As is true in many big countries, the Germans dub all foreign films. This often leads to hilarious discussions or guessing to discover which film hides behind a title such as Und sie wissen nicht was sie tun (Rebel Without a Cause)  Since my cradle stood in Amsterdam, I am not used to nor pleased with this phenomenon. But lacking sufficient time or snobbism to seek out the original, I recently saw Wilkommen bei den Sch’tis - the strikingly accurate translation of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis. I went to see it in East Berlin’s former Cinema Palace: Kino International on Karl Marx Allee 33. To watch a movie here will undoubtedly satisfy your Eastern European inclinations.

After passing the entryway with its remarkable ceiling, the Honecker lounge located in the huge hall upstairs is definitely beyond imagination. With its large glass façade overlooking Karl Marx Allee, the dark parquet floor, the red furniture – the intrinsic beauty and memories of long-forgotten times make this place stunning. There is no need to see a movie, you can easily have just a drink.

However I came to see a movie, and after the advertising the blue velvet curtains closed dramatically only opening after the bell ringed. Suddenly a totally golden surface became visible recalling Barbie’s evening gown. This startled my darling M., who received his Jugendweihe (youth consecration) in this very hall and who explained to me that this was the original curtain.

Though I certainly was overwhelmed by Kino international, my favorite cinema remains High End on Oranienburger Str. 54-56 in Tacheles. Maybe it’s sheer laziness because I only have to cross the street and climb the stinky stairs, but I love relaxing in one of those wonderful big red sofas.

Go further:

Meandering With Marx 

Graveyards And No-man's Land

In Bed Next To Kim Jong-il

Watch movies on the waterfront in Paris...

Photo: teun&el

The first time I lived in Berlin (1997-2001) I started in Friedrichshain. Nowadays you’ll find in this quarter a mixture of students, young and creative, along with some desperately lost people. The apartment I lived in was on the third Hinterhof - two blocks of houses stood before my building absorbing all the light. Because I’d just left Paris – a city that’s famous for its luminosity - autumn in Berlin was giving me some very depressing thoughts. Could I survive all the grey, the sweeping wind blowing directly from Moscow on Frankfürter Allee and those mean elderly people barking at me because a public wastebasket was supposed to be private… When the ostalgie threatened to kill me, I would flee to the brilliant glittering word of KaDeWe - the Kaufhaus des Westens: a monument to the world of capitalism.

Now on my second stay (since 2006), I don’t require the KaDeWe anymore:

Years ago when I was trying desperately to learn the French language, someone warned me that nobody actually studied in the library of Centre Pompidou, but that it was a prime spot for flirting. The architect of Amsterdam’s public library; Jo Coenen, must have had something similar in mind when he created the building on the Oosterdok Island because his edifice is so inviting that it’s easy to forget one’s duties.

Photo: Taco Ekkel

Now that it has ceased to be the talk of the town, people are still immensely proud of this library and I fully agree. The huge cube-like facade filled with glass rectangles and framed by a white stone arch transmits immediately what we are dealing with: a building which is meant to be open and easily accessible. The obscurity that I often associate with libraries is gone. In its place is a totally transparent institution which befits a public library.

Photo: Taco Ekkel

As someone who often sneaks into public libraries on holiday, I really recommend this one. Instead of prissy librarians with pearls and cashmere sweaters, the personnel here is friendly, helpful and dressed in clothes from fashion designer Aziz Bekkaoui.

The building is seven floors of delight, and includes cozy hangouts equipped with Mac notebooks to check your email, clever work/study units, a café, and all international magazines and journals you can dream of.

On top of the building is a branch from La Place, a chain I really loathe. Their inferior food and dull services tempers my mood a little. I can’t help thinking it’s such a pain they actually got the facilities to use one of the most beautiful locations of Amsterdam. But then I just take a look at this breathtaking city landscape…

AMSTERDAM PUBLIC LIBRARY, Oosterdokkade 143, Amsterdam