Truth be told, I am one of those people that spends the majority of my free time with my boyfriend. We both have separate work obligations and social lives here in Berlin, but more often than not, I would rather spend a weekday evening or a weekend afternoon with M. I consider this a major plus; we have an incredible amount of fun together, regardless of what we are doing.
Yet in spite of this, I sometimes need my girl time. Especially since I have been in Berlin, it’s helpful to have supportive and strong females in my life, and it doesn’t hurt that my closest friend here in Berlin, K., is not only also dating a German, but also an ex-pat (from Slovenia).
She and I met almost a year ago, when we were in the same German class in Neukölln. I was intent on not making friends, but I noticed her right away and thought she seemed cool. By the second week, she was sitting next to me and interrupting me while I read on my Kindle during the breaks, and by the end of that week we were Facebook friends, and on our way to becoming real friends too.
Yesterday was another one of our meetups, which sadly tend to be planned around the absence of boyfriends. Hers was with his dad while mine was working, and neither of us had to be home early, so we met up in the late afternoon to hang out, riding our bikes to a midway point.
Our original plan was to hit up Factory Girl! for some magnolia, which is a delicious vegan dessert they make. But when I ordered, I was informed they no longer make it vegan and use eggs now. I don’t really understand why, and have inquired with them online, but in the meantime, from what it sounds like, there was no real reason to make this change. All in all, I am kind of disappointed in the place; we will see what the official response is.
Anyway, we quickly changed plans and headed across the river into my hood. After riding through Kreuzberg and Nord-Neukölln a bit, I remembered a place I had heard of with vegan offerings, Sing Blackbird, and decided that was as good a place as any–I had been meaning to check it out for some time.
It’s a cute little hybrid cafe and vintage clothing shop, and although they had a vegan berry cake, I went instead for the American pancakes. Yum!
Even paired with a beer, the pancakes were good: fluffy and warm and with maple syrup. K. had a glass of wine, and we just hung out and talked. We don’t always get together as often as we should, but whenever we do, I feel like I can talk about any and every thing, because more so than anyone else here (M. aside), she gets me. And that’s not so easy to find in someone.
As it got later and the weather got colder, we decided to ride back to Friedrichshain and make dinner at her place. I’m glad we rode when we did, because it started raining shortly after arriving at her flat. But no worries; we drank beer and made some pumpkin risotto, which was delicious.
Eventually 10 p.m. rolled around and her boyfriend was going to head home, while I had to head out to meet mine at a show. Good timing. All in all though, yesterday was just what I needed. Boyfriends are awesome, but there is nothing quite like girl time.
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