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It is a terrible and wrong cliché to wrap up the entire German cuisine within the combination of "sauerkraut, potatoes and bratwurst". It is as accurate as the idea that all that Italians eat are pizza and pasta. After spending 5 years in the gastronomic capital of Germany, I'll try to write about some German delicacies when I find the time. First I will start by attacking the cliché itself. "Leber- und Blutwurst mit Rotkohl und Bratkartoffeln" is a dish that demonstrates how good the wurst-kraut-potato combination can be. !!WARNING: Otto von Bismarck famously likened sausage-making to law-making. If you like sausages or the laws, you better stay away from the actual making process. Skip to the end of the WARNING if you like sausages. Leberwurst is a cooked sausage of bacon-liver-pork, flavored with spices. The one pictured above has other offal parts as well. German blood sausage - Blutwurst-  is made out of blood and pork skin. Spanish blood sausage...

"-You unbeliever, You, who dared to doubt the Son of God, You are sentenced, You must now feel his blood, His flesh and his gut." He, who dared to doubt the Son of God, Has his fingers in that sacred cut, And the unbeliever, the doubter, At this holy sight,he cannot look at. "-Their eyes, their eyes, Of those without the courage to doubt, Are so vicious, and are filled with doubt, My trembling fingers, It's what they are looking at, And not the Son of God " I went to the Gemäldegalerie 2 weeks ago. I was lucky to experience four more Caravaggio paintings, since there was a Caravvagio exhibition. The painting that touched me the most was "The Incredulity of Saint Thomas." The story is like this:After the resurrection of the Christ, Thomas the Apostle doubts that Christ was raised from the death. Christ makes him touch his still open crucification wounds, to convince him. For me what is shining out of this painting is not the inc...

Nein, dies ist nicht das Bild meines Autos. Dies ist das Bild des ersten Schneefalls in Berlin, etwas das ich jedes Jahr in großer Aufregung erwarte. Dieses Jahr kam er früh. Ich bin hoffnungsvoll auf einen weißen Dezember!

Jesus was a sailor, When he walked upon water...

Those who know me, are aware of my affection for everything French, my favorite being the French language. Those who have seen me during the cold 2010 Berlin days will have no problem with this photo proving that I have a lost French twin. Now I know why I love everything French. Engin saw this French guy in the photo in an U-Bahn station in Berlin last week: My friend Seckin had a similar experience yesterday. He found out that his lost twin is the newly signed Galatasaray forward Dos Santos: And for those who haven't had the pleasure of meeting Seckin, or the pain of meeting me, here is a picture of us, doing the Mc Hammer dance:

Reminds me of my love and that lovely Dylan song: On a night like this I can't get any sleep, The air is so cold outside And the snow's so deep. Build a fire, throw on logs And listen to it hiss And let it burn, burn, burn, burn On a night like this. Let the four winds blow Around this old cabin door, If I'm not too far off I think we did this once before. There's more frost on the window glass With each new tender kiss, But it sure feels right On a night like this.

Lennin's back. At least his beard. Time for spritual politics! New Age postmodernists unite! He's not a candidate. I wish he where. Thuan's role model. We are not enemies of the foreigners. We are friends of Germans. Nazisim in disguise.

German democracy is interesting. A woman will be the prime minister, and her coalition party is headed by an openly homosexual liberal. The next candidate of SPD may also be gay. The president of the Greens, which made a historic leap, is Turkish. Yet there are still racist banners on the streets. Immigrant politicians receive polite letters from the National Democratic Party to leave the country. Here is a first part of my collection of interesting electtion banners: Want to get rid of Bayern? Vote Bayern Party. Islamisation? No thank you. Note the red and white headscarf. Very welcoming. Angela Merkel the Superstar Part 1. Angela Merkel the Superstar Part 1.

Temperature forecast for friday: rainy, 13-11 celcius.

O köy bizim köyümüz. Carsi Berlin'in duzenledigi 23 Nisan Yardim Kampanyasi 'nin ulastigi Kütahya Kararapelit koyunden goruntuler.

