September 2007 - Berlin

Prolog

It all started when Tina told me she's going to Stockholm, Sweden, for training for two weeks. Since she was around then we decided to meet. Btw a great chance for me to finally travel by plane again xD
Plane? Forget it! Ryanair has a daily connection from Lübeck, but that plane is coming from Stockholm, departing from Lübeck 40 minutes after that. No chance. I wanted to go by morning to be home for dinner. As Europe's almost civilized it shouldn't be a problem - I thought. Well, all the other carriers had the same picture, if they had a connection at all. So I stock to Ryanair. But even goiing Saturday afternoon to return on Sunday was senseless. Time between arrival and departure: 18 hours, from 20:00 to 14:00. And the airport is 100km from the city btw!
So no chance, I'd have had to leave school earlier on friday to take the Friday flight and the sunday one back. Bad thing due to the school and the costs would have automatically risen. I need to sleep and eat =)

But then Tina told me I could join her when meeting her friend Oliver in Berlin. I had ignored the fact she would actually be staying in my country since that weekend was reserved for Oliver. But when I told Marlene, who's Dirk's secretary, she didn't only tell me that there's one of our busses going to Berlin just that weekend but also offered me to stay at her apartment. Perfect. Tina was okay with and I would have the perfect stay.

Friday, September 21, 2007

A door slamming, heavy steps on the stairs, another door slamming and a bunch of black clothes, long hair and a holdall marching across the yard from our house to the office. That's how my short stay at home on Friday must have looked to a watcher's eye. The bus occured to be full, so Marlene and me went by car, departing at 4:30pm. During the almost four hours of driving we had some very nice and interesting conversation I really enjoyed, also she was a good tour guide when we finally arrived in Berlin then =)
The first culture shock was already waiting for me. At a time when business in my hometown is sleeping like a baby, we went out to eat Sushi. I had never done before which lead to a little excitement. I'm not that eager to try new things, but I didn't think, overdid it and ordered a Japanese beer to it aswell (which tastes like a 50:50 mix of German beer and water). Anyway it was nice and a good opportunity to get to know Marlene's housemate Andrea, about mid-20s aswell. I really felt welcome at their place and enjoyed staying there all the time.

Sundown over the highway in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern... not really romantic but nice to see

Saturday, Sepbemter 22 2007

It's hard to breathe when you wake up that day you're going to meet your big sister for the first time - and when you look into the terrarium in the room you're sleeping in and can't find the snake anywhere xD It must have been around 9am, and after shower and breakfast I called Tina.
"The number you called is currently not assigned" Two times. Shit, that's horror. We had agreed I'd call her that morning to talk about time and place of meeting. A problem with the cellphone was the least I needed now. But then I got an SMS "when do you have time to meet us this afternoon?"
Alright, I was up to leave for the city right then, so I could be anywhere she wanted that afternoon. Okay so far, I went out (the Subway station Frankfurter Alle is directly in front of the door)

U5 til Alexanderplatz, then U2 to Potsdamer Platz, no problem. Well so I got out of the train searching for the next one. And finally I stood in the sunlight, which is quite unusual for a subway station. Buying some postcards and taking a few shots of the TV tower and Red City Hall I went inside and finally found the U2.

Potsdamer Platz. The Sony Center, the Deutsche Bahn central, all in all some highrises, neon lights, life. I love it. Well, from there I went around the block to Niederkirchnerstraße, where a pretty long part of the original wall is still standing. Though you just don't get the feeling, it's more a long piece of concrete along the street. From there I passed the Ministry of Finance and the Bundesrat going back to Potsdamer Platz.

Instead of taking the subway, I decided to walk along the Ebertstraße, passing the memorial for the murdered jews of Europe and the Brandenburg gate, surrounding the Reichstag and then along the Spree to museum island, where I originally wanted to attend the Pergamonmuseum. Arriving there and seing that they're renovating the whole building, I decided to search for a McDonald's first to queue afterwards. Accidently, I was headin East towards Alexanderplatz when Tina messaged me they were going right there aswell that moment.

King Friedrich II.

