Finally at 315 we arrived in Berlin. I forgot to save a shot of the map so we were relying on a little 2 sentence description from the booking confirmation to get us to our hostel. We got the right bus and got off at the right stop all problem free (aside from how spazzy I was being with paying him the 1.50e for the ride, spazzy enough for him to then not charge Liam, likely to avoid having to deal with any more stupidity) but then could not find the hostel at all. We walked a little while and I then stopped two girls in the street and asked for help. We were with them a few minutes, consulting an iPhone and then an iPad before deciding where we should go. Perfect. Got there no problem.
Fully random aside: I'm on a train to Brussels right now eating a hardboiled egg. Yesterday was my first time having one of those, separate of egg bits sprinkled in salads. First time peeing and dealing with it I guess. They're pretty good but they're definitely like the lobster of eggs. I'm not a huge fan of lobster, so it's just another iteration of way too much work and potential to he yourself and a bland reward.
K, so yeah. We check in to the wombats, Berlin and asked the reception for food suggestions, particularly leaning towards Asian. He sent us to this sushi and Vietnamese restaurant a few minutes away. It was super cheap and super delicious. We shared a specialty roll and a salmon roll, and a Vietnamese crispy duck curry. Also some beer and sake of course, but it came out to like 11 euros each. Pretty snazzy. You also got a 10% discount if you told them you're staying at the wombats.
For much of our dinner though we looked like those awful couples that each sit in silence, separately looking at their iPhones. We were actually trying to set up maps of places to hit up while in Berlin. I swear.
After dinner I went up to the sky bar in our hostel for happy hour and Liam went to have a shower. I was chatting with Michael the Irish bartender for a while about what to do in Berlin, and then somehow that led us to the discussion of the American education system.
he left me with a list, scribbled on a receipt, of which clubs I should go to that night, and in which order I should try them out. Much thanks are deserved. That suggestion list was great, even though we never made it past the first on the list.
When Liam came down I dragged him through a whole explanation of what computer science really is, and sorta kinda what I do for work. I thought it was a pretty interesting exercise because I reckon most people have no idea what computer science is about and just dismiss it as something they'll never understand. breaking it down into a tangible concept was a bit challenging but I thought it overall to be a great chat to have as we drank away our desires to nap, and instead prepare for the evening out. I probably didn't write about it there, but when we were in pizza 2000 in venice, I got the pleasure of the opposite information as Liam finally explained to me all the ins and outs of what his job entails. I dont' know why I didn't really know what he did, but it occurred to me then, when I finally had a chance to sit down and talk to him in person, instead of facebook chat or skype, that I wanted a better idea. So I guess this was the flip.
We then asked the bartenders about why in the bathrooms in the hostel there are hot and cold taps on the wall above the toilet. Like, taps that seemingly had no connection to the sink or anything. Another set of two, meaningless taps. One was completely unsure and agreed that it was a weird thing in berlin that he was used to seeing. The other suggested that it probably turns of the main pipe, and maybe at some point in the past, that was a useful thing to be able to do. Who knows.
When it was a little past 11pm, and we entered the second happy hour of the night [they do 6-8 and 11-12] we got another drink, laughed at how long we had been sitting in this one little hostel bar, and ventured out into the wild; off to crackbellmer. We've been kinda on and off retarded with the subways thus far -- a mix of a language barrier and being unfamiliar with the methods in which people pay for their ride. For berlin, we learned at this time that you have to validate your ticket after you buy it, making it timed for the trip you're about to have. We hadn't validated ours from the previous trip but they were too folded up to revalidate. We bought new ones and headed over.
The area that the bartender sent us to was really cool. It's by the East Side Gallery and is a giant area filled with warehouse-like clubs and sketchy paths, and is the product of reconstructing an old train station. Slightly lower level into the ground it was like entering a whole different, graffiti filled, night time world. On our trek towards it we were welcomed with the friendly faces of more drug dealers. Sort of a similar system to that in Prague, but these guys were primarily nigerian and all seemed to work together. Love pills in hand we went to the first spot on our list.
