Focusing on food - and other things

I've learned two important things about Germans and Berliners in the last couple of days, thanks to my local friends. Only really old people and tourists say "jawohl" - and Berliners hate it when you call Berliners Berliners. The last part might make a bit more sense with this picture. Behold - a heap of Berliners, a.k.a. pfannkuchen!

For some reason Berliners don't want to take credit for this sugary pastry. It might be a lost battle though. Everywhere in Germany but Berlin it's known as a Berliner - and even in my home country Finland we call it "berliininmunkki". But if you want these babies in this particular city without any eye-rolling, be sure to ask for "ein pfannkuche".

Pfannkuchen aren't the only edibles I've been photographing recently and shooting food has posed an interesting new set of challenges. Just like people, not all foods are photogenic. Like lentil soup. Or custard. Or take a pickle for instance. How in the world do you make it NOT look like a dead frog? Oh well, I love a challenge. Bring it on, Deutsche küche!

I met with my college friend Timo yesterday in Prenzlauer Berg. We walked around in the freezing cold and among other places went to check out Kulturbrauerei, a local gallery/club/art set-up in an old beer brewery (photo below).

We also visited a punk style café for some glühwein and sort of stood out from the anarchist clientele. My visit to the café's bathroom also made me remember why I think some things in the world should be universal. Like bathrooms. I don't care what kind of toilet would be the one - just as long as it would be the same everywhere. I couldn't find the flusher anywhere. I didn't really feel anarchist enough to leave the toilet unflushed so I searched for a button, a knob, a lever, a pedal on the floor or a chain in the ceiling. Nothing. Eventually I found the button under a "Kein Sex Mit Nazis"-sticker and made my way out.

I visited the Berlin Wall remains the other day at the East Side Gallery and took a photo series of people who came to see it. I'll publish some of them here a bit later. I selected the people randomly and got portraits of some charming people from all over the world from Morocco to Brunei. One of the people I took a picture of was surprisingly enough another freelance journalist - with a very interesting background actually, I'll tell you more about it later. We exchanged business cards and will meet tomorrow. That's what I'd call random networking!