Another ikea trip

And I first noticed this vending machine, set up near the customer service area. It's a spare parts vending machine - full of IKEA screws and various other installation parts. So strange!

The kitchen today

I've been sparing with the kitchen pictures over the last few days, so here is the current state of things in the kitchen. The faucet works but the drain is not yet installed - and the washing machine is not yet installed. Today's project was the doors on the upper cabinets. It went smoothly, but like most things took about twice as long as I thought.

I think we're in the kitchen home stretch. 

The long night

The long night is a museum even where many museums are open from 6pm-2am with a single entry fee. We met some friends and hit up two computer game museums, had an interesting tour of the Altes Museum, and ended the night at the communication museum.  My best pictures are of the Berliner Dome at night from the steps of the Altes Museum:

And the atrium inside the communication museum:

Street musicians

We were out at dinner when two street musicians showed up - a trumpet and a bass guitar. We were prepared for the worst, but they were really good and super pleasant to listen to. I asked David to take a picture, but he ended up taking a picture of mostly me instead.

Also, I had a delicious burrito for dinner. Win.

Two things today

I got free chocolate at the store today, it appears to be back-to-school themed:

And this is one of two not-terrible holes I cut in the counter:

More kitchen pics tomorrow, especially if we solve the plumbing snafu (and by snafu I mean the ikea faucet hoses are not long enough for our water hook-up).

At dinner

We went to dinner at an Italian restaurant nearby - we really like this little courtyard with outdoor seating.

The clock in the picture is wrong - it was closer to 8pm!

And we have cabinets!

After countless hours (ok, maybe 10-12 hours) of work, David and I finally have our cabinets up! I'm pretty sure things aren't entirely even, but hopefully they are close enough. We might start in on the countertop tomorrow...

Slow but steady

This is the bracket where tomorrow we will hang out upper cabinetry. It looks sort of simple, but involved two drills (one borrowed from David's work) and two trips to the hardware store. I suppose it's best not to mess around when mounting cabinets to the wall.

I'm not really sure

why this exists. Through the window of an Irish pub, we saw this suit of stormtrooper armor. And there'a a sign prohibiting boogie boarding.

Sometimes things are just strange!

At the Koncerthaus

As part of the Berlin Diplomatic Choir, I sang in the Young Euro Classic with the Georgian Philharmonic Orchestra tonight! It was a little bit like a step into another world - the chorus was a mix of pro and amateur, and it like I was a real musician! Arriving at the Koncerthaus, though, I had no idea where to go...

I had a feeling that I was supposed to enter elsewhere, and indeed, I was told to go to the stage door around back. After dumping my stuff in the dressing room, I made my way to the choir balcony:

Where we ended up first watching the rehearsal for another number with the orchestra:

Before we fine-tuned a few things on the pieces with the chorus. We got a break after a little bit, which I used to take an empty house selfie: 

And a few other photos:

My last picture of the night is on the way to the stage - with the "silence please" light illuminated. 

David also took a few pictures when he came to watch (also our friend Trey came to keep him company, hooray!), starting with a really nice one of the Koncerthaus:

An intermission photo:

And one during the concert:

It was a lot of work, but I was so glad to have an opportunity to sing with some high caliber musicians in such a great venue! The concert was also to honor the birthdays of two composers, and one of them (Giya Kanchelli) was really appreciative of our work (he kept on making a "bravo" gesture to us when he was ushered on stage to bow). Perhaps this was a once in a lifetime opportunity, but I do hope I can do plenty of singing in Berlin! 

Coats of arms

I had rehearsal today at Das Russisches Haus - it's essentially a building for Russian science and arts in Berlin. I'm not really sure who picked it - my suspicion is that we just needed a space big enough for an orchestra and chorus close to our venue tomorrow (The Koncerthaus).

I almost got a great picture during rehearsal but it was ruined by the person in front of me putting her hands up at the wrong moment. You'll have to settle for this picture I took in the foyer of the building - the left is the coat of arms of Moscow and the right is the coat of arms of Berlin. It kind of looks like they are ready to fight!

Blow torch

A few weeks ago when I was just working from home in our temporary apartment, I head a really strange sound from the courtyard, with an accompanying sound... sort of like water rushing. I looked out the window and found the following:

Which, if you can't make it out, is a guy using a blow torch to scour the weeds from between the cobblestones. Here's a better picture of the blow torch:

Nobody likes weeds, but this seemed like a rather strange method of clearing them away. 

Statsoper and ice cream

We didn't go to the Statsoper (state opera house) or anything, but I did take a pretty ok picture of it from the tourist bus today:

We also celebrated moving to the new apartment by getting ice cream! Hooray!

Slightly strange food

Our first trip to the grocery store was overwhelming. We happened to pick one that's not very similar to US grocery stores, and many of the foods are just slightly different. Or very different. Since then we've gotten used to some of the differences in groceries, drinks, and snacks...

I totally forgot to take a picture while out and about (lunch with a friend, hardware store trip, chorus rehearsal) so I just gathered up anything slightly strange in our cabinets and took a group picture:

The fritz-kola is subtitled "caffeinated lemonade." David has had it, I haven't. 

