Saturday 11 June: On our last day in Dresden we wanted to see the Yenidze is a former cigarette factory building.
It was built between 1907 and 1909 by the Yenidze Tobacco Company which imported tobacco from Ottoman Yenidze, Thrace (modern Genisea, Greece) and sold it under the brand name Salem. The "Oriental" style of architecture by Martin Hammitzsch drew from the design of mosques and functioned as advertising for the firm. It’s a unique and fantastic looking building and beautifully restored. Unfortunately it is sandwiched between a railway line and a tram line and hemmed in on other sides by other structures which made it almost impossible to photograph. And on an overcast morning the poor lighting didn’t help either.
On our way back to the BnB, we came across the start of a cabrio car rally that had some pretty expensive machinery involved. No-one spoke English so I couldn’t get any information on what it was all about.
We also came across an Antique and Treasure market that had all of the usual bric-a-brac, except this in had war paraphernalia from the other side. There were quite a few things that tempted us, and there was one stand that sold not only 78RPM records, but players as well. With a mighty effort we resited the temptation, only buying the obligatory jar of home-made jam.
We packed and arrived at the station about 30 minutes early for the train to Berlin, but were told that the later we bought a ticket, the more it cost. The first time we experienced this. We could by tickets for the next train at 80 Euros, wait 2 hours for the next one and pay only 48 Euros, or travel in the evening for even less! We gave in and caught the early train.
What’s under a manhole cover? Well a catch tray filled mainly with lots of cigarette butts.
The 2 hour train trip to Berlin passed quickly as we shared a compartment with a Chines couple from Beijing. They have been working as journalists for Chinese media in Berlin for the past year, so we had some interesting discussions about cross-cultural situations. The most interesting thing he said was that even if he spoke German (and he did very well) to the locals they almost always responded in English (which he also spoke quite well) as it was the language of international communication. Regarding food – the 20 workers at the office have a Chinese chef to prepare meals.
Our accommodation is a small first-floor self-contained apartment in south-east Berlin in Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg which is a pretty multicultural area. We felt right at home, next to a French restaurant and a Turkish café. It's the same place Phil & Lyn stayed when they were here. We were both a bit tired and took the afternoon off.
It looked like there were some restaurants and cafes across the canal, so in the evening (it’s still light at 10pm) we headed out. Talk about restaurants and cafes, they were virtually wall-to-wall, and almost none were traditional German restaurants – Turkish, Italian, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Mexican, and more.
The choices were so great, it was difficult to make a decision, but we looked into a Mediterranean restaurant.In Australia it usually means Lebanese but this was run by Turks. It had a really simple and smart décor and the food looked quite good, if a little tired – as in sitting in warming trays too long.
They had a simple system of choosing form their selection, and then charging accordingly which worked fine for us. Also they had a lemon beer that seemed quite interesting. It was 40% beer and 60% ‘lemonade’, so about 2% alcohol and tasted fine.Frances had a soup (tasty but too oily) and Moussaka accompanied by chickpea and rice which she really enjoyed. I had a selection of lamb wrapped in eggplant topped with tomato, a stuffed capsicum, and cabbage rolls accompanied by rice and roasted, sliced almonds – again delicious but a little oily. Overall though, it was exactly what we wanted and an enjoyable evening out.
