Simon Dach Str, Berlin

We got to Berlin on Tuesday 24th and straight away went to our apartment. It's in a street called Simon-Dach Str. which is "apparently" known in all of Germany. Lack of lift severely annoyed us due to the fact that we had to drag all of our stuff four storeys and lack of any sort of exercise in the last two months really showed after running up and down a couple of times. The apartment is huge... about 90 square meters which is more than enough for the two of us. And now we have it for a month. It's furnished and has almost everything we need.

But the funny thing is and that's something we've been asking ourselves - why is it that we always get to live in a flat owned by a single gay men who have distinct interest in pigs? In 2003 we stayed in a spare room of a gay guy who had a cupboard full of rubber and leather, police uniforms, gas masks, etc. AND his kitchen bench was full of little pig figurines. AND he didn't quite know how to talk to me... in fact he avoided me and disregarded my existence.

This guy we haven't actually met 'cos he's in Shanghai... and his female friend from the flat downstairs looks after the renting out side of things. BUT it doesn't take a genius to figure out who lives here. The kitchen and various appliances are either completely grubby or broken indicating absense of a female person. In the bathroom there is a poster of an asian guy from the navel up lying in a field of flowers. On a bookshelf amongst chinese literature (this guy is some sort of academic in chinese literature and history) there's books such as 'Tom of Finland' who was - as I discovered - one of the first to draw gay pornographic cartoons. Then there's a monthly gay digest... oh and the bedside table draw is full of sex toys... now why wouldn't someone actually take those out if the flat is being rented out I don't know. Oh and there's a little pig stuck to the mirror in the bathroom... and a pig calendar in the kitchen???? If someone knows what significance pigs have for gay men please let me know... AND if you're a guy I won't tell anyone! ;-P

The presumptions of gayness and singleness got confirmed by the above mentioned woman. She's apparently been friends with this guy since school and that he is indeed gay and originally moved into this flat with his boyfriend, who was from Taiwan... and because the boyfriend was an architect and was much more cleaner than the owner himself she christened him the 'Taiwanese Princess'...