This place has no cover and has a pretty amazing lineup of djs. It was a house/trance/deep house kind of night when we were there and I'm still trying to figure out what some of the songs we heard were, because they had such an awesome vibe. I can't remember the word liam used to describe how the music made you react, but maybe it was 'bobbing' music. Kinda makes you bob. super chill-- I'd check out this guy [who played that night] to get a feel for the sounds.
anyway, the bar was a bunch of rooms. One main dancing/bar one, and then auxiliary indoor/outdoor rooms more for lounging and getting a little further from the sounds. Overall though it wasn't overly loud. I liked how well we could hear eachother while bobbing on the floor. WE bounced around the whole place getting a beer and a tequila shot each every once in a while and hung out there until about 4 am. The bar wasn't at all emptying out at 4, but we were tired. The nightlife in Berlin, especially because we were ther on a saturday, is expected to continue on into the morning. All these places are open till 8/9am. If i ever make it back there again I'll definitely take more advantage of that fact. For this night though, that was enough, and one of the coolest bar/clubs I've ever been to. Oh, one more thing. We're still unsure of how this was meant to go down, but to get a hand stamp to then get drinks at the bar, I think you were meant to tip the DJ a euro. We were kind of confused.
Our way back was a little slower and a little more lost but we made it in one piece and passed out immediately, each taking top bunks on different ends with interesting characters below us.
The next morning we were up at 9am and felt like absolute mush. One of our roommates, a small hispanic? man was packing to leave when we were getting ready and was an enjoyable conversation. He called me out on wacky tobacky and told us about how his first day in germany he fell while running up stairs, hurting his nose pretty terribly. Eventually we were ready to checkout of the hostel, stow our bags, and take advantage of their cheap buffet brekkie in the attached restaurant. Meant to be a continental breakfast, but pretty weird in comparison to what I had expected, it focused largely on cheap ham slices and cheese, breads, muesli, and a few cereals. Other than breakfast, that restaurant is generally a cajun restaurant and we learned about [though I don't recall too well] what makes people cajun and how taht group became a thing and eventually a food icon. Good morning paper read.
We moved on and took the same subway we were on the night before, to the brandenburg gate. Even though we had just done that journey twice, we were absolutely useless on this braindead morning at finding the station. It was like probably one of the bigger navigational struggles of the trip. I couldn't imagine funcitoning if we had stayed out any longer. Silly and useless, in 3 times longer than it should've taken, we made it to the brandenburg gate. Crazy giant arch, which was cool in later parts of the day to see in photographs with different statue dressings on top. As in, the one we saw had horses on top, but in one photo we ran into, they weren't there. Liam pointed this out. I honestly would've never noticed.
Reischstag was close so we spent a bit of time there next, before heading to the memorial for the murdered jews in europe during the holocaust. This was a surprise to me. From walking up to it, all you could see is a bunch of large concrete blocks on the ground of varying heights, going on for a while. The height seemed unintimidating, and the height/width proportions were, what I was guessing for significance, kind of the size of a wide coffin. There were thousands of them, and as we started wafting through the space and walking through the maze that they created, we realized that this memorial was something that had to be experienced, and properly walked through. Pictures couldn't describe the haunting feel developed while walking deeper into the ever growing concrete blocks. Reaching heights well above 7 feet, as you got into the depths of it you felt almost trapped in a maze, belittled by the massive structures surrounding you geometrically. The ground was sunk in the center, which is why these massive blocks looked so unintimidating from the outskirts of the memorial, and the viewer isn't prepared for such massive structures. At every crossing you'd have to look for people passing . It was daunting, and amazing. Pictures definitely wouldn't do this justice. Such a cool memorial.
