Up on Landsberger Allee is a little of Russia still life and kicking in the form of a Russian supermarket. Here you buy all the products that your average Russian misses from the homeland. Outside the supermarket is an on going BBQ selling the most delicious Schaschlik you will find this side of the River Don. For those of you not acquainted with Schashlik, it is pork on a stick with a vinegar dressing. And for those of you that think that out door grilling is only for the summer think again, it is all year and there is a little tent to keep the elements away.
There is no better way to spend an afternoon or cheaper for that matter than to buy some Russian beer and sit outside the supermarket stuffing your self with meat and watching the Russian Diaspora living there lives. The only draw back is you have to be some what creative when it come to going to the toilet… there is none… well not an official one… but bears also wee in the woods…
Lübars is the oldest village in Berlin and was first mentioned in 1247. Pre 1989 it was a place of real affection for the West Berliners who were completely surrounded by the Berlin wall as it was the only place that felt like a village. Their next opportunity would be several hundred kilometers away in West Germany.
On the steps of Rathaus Schöneberg which was used as the City Hall for the West Berlin government is where the US President John F. Kennedy held his “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech in June 1963. In this defiant stance aimed at the Soviet Union who had 22 months earlier erected a wall around West Berlin he said “Two thousand years ago the proudest boast was 
The Weißensee cemetery is the second largest Jewish cemetery in Europe and contains approximately 115.000 graves. It miraculously survived the Second War World and the Nazis relatively unscathed, and was only actually partially damaged during an allied air raid. During the next 44 years the place was pretty much neglected as basically the entire Jewish communiity had been murdered or exiled, and also for the fact that it was encouraged in the communist East Germany that only Marx and Engels would be worshipped.
Kotti…As part of Josefine in the danger zone we visited Kottbusser Tor. Now many of you will have forced to watch/ or read the book “The children of Bahnhof Zoo” which describes the Heroin drug scene around Berlin Zoo in the late seventies. A very impressive film which should scare the shit out of anyone entertaining the idea of drugs are cool.
(Our intrepid explorers J and J take the rest of the family on a trip to another corner of Berlin…the Wrangel Kiez)
Where to get a spit-roasted chicken is not quite as hotly contested as where is the best kebab in town title although there are a few contenders. The Hühnerhaus is Kreuzberg institution and set at the entrance to Görlitzer Park which is one of the liveliest parks in Berlin.
