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Jul. 22nd, 2005 09:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
auntiemeeshI did some exploring today in Berlin. I had to go the coffeehouse to pick up the training videos on how to make a great cup of coffee (my entertainment for the weekend). While I was there I figured I would walk around for a little while, find some place to eat and see what the shopping district had to offer.
First up was food. I asked J and C at the coffeehouse and they recommended something that sounded like T-Birds, saying I could get a good sandwich there if I hit it before the lunch hour rush. I was envisioning a place that sold lots of greasy steak sandwiches and things like that. J told me it was next to something which sounded a lot like Middle Earth. My ears pricked up. I went to explore.
What I found was a restaurant called Tea Birds Cafe. The menu was unexceptional but the sandwich was good and the french fries were very tasty. The atmosphere of the place was very overdone, however. I almost turned around and walked back out as soon as I entered. The place seems to inhabit what was once two stores (nearly all the stores along the street are very long and narrow, and several of them seem to have expanded into a neighboring space at one time or another). The lower walls are wainscotted and painted a deep brick red, while above a chair rail the walls are painted a very bold yellow. There is a lovely arch between the two sections, finished with brick and wood trim, but there is another opening that looks as though it was done in a hurry, quickly framed out with 2x4s. There are all sorts of very ornate wall hangings, tons of fake potted plants, especially in the big window, and lots of knick-knacky type things that look like Victorian era toys and such (I could be wrong on that - my eras get easily confused). The tables were all in different shapes and sizes, with mismatched chairs. It would have been quite charming except that it was so totally overdone as to be slightly gag-worthy.
After I'd eaten and deposited my leftovers in the car, I went off in pursuit of Middle Earth. It was easy enough to find, located only two doors down from the restaurant. Middle earth, it seems, is full of scented candles, incense, New Hampshire t-shirts, new age music and gift cards. There was nothing about it to explain the choice of names, but still, it was a nice enough place.
Anyway, there are a couple of nice stores along the shopping street, a clothing shop that has lots of trendy stuff (i.e. things I can't wear because I'm not fashion-model thin), a great little shoe/knick knack store and the coffeehouse.
I did all my exploring early because we were due for thunderstorms and I'm not really confident of my driving-in-the-rain skills yet. So I've spent the afternoon curled up on the sofa with a good book, Intervention, by Julian May. The story itself is really good, although I didn't get into it until I was a few chapters in, but the other interesting thing about it is that it is set in New Hampshire and a lot of it takes place here in Berlin and some of the surrounding towns that I've started becoming familiar with. It's a lot of fun to be able to recognize at least some of the landmarks, such as the stinky, stinky pulp mill.
Tomorrow I volunteer at the library and then![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
whtmtnwmn and I are going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then get PIZZA!
First up was food. I asked J and C at the coffeehouse and they recommended something that sounded like T-Birds, saying I could get a good sandwich there if I hit it before the lunch hour rush. I was envisioning a place that sold lots of greasy steak sandwiches and things like that. J told me it was next to something which sounded a lot like Middle Earth. My ears pricked up. I went to explore.
What I found was a restaurant called Tea Birds Cafe. The menu was unexceptional but the sandwich was good and the french fries were very tasty. The atmosphere of the place was very overdone, however. I almost turned around and walked back out as soon as I entered. The place seems to inhabit what was once two stores (nearly all the stores along the street are very long and narrow, and several of them seem to have expanded into a neighboring space at one time or another). The lower walls are wainscotted and painted a deep brick red, while above a chair rail the walls are painted a very bold yellow. There is a lovely arch between the two sections, finished with brick and wood trim, but there is another opening that looks as though it was done in a hurry, quickly framed out with 2x4s. There are all sorts of very ornate wall hangings, tons of fake potted plants, especially in the big window, and lots of knick-knacky type things that look like Victorian era toys and such (I could be wrong on that - my eras get easily confused). The tables were all in different shapes and sizes, with mismatched chairs. It would have been quite charming except that it was so totally overdone as to be slightly gag-worthy.
After I'd eaten and deposited my leftovers in the car, I went off in pursuit of Middle Earth. It was easy enough to find, located only two doors down from the restaurant. Middle earth, it seems, is full of scented candles, incense, New Hampshire t-shirts, new age music and gift cards. There was nothing about it to explain the choice of names, but still, it was a nice enough place.
Anyway, there are a couple of nice stores along the shopping street, a clothing shop that has lots of trendy stuff (i.e. things I can't wear because I'm not fashion-model thin), a great little shoe/knick knack store and the coffeehouse.
I did all my exploring early because we were due for thunderstorms and I'm not really confident of my driving-in-the-rain skills yet. So I've spent the afternoon curled up on the sofa with a good book, Intervention, by Julian May. The story itself is really good, although I didn't get into it until I was a few chapters in, but the other interesting thing about it is that it is set in New Hampshire and a lot of it takes place here in Berlin and some of the surrounding towns that I've started becoming familiar with. It's a lot of fun to be able to recognize at least some of the landmarks, such as the stinky, stinky pulp mill.
Tomorrow I volunteer at the library and then
whtmtnwmn and I are going to see Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and then get PIZZA!