In the center of it there are stairs to go down into the related museum. this museum was so much heavier than I was prepared for. It was really quite amazing and extremely powerful, recanting stories from notes found during the holocaust, explanations of what people had to go through, and rooms with names and thoughts. Though not as intense as yad vashem in israel, still an extremely powerful museum to go through. Once we were doine reading all the passages and absorbing all that the emotional museum had to offer, we ventured back out. We were en route to something that I then didn't even know what it was [i had been putting stars on a google map and saving it for offline use, and there were a few times when we would go to a star and be unsure of what I was trying to mark off.] We stopped though at a science museum en route. Twas free, and because science. We didn't know waht the exhibit would be about, but the whole museum was focused on muscle connections and scientific mechanisms used to manipulate prosthetic limbs, auxiliary devices, and similar. It was actually really cool. Most of the things were interactive, and it was an interesting way to learn about diseases and conditions taht I hadn't known about before. Though I don't know if I saw, but definitely didn't digest, the knowledge from one display, Liam later was telling me about how prosthetic arm control was used by re-routing the nerves that poeple feel with phantom-limb feelings to the chest, where they could then spark and control the prosthetic arm. Really interesting stuff.
We ventured out and stopped by a little christmas market we happened to be passing. Definitely during the day these christmas markets are more for selling/buying little kitsch christmas things, and less for being used as a bar, but it was cool to walk through.
Our next stop was the dali museum I believe, which we just saw in passing. We never actually went in because figured it wasn't worth the fee, but I pressed a 5-cent piece while we were there in one of those penny-press machines. Then we ventured back on route to go to Checkpoint Charlie and stopped to try currywurst. So this was the food i had been seeing a lot in Germany that I had never heard of, and we were urged to try. It's wurst [sausage], cut up and doused with ketchup, and then curry powder is sprinkled on top of it. Seriously, so fucking good. Like, such a wonderful little snack. We got them in those red and white cartons you'd get fries in at a carnival and worked through them with forks as we trudged further. All though we contemplated, and then rejected, the idea of getting drinks at the currywurst stand, once we finished eating and passed a beer shop, we had to go in.
We each got a beer. Liam had been talking about his craving for sierra nevada right before, and was super excited to find one of these [which i find to be a mediocre] beers. I had been intruiged by this dark beer a few times and finally decided to try it out. Twas called Gulden Draak. The bottle is interesting, and now that i'm looking at it online, the rating is absurdly high. I absolutely hated it though. It was way too thick for my taste [maybe just because it was still a bit of a braindead afternoon] and so hard to swallow. Foam kept pouring otu of the top and I threw it out. One of the few beers in my life I haven't finished.
We made it to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a major passing when the Berlin Wall was standing. There were pieces of the wall scattered around to look at, and a massive passage area to read about the history of the area we were standing in. Overall a pretty cool and interesting exhibit taht I didn't originally know too much about.
A duo from New Orleans was playing when we decided to get up. One on soprano sax and the other on some drum-like apparatus strapped to his waist. They were really amazing and put on a great show. We stood by the fire enjoying and warming up until it became too unbearably hot, making us move back. The soprano saxist was telling a weird story when asking for money. He was on about traveling and planting/selling seeds to teach people how to grow things... and said that we needed to give him money so he could buy seeds and give them back to us. not really sure waht he meant, but that was fine.
Next stop was Mauarpark, a subway ride away, to see if we still had time to catch the sunday karaeoke held there. Apparently it's a weekly event where hundreds of people come to watch people do karaoke. We got to the massive park and walked through it, but either went the wrong way or jsut came too late, because we didn't get any karaoke. Instead we stopped by a street performer for had gathered easily over a hundred people around her as she sang and played guitar. She was pretty phenomenal and we stayed through her set before continuing onwards to what looked like a little market stuck at this end of the park. It was really cool, and everything ws in German. Totally not a tourist-feeling spot to end up. We got a weird spicy flatbread pizza-like thing to split. I'm not entirely sure waht it was but the preparation was really interesting. The woman cooking and giving them out was working with one massive oven that had three different compartments stacked on top of eachother, and coals and wood burning at the bottom. As she got a tray of personal sized circles covered in ingrediants, the tray would spend some time in the top one before systematically being moved down into the middle, and then bottom one. When in the botom one, the tray went through a series of rotations before it was finally ready to be sliced and given to customers. It was really good and we sat on reclined lawn chairs to eat it. We were both super tired and kinda cold and decided taht passing out there [it was starting to get a bit dark] was probably the move. I was in and out of sleep, mostly making it just to that pre-sleep spasm and then waking up again, but Liam seemed to get a good little rest out of it. By the time I was ready to gather myself again, I got up to buy some gluwine [mulled- hot and spiced] and bring it back for us before waking him up. We sipped our wine and the tunes that were being spun in the area at this point were feeling more and more similar to the djs we heard the night before. It was a really cool enclosed space with some bar area and a bunch of food stalls. Live musicians were also getting started and there was a fire burning to keep people nearby warm.
