So I would like to generously share with you some more exciting and illuminating photos from Berlin.

First, please note the pleasantness of this scene, as I innocently walked down the street in Prenzlauer Berg the other day on my way to write wholesomely about mermaids:



And then look more closely...



at the evil and cowardly moppet shooting me a death glare from within the safety of his momma's arms!!!

I know. Evilness abounds here.

I somehow managed to make it to my favorite cafe, however, which I have now generously documented in a rare moment when all the beautiful Hegel-reading boys were absent:





Doesn't that look like the perfect (perfectly pretentious!) place to write? Sadly, with my book (over)due, that is the main thing I do in Berlin right now, but now I am set to turn in my book MONDAY. Plus there are other rooms here, plus secret staircases that lead to more secret rooms with disco balls downstairs. Lord knows what evil happenings take place there.

Anyway, here is me, every day, stuck to my laptop like a princess to her tower:



Oh and yesterday I found another new favorite cafe, which is decadent and Middle Eastern and romantic and candlelit and gorgeous, where I drank rosewater lemonade and wrote for many moons whilst beautiful boys played chess nearby, and where I am sitting at this very moment accidentally updating this blog instead of writing my book.



I also spent a long time yesterday talking to this Frenchman who lives between London and Berlin and bought a place in Prenzlauer Berg a few years ago for THIRTY THOUSAND EURO (!!). Said Frenchman was speaking English in such a rumbly, accented fashion that I missed the whole "I am from London BUT ORIGINALLY FROM FRANCE" part and suspected he was severely disabled for the first part of the conversation. I also, by the way, spent many hours the other day speaking to this German guy named VOLKER, a name that sounds suspiciously and unfortunately like "fucker" when pronounced properly, I'm just saying, and eventually found myself talking in half sentences to him like a non-native speaker. Isn't it weird how that happens? Just another way the Germans are trying to undo me.

Anyway, please admire a window from the best toy store in the world:



Would you believe that this morning I bought both those robots as well as the bird cage in the back (which holds a singing toy bird) and a variation on the circus/carousel music box in front of the bird cage? I know.

Oh, yesterday I also tried some of this horrible beer that is supposedly very famous with tourists in Berlin and that tastes like kool aid mixed with beer as if the kool aid on its own weren't horrible enough:



It comes in red (strawberry) and green (my waitress didn't know the English word) and I could not even drink it, it was so awful. By the way I have never been a beer drinker and am not sure it's wise for any reason to become one now, but... beer is so good here! And so cheap!

Speaking of horrible things, however, I will just mention how a week or two ago I had dinner at this Mexican place in Prenzlauer Berg. It looked okay and there were a lot of people inside and it was in a neighborhood where almost every restaurant serves some foreign cuisine and so I went in, but the menu was totally confusing, I mean there were pictures of quesadillas where it said "fajitas," and it was all in German of course, so I just asked the waiter what was best and he pointed and said "BURRITOS. Everyone they love these. Do you know burritos?" and I said yes, a burrito was good, and he asked would I like beef or chicken and I said which is better here and he said chicken and so I ordered a chicken burrito and then 15 minutes later he brings me out this huge cracklin platter of chicken fajitas trailing huge plumes of smoke through the whole restaurant. SIGH. No girl would order a plate of fajitas when dining alone, am I wrong? And I am pretty sure that chicken was covered in ketchup.

Anyway, so Berlin is pretty beautiful and you see graffiti and murals everywhere. Look:







Also, Brecht apparently spent a bit of time in Weissensee down the street from where I'm staying and so there's this big crumbling Brecht house and close by this mural, which has a Brecht quote on it that you totally can't see in this photo but I am posting it anyway.



I guess that is all for now. Oh, except I saw my MERMAID cover this morning and it is completely, utterly gorgeous. I am totally in love with it. My editor is sending me a version to post in a bit so please be prepared to be SPELLBOUND.

Now I might possibly consider getting back to actually finishing the book it shall be so gorgeously covering.

The end.