Si e o Krull, o Rei Guerreiro

So, new trip, new post. This time I went to Berlin.

I chose Berlin mostly because the options were either Berlin or anywhere else. Not hard to choose. I’d been in Berlin before (6 years ago), but it was the traditional touristic monument visiting trip. I wanted to experience the other side of Berlin. So, the decision was made. I bought a two way ticket for a bus to berlin (by plane was too expensive and the schedules sucked).

The day came and the adventure began. At 21:00 I took a train to the Den Haag HS station, as I saw on the bus website’s map. I asked somebody where the bus to berlin was and it was on another station, Den Haag Centraal. I should have figured it out before, but as I didn’t, lets run to catch another train to Den Haag Centraal. After a lot more of waiting than I expected, the bus came, and the 12 hour journey to Berlin began. It sucked pretty much, there was a break every 2 or 3 hours, either for the passengers move their legs, or for passport check, so whenever I was entering the deep sleep, I’d have to wake up.

Having lived in Lisbon for 4 years, the 4 hours journey back home that I did maybe more than 100 time prepared me well for this kinds of things, so I arrived to Berlin fresh as an lettuce (soon to be frozen) and about 10:00 of the next day.

I was by myself that morning, Alex was going to arrive at maybe 14:00 or later, so I figured I should walk around a little and see some things and stuff. I ended up walking a little bit (about 10 km according to google maps). After the short walk I went to a Starbucks and read a book until I got bored and walked a little bit more.

Then Alex arrived and I went to meet him and then we both went to meet Matze, one of the guys that was going to host us for the first night (the other one was Felix). After some nice talk with them we went to walk around to see some more stuff and things, and buy some food for dinner. After walking almost the hole Unten den Linden we went back home, with some tuna and spagetti for the dinner. We cooked 1 Kg of pasta thinking we were going to be the 4 eating, but Matze and Felix had other arrangements, so we tried our best to not to eat it all and leave some for them. The beer was Paulaner.

We didn’t go out that night, cause we wanted to be fresh for the next day, as we wanted to to the Alternative Berlin free tour which started at 11am.

The Second day

We woke up not very soon, and went to the main train station to put our backpacks on the lockers, so we could do the tour without them. After some very stupid difficulties with coins, change, etc the 11am came and we were still trying to put the bags on the locker, so the tour would had to be left for the next day. I phoned Gale, one of the mexican girls that was going to be our Couchsurfing hosts and she told us to meet with them at 14:00 so we went to see the Reichstag (only the outside, as due to fear of terrorist attacks, any visits have to be booked 7 days before) and went to the holocaust memorial museum. After the somehow depressing but yet very interesting exhibit we went to meet our hosts for the rest of our stay in Berlin.

We took the U-bahn, walked, ringed the bell, and BAM, we were welcomed by two, as we were going to find out, awesome mexican girls, Gale and Luisa. They caused a good impression on us right away, as they offered some ravioli, with the excuse that it had meat inside and they are vegetarians (they didn’t fool us, we knew they cooked it just because we were coming).

After some leg resting, pasta eating and conversation talking they went together to an exhibition called Topography  of Terror. On the way to there we had a part of the wall kissing our asses and Gale and Luisa left us to do their own stuff and we went to the exhibition for more somehow depressing but yet very interesting stuff. After that we headed to Checkpoint Charlie, as it was nearby. We left the american sector (or entered it, I’m not shure) and went back home (Gale and Luisa’s home).

They advised us to try the falafels in the shop around the corner and we did. I had never tried a falafel before, but good thing I did. So, after some falafel eating and Jägerbomb drinking we went to Magnet club, for some Rock music. The music could have been better but it was enough for having a great time. The club ambient was very fun and we found out Gale and Luisa really knew how to party.

The Third Day

The night before was fun but hard, so we only woke up at 11am, wich meant, no Alternative Berlin free tour for us. We went to the Bauhaus museum and walked the Kurfürstendamm, stoping at the Ka De We for some free chocolate samples and I bought the best lemon merengue pie I had ever tasted. After the usual stop at Starbucks for some resting we headed home.

