5th April 2024 - Berlin Day 2
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LAst night ended up with enjoying some udon noodles and rather tasty 
but confusing to eat edemame beans. They were cooked in a nice spicy 
chilli oil and it seemed like you are meant to just eat the pod. 
However, this was so stringy that I couldn't. I ended up squeezing the 
beans out and trying to destring the outers. Hard work with just a 
fork and a spoon. Ah well. Tasted good. I then went off to a rather 
good craft beer bar. It had 20 beers on the board and they were 
delightful. I ended up listening to FLUX and chatting in com from the 
bar which was a bit strange but fun. I enjoyed several beers but when 
last orders was called decided to go for a rather strong 20%er. That 
was very boozy in flavour. Possibly too much to be enjoyable but you 
have to give these things a go. The bar is Biererei. Well worth a 
visit. The walk home was a lot of fun. A bottle of Jever, music 
pumping and a warm glow. 

The head wasn't all that happy this morning. Not surprising really. A 
swift breakfast of cake and the world feels better. I headed down to 
Potsdammer Platz again as I had booked a slot for the spy museum. 
However, there was time to kill so I popped into the Communications 
Museum. Now that was a surprise. It is a grand building for a start 
and I was not sure what to expect. It was filled with lots of Deutsche 
Post paraphenalia but also some great exhibits about comms over the 
ages. There is a load of interactive stuff on the ground floor for 
kids to learn about comms issues. The first floor has a time line of 
comms tech and lots of interactive bits for morse code etc, There was 
a couple of rooms which just made me smile and giggle. It was a 
display of random comms tech. Displayed in glass cabinets and loosely 
grouped. It was great just looking and seeing telephone exchanges, 
morse keys, teletypes, mobiles, and public pay phones. The second 
floor was an exhibit about war time comms and then a climate control 
exhibit. That has weird screens with people you can sit across from 
and feel like you are having a conversation with them. The creepy part 
is how they are always moving while waiting for soneone. Too real and 
yet not real enough. This was a really pleasent surprise of a museum 
although my degree was in communications engineering so I might be 
biased.

The spy museum came next. This was manic. Too many people and suddenly 
the time slot stuff makes sense. At first, this museum felt a bit 
pants. Lots of information but presented in a way which felt lacking. 
However you go up the stairs and then you see why it is so popular. 
Lots of great exhibits of radios, encryption devices, hidden maps, 
micro cameras and other interesting gadgets. There was a cool aspect 
with the cold war where one side of the room is the democratic view of 
life and the other side was the communist side. There were some great 
ways of showing how defectors could be trusted or seem impossible to 
have defected and yet the reasons for that defection. A really 
interesting collection. Just book ahead!

A swift visit to the S bahn and I ended up by Hackescher Markt. This 
was a nice spot where I decided to enjoy some ice cream. It is not a 
holiday without sone ice cream! A short walk took me behind the 
Berliner Dom and to the DDR museum. This was another manic affair but 
it was really well presented. Well worth a visit. There is a clear way 
in but one side takes you towards the end while the other gets you to 
the actual start. I went to the wrong side. Do not take the left hand 
enterance from the ticket desk. Go right instead. I thought there was 
no coherent storyline. It was just random stuff. Interesting but 
random. There were lots of great perspectives. One which was 
interesting was comparing wages. Most jobs seemed to be around 1200 
Marks a month with only scientists and engineers going over to 1600 
Marks. The reference given was that a TV cost about 3 or 4 months 
wages. That was certainly an interesting aspect. There was a 
recreation of a flat, the sort with indoor toilets. The windows were 
cleverly screens which had changing weather and sun cycles. Everything 
was there to touch and you were rewarded with opening cupboards to 
find more information out. I loved the design of the exhibits. 

Dinner involved a lovely oddity. A Sri Lankan pizzeria. Yep. An 
elderly couple with a tiny restaurant with like 4 tables inside and 
self service with the drinks. They offer pizza, pasta and Sri Lankan 
curry dishes. It was really good. I went with a red lentil, spinach 
and vegetables curry. A creamy delight which felt like it had been 
tamed down but built up over time. A lovely find. It is called 
Pizzaria Verdura. After this, I went to watch a burlesque show. Well, 
why not. I went to the Kleines Nachtrevue. It was a rather intimate 
affair. Possibly space for 30 or so people. The cast involves 6 
talented ladies and a rather portly long beared chap who provided some 
great comedic relief. There was lots 'skits' which varied from an 
operatic song about cleaning and masturbating to ostrich feather fan 
dances to a pair of worms exploring the world until they discover each 
other and have fun. There was a Kraftwerk bit about the chap and one 
lady being robots to Das Model until they get tangled up. There was 
high art and sheer smutty humour. It was a fun experience and I 
heartily recommend it. I was a touch self concious as a male who was 
there on their own. I felt others thought I was there just for the 
nudity. I was there for the performances and a bit of playful nudity. 
I had never been to a burlesque show before so it felt like a novelty 
too. Well worth a visit for an interesting evening. 

Then a trip back to the hotel to enjoy Tyn's show and a couple of 
beers before bed. 

Oh I forgot and sort of can't be bothered to edit this but I went 
stationary shopping. I ended up going to Dussmann Das KulturKaufhaus. 
This was due to my spotting a Leuchtterm 1917 event going on there 
today. I love Leuchtterm notebooks and the event was a free printing 
of your name on notebooks. I was sort of after a travel notebook and 
a small one for recipes. Prices were the same number in Euros as in 
GBP at home so there was a slight saving. I was also keen to get 
another Kaweco AL Sport. I had bought the iguana one recentl and 
loved the texture of the pen. The grey oen I have is smooth and not as 
nice. So I bought another... In black so more suitable for the office 
than the iguana. That remains a pen for use with Aurora Borealis 
Diamine ink for when writing things for my neice. Silly but meh. 
Anyhow, the black AL sport has the same slightly rough texture. Happy 
times! It was also an excuse to walk the length of Friedrichstrasse 
and enjoy the architecture.