iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 19/09/2026

Trying to find a reasonable route to cycle home through Kreuzberg with a kid after dark and not being very successful. Because… this part of town is optimized for a different sort of traffic.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 10/09/2026

Oder man bekommt das.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 06/09/2026

I had deleted my Duolingo account but now that my kids are into it, I made a new one and I put in my daily lessons. And it’s fun to mogg the other parents who are also on the app now with my topped out scores.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 27/08/2026

Sitting outside a genuinely pleasant sports facility here in Berlin. Lots of sporty people coming and going, a terrace, perfect weather. The only thing that could be better would be to not have this also be the smoking area and subject everybody to that bad habit.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 14/08/2026

Germany: Cash is preferred but also enjoy these 1c & 2c coins we still have in circulation despite unheard levels of inflation in recent years. It doesn’t get any more fun than this.

Change I got after buying an ice cream at the supermarket

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/08/2026

Greetings after a mad dash to section G of platform 22 on Munich HBF in 33C full sun. What a botched redevelopment of a train station this is. In the Netherlands I imagine temporary station squares and pedestrian bridges would be erected to prevent this misery.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 07/07/2026

Christian or whatever this wasteman’s name was. (How quickly do we forget!)

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 07/07/2026

Yesterday I had to listen to somebody claim that the vastly underperforming Italian education system is better than what we have here in Berlin because “everybody gets a chance.” People are just so stupid.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 22/06/2026

Disregarding the bicycle street is the norm until some bros here seem to have caused a minor accident on Mariannenplatz. The entire street had congregated to make sure they don’t flee and face some justice. In the Berlin of today, there are no traffic rules to speak of.

Men (backs to the camera) standing in front of a Mercedes

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 21/06/2026

How is this even a tournament? #worldcup

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 09/06/2026

I don’t really know why Tempelhofer Feld is on the agenda again but in contrast with most pandering commentators Tooze yesterday in Berlin was clear that building on the field is ideological and will not solve anything.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 09/05/2026

Poster for the Berlin car free referendum seen on August 2021 That’s how much time the (anonymous) group had to come up with a proposal that could work and they neglected to do that. Instead they wasted a huge amount of time and energy for a political total loss.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 23/04/2026

We have new signage in Berlin which means that the bike path that everybody’s been using for a decade has now become illegal. I paid €30 for this knowledge which is fair enough. The annoying part is the uneven enforcement and absent cycling policy in ‘Green’ Kreuzberg.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 09/04/2026

For beans and coffee Kolo Coffee as a roastery and shop proved to be excellent. An outpost of Ukrainian coffee culture in Berlin with beans that are a cut above what you would normally get in this city. I can’t wait to brew these every day. maps.app.goo.gl/kQARJLYh6W6C...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 09/04/2026

With Scratch Kiezcafe we may just have a new coffee shop that’s a keeper in my area. Nice coffee, nice baked and great local vibes. maps.app.goo.gl/FvekrmWqCFaX...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 09/04/2026

We dug up the old game boy and I had to nail a quick level 9-5 clear for the rocket launch.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 06/04/2026

Being on a kids’ schedule I drank more than my fair share of mediocre to bad coffee in Amsterdam. Sam’s koffie was very disappointing especially for the setting. maps.app.goo.gl/LnjtepyxiFRB...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 06/04/2026

Actually well behaved dogs or dog owners are more or less non-existent in Berlin. Here’s a nice pup being told to sit and wait outside of a shop in Amsterdam who’s obeying.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

Liev is a cute little coffee place offering a much needed alternative to the Scandinavian in this part of Amsterdam. The coffee is great. Definitely a place I’d come back to. maps.app.goo.gl/bFFYxmCfioUA...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

Not entirely sure how I missed Five Ways all this time on Boerhaaveplein but this is a stellar coffee place in an oddly tucked away corner in Amsterdam. We caught them just before closing and grabbed some playground and sun after a day well spent. maps.app.goo.gl/AeyMFb61JpiY...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

We dropped by the Muizenhuis gallery/store which seems to have become a phenomenon. The craft is done with care, the stories are fun and of course it’s a great way to milk the nostalgia for an Amsterdam that’s barely more than the whiff of a memory. www.sam-julia.com

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

After putting the kids to bed I run down the street to Utage most evening for a nightcap. This sake “Kino 2” comes from a brewery in Mie that I seem to have walked past last November. It’s a super interesting sake and a funny coincidence. maps.app.goo.gl/SgYZU3RqSkKL...

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

I dug up my old Hero Quest set and sent it on to Berlin. Looking forward to playing this with my kids properly. We had no idea what we were doing back then but it still was tons of fun. Also the satisfaction for my mother that all the things she saved are now being used again.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/04/2026

Coming from Berlin seeing the Rookvrij campaign everywhere is a bit jarring. I’m sure nobody follows these rules but still it’s nice to see that this is something people think is important. Public health campaigns are rare in Germany where freedom trumps all else.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 02/04/2026

The Amsterdam-Berlin train is deeply unserious and stops in marginal towns on either side of the border. As far as I’m concerned it should only stop in Amersfoort on the Dutch side and Osnabrück/Hannover on the German side.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 01/04/2026

An electrified cargo bike is a distance demolishing technology. Amsterdam gets reduced even more to the size of a postage stamp than it already was.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 01/04/2026

Baqme is a startup that has station based electric cargo bikes all over Amsterdam. That’s been a lot more convenient and also more affordable than the few rental options that are normally available. €20 for a full day is super decent.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 31/03/2026

It’s pretty amazing to be able to plug in and turn on 35 year old digital devices. Without so much as having to buy a cable.

