Would You Like Fries With That?

Just when I was beginning to seriously question my dinner of gummy bears and larger last night, I remembered I’d accidentally missed taking my anti-depressants and it came to be the first day of my period. Not scurvy then but photosensitivity and electrical brainstorms combined with cramps and a body temperature so high the rain was hitting my skin and rising in steam as I walked is not a fun way to start the day. Luckily this was fixed by a remedy of Swiss chocolate, caffeine and just to be sure it’s not scurvy, a salad.

Wandering around Mitte (the central borough of Berlin) I kept crossing from East to West, the streetlamps and traffic lights indicating where you’re crossed over the old route of the wall. I’ve now seen just about every memorial to the victims of war and tyranny I could ever want to and was struck by a thought as I crossed through Museum Island yet again – is this what Washington will look like in another fifty years post the inevitable US civil war against the billionaires? Will there be memorials to the pinched middle class? Placards detailing the stripping back of women’s rights or art depicting censorship, the environmental devastation brought on by data-centres and generative AI. Maybe Palestine too will have a giant reflecting pools and statues of doves throughout a rebuilt Gaza strip. Or a domed stone building on the banks of the Straight of Hormuz condemning capitalism.

In any case, I have found Berlin fascinating, beautiful and quite sad. I soaked up as much as I could today, stopping for coffee, a call home, some real food and occasionally just to double over in pain (because being a woman is terrific fun). I do feel like I have only seen the tourist side of Berlin, perhaps next time there will be more techno and er, clubs. But that’s not really my scene however I have unfortunately I missed the two days the official Rammstein store is open this month so for that I’m going to have to come back.