Itä-Berliinin taivaan alla

Juhani Seppovaaran Itä-Berliinin taivaan alla (Avain, 2006) koostuu kuvista ja pienistä kertomuksista, jotka heijastavat itäberliiniläisten nuorten aikuisten arkisia kokemuksia ennen muurin murtumista. Koska juuri tuo ajankohta on viime aikoina ollut erityisesti mielenkiintoni kohteena, lueskelin kirjan pariinkin kertaan läpi.

 

Tutkin pitkään kuvassa olevaa vanhaa karttaa, joka on Berliinin matkaoppaasta vuodelta 1929. Seppovaara kirjoittaa: "Eino Leino tunsi oppaassa esitellyn Café Unter der Lindenin nimellä Café Bauer. Leino poikkesi sinne juomaan mokkaa, tapaamaan maanmiehiään ja lukemaan Hufvudstadsbladetia sekä Päivälehteä." Joki virtaa samassa uomassa samannimisenä kuin aina, mutta kadut ja korttelit sen ympärillä ovat vaihtaneet nimeään useampaan otteeseen jopa viimeisten sadan vuoden aikana: "Leninallee on Landsberger Allee, eikä siltä risteä Ho-Chi-Minh-Strassea. Karl-Marx-Allee on Frankfurter Strasse. Alfred rakensi sen paikalle Stalinalleeta. Huomenna se saattaa olla Erich-Honecker-Allee."

Kuvat ovat välillä yhtä arkisen harmaita ja lakonisia kuin kuvauksen kohteena olevat arkiset esineet pioneeripinsseistä kukonmuotoisiin munakuppeihin, joita saa uusiotuotantoversioina esim. DDR-museosta, mutta välillä ne ovat mielikuvituksellisen värikylläisiä ja räiskyviä. Siemailin teetä aidosta DDR:stä valmistetusta teekannusta, jonka sain lahjaksi Berliinistä muuttaneelta ystävältä, ja luin isänmaan uhista:  "Länsiserkultaan Gesine oli saanut farkut. Opettaja käski raksia niistä Levis-merkin pois. Gesine neuloi merkin paikalle kangaspalasen, johon oli maalannut DDR:n ja Neuvostoliiton liput. Merkki oli opettajalle mieleen, mutta paikka takapuolen päällä sopimaton. Myös tuo ompelus piti irroittaa." Tuollaiset pienet arkiset huomiot elävöittävät DDR:n elämää huomattavasti paremmin kuin historiallisilla faktoilla ja hallitusmuotojen kuvauksilla varustetut tietokirjat.

Summer joys

I didn't travel much this summer, I would rather say that I stayed at home in Berlin (until July) and then at home in Finland (for six weeks from mid-July until the end of August) so...only now, when having returned back to Berlin, new fresh traveling ideas are filling up my head. But before turning my head for the future, here a little summary of the past weeks in form of photos.

Enjoying time with family and friends at home by cooking,baking and eating together...this is the summerly strawberry cake I made for us for midsummer's eve from the home-grown strawberries.

 

Chilling and taking the time to observe clouds (didn't have that chance too often before the holidays), and I also made good use of the new pink shoes I bought :)

 

Taking it easy on a summer cottage of a friend, in the middle of the Finnish countryside...

 

Buying all those things that you miss being abroad, like Fazer candies and rye bread.

 

Celebrating name days, birthdays and even a wedding, these are some lavender cupcakes my sister baked for her 25th birthday :)

 

I guess I traveled more in Finland than in the past years all together: I started my holidays in Joensuu & Ilosaarirock, went to Jyväskylä, good old Tampere and Lahti (without my camera!) and to Helsinki, to celebrate the end of the summer at Linnanmäki and some other nice places like Kakkugalleria where we tried several kind of sweet treats.

Surullisin juhannus

Tämä kuvastaa suurinta surkeutta, mikä suomalaisen kohtaloksi voi koitua keskikesän juhlan aikaan: muutaman kympin säästämiseksi hän päättää matkustaa juhannuslauantaina, hyvin aikaisin aamulla. Kukaan muu ei matkusta silloin, joten lento on hyvin halpa..mutta myöskään Helsinki-Vantaalle ei pääse, koska juhannuksen takia kaupunkiliikenteen bussit nuokkuvat varikoillaan perjantai-illasta pitkälle lauantai-iltapäivään, joten ainoa mahdollisuus on matkustaa perjantai-iltana ja viettää yö lentokentällä muutaman aussimatkailijan ja venäläisen perheen kanssa. Onneksi sentään Alepa oli auki.

Tulevina vuosina en kyllä aliarvioi näin ajattelemattomalla tavalla juhannuksen merkitystä henkiselle hyvinvoinnilleni.

Prague ahoi!

Some traveling plans ahead, eventually! I'm going to Prague for the Easter holiday with two of my colleagues and I started to check out this week what is actually happening there around Easter. Hannah, one of my best friends explained that there might be some whipping expected, and what I read is that it's a typical Easter Sunday tradition that the guys tie twigs together and go around whipping the girls' legs...a fertility rite :) But there are also some Easter markets to hang around, if just there weren't like million other tourists there at the same time...

What could be a trip to without any visits on cute old bookstores..as my previous trip to Prague was in the summer 2006, I have no idea anymore where I might have gone (except the Mucha museum), so I have started my researches from nothing.

 

I found this great website called Bookstore Guide that I spent quite a while reading, really nice tips and way of writing :) I might mention to the writers that some of the Berlin my favourite antiquarians are missing!

A Year in Helsinki

Just wanted to share this, because Helsinki (or let's say the Finnish landscapes) look so beautiful in it, and I had maybe a bit of Heimweh today...missing summer nights filled with light, and sunny early spring days when the snow sparkles so bright...

Cafe Butter

I have now several times gone to this great little cafe and bar Café Butter on Pappelallee, in the heart of Prenzlauer Berg. They have a great brunch (Saturdays until 15.00, Sundas until 16.00), where you can choose between different kind of salads, cheese, cold cuts, puddings, pancakes fruit salad and vegetables, as well as scrumbled eggs, chicken wings and sausages..bread isn't especially great, they seemed to have only white plain boring rolls on those two times I went there. But the rest is great, and I'm especially happy to have a good variety of vegetarian dishes and nice cappuccino. And all the fun costs only 7,90€/person, not including the drinks though. Otherwise this cute cafe serves as a café and restaurant, every day from 9am until 1am. 

I will continue my brunch explorations soon :)

  

Olivier's crepe meets salami assortment

They have a great selection of coffee and tea sorts and juices (not included in the price of the buffet though)

A feast on Sunday morning!

I have especially liked their salads (there were 5-6 different kinds, all vegetarian)

Keep your cameras away!?

Haven't heard from this kind of phenomena in Berlin yet: restaurant owners or chefs would be forbidding their customers from taking photos of their food. According to New York Times it has got quite sensitive in some places, and rather embarrassing for some customers who don't see anything bad in snapping a couple of pictures with their smart phones.
Even in museums that are way more strict with photographing you see people sneaking shamelessly around with their cameras, so I can't really see how it would work for the restaurants. Personally, I would only find it annoying if a friend would take a hundred and one pictures of the same dish and not concentrate on socialising with me at all, but a few pictures wouldn't obviously get on my nerves, neither nerve the other customers or the staff.