Wow. So I’m back from Berlin. And after a week has passed now, everything is slowly getting back to normal. The most amazing thing about Berlin was meeting all these wonderful people. Mostly people I’ve only "known" virtually before, from reading their blogs or tweets, communicating through blog comments, mails or virtual labs – and sometimes not even that.
But also one very special old friend from school who I hadn’t seen for almost 10 years – and her sweet little newborn daughter. There we sat on swinging chairs in the sun, talking, eating and drinking. Catching up.
Has it really been that long?
We take the tube and just half an hour later I sit in Etsy’s new Berlin office – chatting with Benedikta, Matt and Marie. Thinking that it’s been about 4 years since I registered my first account on etsy and discovered this whole new craft world from there – sometimes visiting the virtual labs – but never really expecting to meet anyone in person. And now they’re in Berlin, putting together a handmade office, getting to know the german community – and I sooo can’t wait for etsy.com to finally "speak" german.
Wednesday the re:publica starts. We oversleep. We meet friends from Cologne and have yummie red wine for lunch on crocheted pillow in a cozy italian restaurant.
On thursday we watch Bre talking and later demonstrating the MakerBot. Wow, would someone buy me one? And maybe a laser cutter too?
Later at the beautiful Café Fleury I enjoy a lovely "Kaffeekränzchen" with Nadja a.k.a. Smil, who makes really cool screenprinted t-shirts and bags (Ahoikatze rocks! Oh and don’t miss her screenprinting-workshop at the Etsy Lab) and Sabrina of Small Caps, who designs and prints the most beautiful letterpress cards and journals. I wish I had had more time…
Friday I’m very very happy that Tatiana a.k.a. Fräulein Herz is back in town and between two intersting re:publica talks we sit in her lovely new shop talking and eating yummie cookies surrounded by wonderful bags, pillows and ribbons.
Somewhere in between I visit Frau Tulpe, discover some other lovely things and places (I might tell you about later), take tons of photos, we move from one hostel to another and suddenly we’re on a train back home…
Overwhelmed with impressions. And a bit sorry about some people I didn’t meet – and about being too shy to say Hi to some others…
*hi,hi* ich hab das berlin-marathon-programm letzte woche absolviert ;o) ist schon toll, wenn virtuelle freunde/orte real werden, von wegen anonyme interNETTwelt…
:: liebste grüße von maki
Ja, ich fand’s auch sehr nett !!!
Und Du hast ja eine ganze Menge geschafft, hier :-)
ja, strammes programm, hoffe aber du kommst mal wieder!
@maki Ja, absolut :) Das war wirklich schön – und dann gleich so Viele auf einmal. Ein Glück hatte ich nicht so eine Fahrerei. Ich hatte das nämlich auch so in Erinnerunger, dass immer Ewigkeiten überall hin braucht.
@Nadja Ja, musste mich erstmal richtig erholen.
@smallcaps Auf jeden Fall!
Also, so zusammengefasst könnte man meinen, ihr wart ‘nen ganzen Monat hier – nicht schlecht!
Freut mich umso mehr, dass Du noch Zeit gefunden hast, vorbeizuschauen; es war wirklich schön, Dich mal live kennenzulernen! Komm’ bald wieder!
hi kasaa, thanks for adding me on twitter and rav, bre is awesome right? there are currently 4 working makerbots in cologne alone, 2 live at my house, 2 are at 2 different universities. just let me know if you need to print anything, first couple of prints are free.
and @smallcaps what up! long time no see!
@fräulein herz Oh dankesehr :) Ich hab mich auch sehr gefreut!
@fbz Hi fabienne, yes, absolutely – he actually told me about the makerbots in Cologne and also about you when I talked to him at the repub party, but i didn’t discover your blog until today. How cool – well, I guess I’ll see you at the FabLab/Thursday Talk tonight!
PS. … and thanks for the kind offer – that would be wonderful!