Since last.

There are so many stories to be written down about what I've been doing lately.

I got a job interview and didn't get the job so I went home to Sweden for a while. I went to Denmark, Copenhagen and hitchhicked back to Berlin from there with Amy.

So now I'm back in Berlin. Going to couchsurfing meetings, meeting people, reading classic books, doing a lot of J-walking, drinking coffee and just feeling good to be home.

A thing that did happen since I got back is that I got my purse stolen at a bar. A bar that I really like and have been to many times, so I was not that careful. In the purse was my wallet with credit-card, money, ID and also my keys to the apartment among other things. I was so mad and sad at the same time when I couldn't find it.

But I have filled a police report and all that so hopefully it will turn out again just without the money and stuff but I do hope the purse is somewhere out there.

I haven't been able to sleep well lately. To many things on my mind and sharing a bed for some night is not a great mix. Today I gave up sleeping around six a clock, after just laying awake not falling to sleep.

Tried to sleep again and did for two hours. I need to clear my head a bit more before going to bed, I think.

Amy just woke up. We're getting breakfast and see where this day will take us. You'll never know when in Berlin.

Nice nights.

Some days it feel like I really do nothing. Yesterday felt like it until three a clock.

I had planed to have a try day on a job I applied for, starting at six in the morning. Some hours before I was going to sleep to be able to look awake and happy in the morning, I got an e-mail telling me that they already hired someone. So I had no plans anymore. Spend the morning reading and for lunch I meet Elsa.

During the day I decided that I would take a short trip back to Sweden. I found someone that drives on the great site, a go together site. Great for someone like me that doesn't have a drivers license and don't like fly.

One of Elsa's friends from Sweden is at the moment in Berlin so they where going to play guitar and sing close to Alexander Platz, and I tagged along. The Berlin Monday was sunny but as soon as the sun went down, even if it was really nice listing to them play, it got cold. I got hungry again.

So we headed home to my place to cook some dinner and drink some wine. Our new friend Markus also joined. We cooked, we eat and we talked a lot. We listed to various music and laughed. Sitting in when you're in Berlin, just minutes away from a lot of bars, cafes and restaurants just felt like a waste and we headed out. Walking in the cold October night make me want to go inside as soon as I come outside, so we end up at a bar close to home. They play nice music and we drink some beer and talk a lot more. In a smoke cloud which is almost always how it is spending time at bars. Nice night with friends. Just great times and lots of somethings.

Sunday.

Sundays in Berlin are really nice. At least when the weather stays as good as today.

It's fall in the air but the sun is still shining so you can spend your day outside and not getting to cold.

After some hours sleep I went to Elsa's job that is just a short walk from home. Elsa cooks at a natural food place here in Friedrichshain, that has a lot of great things to eat. Today I eat breakfast there.

Me and my friend Amina sat in the sun and we both had a Elsa's royal. A vegan sandwich that Elsa has come up with and it's of course named after her. It's also really popular, which I understand because it was really good. Amina and I had a chil-chil day, as she would say.

Sundays are the days of flea-markets/flohmark in Berlin and in Friedrichshain there is one on Boxhangen Platz. Not as big as the one on by Mauerpark but a nice one. On the markets in Berlin you can find what ever you are looking for from furnitures to book, old cameras, random cabels, old photos, clothes and art.

Walking around at a market always makes me wonder why do people have so much "shit" laying around and how do they have the energy to bring their things every Sunday to the market?

There are so many things that I don't know what it is or don't even want to know what is. There is wonderful art and prints and vintage dresses that I just want to have also. So far since I moved to Berlin, it is on the markets I have found the best bargains. I have bought two dresses, a big hand-knitted scarf and great boots, all for 13euros! Yes, I does take some time to find what your looking for but when/if you do it's usually quite cheep. I like it a lot.

There is also, at least at Mauerpark, so much food that you just want to eat. For me, I always want to eat a Sunday vegan bus burger. There is also karaoke outside in the park there and can be really funny and great.

Today at Boxhagen Platz I was looking for some furniture, a armchair to have in my room that I could read in. The thing is, even if the market is close to home I not strong enough to carry heavy things but I have hope that if I would find something I will grow mighty muscles in a second. I didn't find anything (so we have to see about the muscle growing some other time) but just walking around with Amina for some time is never wrong. It was just a nice lazy day outside.

