15 November, arrived in Berlin, (British Airways, connection in London) in the evening. And straight to a new flat, a short term sublet with Nicky, whom I had not met but we had a mutual friend Matt. We had been communicating via email, about renting a room in the flat she shared with her partner, Marie.

Nicky is an artist, from South Africa/New Zealand, and one of my favourite artists. Link to her works. And utilising the binary 1 and 0 in her work, applies this with a stamp. She had her studio in the flat, and sometimes you could hear her stamping. My new address until the beginning of December was Karl-Marx Allee 49, in Mitte. It was a bit of mission finding it when I landed, but got there in the end.

I would walk down to the Christmas night market at Alexander Platz quite a lot, even though its cold, nice to look around. Everything is all lit up, and different to anything I have seen. As my body is still adjusting to Jetlag, and I am resting a lot, its winter but the room and flat are surprisingly warm. I buy some winter boots and clothes too.

I looked for events on Couchsurfing, and met with a miscellaneous group whom were going to exhibition openings together, and then out for dinner. A friendly bunch whom didn’t know each other beforehand.

I went to the NZ consulate to vote in the NZ elections at the end of November and met some new friends. As there were many discussions whilst waiting to vote. 2nd Dec, move into a new sublet in Kruesberg, an artist called Kokens flat that I had found on Craigslist. The flat is on Lausitzer Str. 15, and upstairs my neighbour Connie was very kind to me. She is a German woman whom helped me when the kitchen sink got completely blocked.

Kerem, comes to stay, he is from Munich and thinking of moving to Berlin. We had met at Prana festival in NZ. It was fun spending time, as he is very funny, and we walked around a lot. He tells me about Vipassana meditation.

Nicky and her partner organised an art auction, and Kerem and I went along, I ended up buying a photographic print of water, hadn’t expected to buy anything, but all of a sudden I was raising my hand! It was fun.

And I meet new friend Lola, in a café. I was looking for a hairdresser, I liked her haircut so asked her whom cut her hair, she said ‘my flatmate’. We ended up talking for a long time, and meeting up again, and she was a new friend. So, her Mexican flatmate Miguel, was a the hairdresser and I ended up getting many great haircuts from him at their flat in the next year. I also rest a lot. My system is still very tired.

I go to Christmas celebration at the house of one of the NZ peeps I met at the Consulate whilst voting, Andrew. He is a musician from Dunedin, and his family were over to visit, they were all very welcoming. So it is a kiwi Christmas. But the night before I went to a Couch Surfing dinner, and didn’t get home till the early morning, so it was also a Berlin Christmas. I loved going to the Turkish Markets in Kruesberg, such amazing food and at really good prices, all beside the water.

Boxing day, a woman from Moscow, through Couchsurfing, contacts me and asks if I would like to go to art galleries with her. I went along and met with her, thought I had better make an effort to look at art that was on my doorstep.

I went to stay with Lola at her flat over the New Years, and there was a party to celebrate, Miguel DJ’s and also does capoeira, he and his friends do this on the rooftop terrace, which was brilliant to watch. Lolas friend Wunmi, is also staying, and Lola has wigs for us to wear. At twelve, so many double happies and fireworks go off, never seen or heard anything like it. Looking out over the rooftops and 360 degrees of bam bam bam. The next morning there are shells of carnage all over the streets. We enjoyed this time, Lola, Wunmi and I, we sing and hold hands together as we walk down the street visiting places. I was to go to the next sublet on the 4th of January.