Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
I found it in Berlin.
It was on the ground, unassuming, strewn amongst the cobblestones at 4am. I found it. It was there, amongst the new faces, new friends and new languages; strewn in a flurry of national comparisons and commonwealth camaraderie.
It was literal. It was written on the ground. Ok, enough of the existential. But "it" was actually there. It seemed fitting to find the word "it" carved into the cobblestones of backstreet Berlin, while resting the feet after a night of clubbing amongst a new group of faces, making introductions and fast tracks to memories.
I should probably backtrack as the story, happily, does not start there...
Here's the quick version of what's happened since the last blog:
-Kelsey landed into Suisse, unbeknownst to me, after changing departure airports, changing airlines, huge alterations to her itinerary due to a workers strike with Germany's airline Lufthansa.
-We quickly packed up my stuff, or rather - I packed up my stuff, Kelsey rolled one t-shirt and then quickly became comatose on my couch after torturing her body to the rigors of international time changes.
-Said goodbye to my "Madam", shed a tear, but not too many as there was ADVENTURE to be had!
-Kelsey and I decided to cut and dye our hair. Colours and styles will be left up to your imagination.
-We grabbed a train to Bale (Basel in English) and grabbed a quick flight to Berlin!
Ok, so Berlin, Berlin, Berlin, Berlin...
Got to the Circus Hostel (AMAZING, amazing hostel! If you go to Berlin, book this hostel!!) in the afternoon after a long adventure deciphering Berlin's subway map after being told by an amazing Irishman that there was construction halting most train lines to/from the Airport. We reached the hostel and prepped ourselves for what lay ahead. This was both Kelsey and my first experience with hostelling, and we were pleasantly surprised; clean, fun, awesome, prime location, cool people, just great.Had dinner at the OLDEST brewery in the world, called Wil-something, and dined for EIGHT euros on half a litre of (old) beer and German sausages. It was delicious; both in price and palette, considering both of us had been used to paying ridiculous Swiss prices for a while now.
We both NEEDED to see Berlin, so we dropped of our bags, "the kids" as we have affectionately dubbed them, and headed out. We had no tour, no ideas, just our feet and our cameras. We became moths, following the lights we could spot on the horizon. "Let's go over to that tall purple net-y deal over there." "OK, but only if we can go see the thing with the wings on it afterwards!" quickly became the method to our madness. We walked to the Reichstag, German head of parliament, and were turned away as they were closing. The Reichstag was bombed during WW2, but not completely! In 1997 they began construction of a glass dome rides the scarred body of the Reichstag like a giant crystalline beehive.After the Reichstag, we meandered through the Tiergarten, Berlin's big central park, to go and see the Haus der Kulturen der Welt ("House of Culture and World?" was the best translation we could come up with...) which was donated to Berlin by the US and looks like a giant...something. It's really cool but we couldn't describe just super new age-y.After walking around the Tiergarten, an extremely underlit plot of land we soon discovered, we stumbled upon the monument to the fallen Soviet Soldiers who fought in Berlin. It was dead quiet, no other people around, just us and the faded bronze remains of the Soviet soldier on top of the monument, pointing to the East. It was an interesting point of view to see when we arrived in Berlin, as most of the stuff heard in North America is dominated with our own efforts in the war, but not as much from those of the other participants. We wandered around Berlin for a few hours longer, passing through the Sony Centre, Potsdamer Platz, portions of the Wall, and some other cool stuff. We eventually called it a night and saved the rest for the daylight.
It must be noted that Berlin's skyline is DOMINATED by a structure of many names. We dubbed the "Deathstar", but it also has been referred to as "The Disco Ball of Doom", "The Olive on a Stick", and "Some Architect's Last Erection" (As the architect who built it shortly died afterwards). It is the Communist contribution to the Berliner skyline. It is bizarrely fascinating, as it's "doomsday" facade glitters in the sunlight. It was built to show the communist ferocity in architecture but also to frighten the public straight! It isn't always advertised, but the Communists had to smuggle Swedish architects to make sure the tower didn't fall down. The sneaky Swedes built the ball structure in such a way that when the light hits it, it makes a cross, challenging the GDR's policy of banning all religious symbolism.
Kelsey and I also indulged in a Berliner delicacy: the Currywurst. Not the worst Curry, but rather a sausage covered in ketchup and spiced with curry powder! It doesn't seem to have the deep cultural roots that other delicacies have, but fukkkk after a day of walking, that coupled with a Fanta is a marriage made in heaven. German's do love their sausages. When we went for dinner at the oldest brewery, my sausages came floating in a hotdog water kinda deal. It was delicious but lost points for gross presentation, but made them up in the end cos it was THAT delicious that the judges had to have a recount.
What else....I BOUGHT A NEW BAG! My old, faithful Burton bag gave its final wheeze and busted a zipper just before our flight to Berlin. It wasn't a slow "well I saw that coming" kinda blow up, rather one day the zipper was attached, the next it was in two peaces, and as suddenly as I had realized that, one of the zipper's decided to jump ship and release itself from the track. SO I found the bag of my dreams which was made by a Swiss company that uses recycled truck covers and bike tyres. It's a keeper! Fits all my s*** and is red and yellow! STYLIN! My faithful Burton bag is unceremoniously strapped to my Eagle Creek backpack until I find a better use for it... I'll keep you posted on its fate, as I can already sense that you are concerned, distraught even!
The day after the epic night walk, we took a turn at history and toured around some remaining portions of the wall, mostly in the area called the Topography of Terror which is an intact piece of the wall with the no man's land preserved for the public. It was very connecting seeing pictures of the pre-war Berlin and walking through the new facade of the German Capital. We missed the Jewish Museum, cos we were dead tired and my camera battery died, but we did make it to Check Point Charlie which is pretty interesting, not so much because of the border crossing, but the two omnipresent portraits of an American soldier facing the Communist East Berlin and the Communist Soldier facing the West Berlin community; each had a menacingly serene gaze over their nation's enemies.
