13.10-14.00 PM; kitchen of our rental apartment in Neukölln, Berlin

• 1 orange
• 1 pear
• fried eggs
• oatmeal porridge with apricot jam & cinnamon and sugar
• mint tea with ginger and nutmeg
• apple juice

This breakfast was supposed to be spectacular. We had agreed already weeks ago on two brunch café alternatives to celebrate Elina's birthday in: Beakers in Prenzlauer berg or Ankerklause in Neukölln.

This morning Elina opted for Beakers, and so off we went, pedalling on our rental bikes. Before we had even made it out of the yard, the first drizzle fell - a few drops here and there, nothing to dampen the festive mood. On Kottbusser Damm we were forced to admit it was raining, but the summer showers of July hardly last for too long, right? We cycled past Ankerklause, where I slowed down to confirm Elina's choice of location. If the rain wouldn't get any harder than this, she replied, we should continue to Prenzlauer berg. By Jannowitzbrücke we started seriously questioning our quest, and by Alexanderplatz we were desperately seeking for cover. We found it at the entrance of some office building, where we parked our bicycles and waited. We waited for twenty minutes, but the rain only grew stronger, and was accompanied with a freezing wind, which seemed to be truly enjoying itself on the wide streets between the lifeless, inhumane commercial buildings. We walked in circles and hopped to keep ourselves warm. Another twenty minutes went by, but the rain didn't show any sign of ceasing. By then we had lost all hope of making it to Beakers, as we still had to pack up today and clean the apartment (we were leaving Berlin in the evening). Ankerklause would, of course, be on our way back, but how much fun would a birthday brunch be in drenched clothes? So we rode back to the apartment, ultimately soaked to our underwear.

A warm shower made up for most of it (funny how the remedy for getting soaked is more water), and I managed to scratch together a substitute breakfast from what we had left in the fridge. But now we were facing another problem: how to get our clothes dry before the bus trip?