Me and Daria had an adventure day in Kreuzberg.

Photo by Daria Rhein

We had Tibetan food at Little Tibet, and ice cream down Yorckstrasse- i had jogurt-maracuja (passion fruit) and lemon-basil-strawberry; Daria had kokonuss and the darkest dark chocolate sorbet I’ve ever seen.

Then we went to the Park am Gleisdreieck and walked along, seeing the last of the lilacs and many wildflowers I know from New England, like Queen Anne’s lace, goldenrod and blue lupine. Goldenrod is considered an invasive species here, and Daria was surprised to learn you can make dye from it.

There were vast bushes of wild roses. I was startled to see actual poppies growing wild here as well, unlike the US where they are policed up.

We saw a unicorn. We saw glades of birches growing in the old railroad tracks and Daria hugged them. I did not know birches were so identified with Moscow; I think of them as a New England thing! We looked up another tree and learned it was Quaking Aspen.

After 18 years of silver-grey California foliage, I am so glad to be among the flora of my childhood again. There were people wandering about everywhere, in the muggy Berlin semi-sun. It was so relaxed.

Eventually we came to this skatepark, where there was a cafe in what looked like an air-traffic control tower. We got Fritz-Kola (tagline: For the night from Thursday to Sunday. Much much caffeine.) and Wostok (tagline: To Friendship and Space Travel!). I had rhubarb and Daria had plum-cardamom!

We made some drawings, and we came up with a new art motto:
NO ART SHAME!!

Daria has a new portfolio site up. It is beautiful and full of gorgeous things. She is the kind of versatile art talent you meet only a few times in a lifetime.

I LOVE BERLIN!