Ben de Biel, also known as Benjamin Biel, is the founding owner of Maria am Ostbahnhof and a documentary photographer. You can see his work at www.bendebiel.com.
FRIDAY
16:00 I’d go and watch the new Harry Potter in the Colosseum (Schönhauser Allee 123, Prenzlauer Berg), which is just across from my apartment. My family already went but unfortunately I didn’t have time.
19:00 Dinner in White Trash Fast Food (Schönhauser Allee 6-7, Mitte). I love the spareribs.
22:00 Afterward I would go to the Ritter Butzke (Ritterstr. 24, Kreuzberg). It’s a nice place and also I know the owner there. I like to go and play backgammon with him for money.
SATURDAY
13:00 After having breakfast at home, I will play some LEGO with my son. We don’t have so much time during the week, so the weekend is all the time we have to spend together as a family.
20:00 One of my old friends, photographer Eva Ugarte, is having a finissage of her exhibition about Berlin in the early 1990s at ZeitZone (Adalbertstr. 79, Kreuzberg). The reason I know her is because I was a photographer myself back then.
23:00 To finish off my Saturday I would go to The Incident at Chez Jacki (An der Schilling Brücke, Friedrichshain), where Joakim from the Tigersushi label will be playing.
SUNDAY
10:00 A big home-cooked breakfast with the family outside to start the day.
13:00 Visit my parents in Spandau. My father’s 85 years old, and he’s always very happy when he sees his grandson.
16:00 I would go to another photo exhibition in C|O Berlin gallery (Oranienburger Str. 35-36, Mitte). It also gives me the opportunity to go visit some of my old friends in the neighborhood. I used to live in Mitte myself but it’s just too quiet, nasty and posh for me now.
19:00 After a long and busy day nobody’s really interested in cooking, so we will just prepare some Tiefkühlkost junk food or maybe go to the Chinese takeaway just around the corner. Then we will find a family film on the TV and I will help my son finish his homework.