The Dom (cathedral)

Rotes Rathaus (Red City Hall)

Reaching the Alexanderplatz I walked across towards the city hall, which is a quite impressing building. Excitement raising, adrenaline pumped through my body more than is healthy for sure, clear thoughts not possible. It could be only minutes til I finally really met the person who's been like a sister, more than that, more than a friend, just special to me, personally. Well I knew her well, even seen a lot of pictures so there wouldn't be any surprises. Besides her friend Oliver for sure. When my phone rang and Tina tried talking to me it was as useless as everytime we phone - her extreme accent, quiet voice and my success in destroying my ears through 17 years lead to the old problems. So I got to know Oliver earlier than I thought though Tina gave him the phone. A loud, clear and German voice is always a sympathic thing ^___^ Anyways he didn't know the city hall so we decided to meet in front of the entrance to the TV tower.
So I stood next to this long queue, drinking a little bit of water, always searching the square when I recognized Tina. I don't know if it was due to that bunch of pictures or something just like twins/siblings recognize each other after being divided all their lives, but I didn't even wonder, just knew it's her, btw this smile is unique. Anyway it was just the greatest feeling to finally hug her. As expected no surprises. Same face, same voice and as if we had met only days before we just talked about this and that, nothing special. Well Oliver seemed nice aswell, an impression that shouldn't change during the next hours.
So we went for the McD's I was searching for, Tina wanting to pay. Well, I had wanted a cheeseburger and small milkshake, I got the burger, half a liter of shake, same amount of cola and a big french fries. Same for herself, just with a fish burger, so all in all it really looked as if that meal was half her own weight. But she almost finished it and we had some nice talks. Then the two wanted to join me for Pergamonmuseum. Arriving there it was still the same picture and we got to know that you'd have to queue for 1.5 hours. Much too long in the late summer heat. That's why we just sauntered over to the Lustgarten in front of the cathedral, where we saw these ugly sculptures and some kid that's the perfect mini-me:

As Tina's interested in churches she got caught by the cathedral and asked if we should try getting up on the roof or the dome. Sure that you get inside such a fabulous work of architecture, and it's okay to pay a little to help keeping it in a good state. The inside was just busting of gold, nice paintings on the walls and the dome high above your head is impressing aswell. And yes, you can go up to the dome gallery! What I partly expected but didn't bother me was that there's a good number of stairs going up there, narrower and narrower, steeper and steeper. For me who already panics looking down from my own balcony, it was a hard time but I made it and it's worth the struggle! You get a wonderful view across the city from there.

285 steps below the gallery there's the Hohenzollern crypt featuring the graves of the Hohenzollern family, the electors (Kurfürsten), later kings of Prussia and from 1871 to 1918 the emperor family of Germany.

Walking back to Alexanderplatz (for whatever kind of reason) we came out of a tunnel or subway station, I can't really remember, suddenly hearing loud techno music. And I was like "Oh shit is it Love Parade and nobody tole me?" But it was just a demonstration against the data retention law allowing the government to search private computers via internet. They had the same way we did so we walked with them a while. And I must say I don't regret it at all since I'm totally supporting that action.

After having a drink at Dunkin' Donouts we went into the subway station (right, the same one where I had got lost that morning) and took the U2 to Potsdamer Platz (right, the second time for me). There the two wanted to go to a movie and look around the Sony center before. Oliver asked me to join so I came with them, just to see the place at nightfall. It's definitely gorgeous to see it all enlighted. So anyway we went to the Arkaden mall resting in an ice café. I had been the third wheel of the cart long enough so I left the two alone for the theater, felt I would be disturbing them there. And I didn't want to miss the fun making own Sushi with the girls.

"'schuldigen sie, is das der Sonderzug nach Pankow?" Actually my MP3-Player randomly played that song when I was in that train xD Was fun, I didn't even know I had put it on there

Sunday, September 23, 2007

So while I was away the owner of the stuff in the room I was sleeping in had moved out, all that remained was the terrarium (I actually found the snake in a corner now) and the mattress with the bed linen. Well, I didn't care but quite a change compared to the luxury big bed from the night before ^^
We made our Sushi, and it went quite good. Didn't know it's so easy. Even tasted nice (except the rolls from the one who put that much Wasabi in it, don't know who that was) and we watched a movie (Kill Bill 2)

Next morning I had time to bring my postcards away (the night before I had bought stamps aswell - I don't know if they accept that I put 3 0.50€-stamps (even the big ones from the special edition -.-) on the one to California, I'll see if Laine tells me it arrived. Too bad otherwise. The mailbox was a few hundred meters down the alley and all the way I had this gorgeous view on the TV tower. That street's really great to see. Actually built for military parades during the GDR-time it was also used for the mass demonstrations in 1989, so quite a historical place =) Right then, early afternoon we left heading for home again.

Berlin's a great city and the weekend could have hardly been better. I think if I'm allowed to, I'd engage Marlene's and Andrea's great hospitality again. So thanks and best regards to the two here! =)