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Berlin derby experience!!!!
Day 1 Saturday
I leave Potsdam having to trudge through a snow, water and mud slurry after it decided to rain the night before meaning the snow was melting and just making a big mess of the streets. I arrived before Yake so I went to the hostel to drop off my luggage and have a walk around while I had to wait for him to arrive. The hostel was a nice one, clean rooms, clean reception, some one always at reception (unlike in Potsdam who left their reception unattended) and close to quite a few things like Brandenburg gate and the Reichstag. I met yake at the station then took him back we collected our things and headed out to the Berlin arena where the championships were held. We got there in time to watch the last half of the current game and was enough time to explain the basics to yake, the rules and so forth in action. Finally the final Bout began between Berlin Bombshells and Stuttgart
The game was awesome and really close, there are a few things that confused me, things that they did and I hadn't seen any leagues do in Australia, like the pivot not always starting on the pivot line and the refs not waiting for the last blockercrossed the pivot line witch I got told shouldn't of happened but the pivot situation apparently are different interpretation of the rules so I will have to read up and find it. The bout was close with 2 minutes left the scores were equal. In the end after a few very tense jams Stuttgart won!!
After the bout there was of course, the after party! Just around the corner and still part of the Berlin arena complex was a bar were we went and drank with all the Derby guys and gals! It wasn't a particularly late night but still had an awesome time, it was a great chance to get to know the girls outside of training witch is what I really needed!
Day two, Sunday
Woke up hung over and got our arses into gear to see Checkpoint Charlie and parts of the Berlin wall in the late afternoon then that evening met up with Limpin lilly for drinks at the Tiki Heart bar. Really nice place, cheap cocktails and great atmosphere! Anyway what started as a few drinks as more and more derby girls turned up it soon turned into a derby party with girls and refs from other Netherlands leagues, German leagues and France leagues. It was great for Yake to talk to other refs and learn some rules and bits and parts of the game from more experienced refs and players, it was a learning curve for me as well since some things in the day before game confused me! It was just a f***ing awesome time and we left still pretty early but it took 2 hours from leaving to get home, the train had stopped running so we took shelter at a Turkish shop and had some food while we worked out how to get home. We ended up just jumping on a bus and asking the driver who guided us where we had to go. We didn't get back till 5 am or something.
Day three, Monday
Monday we met up with Lilly again for a late lunch with Dr. NoNo (USA) and a couple refs from the UK. Dr. NoNo who now lives in Berlin with her Partner was our guide and Yake and I tagged along for a guided tour through Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, Holocaust memorial and finishing up the evening with a Gluhwein and a Bratworst at a Christmas market. This was Yake first time out of his own country as a tourist and traveling and I could only be amused by his fascination and awe of everything. He was like a puppy let outside for the first time, he ran around snap happy taking pictures of everything! It was really great, a day of informed sightseeing as well as derby talk and jokes! Ahh this trip couldn't get any better!!!
We headed home early Wednesday morning saying farewell to beautiful Berlin, defiantly worth seeing and experiencing, especially the Holocaust Memorial witch I found so fascinating. There are plenty of Galleries and museums if that's your thing. Right around the corner from the hostel was these really cool galleries and hang out, it was an old building that looked partly destroyed from the war but covered with Graffiti, not crap Graffiti but real street art. Inside was a court yard with sculptures made out of scrap metal and stuff you would find in a tip but used in a way that was really cool. That I have to say was my favorite spot by far and will go there again (to the bars and restaurants in the same complex) witch I didn't get to go to.
Anyway that's all for now!!
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