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Berlin Adventure #792 - last night I went out to see Land of Talk perform at the Diamond Lounge/White Trash.  The indie-pop trio from Montreal are gaining in popularity in North America,  recently opening for the Decemberists. Great show, followed up by some dirty pork Pelmini at a dive bar on the Torstr.  On the way home I rode down Gormannstr which intersects with Linienstr. Linenstr has been under construction for almost 2 years now and is more Dodge City than Berlin. There is no road surface,  only a track that has contours reminiscent of a mountain biking trail.  The sides are littered with construction refuse and large-ish holes,  all of which change on a day-to-day basis.  During the day this isn’t much of a problem to navigate on a bike, however at night, seeing as there are no functioning streetlights,  the road becomes more treacherous.   I was riding cautiously with the false confidence that my little Dynamo Light would catch any major hazards.  WRONG.  I had to slam on my breaks when I realized that I was about 3 feet away from a GIANT PILE OF DIRT - pictured above. Of course,  no warning signs in front of the MASSIVE PILE OF DIRT and nothing closing off the street. Had I braked a second later or had 1 beer more,  I would have come home looking like I’d been to Burning Man.   That massive mound is sort of like Berlin - a giant collection of material waiting to be useful but at the moment just stagnating and blocking people’s paths.   Ok ok,  Berlin isn’t so bad. It is a great place to live, but it certainly isn’t a hot-bed of ambition or professionalism, as demonstrated by the city road works department. 

Berlin Adventure #792 - last night I went out to see Land of Talk perform at the Diamond Lounge/White Trash.  The indie-pop trio from Montreal are gaining in popularity in North America,  recently opening for the Decemberists. Great show, followed up by some dirty pork Pelmini at a dive bar on the Torstr. 

On the way home I rode down Gormannstr which intersects with Linienstr. Linenstr has been under construction for almost 2 years now and is more Dodge City than Berlin. There is no road surface,  only a track that has contours reminiscent of a mountain biking trail.  The sides are littered with construction refuse and large-ish holes,  all of which change on a day-to-day basis.  During the day this isn’t much of a problem to navigate on a bike, however at night, seeing as there are no functioning streetlights,  the road becomes more treacherous.   I was riding cautiously with the false confidence that my little Dynamo Light would catch any major hazards.  WRONG.  I had to slam on my breaks when I realized that I was about 3 feet away from a GIANT PILE OF DIRT - pictured above. Of course,  no warning signs in front of the MASSIVE PILE OF DIRT and nothing closing off the street. Had I braked a second later or had 1 beer more,  I would have come home looking like I’d been to Burning Man.  

That massive mound is sort of like Berlin - a giant collection of material waiting to be useful but at the moment just stagnating and blocking people’s paths.   Ok ok,  Berlin isn’t so bad. It is a great place to live, but it certainly isn’t a hot-bed of ambition or professionalism, as demonstrated by the city road works department.