When I first moved here, the city was an absolute stranger. But now, eight years later, Berlin is as familiar to me as a long-time lover you’ve spent so much time with, you could identify them by the sound of their footsteps or the smell of their B.O. I’ve got my favourite vendor at the […]
Tag Archives: shops
Cuckoo for Cookies // Raiding a cookie factory in Tempelhof
If you’ve ever spent any time on the southern end of Tempelhof Park, you may have found yourself suddenly racked by an unexplainable craving for cookies. That’s because if the wind is just right, it carries over the vanilla-sweet scent of a cookie factory located on the other side of the Ringbahn. I figured this […]
Karl-Marx-Allee 99 // Berlin, nostalgia, and a bygone Briefmarkenhandel
Like everyone, I have my vices. These include: Haribo candy; buying more lip balm than I could ever use; a mild Google-stalking habit; nostalgia. The word “nostalgia” was coined by a Swiss medical student in 1688. Back then, it was considered a disease, to be treated with leeches, opium, and bracing Alpine air. In her […]
Polska, Please // Prime Polish posters at the Pigasus shop
I have a thing for Poland. The first (but not the last) time I went there was in the dead of winter, six years ago. From Prague, I boarded an overnight bus destined for Minsk. I, however, would disembark halfway in Łódź, the Polish city whose post-industrial desolation had so charmed David Lynch, he decided […]