I had heard so much about Berlin. Cool. What a cool place. Great place. Cool. It was pretty cool. But I was pretty ready to get back home at this point.
I got in by train, found an internet cafe in the station, and discovered a great deal on a hostel. Pegasus Hostel. If you book and arrive today, you get the first night half off. 7 euro! This place was good, and offered free internet, so I stayed two nights.
I walked around the first night. The river Spree.
Unter den Linden.
Me in front of that place where Obama spoke. Tiergarten.
Brandenburg gate, and bombed-out church from WWII made into a memorial.
Nazi mural. I loved this.
Look at that blonde’s face.
Me standing in the weird Holocaust memorial concrete slabs. Berlin Wall.
Part of the Berlin Wall with a mural painting.
I went on a “free” guided tour of Berlin with some others from the hostel. It was a pretty good tour and I got the story behind all the sites. In the end, the tour guide asked for donations. She made some good money since most of the 30 people handed her 5 euro or more.
The unfortunate part of the tour was that I met some hostel friends. That’s bad news. Lonely ones. I didn’t have much to do myself so I ended up going along with them for a while. “Hey let’s get a beer!” “Yeah, beer. Cool. I love beer.” Here’s an email I sent my sister about it.
by the way, i just had a weird, kind of shitty day. i went on a free walking tour and made ‘hostel friends‘ who turned out to be really annoying and sad. i’ll need to document this one. it’s got some good stories that i don’t want to forget. christine, 33, single from vancouver. talks way too much. has a cat. her baby. works in a ‘dull’ office job. insurance company. does ‘adventures for singles’ which organizes events for singles like chocolate making, or wine tasting. cool. left her cat with her friend and just today, he sat in her friend’s lap. can you believe it! he’s never done that with anyone before besides me! she’s a ‘tv junkie’ and listed out all the shows she watches. kept telling us about this ‘local’ bar in belgium that she went to the other night. and it was soo crazy! we went to a shop today, and she asked if a ‘local’ artist made this. then after we left the shop she told us she was happy that she purchased something made by a ‘local’ artist. local is cool. really local.
there’s this other guy cameron. 24 from seattle. follower. boring guy. likes to say ‘there you go’ and ‘nice’ and ’sweet.’ boring.
anyway, things just kept leading to another and i wasn’t able to leave easily. it was painful. i finally had to ‘pass’ on doing something although i really have nothing else to do. i just would rather be alone.
making hostel friends is a dangerous thing. i’m pretty ready to stop talking about travels and other stupid repetitive stuff.
Christine was really proud of any plans she had. “I’m meeting Carolina at 7.” “What will you be doing?” “I’m meeting Carolina at 7.” And of course you would be welcome to join, but she was proud to be the owner of this plan. “I’m meeting Cameron at the zoo tomorrow at 11.”
Later, after I had escaped them, I sat down to check my email. I get a tap on the shoulder. Christine! She sits next to me and talks and laughs as she reads her email, explaining everything to me. “Oh! My cousin emailed me. That makes me happy. I haven’t heard from her for a while. We got our navels pierced when I was 19, and she was 17. I had to sign for her! hahah!!” I listen half-heartedly. Out of basic human politeness. “Oh cool.” “That’s good.” I’m still staring at my screen, trying to concentrate. I don’t give a shit about her emails. “OH!! My friend is going to pick me up from the airport. Oh good! I was worried. He wasn’t answering email for a few days.”
Here’s currywurst, a Berlin favorite. And the tour group with sad girl hostel friend sitting on the grass.
My last day in Berlin I just walked around trying to kill time. I read a little. Too much time. Ready to go.
I even took some self-portraits to pass the time. Beautiful!
Then that night I met up with two CouchSurfers, Stani and Herrmann, who are friends with Katja in Budapest, the girl who gave me her keys to her old apartment. They were cool. Walked me around to some highlights. We got a doner kebab in the area of Berlin where they were invented. Little Turkey. We had some Augustinus beer, their favorite, at a hangout spot on a bridge. It was a good last night, but now I forget the details.
Stani offered his place for me to stay. It was kind of far away, plus I had decided to stay at the airport. So we parted, I got my bag from the hostel, and I headed to the airport. There was a cafe with couches, so I set up camp.
I had an okay sleep. For breakfast I walked to the nearby metro station. I found a wurst place and wanted some currywurst. The guy told me it would be 10 minutes. But he grabbed a sausage from the water and held it up. “Bockwurst?” I’d take it. It was cheaper too. He gave me a breadroll and some mustard. I dipped and bit into the bock. Horrible. A dry outer covering and I pierced the skin into a tasteless meat. Terrible texture. It made me want to vomit. But I soldiered through it, dipping valiantly into the mustard, and mixing bites between the bock and the bread to keep a variety of flavor.
In the plane, I sniffed a few times. A dry nose. The lady next to me offered me a tissue. “Do you have a cold?” What the hell. I think she was trying to be nice, but it seems she probably wanted me to stop. I hate that. You sneeze one time, and someone says “Are you okay?” It’s a sneeze. It’s not a sickness. Asshole.
