BERLIN, GERMANY
So I have just returned from a weekend trip to Berlin.. Joey and I booked a cheap flight through ryanair from Verona to Bremen to visit the city and see her friend DJ at a club. Joey had lived in Berlin for two months after her senior year of high school so she knew her way around quite well. We flew into Bremen pretty early on Friday morning, and we would have flown into Berlin, but we got such a good deal on flight tickets it was a lot cheaper going to Bremen. We didn't do much thinking though, and when we got there we realized it was a good 3 to 4 hour trip into Berlin.. and a one way train ticket would cost almost 80 euro per person! We decided that we had the entire day and we wanted to save money so we rented a car. Joey was used to driving on the left side of the road, so I was planning on driving until we realized it was a manual
transmission!! Joey ended up driving and we made it there safely. We didn't have directions but Germany's roads have really good signs and directions so we didn't have a problem.The first day we were there we dropped off our rental car and checked into our hostel. Our hostel was in a good location, but we had a litttle adventure trying to find it. After walking up and down the same road for a couple hours we asked a cab driver for directions. We were just going to have him drive us there and we looked obviously lost, but the conversation went something along the lines of [in german.. the driver was really nice though]: "I will not drive you
girls 100 meters up the road.. where are you trying to go?" "Ziegel Straße" "Haha that is just 100 meters up the road!" Haha that driver saw right through us... we were so close the entire time!! Our hostel was really nice, we got a bunk bed in a huge 50 bed room! We had woken up at abuot 4 am to catch the train to the airport, so we were pretty tired at this point... but we still had all afternoon for exploring, so we dropped off our packs and hit the city.
We first went to the Reichstag (see first picture) which is a government building in Berlin, and then we walked down the street unter den Linden and saw the Brandenburg gate, Berliner dom, and a few other places. Then we went to this place called Potsdamer Platz (see second picture) and then we went out to dinner for Vietnamese food. By the time we got back to our hostel it was nearly 10 pm and we were exhausted. I think out of the 50 places to sleep in the room we were one of the first to go to sleep. I fell asleep right away, but it wasnt long before we were woken up by people talking. Then later, at about 5 am a group of guys were just getting in from the bars and they were so loud and obnoxious. Everyone in the room woke up because these guys were yelling and running around playing the guitar for a few hours.. eventually someone went upstairs to tell the staff about it and after a few threats to be kicked out they finally quieted down. Needless to say we h
ardly slept. The next morning we were up again to see the sights.Berlin is such a cool city its a center of pop culture, there is so much art everywhere.. from amazing graffiti on the streets to little displays and galleries everywhere! It was incredible just walking around and seeing it all. We went to Checkpoint Charlie that afternoon and got our passports stamped for East and West Germany. That evening we got ready and went out to dinner before meeting up with Joey's friend, J-STAR who was DJing at a club. We went to this small Italian restuarant, where we met this really loud American guy. Haha he must have overheard us speaking english so he walked over to our table and struck up a conversation. He was a student from Purdue who was studying in Berlin, but this restaurant was pretty small and he was talking sooo loudly the whole restuarant was listening. It was really embarassing. After he left our waiter came over to us and he asked us if we needed an escape route and suggested taking a different way out. Haha it was pretty funny actually. After dinner we stopped for a drink at a bar on the way, where we met a group of NORTHERN irish people. Apparently people from northern ireland dont say they come from ireland, but northern ireland.
We then headed to the club where J-STAR would be performing. The nightlife in Berlin is non-stop and things usually dont pick up until 2 am. He wasn't meant to start performing until 1:30 am. If you want to check out his music go to www.myspace.com/jstarmusic. It was really good. The night flew by, and the club closed at around 5 am so the group of us then went to another club that was still open. It was so much fun! I must have gotten a second wind because I don't know how I stayed awake and danced for that long. When we got to the second club they wanted J-STAR to dj for them and it was so cool how much everything picked up when Joey's friend got behind the tables. I want a dj friend! We stayed at that club until it closed at about 7 am. Then we walked around outside and saw the Berlin wall. Not much is left standing, but we found a good stretch of it near the club. We went for kebabs before heading back to our hostel. By the time we got there it was almost 10 am and checkout was at 11. We decided to try and take a quick sleep for about an hour, but after I was still exhausted.
We checked out of our hostel and then walked around Berlin a little more. It was sunday and there were open markets everywhere. We went to a flea market, and walked around. There was a lot of worthless junk, but also some really cool stuff too. It was a pretty expensive flea market though. There were some pretty cool sunglasses at this one place, and another stall had all these rings made from old keyboard letters (see pic).
We decided that neither of us wanted to drive another rental car, so we forked over the cash and took the train back to Bremen. We had a lot of time to kill before our flight, and at this point neither of us could remember the last time we slept. It was a mix of exhaustion and delirium and we needed something to pass the time. It was pretty cold so we found a radiator under the stairs and set up camp. We had a magazine and nearby there were a bunch of pamphlets for tourists so we decided to make a little collage inspired by all the art in Berlin. It was a really good way to pass the time actually.
We finally made it back to Trento, and when I got back here to our apartment in Vela there was a package waiting for me!! My family had sent me a bunch of goodies for Easter... mmmmm! So nice!!!
Joey and I figured that our last normal night of sleep was Wednesday night, and since then we had only about 11 hours of sleep in 5 days... I am about to have the best sleep of my life. Oh and I took a lot of pictures in Berlin, definitely check them out: the BERLIN album
xx ciao
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