Berlin seems to be a Mecca for hipster coffee shops... and Fritz and I are determined to try them all. We sampled caffeinated beverages from The Barn last Sunday.
You know it's hipster when they serve imported raw organic cane sugar out of a heavy stone trough on the counter next to the barista. If you are wondering if there is sugar on the tables, the answer is certainly not. How else would the barista give you a stern look of equal parts judgement and disgust as you sheepishly spoon in one, two, three heaping scoops of sugar? It doesn't help that there is a sign on the sugar trough suggesting that you taste the beverage before adding sugar since they use fancy-pants imported organic milk that tends to naturally add some sweetness to your latte macchiato. Yeah ok. Tasted it. Delicious Mr. Barista. Now can I add my sugar without your evil eyes glaring at me?
It was very tasty coffee. Fritz consumed his coffee as it was intended... without any sugar to taint the purity of the perfectly roasted beans.
We would have liked to stay and read for longer, but space was limited and we didn't want to hog all the seats once we had drained our mugs.
So we sauntered through the gallery district of Berlin until we came to Museum Island. It actually is a real island and home to 5 internationally significant museums. Because everyone was off work on Sunday, the lines were pretty long.
We went to the Altes Museum which didn't have much of a line. It was interesting and had some really old stuff!
I took this picture of Fritz after he had mistakenly started up a conversation with a random young woman dressed in black thinking she was me. He saw her looking at her phone so he asked what she was doing. A second later he realized his mistake. Unfortunately, she thought he was genuinely interested and started asking him for directions or advice on how to find some other museums in the area. 15 minutes after working his way out of the conversation he was still blushing.
The Berlin Cathedral is standing behind me. We didn't get a chance to go inside. That will have to be another trip. It certainly was a beautiful area to walk around!
I waaaaant that coffee...... Even though it's half to ten (the german way of saying half past nine)
ReplyDeleteAnd the story about Fritz and random black-coat lady is hilarious.
WHAT is that a picture of after your coffee and before your walk? An old sink? The sugar bin? The last seat at the coffee shop...... .......................
Hehehe. I'm glad you asked. It's an old random stool right outside the coffee shop. I thought it was cool so I took a picture of it. But then it didn't really make sense with the rest of the blog post, so I put it in there anyway. Hehe!
ReplyDeleteYou fooled me on that picture as well. It looked like an old wooden stemmed dish standing in the middle of millions of delicious brownies! Coffee, brownies, seemed sensible to me! By the way, hi Irma, nice to hear from you through Manda! Hope all is well with you and your family. Looking forward to seeing you in August! I also cracked up when I read about Fritz's encounter with a Manda look alike! I can so picture that, especially him getting caught in further conversation! I guess she spoke English! Too funny!!
ReplyDeleteEnjoying your blog immensely, the current pics of Berlin remind me of our time there last June. The pic of you in front of the cathedral has the radio tower in the background. Built by the communists in the 1960's (?) it symbolized secularism in the German government. What they didn't know was if the sun is shining in the afternoon, a bright reflection of a cross appears on the ball, right above the cathedral. I hope you get to see it. Also if you like the graffiti you're seeing, you must go to the East Side Gallery ASAP. Be ready to be touched emotionally. Start at the Oberbaumbrucke (Sunday's I think they have an art market on the bridge) and go from there.
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for reading and for posting a comment! It's always so fun to get comments from people! I didn't know that about the cathedral and the ball! We will have to plan a visit in the afternoon so we can see it. We are dying to go to the East Side Gallery! We were hoping to check it out this Sunday, but it was pretty dreary and rainy so we thought we'd save it for a nicer day. The Art Market sounds like a great idea too! We are definitely going to do that!
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