Straight away we were ready to go on the Fat Tire Berlin Bike tour. Already it was raining but we were not deterred. First we had breakfast at the top of the Galleria department store with its great view looking out at Alexanderplatz, then we joined the three other cyclists with Tom the guide, and off we went. Just to trap us the skies cleared as we set off and so I didn't put on waterproof trousers or top. Big mistake. Once we were far enough away from the Fernsehturm the huge television tower where Fat Tire's office is, that it was too far to go back, it started pouring. Undaunted we pressed on and occasionally the rain even stopped for a few minutes. The rain did not put a damper on the joy of cycling around Berlin even if one might wince at the word, but a lunch break for Bratwurst and hot drinks came just in time to thaw out my hands and feet. With us on the tour was an artist from South Carolina and her doctor husband. As they turned up to go bicycling, they introduced themselves as "Joseph and Mary, we've left the Kid at home". After the tour they invited us for afternoon tea at their hotel so that they could introduce me to a Berlin artist whose sister, lives in South Carolina. They were such very warm and friendly people. She is small, sweet, fair curly-haired, blue eyed, with a lilting Southern voice and an open nature. Her paintings use her experiences such as when she worked in the Philippines with the street prostitutes. Their friend turned out to be French but has lived as an artist in Berlin for more than twenty years. It was such a pleasure, by unlikely chance, to meet up with these artists and lanky humorous Joseph. We did have a short rest and a bite to eat before going out in the evening, my friend's first day in Berlin, a full one. In fact we cut it so fine we took a taxi so that we wouldn't be late. That is extravagant but the performance written and acted by Lindsay Annis was certainly worth it. It was spectacular. My Ulysses taken from and adapted James Joyce's Ulysses. It was sharp and funny, the performance ribboned through with personal references about finding a flat in Berlin through an ad, and then another, and also references to the production. The sound effects exactly, austerely, creatively imaginative. As was the sparse choreography. It was as I remembered off Broadway used to be before it got into being boring clichéd Fringe. Now here in Berlin I felt the same intense excitement. And you know what? She's got a studio at the Milchhof. That is so great. The elation of the performance buoyed us up and we went to Gorky Park at one thirty in the morning for bowls of Borsht. No problem. Welcome to friendly-to-artists Berlin.
