English phone booth in Moabit © Lilly Schwartz 2011

Yesterday was the day when I put the heating on. It’s getting cold in Berlin now and the weather is getting more nasty too. Originally we also weren’t planning to go out. It was just too cosy inside in comparison to the cold weather out in the street. However, in the end we went out anyway, so that I could take some pictures and also because I wanted to try and find some gummibears too. I might not have mentioned this before, but I’m quite addicted to that stuff. That might be a problem when you try and find them Sunday night when all the normal shops in Germany are closed. However, there’s usually an off-licence open even at night in the big cities. Maybe not Sunday night at 1am, but until 10pm it’s not a problem.

We found an off-licence just a block from here, a little Turkish one that sells tobacco, a few basics and luckily also gummibears. They had a few types and in the end I decided to try the ones that seemed to have been imported from Turkey. They were in the shape of worms in two colours and they were tasty enough, although I probably would have enjoyed a different kind more. After all these are experiments in experience though, so I better experience some stuff, right? Including Turkish halal gummibears. Halal means in this case that the gelatine contained in them is beef gelatine rather than gelatine made from pork as is preferred in Germany since the outbreak of mad cow disease some years back.

Apart from pictures of this strange English phone booth I took mostly pictures of illuminated shop windows yesterday since it was already dark. I was also planning the phone booth shot for a while now and I already spent quite some time trying to find the right angle for it a few days ago.

And no, I have no idea why there is an English phone booth in Berlin just 2 blocks from my house. It probably belongs to this conspiracy that tries to make sure I’m reminded that England will never quite let me go. The first sign of that I encountered when I moved into my flat: The flat is furnished and there is a huge poster of a red London bus on the wall. It’s as if the universe is trying to mock me by placing strange references to England in my life when I’m trying to leave the experience of living in England behind me. That’s just as well though; some things never quite want to remain in the past.