We went back to the hostel and made a few phonecalls and some emails. We also met up with a group of people who would later become our mates for the rest of our sejour in Berlin. Robbie and Issy, two Aussie girls wrapping their way along Europe quickly became favourites. Ben was also from Australia and was heading up Europe alone, and welcomed the company in Berlin. We discussed plans for the night and found ourselves in a cavernous open air sand bar just a few blocks up. That's when I allowed myself to realize that I was in Berlin. An open air art gallery/club, with iron structures to climb on and chill inside, with an empty warehouse tattooed with graffiti, all resolved to make a complete Berlin experience. We stopped at a grocers to grab some predrinks for the night ahead and someone tipped me off to "Club Mate" an energy drink that is the Red Bull of Red Bulls. I later learned that it wasn't "Club Mate" but "Club Maté" the South American energy bean like coffee. So after sharing that with Kelsey, I was set for the night! Beers, stories and dance moves were swapped under the crisp Berlin sky, my personal favourite being the "Melbourne Shuffle" and the "Bang Gang", not to be confused with the inverse. We also discussed our mutual dislike for the (what we had decided to call them) "Rainbow Stylers", not the gays, but the Tektonik dancer guys who litter European streets spreading mullets and bad techno to the masses. Barf. Youtube "Tektonik" and you'll be subjected to what I see everyday. Love to all kinds y'all. But Rainbow Stylers, CUT YOUR HAIR AND LISTEN TO GOOD MUSIC! Thanks y'all! Techno for everyone, but make it good!
We spent the night dancing, caparihnas in hand, to German electro, stopping only to cool down, and emerging sweaty but successful at 4:30am, dancing our whole way back to the beats that were still reverbing inside our skulls.
The next day, after a necessary sleep-in, we decided to tackle Berlin with our new mates,gorging on an all you can eat breakfast at the hostel to save on lunch costs, we discussed past and future happenings of the 24 hours we had together. We decided to ambitiously pursue Berlin's passion for graffiti by trying to find some Banksy installations that were done in 2003. This was ambitious considering Berlin's walls shed their skin daily, with new tags, new posters and new artists peeling away the skin to get at the muscles. We saw a few good pieces on the street, but no Banksy, although we did see the place where his "Girl clutching TV" painting was done, even though it was covered up.We later marched to the East Side Gallery, a stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been left for artists to paint on, leaving the city with a 24 hour installation of beautiful art telling the story of the city's darkest years; very powerful, and much more enjoyable with a roundtable of new friends.
Last night, we ate a quick sushi dinner and prepped ourselves for the rumour of a wine bar that Kelsey had heard from a friend. The bar works on the honour system, as you pay ONE EURO for a glass of wine and then once you've drunk your fill or they close (which was the case for us) you pay what you think you drank which can vary with your intoxication. HOW AWESOME IS THAT? Bottles of wine sit open on a counter as people, stories, laughter flow out into the street corner. It was amazing. Issy and I sat and laughed over past relationships and our own misfortunes of being "the Quickest Drinkers in the Commonwealth" as well as the joys of drinking with your parents. Absolutely amazing. We made good use of the playground across the way as we made our way back to the hostel.
This morning, after reorganizing the vineyard that had become my head and circulation system, we made our way to the Reichstag, as we figured the earlier the easier to get in! This was not the case...BUT our friend Ben had got up later than us and made it there earlier and was up in line by the doors. We passed "go" and headed up the elevators to the atrium above the parliament buildings. The structure looks down into the main room used for policy making, voting and stuff, as the architect, and Germany, wanted to secure a transparent government for the future, after decades of whispers and lost generations.
We ran off to the Frank Ghery building next door, resemblinga whale, and is one of his finest works, in his opinion. Running off to the Kaiser Wilhelm church, we passed the infamous hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his offspring over the balcony, needless to say, every tourist, including us, started humming "Billy Jean" as they walked by. The Kaiser Wilhelm church as a grand eglise built in the 1890s but was partially destroyed during the war, but now still stands as a memorial to the fallen. The church is situated in West Berlin, amongst H&Ms and Nike boutiques, contrasting the eerily new facade of East Berlin.There is still today a difference in the air of East and West Berlin. We ran back to the hostel to pack, as the infamous Robert's panic gene (my mom's side of the family for those of you who don't know) reared its ugly, but manicured, head as my mined raced to "GAAAAAAH!! WE HAVE TO CHECK OUT IN TEN MINUTES!" We were told no worries and that we could check out at our leisure. Panic subsided; we resumed normality, no...resumed our mantra of "fake it till you make it" and carried on our way to meet Issy and Robbie at the Book Burning Monument before we caught our train to Copenhagen.
So here I sit, racing away on a train to Copenhagen, capital of the statistically "happiest people on earth" to take up the sites. Kels and I were discussing how it numbly doesn't feel like a holiday or a vacation. It's a fast life on the road, so hopefully we'll find our peace when we hit the Arctic Circle next week. I am loving Europe, so please, put the thought of me cold, crying, wet from rain and tears in a foreign train station with no passport or money out of your head. I'm happy and full of adventure! I am counting down to Iceland though, it will be my real release! Something about family and islands seem to go very well together.
Miss you all, so sorry for making you read all the way down to here! I'd shorten it, censor it, but that wouldn't be me! So deal, take it in doses, and take it slow. The internet will be here forever (famous last words) but take it at leisure! This will be here as it happens!
MKAYBAIY'ALL!!
Robinson
- comments