while we were standing there I overheard the girl in front of me talking to her friends about the awesome market they were going to be heading to later. I decided to chime in and asked her what event that was. She spent a while explaining to me how to get there and showing me on my map wehre it was located. Seemed friendly and sweet, and then she told me that they were about to head over, if we wanted to come with. Liam and i went with these three girls from norway, one of whom was living in Berlin [the one i was talking to]. Such a good find. They were awesome company for the evening.
So this place they were heading to actually ended up being in the same little old train station area that we had gone to the night before, just a little further down. Sweet. Apparently every sunday this one warehouse that has both interior and exterior space to explore is converted into an awesome market. There is great food from different cultures, bars, and live music. It was a pretty huge area, kind of difficult to describe, but it was awesome. On Fridays it's a boozier version of the sunday game, filled with more bars. We still had a bunch of time before our night train to Amsterdam so we had our fill of beers and interesting brazillian tapioca tacos while hanging out with and getting to know these girls that we followed over. It was interesting to hear their take on different places to travel, and one of them was dying to go to new zealand, so liam was a good find. Hopefully we'll see them again one day.
they headed off to dinner and liam and I stayed a little while longer, dancing a bit and drinking before heading to the east side gallery, which was right near by, and we had somehow managed to forget about. It was on the map, but so close to the bars that i had marked, that I just assumed it was one of those.
The east side gallery is a bunch of the berlin wall that is still standing, all decorated with amazing, intricate, and often thought provoking artwork, although all of it is covered, to some degree, with graffiti. We discussed what a lot of the panels might mean as we trekked along it. It's a pretty massive stretch and brought us to a different subway stop on the line, which we got onto after figuring out where the hell in the massive station the metro existed. It was also seemingly a regional rail type station, so it was a bit confusing. Also, we weren't entirely sure what line we were meant to take, but a nice man who saw us trying to read the sign insisted on helping us figure it out. There are some good people out there.
We made it back to the hostel to gather our shit, usethe toilet, and get directions to head back to the main train station. The area near the downstairs bathroom may be one of the worst, mouldiest things I've ever smelled. It was so difficult to get through going to the bathroom while also trying to hold my breath, but I made it. We got our luggage from the room and according to the reception, had 7 minutes to catch the next bus that would bring us to the station. We ran to the drugstore next door and bought two twistoff bottles of wine to drink on the night train, and then ran across the street trying to figure out where the bus stop was. We weren't sure, and walked away from it a bit, but Liam flagged down the bus driver and since he was at a red light when he stopped, let us in, a block earlier than the actual stop. I thought that was seriously cool, and not something I would expect anywehre else.
On the bus and off to the train. We had a lot of time to kill so went to a mcdonalds. The signs leading towards a burger king were super misleading and we couldn't find it, so maccers was the move. I got this mixed chicken box and liam got a big mac and cheese burger I think. Fries to share too. They came with those silly monopoly stickers on them, all in german. The chicken box i got was half normal nugs and half chicken wings/drumsticks, but they were absurdly tiny. We were disconcerted by the fact that no chicken would have wings nor thighs that small. Liam wouldn't try one, but I thought they were all good, even if they were made of pigeon and not chicken. Here we didn't have to pay for ketchup.
Liam was struggling to stay awake throughout all of this, and we ventured up to the platform to find our train which was delayed about 35 minutes. We sat on the ground with our bags, working on our first bottle of merlot, waiting, It was a little confusing since other trains crossed our track, but we managed to avoid getting on the one to poland and some other intercity line. When it eventually came, we got on, looking for our assigned reservation.
