My E5 Hackney

I almost forgot about this video. It shows my drug hell house, a really nice café called "Dreyfus" (go there! http://www.dreyfuscafe.co.uk/), the soap that will forever remind me of my druggie flatmate, because he used to buy exactly that brand (you need clean hands for your needle) and lovely Mare Street down to Hackney Central. I made these snippets when I was back in Britain. In case you missed my odd feelings about that trip, catch up here.

https://t.co/SvL9Qx4UWH
— Laura Varriale (@LrVrrl) 16. Dezember 2013

Every time I’m thinking of leaving Berlin, comes a weekend and...

…I decide to stay.

During the last weeks - well, since September to be more accurate - I’ve been getting constant flashbacks from London. I know, I know. It’s normal to think of what happened exactly one year ago. But with another degree to end soon and a highly competitive job market (listen to the people who say “don’t go into journalism unless you’re in the countryside and happy with local association stories”) the question evolves whether to stay in Berlin or not.

It might be the Berlin winter issue. It’s horrible in the winter here. GDR buildings greyer than grey, cold wind piping through the streets and the weird and awful moisture on trams. But is it that?

Do I need a change of scenery? I had that already in London and was not too sad to come back. What am I complaining about? Berlin is hip, comparatively cheap and I can sit every morning in a café without feeling the social pressure to work during office hours, because everyone else in the café bumming around is either a freelancer, unemployed or an unemployed freelancer. (Yes and some are existentialistic hedonistic pensioners)

So I shouldn’t feel bad about hopping from one job to another and complaining about money. No one has it. Even the city itself. Or is it the quarter-life-crisis? Naaah, I don’t think so. Besides some stuff I really like my life. Poor but sexy. What are they then, these constant doubts?

Maybe I should ask the question the other way around: why am I not leaving Berlin? Hell yes, that’s a brilliant thought. This is an easy answer: Because Berlin centres its beauty on the evenings and weekends. No it’s not at all about Berghain and booze. It’s about the people. For more than one hundred years, the city has been a magnet to all sorts of people. It’s the spirit of the night that brings these interesting people and me together. As I am mostly out and about at the weekend, it’s the weekend that saves my love for Berlin. Thank you weekend.

You probably find a lot of fascinating people everywhere (maybe not in Hanover) but the density is very high here. Of course I met great people in London, but they are rather split up between their E5, N1 and E2s.

Aaah, everything’s fine. I will put this post on the wall and read it out loud on weekdays before going to bed. My personal Lord’s prayer. Let’s light a candle for the city. Amen.