I’ve been reading a great new blog called The Irish Berliner, written by, as you might suspect, an Irishman living in Berlin.
He’s a freelance journalist also doing an internship at the dreaded Bild Zeitung, but don’t hold it against him.
His writing is enthusiastic and refreshing and his latest post is the coolest thing I’ve stumbled across in 
a long time. Imagine tooling around a real museum of history, pulling open filing cabinets and rummaging though the old Iraqi embassy in the former East Berlin 20 years after they beat back to Baghdad. Oh, and dodging the cops to get inside.
He’s done it all, brought back words, pictures and a how-to-get-there.
Brilliant.
The banner photograph shows the town of Britannia Beach, BC, Canada, where I grew up. It's home. But I don't live there anymore.
Thanks for the link. What an amazing post. And what refreshing, exciting journalism!
He was’t getting a whole hell lot of comments, which seemed thoroughly undeserved. I hope this will help change that.
Excellent post – and a good laugh reading his comment that “two stolen bikes later…he doesn’t see any reason to live anywhere else…”
See how much you’ve taught me about life over there?
Isn’t he great!? I’ve been reading him for a couple of months. It seems silly that he wasn’t getting much in the way of comments. Happily you’ve discovered him and can point your considerable fan base his way.
You know, I hate to be a spoilsport, but breaking and entering with friends from Alternative Berlin, baiting security and police, and looking forward to riots seems sort of douchey to me. But it’s probably about as harmless as graffiti, right? http://lettershometoyou.wordpress.com/2009/09/10/yuppie-scum-go-home/
I really don’t think you can compare the two, do you? Considering the condition the it’s in, it’s not as if they trashed the joint – just hung out for a while and then left. Had they sprayed someone’s living space with graffiti – the park near where we live belongs partly to us and is part of our living space, at least to me – then I’d agree with you.
Something contradictory in saying “I hate to be a _________ but…” No you don’t, or you wouldn’t do it. Just for the record, nobody was baited, no buildings ever damaged, while yes, the riots were admittedly disappointing. I think the Polizei were more disappointed than anyone else though. Always next year I suppose…