We purchased seats, and then regretted doing so instead of getting a couchette [which would guarentee a bed]. Before we went to mcdonalds before we tried to go back to the ticket counter and find out if there was anyway we could upgrade to a couchette, but they were closed. We could only hope that we were the only ones in our car. As we approached our number the lights were off, and there were 3 other people in there. shit. We woke them up but I checked the next car and it was empty. We went in there instead and hoped that no one would be joining us. Liam passed out almost immediately and i was on edge for a while, waiting for the ticket people to maybe tell us to move, and for someone else to join us. Ticket people came twice and woke me with the fear of their presence, and I saw a few people open the door and decide not to come in. Thank fucking god. We were alone the whole night and made it to Amsterdam with not too much harm. I was super grumpy when we woke up, underslept and irritable, but got over it after a little. Amsterdam!
he left me with a list, scribbled on a receipt, of which clubs I should go to that night, and in which order I should try them out. Much thanks are deserved. That suggestion list was great, even though we never made it past the first on the list.
When Liam came down I dragged him through a whole explanation of what computer science really is, and sorta kinda what I do for work. I thought it was a pretty interesting exercise because I reckon most people have no idea what computer science is about and just dismiss it as something they'll never understand. breaking it down into a tangible concept was a bit challenging but I thought it overall to be a great chat to have as we drank away our desires to nap, and instead prepare for the evening out. I probably didn't write about it there, but when we were in pizza 2000 in venice, I got the pleasure of the opposite information as Liam finally explained to me all the ins and outs of what his job entails. I dont' know why I didn't really know what he did, but it occurred to me then, when I finally had a chance to sit down and talk to him in person, instead of facebook chat or skype, that I wanted a better idea. So I guess this was the flip.
We then asked the bartenders about why in the bathrooms in the hostel there are hot and cold taps on the wall above the toilet. Like, taps that seemingly had no connection to the sink or anything. Another set of two, meaningless taps. One was completely unsure and agreed that it was a weird thing in berlin that he was used to seeing. The other suggested that it probably turns of the main pipe, and maybe at some point in the past, that was a useful thing to be able to do. Who knows.
When it was a little past 11pm, and we entered the second happy hour of the night [they do 6-8 and 11-12] we got another drink, laughed at how long we had been sitting in this one little hostel bar, and ventured out into the wild; off to crackbellmer. We've been kinda on and off retarded with the subways thus far -- a mix of a language barrier and being unfamiliar with the methods in which people pay for their ride. For berlin, we learned at this time that you have to validate your ticket after you buy it, making it timed for the trip you're about to have. We hadn't validated ours from the previous trip but they were too folded up to revalidate. We bought new ones and headed over.
The area that the bartender sent us to was really cool. It's by the East Side Gallery and is a giant area filled with warehouse-like clubs and sketchy paths, and is the product of reconstructing an old train station. Slightly lower level into the ground it was like entering a whole different, graffiti filled, night time world. On our trek towards it we were welcomed with the friendly faces of more drug dealers. Sort of a similar system to that in Prague, but these guys were primarily nigerian and all seemed to work together. Love pills in hand we went to the first spot on our list.
This place has no cover and has a pretty amazing lineup of djs. It was a house/trance/deep house kind of night when we were there and I'm still trying to figure out what some of the songs we heard were, because they had such an awesome vibe. I can't remember the word liam used to describe how the music made you react, but maybe it was 'bobbing' music. Kinda makes you bob. super chill-- I'd check out this guy [who played that night] to get a feel for the sounds.
anyway, the bar was a bunch of rooms. One main dancing/bar one, and then auxiliary indoor/outdoor rooms more for lounging and getting a little further from the sounds. Overall though it wasn't overly loud. I liked how well we could hear eachother while bobbing on the floor. WE bounced around the whole place getting a beer and a tequila shot each every once in a while and hung out there until about 4 am. The bar wasn't at all emptying out at 4, but we were tired. The nightlife in Berlin, especially because we were ther on a saturday, is expected to continue on into the morning. All these places are open till 8/9am. If i ever make it back there again I'll definitely take more advantage of that fact. For this night though, that was enough, and one of the coolest bar/clubs I've ever been to. Oh, one more thing. We're still unsure of how this was meant to go down, but to get a hand stamp to then get drinks at the bar, I think you were meant to tip the DJ a euro. We were kind of confused.
