I've got to say that considering I've had such a nightmare trip, I'm in relatively good spirits. I flew from Venice to Berlin arriving at 11pm. I discovered that I have baggage claim phobia now. I had to take a cab from the airport to the hostel cos it was too late to be taking a train on my own - cost me €45...
When I arrived at the hostel, I walked into the reception and was greeted by Charlotte who arrived that afternoon. We started catching up on the last 2 weeks of each others lives and for a moment I completely forgot I was in Germany because it felt just like Sydney! The room was really hot and gross considering we paid so much for it...we thought there'd at least be an A/C. Nope. Lift to get up 8 flights of stairs? Nope. Wifi in room? Nope.
Anyway, we basically went straight to sleep - I was exhausted. The next morning we set off early to visit some sights. I can't say that German sight seeing is that great...there's not much to see really because all the history is about it getting destroyed? We did a bit of shopping and also went to have our first real German sausage!
Did you know that the difference between "west side" and "easy side" sausages is that one has skin and one is without skin? It was delicious...and just so much sauce! I You would LOVE, Steve.
For some reason it's really difficult to get around Berlin because you seriously have no idea what anything is...in Italian you can kind of guess but German is completely foreign. People here either speak perfectly fluent English or they don't speak English at all.
Anyway, that night Charlotte and I went to a neighbouring suburb and ended up in some tiny bar with a live band. That's when we met Stefan and friends from Sweden. I'm not a big "meet stranger in bar" person because they all only want one thing. They were nice enough though and we got chatting about Sweden and our travel adventures. I'm not going to lie....I got really drunk. I remember sitting on the floor of the bathroom at some stage. I wasn't very interested in the Swedish guys so I don't recall any striking conversations. On our way out we saw that one of the Swedish guys was passed out on the floor of the bar. By the time we got back to the hostel, it was already 5am and the sun was coming up.
Surprisingly, we were both up at 8am the next day and after breakfast we set off to Charlottenburg to visit Charlottenburg Palace. This is the former summer palace of Queen Sophie-Charlotte, grandmother of Alexander the Great (something like that). Again, a lot of the things weren't authentic because it was destroyed in the war but the garden has been kept as per the original design, it is the most amazing garden I have ever seen. Seriously. We did an audio guided tour of the palace...the Queen had a particular interest in China so there were heaps of really extravagant dinner sets etc.
After the tour we had a nap in the palace's garden. We had a sundae in the palace cafe and headed to Story of Berlin where we visited a bunker. It's actually really creepy to think about living during that time. Modern research shows that everyone inside would've died anyway from lack of oxygen. The Story of Berlin is basically a museum dedicated to the history of Berlin.
We made our way back to the hostel and got ready to meet the Swedish guys again. They suggested that we go to a night club in Berlin which is in an old factory building that's 5 storeys high. It's supposed to be the most exclusive club in Berlin...as such, Charlotte and I got in and the Swedish boys were told to go somewhere else. Annoying. So we had to find a different club.
We headed to Water club or something where we strategically broke the group up and finally managed to get everyone in. It's still a very exclusive club...people were getting turned down for no reason at all. Anyway, I just wasn't feeling it but I held our until 5am. When we got back Charlotte was major drunk and ate all the cheese in the fridge....
That's when disaster struck and I got carted off to hospital...200 euros later, i got discharged and we're back in the hostel (who i might add, handled the situation very well).
Anyway, the most exciting thing...Dan and Lach are also in Berlin! We managed to coordinate a meet up at Prater Beer Garten which is the oldest and biggest (don't hold me to that - i think that's what Charlotte said) beer garden in Berlin. They are the cutest - ironically we spent more time together in Berlin than we do in Sydney.
I'm genuinely really looking forward to coming home. Missing everyone.
Right, my eyes are closing...need to sleep off the drugs before dinner.
x
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