Then there's the Knusper-Müseli mit schololade, which is essentially chocolate granola? I will try it for breakfast tomorrow, but it will probably be sweeter than I like. 

The Bounty is a small candy bar filled with coconut. 

The Nord Gold is a new purchase. It's apparently egg liquor. 

Then there are the Pringles nacho cheese tortilla chips. They are nothing like tortilla chips. They are like the cheddar cheese Pringles, but with a slight kick and no potato. Do not recommend. 

And last, it's the currywurst ketchup. In Berlin, currywurst is essentially a brat with curry-flavored ketchup on the side. David brought this home because he wanted ketchup and it apparently felt wrong to just get normal when he could have a Berlin one. 

The tourist bus

I joined the Diplomatic Chorus here in berlin, and we are rehearsing as part of a group for a big concert this Saturday (details here). The rehearsals are mostly at the Georgian Embassy, and from our place in Freidrichshain, the transit involves taking the bus from Alxanderplatz. One of the two busses I can catch is the 100, which is literally the tourist bus.

On the downside, it is mobbed by tourists who inevitably don't really understand how the busses work (get on the bus in front, show your ticket to the driver, get off the bus in back). On the upside, I get a quick tour of some of Berlin's sights. From my seat on the bus (I pick one of the worst views so I don't fight with sightseers):

Above, the Berlin Cathedral (another picture in this post). Below, the Altes Museum.

We also went by the Reichstag, shown below...

And this is the new age building that apparently hosts the Swedish and Finnish embassies:

We also passed the more notable landmarks of the Brandenburg Gate and the Victory Column, but my seat on the bus was terrible for them today - maybe by the end of the week I'll get a chance. 

Meanwhile, in assembling a kitchen:

Cabinet assembly

Today we started putting together our IKEA kitchen. We finished assembling the upper row of cabinets, and hopefully will have the lower row done soon before starting installation. Here's David posing with one of the cabinet boxes:

And another one of David, this time with the first few steps of assembly done...

Putting on the last piece....

And apparently putting nails in the back is my job, so no David posing here. 

Here is the row of completed cabinets! Hooray!

Warschauer station

I took this about a mile from our current apartment at one of the S-bahn stations. Many of the stations are in the middle of busy areas, but this one is removed by a wide swath of tracks and a long walkway. It feels so strange to have this much open space when a few blocks north is so busy!

The arrival of our cube!

Around noon today, we got the cube that we shipped on June 24! The front door to our new building is nice and wide, so the delivery guy agreed to bring it into our hallway. This is how it looked as I waited for David and a group of co-workers who helped us carry everything up three flights!

And here is the final pile of boxes, up in what we now call the "spare room."

David excitedly opened the box with his disc golf bag and a few boxes of discs. This is how excited he was before he discovered that many of the other discs god squished. :-(

I'll do a more thorough review of upakweship soon (when I was comparison shopping packing, I found it super helpful) but for now I can say that everything went according to plan!

IKEA again

This time, my main focus was curtains (though I also picked up a bathroom mirror and some legs for my desk). I was alone and wasn't sure I could carry it all my bags, so I bought an IKEA cart and loaded it up. Thankfully, the tram wasn't too crowded.

And in motion:

Tomorrow, we get the crate that we shipped to ourselves! I'm also stuck at the new apartment waiting for it, so I might hang some of those curtains... 

The River Spree

I was going to put up more furniture assembly pictures today, but I found some scenery instead. I ride the U12 at least once a week, and it goes over the Spree river in a scenic fashion. Usually the train is fast and crowded, so the best I could hope for is this:


I really don't like the Brandenburg Gate pattern on all the windows. I mean, I get it, we're in Berlin. Today though, my car on the train was curiously empty - and then the train came to a mysterious halt for a few minutes. I finally got a picture that includes the strange people statues on the left of this photo:

And then I turned around and grabbed these as the sunset progressed:

And then the train started moving again and I headed towards dinner and more IKEA assembly! 

Practicalities and some blurry scenery

I thought all my photos today were kind of meh, so you get three:

Practicality #1: Last night when we were finishing up the couch, I nearly stripped a few screws from the IKEA assembly kit. Naturally, I googled the problem today and encountered this blog post which explained that IKEA screws all require a pozidriv screwdriver. I rode the tram over to the hardware store, where I got these bits for my drill (2 flat, 2 phillips, 2 pozidriv) in addition to a pozidriv screwdriver.

Practicality #2: The best machines for buying transit tickets are in the U-bahn and S-bahn stations, but busses and trams all have this handy little machine where you can buy tickets as you get on board. The machine on the left is a ticket validator (it stamps a pre-bought ticket with your ride). I actually don't need the machines now since I have my monthly pass.

Blurry scenery: I could have gotten a better picture, but it was from the middle of the street so I snapped and kept walking. Essentially, I ended up in a new neighborhood due to changing destinations mid-route and liked the contrast of the fancy dome on the left with the TV tower in the background.