Our way back was a little slower and a little more lost but we made it in one piece and passed out immediately, each taking top bunks on different ends with interesting characters below us.
The next morning we were up at 9am and felt like absolute mush. One of our roommates, a small hispanic? man was packing to leave when we were getting ready and was an enjoyable conversation. He called me out on wacky tobacky and told us about how his first day in germany he fell while running up stairs, hurting his nose pretty terribly. Eventually we were ready to checkout of the hostel, stow our bags, and take advantage of their cheap buffet brekkie in the attached restaurant. Meant to be a continental breakfast, but pretty weird in comparison to what I had expected, it focused largely on cheap ham slices and cheese, breads, muesli, and a few cereals. Other than breakfast, that restaurant is generally a cajun restaurant and we learned about [though I don't recall too well] what makes people cajun and how taht group became a thing and eventually a food icon. Good morning paper read.
We moved on and took the same subway we were on the night before, to the brandenburg gate. Even though we had just done that journey twice, we were absolutely useless on this braindead morning at finding the station. It was like probably one of the bigger navigational struggles of the trip. I couldn't imagine funcitoning if we had stayed out any longer. Silly and useless, in 3 times longer than it should've taken, we made it to the brandenburg gate. Crazy giant arch, which was cool in later parts of the day to see in photographs with different statue dressings on top. As in, the one we saw had horses on top, but in one photo we ran into, they weren't there. Liam pointed this out. I honestly would've never noticed.
Reischstag was close so we spent a bit of time there next, before heading to the memorial for the murdered jews in europe during the holocaust. This was a surprise to me. From walking up to it, all you could see is a bunch of large concrete blocks on the ground of varying heights, going on for a while. The height seemed unintimidating, and the height/width proportions were, what I was guessing for significance, kind of the size of a wide coffin. There were thousands of them, and as we started wafting through the space and walking through the maze that they created, we realized that this memorial was something that had to be experienced, and properly walked through. Pictures couldn't describe the haunting feel developed while walking deeper into the ever growing concrete blocks. Reaching heights well above 7 feet, as you got into the depths of it you felt almost trapped in a maze, belittled by the massive structures surrounding you geometrically. The ground was sunk in the center, which is why these massive blocks looked so unintimidating from the outskirts of the memorial, and the viewer isn't prepared for such massive structures. At every crossing you'd have to look for people passing . It was daunting, and amazing. Pictures definitely wouldn't do this justice. Such a cool memorial.
In the center of it there are stairs to go down into the related museum. this museum was so much heavier than I was prepared for. It was really quite amazing and extremely powerful, recanting stories from notes found during the holocaust, explanations of what people had to go through, and rooms with names and thoughts. Though not as intense as yad vashem in israel, still an extremely powerful museum to go through. Once we were doine reading all the passages and absorbing all that the emotional museum had to offer, we ventured back out. We were en route to something that I then didn't even know what it was [i had been putting stars on a google map and saving it for offline use, and there were a few times when we would go to a star and be unsure of what I was trying to mark off.] We stopped though at a science museum en route. Twas free, and because science. We didn't know waht the exhibit would be about, but the whole museum was focused on muscle connections and scientific mechanisms used to manipulate prosthetic limbs, auxiliary devices, and similar. It was actually really cool. Most of the things were interactive, and it was an interesting way to learn about diseases and conditions taht I hadn't known about before. Though I don't know if I saw, but definitely didn't digest, the knowledge from one display, Liam later was telling me about how prosthetic arm control was used by re-routing the nerves that poeple feel with phantom-limb feelings to the chest, where they could then spark and control the prosthetic arm. Really interesting stuff.
We ventured out and stopped by a little christmas market we happened to be passing. Definitely during the day these christmas markets are more for selling/buying little kitsch christmas things, and less for being used as a bar, but it was cool to walk through.