After experiencing snow in 3 different cities, my conclusion is that snow suits capitals.

(*) Godspeed You! Black Emperor has a song named Static. It contains an eerie recording of an Evangelical priest talking on long wave radio. He talks about the fate of those who have seen the real face of "God". Some end up in mental institution, and some, like the preacher himself and his followers, reach salvation by becoming "Godmen, Godwomen, and Godchildren." I don't buy any of this, but the song helps me to put the three prophets of the religion Dylano-Coheno-Reedianism in context. It is as if the prophets have seen the reality -what the preacher refers as the face of God- from somewhere we have not been able to - perhaps from the Tower of Song- and reacted differently. Bob Dylan saw it in an early age, and shouted it out loud, never loosing his youthful anger, and self esteem. Lou Reed on the other hand, was probably high when he saw it, and chose not to tell what he saw, but make jokes about it, hoping we get it somehow. Leonard Cohen on the other hand, ...

I was on a street music festival this weekend on Kreuzberg65. There were stands from dir Linke, die Grüne, Amnesty International and... Barack Obama. Apparently there are 20 000 Americans in Berlin, and they were looking for them. If I am not mistaken, absentee ballots played some role in the last elections. They are not leaving it to chance.

I mean it metaphorically of course. I hope it will be a fair game on the pitch and on the streets of Berlin alike. Inanin Cocuklar, Cocuklar inanin, Güzel günler görecegiz, günesli günler, Almanyayi Baselde devirecegiz, Sampiyonluk sarkilari söyleyecegiz*! *This is a Besiktas chant which is derived from the great Turkish Poet Nazim Hikmet. My humble translation goes like: Believe in it Boys, believe in it, We will see beautiful days, sunny days, We will knock out Gemany in Basel, We will sing songs of championship!

1. Music On the Streets, that is as good as Portishead: 2. 2 beautiful parks, and one waterfall: 3. Germans, Turks and tourists celebrating the Turkish win over Croatia on the streets the Turkish style:

I don't like some of the players in the national team. I don't like the trainer. I don't like the way the players were picked. But I love football and my country. It was a delight beating Switzerland on the extra time, and party on the streets to the late hours of the night. Here are some low resolution videos from yesterday, when 1000s of Turks closed one of the busiest streets in Berlin:

According to this article in Turkish press, the fan zones are not that fun in Switzerland. This reminded me the best month of my life in this lovely city during the World Cup. Isn't it a shame, that life gets more boring when you are rich?

David Bowie lived in Schöneberg with Iggy Pop in the late 70s. This is from the last of his Berlin Trilogy, Low-1977, Heroes-1977, Lodger-1979. He was reading the writings on the Wall, when he came across the merry word Yasasin! -Long live!-, which is used in political slogans like "Long Live Our Struggle For The Brotherhood of the Workers!" popular back then. He says he rang up the Turkish Embassy and learned what it meant. And wrote this great song: Modeselektor is an electronic music band from Berlin. They recently came to fame, after Thom Yorke started promoting them, after listening to them and liking the stuff. Here is a song dedicated to the biggest Döner chain in berlin, the Hasir :

Modeselektor is the latest hotshot out of the Berlin dance music scene. Promoted by Thom Yorke I recommend their new album Happy Birthday. They are on tour, -I will miss their May show in Berlin but catch 'em up before the Radiohead show. They are coming to Istanbul and London, tour schedule can be found on their website . Here is a video from their previous album, which is a favorite of mine because the video was shot in Watergate, one of my favorite clubs in Berlin!

My favorite Turkish TV personality is in Berlin, following the Berlinale. A great chance for me to take her out on a romantic dinner. Seems like I've got competition. This years Berlinale is opened by Martin Scorsese's Shine A Light, a documentary about a Rolling Stones concert. Ron Wood from Rolling Stones obviously hits on her on this video, taken on the gala night... http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/modules/habervideo/video.asp?CatID=5&cbVideo=3060&cbQuality=1 But I am determined, I am gonna follow her down... "Baby let me follow you down, baby let me follow you down Well I'll do anything in this godalmighty world If you just let me follow you down."