A SNES playing Legend of the Mystical Ninja through an adapter cartridge

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 29/03/2026

Eating with a group I had a good opportunity to order half the menu of a Dutch snack bar and let my kids sample the delicacies our country has to offer. Joppiesaus and saté were of course also present.

A table with everything deep fried on it

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 29/03/2026

Gisteren bij de lokale derby in Arnhem veel mensen op de been. In de chaotische kantine waar iedereen pitchers bier aan het halen was zag ik ook zwarte meisjes in hijab en mensen van allerlei afkomst. Integratie is wat je er zelf van maakt.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 22/03/2026

Quite the achievement from Miles to give me a car that’s more disgusting than a Berlin U-Bahn. The cars should record every trip from the inside and out to stop whatever the hell it is that’s happening in them.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 17/03/2026

Working ahead of my kids doing the German advanced math assignments (Känguru) for fun but I’m a bit stumped with the later numbers (C4 I figured out now). Claude’s answers for both of these are horribly wrong. Wasn’t everybody claiming that math had been “solved” by AI on benchmark tests?

Känguru 2025 - 11-13 questions C4 and C5

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 15/03/2026

Cycling around the outskirts of Berlin and Brandenburg today, I saw political billboards from FDP, CDU and AFD positioning them themselves as the anti-anti car party. This will not be the only issue where these three parties will be entirely indistinguishable from each other.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 13/03/2026

@reckless.bsky.social Hey! I can’t subscribe because of something atypical and I also can’t get in touch with support. Maybe there’s a deeper rooted issue here?

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 15/02/2026

I mean don’t they meet each other before something like this? This entire thing looks enveloped by the SPD machine.

In Conversation
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
U.S. Representative for New York's 14th Congressional District (Democratic Party)
Isabel Cademartori
Member of the German Bundestag
(SPD - Social Democratic Party of Germany

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 15/02/2026

Then I bought a ticket for what is supposed to be a rather bad movie on Cinestar.de where after the payment redirect I ended up again on this page. The confirmation that the ticket had actually been purchased thankfully was in my e-mail so the payment flow is not ENTIRELY broken.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 15/02/2026

Look at what passes for a people facing website in 2026 over on Critic.de. If this is the bar, then I, a person with no visual skills to speak of, have been a competent web designer for most of my life.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 03/02/2026

This year I got around to buying new ice skates. I was sick around New Year's and frankly didn't expect to get this many ice days in the new year, but here we are. I've skated most days this past week and will continue to do so for the next 1-2 weeks.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 28/01/2026

Driving my kid home from swimming I missed a turn and the route to get home took us along Bebelplatz, Gendarmenmarkt and through Checkpoint Charlie. You don’t need a degree in urban planning to understand that this is absurd. Also cycling is spectacularly competitive in Mitte around 6-7pm.

Driving in 25 minutes today without having to search for a parking spot

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 14/01/2026

To be able to do anything on my phone with the TK app (my health insurance provider), I have to go through a super convoluted login procedure that involves a physical (!) letter. But if I open my laptop, I can go to the TK website and do pretty much anything I want to do. Make it make sense.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 21/12/2025

This is the rest of the list for now. Suggestions welcome but I’ll probably trawl the French Classics and Notorious Foodie instagram accounts anyway.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 21/12/2025

For the holiday break I made a big list of foods I always wanted to cook to knock them out one by one. Two weeks of strong cooking and even stronger eating is ahead. Today we made Babka and Boeuf Bourgignon both of which turned out great.

Boeuf in a plate with mash and a pepper correction

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 20/12/2025

Am I the only person whose podcast app looks like this? I love PPF but I can barely keep up with the regular set of episodes. The same for many other podcasts. Giving me more episodes in exchange for money is hardly a positive thing.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 20/12/2025

Because I never really take public transit anymore I had forgotten how shockingly bad some of the transitions are. S2 to U2 at Potsdamer Platz is so so bad, poor signage, poor routing, needless stairs. This one is enough reason never to use the system alone.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/12/2025

The funny thing is that despite burning 4000+ calories per day (6k on one day) during this trip, I came back and had gained weight. Those second dinners and late night konbini snacks add up.

Fitbit says 4.4666 cal per day (avg) You hit your goal on 7 days. You burned a total of
31.259 calories.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 05/12/2025

I had breakfast the next morning at the Narita McDonalds. Then during the 14 hour flight Swiss Air sent us off with soba noodles, matcha cake, chicken katsu and stir fried udon noodles. Not at all bad.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 02/12/2025

Twenty-five years to build an airport and they still haven’t figured out decent transportation to get there. It’s faster to get to Narita which is twice as far from the city. It was faster for me to fly here from Zürich than it is to get home.

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 02/12/2025

I will say cycling in Tokyo is insane. Much worse than London or Berlin. At that point the politeness seems to go out the window. Not sure entirely what happens if in Japan you give the middle finger to somebody in traffic but yesterday we almost found out.

The bike parking situation next to blue bottle

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Alper Cugun @alper.nl · 02/12/2025

The sushi disaster in Nagoya needed a do-over so because I was around the corner I went to Ginzo in Akihabara. maps.app.goo.gl/pJw8AEAYv24B... After 36k of cycling through Tokyo I crushed one *nama* after another and had my fill of sushi (and cured cod roe tempura, because why not?).

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