Our next stop was the dali museum I believe, which we just saw in passing. We never actually went in because figured it wasn't worth the fee, but I pressed a 5-cent piece while we were there in one of those penny-press machines. Then we ventured back on route to go to Checkpoint Charlie and stopped to try currywurst. So this was the food i had been seeing a lot in Germany that I had never heard of, and we were urged to try. It's wurst [sausage], cut up and doused with ketchup, and then curry powder is sprinkled on top of it. Seriously, so fucking good. Like, such a wonderful little snack. We got them in those red and white cartons you'd get fries in at a carnival and worked through them with forks as we trudged further. All though we contemplated, and then rejected, the idea of getting drinks at the currywurst stand, once we finished eating and passed a beer shop, we had to go in.
We each got a beer. Liam had been talking about his craving for sierra nevada right before, and was super excited to find one of these [which i find to be a mediocre] beers. I had been intruiged by this dark beer a few times and finally decided to try it out. Twas called Gulden Draak. The bottle is interesting, and now that i'm looking at it online, the rating is absurdly high. I absolutely hated it though. It was way too thick for my taste [maybe just because it was still a bit of a braindead afternoon] and so hard to swallow. Foam kept pouring otu of the top and I threw it out. One of the few beers in my life I haven't finished.
We made it to Checkpoint Charlie, which was a major passing when the Berlin Wall was standing. There were pieces of the wall scattered around to look at, and a massive passage area to read about the history of the area we were standing in. Overall a pretty cool and interesting exhibit taht I didn't originally know too much about.
A duo from New Orleans was playing when we decided to get up. One on soprano sax and the other on some drum-like apparatus strapped to his waist. They were really amazing and put on a great show. We stood by the fire enjoying and warming up until it became too unbearably hot, making us move back. The soprano saxist was telling a weird story when asking for money. He was on about traveling and planting/selling seeds to teach people how to grow things... and said that we needed to give him money so he could buy seeds and give them back to us. not really sure waht he meant, but that was fine.
Next stop was Mauarpark, a subway ride away, to see if we still had time to catch the sunday karaeoke held there. Apparently it's a weekly event where hundreds of people come to watch people do karaoke. We got to the massive park and walked through it, but either went the wrong way or jsut came too late, because we didn't get any karaoke. Instead we stopped by a street performer for had gathered easily over a hundred people around her as she sang and played guitar. She was pretty phenomenal and we stayed through her set before continuing onwards to what looked like a little market stuck at this end of the park. It was really cool, and everything ws in German. Totally not a tourist-feeling spot to end up. We got a weird spicy flatbread pizza-like thing to split. I'm not entirely sure waht it was but the preparation was really interesting. The woman cooking and giving them out was working with one massive oven that had three different compartments stacked on top of eachother, and coals and wood burning at the bottom. As she got a tray of personal sized circles covered in ingrediants, the tray would spend some time in the top one before systematically being moved down into the middle, and then bottom one. When in the botom one, the tray went through a series of rotations before it was finally ready to be sliced and given to customers. It was really good and we sat on reclined lawn chairs to eat it. We were both super tired and kinda cold and decided taht passing out there [it was starting to get a bit dark] was probably the move. I was in and out of sleep, mostly making it just to that pre-sleep spasm and then waking up again, but Liam seemed to get a good little rest out of it. By the time I was ready to gather myself again, I got up to buy some gluwine [mulled- hot and spiced] and bring it back for us before waking him up. We sipped our wine and the tunes that were being spun in the area at this point were feeling more and more similar to the djs we heard the night before. It was a really cool enclosed space with some bar area and a bunch of food stalls. Live musicians were also getting started and there was a fire burning to keep people nearby warm.
while we were standing there I overheard the girl in front of me talking to her friends about the awesome market they were going to be heading to later. I decided to chime in and asked her what event that was. She spent a while explaining to me how to get there and showing me on my map wehre it was located. Seemed friendly and sweet, and then she told me that they were about to head over, if we wanted to come with. Liam and i went with these three girls from norway, one of whom was living in Berlin [the one i was talking to]. Such a good find. They were awesome company for the evening.
