was the message graffiti'd on the light in the lift...

On the last day in this apartment they would walk a different way down the street it was on and pass this sign...

Without Brian & Agnes, Dave & Kate wouldn't even have been there.

Just like with Kaisers in Berlin, they were super close to a supermarket.  In fact, this was the closest they'd been, a Spar literally 2 mins round the corner.  They would understand why later. 

As they walked the short distance in this area they already could feel a different energy in Vienna.  It was very serene.  They were just off a busy main street with shops but there was an unusual quietness to the place and they found this everywhere they went in Vienna.  It immediately felt good to be here.

The first night in the apartment they went to bed around 3am.  As Dave was drifting off to sleep he thought he could faintly hear some music he recognised.  It sounded like a ukulele strumming.  Then he heard a familiar voice.  Was this real or a dream?  The upstairs neighbour was playing "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" at 4am!

Kunst

At check-in to their new apartment, the guy from the agency mentioned to them that the owner was a German cameraman/filmmaker who travelled a lot.  He would be returning to the flat on the day Dave & Kate were due to check out.

Whether it was the artistic energy, the two Buddha statues, or just the layout of the apartment itself, they immediately felt very comfortable here.  Some places take a little longer to settle into but a few rare ones have that 'right' feel immediately.  It was a lot brighter than the last apartment and had more things in it, plus a raised platform where the couch and coffee table sat and underneath a pull-out double bed.  They had never seen that type of thing before and liked it.

They were now about as far east in the city as you'd want to be without going into the outer districts of Berlin.  A clear sign the next move could only be out of the city itself.  The next sign was when Dave opened the kitchen cupboard and pulled out this mug...

Naturally, a Kaisers supermarket was nearby and now they were really in the heart of east Berlin.  Frankfurter Allee (formerly Stalin Allee under the old regime) was the main shopping street, 2 mins up the road.  They hadn't used a Subway takeaway place since Paris but with everything closed on the Sunday they checked in and no groceries it was there again to get them by.  For the rest of the week they ate potatoes for tea.

Money was just about out (they had enough to last the week) but the prospect of a new influx was promising.  Or so they thought...

The Night Of The Living Dead

On Friday 31st December 2010 Dave & Kate entered Kaisers at 3.10pm to stock up on some groceries for the next few days.  The Zombies were all out buying their zombie juice and each check-out had a queue stretching to the back of the store.  It was 4.20pm before they got out and only 5 mins of that was spent selecting food.

That afternoon their neighbourhood in Friedrichshain resembled a war-zone.  Loud bangs and explosions going off all over the place as the menacing atmosphere of the living dead grew.

Dropping their groceries off at their bunker they made their way through the streets like nervous animals not sure when or where they might be bombed.  MacBeam, the nearby internet cafe they used, was closed so they headed back down the streets.

One moment summed up the collective insanity of the human race.  A grown man walking towards Dave, Kate and another young couple in front, lit up a firecracker, watched them come towards him, threw it on the snow in front of them all and walked past with a manic grin on his face.

Dave, Kate and the young couple stopped, waited for it to explode like a bomb before walking on.  More explosions assaulted their ears as they quickly retreated to the safety of their bunker.  Later that night they watched the madness continue on tv, some guy singing "What A Wonderful Life" in front of the Brandenburg Gate and then David Hasselhoff sing "I've Been Looking For Freedom".  Dave & Kate were too, with the amount of legal explosives going off in the courtyard and all around the neighbourhood.  What a wonderful world.

As they sheltered themselves in their bunker, watching the crowds on tv, the irony didn't escape them that those very people who were setting off explosions and getting all excited about it were probably the same people who would be out on the very same streets again protesting the next war.

Human Hibernation

In the run-up to Christmas Dave & Kate spent even more time inside, often only popping out to Kaisers nearby for food.  They were finding they were sleeping long into the afternoon and it was as if everything was shutting down.  At other times the same energy would leave them unable to sleep all night, especially hitting Dave hard as they entered the New Year.  This would lead them into a period of napping, sleeping for 3 - 4 hours at night and then taking 20 - 30 min naps throughout the day.

On Christmas Day they took the long walk to check out the Christmas markets at Alexanderplatz and came across some wallets for a good price.  They had been considering getting new ones for some time and this was the time.  On returning to the flat, Dave switched the radio on and was stopped in his tracks by the song playing:

"Right now I feel - just like a leaf on a breeze
Who knows where it's blowin'
Who knows where it's goin'
I find myself somewhere I - I never thought I'd be 

Following a star - has led to where you are
It feels so strong now - this can't be wrong now

Nothing I have ever known - has made me feel this way
Nothing I have ever seen - has made me want to stay
Here I am - ready for you
I'm torn an', I'm fallin' - I hear my home callin'
Hey - I've never felt something so strong - oh no
It's like nothing I've ever known
It's like nothing I've ever known

Right now I feel - just like a leaf on a breeze
Who knows where it's blowin'
Who knows where I'm goin'"

It felt like arriving in Barcelona all over again - another Bryan Adams song - only this time it was for these times. 

On Monday 27th December 2010, Dave & Kate took a walk into the Kreuzberg area and passing over the River Spree, Dave realised it was the perfect place to discard of his old wallet.