On the way home we passed a chinese restaurant, and I felt like eating chinese (I had read something about a good chinese restaurant in Berlin, so I had that thought on my head already). We went home and searched on the internet for that restaurant and it was supposedly the best in Berlin. Well, if there is one better I wanna try it, because it was very very good. I had some duck with soybean sprouts, and while we were waiting for the food to be ready (we ordered to take away) they gave us some very good wine.

After having eaten and after some more Jägerbombs, this time also with some homemade aguardente (firewater) we went to a Techno club, 3 minutes away from their house, called Tresor. Very nice club with a very underground feeling, and the music was good. We endend up dancing with 6 or 7 guys making a circle around us so we left.

After going to sleep they showed my some very funny movies on youtube I din’t know about.

The Fourth Day

FINALLY we managed to wake up on time for the free tour around berlin (and I also found out that there was another tour at 1pm, so we could have done it since the first day). The tour was great, we were showed lots of different street artists pieces and the guide explained us all the details and what each artist did around berlin and how to notice it. We also saw some awesome giant graffitis (one of them done by a portuguese guy), had the best kebab ever on the turkish area and visited a building where lots of artists have their studios and where on the backyard there is a amazing exhibit of iron sculptures (Tachless). After visiting the East Side Gallery (1.4 km of the wall still stands and it’s all painted by different artists) we went to see a cool indoor skatepark.

After that we went to see the Dom and all those buildings around it, went to use the toilets in the University where Albert Einstein was a teacher and finally we went to have a Fraziskanner  beer in order to restore our energy.

We went back home and it was time for more falafel, beer and Jägerbombs. yeaai! Some Canadian guys also joined us, as well as Jay, a french guy who Luisa and Gale were also hosting that night. We then went to a club also just around the corner called Sage, which has rock music on Thursdays and is a swingers club on Fridays and Saturdays. The last night with them couldn’t have been better, the club was very cool and I had a lot of fun.

The Fifth (Homeless) Day

We woke up earlyish as Luisa and Gale had to also leave early to catch a ride to Frankfurt. We said our goodbyes and from that time till we arrive at each others homes (me in Delft and Alex in Karlsruhe) we would be homeless. We partied pretty hard the previous night, so we were both very tired. We stored our bags in the train station’s lockers and went to see the Deutsches Technikmuseum, which is pretty cool and has a LOT of things. After that, which took us some time, we went to a burger place called burgermeister. They have very very good hamburgers, and if you don’t like meat, they even have a vegetarian burger.

We then tried to find an elevator that is inside an aquarium, which wasn’t very easy. Lots of people didn’t even want to talk to us when Alex was trying to ask for directions, but after some tries we ended up finding it. Unfortunately it was already closed, so we only saw it from the outside.

After that we tried to burn some time before it was time to go party and walked around in the U-bahn or by foot without nowhere to go, until we met with Felix and went out to some cool bars (and other less cool). We ended up in Zapata, a club in the Tachless building, where we saw a hip hop concert. It was then time for me to go to the airport catch my plane (I found a ticket that was cheap, so I bought it cause I didn’t want to do a 12 hour trip again).

We went to pick up our bags from the station and Alex stayed there waiting for it to be 9am, when he had his ride back home. (it was then 4am) After a rather short but freezing journey I get to the airport just to find out that I had by mistake bought a ticket for the 26 of March, instead if February. Everything on the airport was closed, so I decided to go back to the train station, wich was about 45 minutes away, with the S-bahn. I don’t know why but the S-trains were only doing 3 stations, so I had to change trains and wait outside in the cold a lot of times! I finally got to the train station but I couldn’t find or call Alex, so I just found a place with some eating and tried to rest a little. It was impossible, the cold didn’t let me, so I waited till 8am, bought a train ticket and after 8 hours I was home.

The End

I was glad I was home, but I couldn’t stop feeling a little sad. I visited a amazing city with a good friend, saw the coolest things, met great people and had amazing moments with them. And now it was over. Oh, and it was raining! Fucking dutch weather!