Last of Berlin

In the event, as in actual fact, that you are several days behind what I'm up to through my erratic internet access, I'm going to have to summarise quickly.

In Berlin, I saw some things.

Too concise? I saw the East Side Gallery - the bit of the wall that the eastern Berliners where more than happy to paint all over before it came down, the area that my grandfather grew up in, the Jewish museum in all of its disconcerting architecture (by the way, if you go, take a whole day to do it in. We only got to see half of it because we realised that it had taken us almost 3 hours to see the history up until the 16th century), Prenzlauer berg and the cool bit and some lovely people.

My host in Prenzlauer berg took us to a bar, tiny, crowded and the most fun I've had at a drinking establishment because at this particular place the main activity is ping pong. The bar itself is far too crowded to get to, one try at elbowing our way through for a beer and a rented bat was more than enough, the DJ was playing amazing stuff, and all the while a universal rotating ping pong game was going on. You've played it before if you don't know what I'm talking about - if more people than four want to play you just keep hitting it over the net while walking around the table. The last two still in have a contest to 5 points and then the game starts again.

It was easy to pick the keen players, and equally easy to shed the more inebriated of the crowd with a well placed ball.

There were mostly locals there too, which I liked. Aparently some guidebook or another had included this establishment as a great place to go to, and while I agree - as the tourist contingent grew we squeezed ourselves out into the cold Berlin evening.