Friedrichshain

The new apartment they had secured, from December 21st 2010 until January 16th 2011, was just down the road from Pariser Hof and further east into the the bohemian heart of Friedrichshain.  It had narrowed down to two possible apartments they could have chosen - one back west in the Mitte area and this one.  The Mitte one was unavailable for a few nights over New Year and so they'd have to move out, get a hotel, then move back in.  Plus it was more expensive.  There was no choice really.  Further east it was.

Before leaving Pariser Hof they put together the puzzle.  There were 7 pieces missing...

On arriving at the apartment (building number 11 as they were going into the year 2011) they discovered yet again Kaisers was just round the corner but more significantly, the apartment turned out to be on the ground floor and facing into the courtyard.  This wasn't clear from the description and although new to Dave & Kate (they had never stayed in ground floor flats), something was very right about it.  Although slightly bigger than Pariser Hof, this was the sparsest apartment they'd stayed in yet.  The TV had no English channels and the reception was erratic anyway.  There was little light in from the windows.  This would also be their longest stay in an apartment so far.  Could they hack it?

The nice German guy who checked them in asked where they were from.  When Dave replied "Scotland", there was a few moments pause before the guy simply said "Paul Gascoigne".  Dave nodded and laughed.

Once he left Dave & Kate stood around and surveyed the apartment for a few minutes.  They didn't say anything, they felt like a couple of cats dropped into a new house, acquanting themselves with this unfamiliar environment.  It felt bare but right.

They knew this had been coming.  Months earlier when they spoke of Berlin over the winter, the term that kept coming up was "hibernation".  They were about to hibernate for the winter and this was the perfect apartment to do that.

Mr. Wollkopf, Mr. Golz, Magic Energy Pods & The Toaster

Pretty soon after settling into the Pariser Hof apartment, Dave & Kate began to find themselves feeling whacked out with the energy.  It was clear why they were here now and not moving around in hotels.  Each day they found they could do very little.

They would make the long walk in the snow along Karl-Marx Allee to the internet points at Alexanderplatz each day to deal with emails and on the way back they'd buy groceries from Kaisers and sometimes pick up a cake from their favourite Bäckerei.

Each afternoon they'd slip into their magic energy pods and disappear off to god knows where for an hour or so.  It wasn't sleep as such, they would be conscious but so deeply gone, as if withdrawn from the bodies.  They'd return feeling refreshed and maybe listen to the radio for a bit (Chris Rea's "Driving Home For Christmas" seemingly a favourite in Germany) in between making tea and spontaneous reasoning sessions.  Later at night, they'd maybe watch a bit of German TV.

There was a bit of a mix-up due to the delay in emails with the owner, Wölfgang.  The heating took a few days to kick in and as Kate had contacted him about it (and then told him it was now fine) he had already been in touch with the caretaker of the building, Mr Wollkopf, who had been trying to get hold of them.

Dave & Kate returned to the apartment one afternoon - their clothes hanging to dry all over the place as the drying line above the bath was loose - to find a note from Mr Wollkopf.  He had fixed the clothes line, taken away the broken toaster (replacing it with his own for now) and had opened the windows as he said the place was like a "bio-tape" due to the condensation from all the clothes drying.

The next day it was Mr Golz turn to pay them a visit.  They opened the door to find a big, jolly, German Santa Claus type figure who had apparently been informed to check the heating.  He came in and they told him the heating was now fine and he seemed rather disappointed as he'd brought his "special key".  He walked over to the radiator anyway, put his hand over it and said "easy!" and let out a roaring, hearty laugh.

During their second week there, they were sound asleep in their magic pods when the doorbell went at 11am.  They couldn't get up quick enough to answer and then they heard a key going in the door.  A knock on the living room door and then a head in a beanie appeared and as he saw they were still in bed he apologised and whispered: "a new toaster", before slipping a brand new toaster down at the door.  They had finally met the mysterious Mr Wollkopf!

Dave got up shortly after this to have a shower and then the door went again - a young German to read the gas and electricity meters.  Only problem was Kate was still in bed in the living room.  Dave tried to explain to him that someone was still in bed, rushing between the living room to check if Kate was ready and back to the front door.  All he succeeded in doing was making the guy suspicious as to what the hell was going on.  Eventually he agreed to come back in 5 mins.

This time Mr Wollkopf was with him who introduced himself properly and apologised for his entrance earlier, saying Wölfgang had instructed him to buy a new toaster to replace the broken one.  Dave & Kate hadn't lost the knack of making friends in unusual ways.

Berlin - The Heart

Their next move was to a small, basic apartment a little further east but still in the Kurfürstendamm area.  For 2 nights they stayed there and again a Kaisers supermarket was just around the corner.

It felt good to be back in Berlin.  They could never put their finger on what it was about this city but it had a certain energy about it that felt like 'home'.  Back in Barcelona they had spoken about seeing themselves in Berlin over the winter.  It didn't make sense.  They had been increasingly growing tired of the cold, damp winters in Edinburgh and now that they were in Europe surely spending winter in the southern regions made more sense.  And yet they still saw themselves in Berlin - for 2 or 3 months.

 It was the beginning of December but that vision was still very unlikely given their financial position.  Still, this was the Heartland and they knew they must remain here for some time.

As they took a walk to Alexanderplatz for the first time they heard the familiar sounds of "Stir It Up" and "No Woman No Cry" ring out from the steel drums of a busker.  Bob was still with them.