So this place they were heading to actually ended up being in the same little old train station area that we had gone to the night before, just a little further down. Sweet. Apparently every sunday this one warehouse that has both interior and exterior space to explore is converted into an awesome market. There is great food from different cultures, bars, and live music. It was a pretty huge area, kind of difficult to describe, but it was awesome. On Fridays it's a boozier version of the sunday game, filled with more bars. We still had a bunch of time before our night train to Amsterdam so we had our fill of beers and interesting brazillian tapioca tacos while hanging out with and getting to know these girls that we followed over. It was interesting to hear their take on different places to travel, and one of them was dying to go to new zealand, so liam was a good find. Hopefully we'll see them again one day.
they headed off to dinner and liam and I stayed a little while longer, dancing a bit and drinking before heading to the east side gallery, which was right near by, and we had somehow managed to forget about. It was on the map, but so close to the bars that i had marked, that I just assumed it was one of those.
The east side gallery is a bunch of the berlin wall that is still standing, all decorated with amazing, intricate, and often thought provoking artwork, although all of it is covered, to some degree, with graffiti. We discussed what a lot of the panels might mean as we trekked along it. It's a pretty massive stretch and brought us to a different subway stop on the line, which we got onto after figuring out where the hell in the massive station the metro existed. It was also seemingly a regional rail type station, so it was a bit confusing. Also, we weren't entirely sure what line we were meant to take, but a nice man who saw us trying to read the sign insisted on helping us figure it out. There are some good people out there.
We made it back to the hostel to gather our shit, usethe toilet, and get directions to head back to the main train station. The area near the downstairs bathroom may be one of the worst, mouldiest things I've ever smelled. It was so difficult to get through going to the bathroom while also trying to hold my breath, but I made it. We got our luggage from the room and according to the reception, had 7 minutes to catch the next bus that would bring us to the station. We ran to the drugstore next door and bought two twistoff bottles of wine to drink on the night train, and then ran across the street trying to figure out where the bus stop was. We weren't sure, and walked away from it a bit, but Liam flagged down the bus driver and since he was at a red light when he stopped, let us in, a block earlier than the actual stop. I thought that was seriously cool, and not something I would expect anywehre else.
On the bus and off to the train. We had a lot of time to kill so went to a mcdonalds. The signs leading towards a burger king were super misleading and we couldn't find it, so maccers was the move. I got this mixed chicken box and liam got a big mac and cheese burger I think. Fries to share too. They came with those silly monopoly stickers on them, all in german. The chicken box i got was half normal nugs and half chicken wings/drumsticks, but they were absurdly tiny. We were disconcerted by the fact that no chicken would have wings nor thighs that small. Liam wouldn't try one, but I thought they were all good, even if they were made of pigeon and not chicken. Here we didn't have to pay for ketchup.
Liam was struggling to stay awake throughout all of this, and we ventured up to the platform to find our train which was delayed about 35 minutes. We sat on the ground with our bags, working on our first bottle of merlot, waiting, It was a little confusing since other trains crossed our track, but we managed to avoid getting on the one to poland and some other intercity line. When it eventually came, we got on, looking for our assigned reservation.
We purchased seats, and then regretted doing so instead of getting a couchette [which would guarentee a bed]. Before we went to mcdonalds before we tried to go back to the ticket counter and find out if there was anyway we could upgrade to a couchette, but they were closed. We could only hope that we were the only ones in our car. As we approached our number the lights were off, and there were 3 other people in there. shit. We woke them up but I checked the next car and it was empty. We went in there instead and hoped that no one would be joining us. Liam passed out almost immediately and i was on edge for a while, waiting for the ticket people to maybe tell us to move, and for someone else to join us. Ticket people came twice and woke me with the fear of their presence, and I saw a few people open the door and decide not to come in. Thank fucking god. We were alone the whole night and made it to Amsterdam with not too much harm. I was super grumpy when we woke up, underslept and irritable, but got over it after a little. Amsterdam!
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