On the way home, feeling a bit tried but happy with the day I found a späti (24 hour shop) and got some Club Mate, which is the non alcoholic drink that everybody drinks here all the time. It's good and it feels very hip to be drinking it. Group pressure, yes indeed.

Back in my room I wish I had an armchair to read in but I will try my luck next week at the markets.

New answer.

I watched "Angels with dirty faces" (1938) today and I got my new answer to what I'm going to say when people ask me what I do in Berlin by Rocky Sullivan.

Example conversation:

- So what do you do in Berlin?

- Just sittin' around lookin' pretty, dance a little, play a little, (kind of a hostess).

Isn't that just a great answer then saying nothing?

I liked the movie. To little Bogart(yes, if he's not the main character it's not enough for me), but great none the less.

Couchsurfing.

Do you know what couchsurfing is?

Let me tell you about it. Couchsurfing is a website where people from all around the world sign up for so you can "lend" a couch to travelers. Or that uses "strangers" couches when away in a diffrent city. It's a great platform to meet new people, and locals on while traveling. If you don't have a couch that you can give to a stranger you can always just sign up for meeting for a drink/coffee.

I've had a couchsurfing account for several years now, and like it quite a lot. Mostly I've been hosting surfers on our living-room bed in Stockholm. From Finland to Canada, Australia to Germany and many nationalities has stayed at our place in Stockholm.

I have some surfing experience myself as well. I spent two weeks in Los Angels, USA, just surfing cool peoples couches. I've slept in the same bed as a girl in Germany after a folk-metal party. I've stayed at a floor in Gothenburg, Sweden during the book fair. I had falafel at a balcony in central Malmö, Sweden and biked around the town with an awesome girl. I've had a mattress in a common area in a shared apartment in Berlin and so on.

Sometimes when I tell my parents about couchsurfing they get really worried, but I've meet so many great people surfing and being surfed at.

Let's do some examples:

- I hosted four Germans (that came two and two and didn't know each other), right after coming home to Stockholm after my last long stay in Germany. What I didn't know was that there was a surprise Alice in wonderland party for me one of the days the surfers wore there and we just had an awesome time. Even before we had so much in common so it was just fun hosting them all. I still have contact with them.

- This guy who spent the three days he had in Stockholm playing old NES with us in the apartment and beating my room mate, which I think she still has not forgotten. Also playing lasertag with him and just having a blast.

- Three totally sweat Americans who all spoke "Denglish", a mix of english and german, and even if they just stayed for a day we spent the evening talking about so many things that still are so funny when I think about them.

- This really laid back girl in Gothenburg that was almost like a younger me. Talking about all the books we still want to read but haven't got around to yet. (She's now studying to be a librarian).

This list could go on but I think I've made my point.

Now that I'm in Berlin I really can't host. The apartment is kind of small and I (for the moment) just have a bed in my room. Also I have the smallest room.

The great thing about Berlin (one of many) is that there is a big couchsurfing community and Berlin is a very active couchsurfing city. There are meeting almost every day with couchsurfers doing things around town. There are at least 3 regular couchsurfing meetings a week(!) in different parts of town. If there is something you like to do, you could probably find many couchsurfer in Berlin that like the same thing.

I've stated to go to these meetings, and I've been to a few now. Earlier today was the last one I was to.

Travelers, students, bohemians and others gather at these meetings and have a good time together. You get to talk with a lot of people and get to know them.

Berlin might be a big city but there are some people that always are at the meetings that I've now gotten to know them a bit. And I like that.

Like the american who likes old films and I'm going to a movie night at his place tomorrow to watch a Humphrey Bogart (I love, love Bogart) film tomorrow to just mention one. I also know which ones to avoid at the meetings.

Most couchsurfers are really great and open, but some are just a bit creepy (you take the good, you take the bad) so it good to know which ones you don't have anything to say to.

One example of this is this guy who always talks about the Wallander film, the Swedish PI or crime solver, based on a Henning Makell's (Swedish author) character, and has watched all of them in Swedish and want Swedes to talk Swedish because he thinks it's sexy. I so avoid this guy now on.

Tonight at the meeting there where to many surfers in a to little bar for all of us. It was hard to talk to all because you couldn't get of your seat (if you where lucky to get one) to talk to everyone. Talk to everyone might be a bit to ambitious but it hard just talking to a few. And because I know some people it's easy to just hang out with them or start to and then get stuck at the place you're at. That can be nice but it doesn't feel so social when there's a room full of other people.

