barneybites: Kaffemaschine

Since moving to Germany, Papa has been drinking horrible instant coffee at home. Mama and I won't touch the stuff. He doesn't seem to mind it much but every now and again he says "This stuff is shit, shame we can't have good coffee here at home".

So, while they have been at language classes I have been looking for a coffee machine for Papa. I found one that looked good on a website where people sell their second hand stuff.

I emailed the guy, who's name is Wolfgang. What a cliche! I said my Papa would like to buy the machine if it works 100%. Wolfie said it did. Sweet.

So when Papa came home yesterday I said "Papa, you don't have to drink that instant shit anymore, I've found you a really good machine!"

"Oh yea?" he said, "Where is it?"

"Some place called Rudow". I said, but I didn't know how to get there.

"Okay, let's check it out."

So Papa started texting with Wolfie about the price of the machine, if we could test it, and where the guy lived. Wolfie said he lived near a U-Bahn called Lipshitzallee but it would be too far on foot to his house. He would pick us up in his car and take us to his house to test the machine.

Papa said to me "Oh man Barney, going in a strangers car, what should we do? We can either test it and know we aren't getting ripped off, or we can take a gamble and just get him to bring the machine to the U-Bahn and not get murdered."

So I said to Papa "What would Nanna say if she found out you went in some strange dudes car?...she'd be pissed at you Papa. Don't do it!"

Taking my advice, Papa double checked with Wolfie that the machine was all in order and then just arranged for the transaction to 'go down' at the train station. We were to meet Wolfie at 16:00 - as they say in Germany.

Papa says that Rudow is a bit of a way away, so we had to leave home at 3pm (15:00 for the Germans). I was pretty excited, even though I pretended the machine is for Papa, I want the benefits of it too!!

We had to walk to the S-Barney first, and then take 3 separate trains. What an adventure for me!

It didn't take us as long as expected, so we arrived at the Lipshitzallee station at 3:35pm. Papa and I keep laughing at the station name..hahaha. Lipshitz.

As we were early, we went for a little walk around the area. Papa kept saying "This is so Clockwork Orange'ey", I'm not really sure what he meant but he said it was a film that this place reminded him of. This place is much different to ours, huge apartment blocks everywhere.

Papa then started to try to inform us about the area, but Mama and I didn't really give a shit. He said "This whole area was designed by a guy called Walter Gropius, and is called Gropiusstadt. He was the founder of the Bauhaus design school and a giant of Modern Architecture. Unfortunately his goal in this area for a harmonious city area didn't really eventuate and this area has been know for crime and other troubles ever since it was built in 1960."

As I said. No one gives a shit. Where's Wolfie?

Even with Papa's 'amazing' story, we still had time to kill, so we took in some of Gropius's work. Clockwork Orange, Modernism, Harmony? Whatevs.

Finally, well bang on 16:00, Wolfie arrived. He didn't look like the serial killer we were expecting and he walked us back to his car. Papa tried to take sneaky pictures of him just in case he tried to kill us and we needed to go to the police.

At the car Wolfie showed us the machine. Mama and Papa were impressed at how good it was. Yay for me for picking it out! 55 Euros they got it for. He told us to bring a big bag, however ours was not big enough! So Wolfie kindly gave us one to take.Not bad eh!