So Elsa and I decided to go an with took a Robyn with us. Robyn(yes, just like the Swedish singer and yes, she loves her) is awesome and we went to grab a snack together just talking about many random things. Planing to have a Robyn(the singer) party at Robyn's (the persons) place for example.

Just an awesome girl that we will see more from and that just the thing about couchsurfing. There are so many cool/nice/interesting/awesome guys and girls out there, in this city that I'm looking forward to meet.

I will write about couchsurfing many more times on this blog, I'm sure but now it's time for bed and see what Berlin has in store for tomorrow.

First entry.

Berlin. I'm here. And I've been here for some time now.

I came with my friend Elsa in the beginning of September to the city that I'll always returned to before. And I came to stay. Many ask me what I'm doing here and that's a hard question to answer. I say that I live. Sometimes I say that I do nothing, which could be considered true to people who have a 40 hour work week.

Some people get almost angry if I say that I don't do anything. I mean I do things. Like read, hang out with Elsa and other people, go to couchsurfing meetings, walk around, drink a lot of coffee and so on.

After working all summer with at most just one day of a week, it feels good to do nothing. Or at least less then I did back in Stockholm.

I came to Berlin with plan. That I wanted to do an internship at a museum here. To learn how they work in museums in Germany. So far, no luck. I'm still working on it in the back of my head, and with help from a girl I meet that already works at a museum. She is giving me some advice a long the way. So that's good.

I know, I will run out of money. Everybody keeps telling me that living isn't free. You have to pay rent, food, phone and entertainment amongs other things. I know, but I'm fine at the moment. I will sooner or later probably get a job somewhere, to make some money and have a daytime activate. So that I can finance all the coffee I drink.

The job I would like to get is one in coffee as well. I love coffee and making coffee for others to enjoy I miss from my days at coffee shops.

I've been lucky when it comes to somewhere to live. The first weeks here, me and Elsa shared a bed in a very central apartment on Freidrichstrasse. We lived with two other girls, but I would say that only one counted. She, Janka, is a really great person that we still hang out with. (The other one just hid in her room most of the time.)

After a couple of weeks there it was time to move. I look for WGs (shared apartments) a lot and wrote to many people that I was interested in living with them. Looking for a WG with people that you really enjoy or that aren't stickt vegans or nudist was a bit of a challenge. After a while I got to meet people and see some apartments in Berlin. And boom! I got a room in a music WG.

Two of my room mates play and make music and all the people I live with are so cool. I really enjoy this apartment a lot so I'm so happy that I won the "battle" for it. Let me tell you about what kind of "battle" it was.

The "battle" looked liked this:

I came to the apartment an Sunday afternoon to look at it and meet the people living there.

There are a lot of people in the apartment, all wanting the room that the girls that's moving out has. The apartment is not all that big so all end up in the kitchen, some sitting, some standing. We go around the room saying what we're doing in Berlin and so on. The thing is that no one of the room mates are there at the moment though, so Becky (the girl who lived here before) asked people if they have time to hang out a couple of hours until a room mate comes home. That we could get some beers and get to know each other. Many left. Have lifes, other WGs to see and stuff to do.

Some stay, just like I, and drink some beer with the other ones staying. We talk about many things and the hours pass. More people leave. We talk more. Some more people leave.

When the room mate Shoobi is finally at home it's just me and Pablo, a great Spanish guy. Some have said that they where coming back later but no one shows up. So we hang out a bit more, drink some more beer and then head out to the studio, since Shoobi's band mates need help with some instruments and getting them into the studio. We're done in like five minutes and sit down on the ground talking while many of the people, friend of Shoobi, smoke a cigarette. Come back home to their place again and I stay for a while before going home. Really liking the people there and thinking it was such a great time.

I go to one more of this meetings with other that also want to room, at the same apartment. There is less beer and we are four people + Shoobi hanging out.

A couple of hours after I get a text saying I got the room and I'm so happy I jump up and down at the bar I'm in.

I'm at a couchsurfing meeting, and there are always people looking for place to stay there, and one girl stand up and starts to singing "Happy apartment to you..." and all the other couchsurfers join in. Happy times.

So from my not so furnished room in Friedrichshain comes this blog.

There are so many more this to tell about what I've done here, but I need my coffee now so the stories will continue some other day, at the same blog, Swedes in Berlin: the Jenny edition.

(The name Elsa and I came up with when we where thinking about our own reality show here. Maybe there will be an Elsa edition to.)

So until next time, Tschüß!