Now that I've slept off whatever I did to myself last night on the Budapest pub crawl.
That moment where you realize the only reason you don't feel like you're going to die is because you're actually still drunk.
Yeah, that happened to me this morning.
This whole responsible adult thing is really working out well for me these days.
But anyway, back to the point.
Of all the places I've visited on this trip Berlin has to be one of my all-time favorites. I absolutely loved it. Even though I was fighting a cold the whole time I still made such great memories there.
Upon arrival after a rather painful seven hour bus trip, all the while feeling remarkably bad, I managed to thoroughly confuse myself trying to find the hostel, but I did manage it eventually. By this point I realized that I had lost my prescription sunglasses somewhere on the bus (goddamnit!) and as an added bonus I had left the painting I bought in Vienna at a (completely separate) bus stop.
It was not my day.
So I dropped my things and forced myself to retrace my steps to see if I could at least recover the painting. I wasn't holding out any hope for such a miracle, but as it turns out it was still where I left it, even almost two hours later.
It was definitely time to mail the damn thing home.
So with painting now recovered, I made my way back to the hostel, grabbing a kebab and beer along the way.
Number one favorite perk of Germany: you can drink while strolling down the street.
So fucking civilized.
I then curled up in bed where I proceeded to crash out at a highly embarrassing time (and of course had the pleasure of a late night loud drunk room mate return, typical of party cities like Berlin).
The next morning I felt much less disgusting, and went out exploring. I made my way to the holocaust memorial, saw pieces of the Berlin Wall, and the dawdled through the Dali museum (which was actually awesome). I returned home in the late afternoon where I made friends with some of my fellow travelers and spent the evening hanging out at the hostel bar. I also managed to recruit an accomplice for breaking into Spreepark, Berlin's abandoned amusement park, the form of Chris from Montana, who when I told him about it immediately and enthusiastically said "we are doing that!" Perfect.
Part of the wall.
Holocaust memorial.
My second day in Berlin was mostly an errand day, where I finally sent the damn painting home (which cost me an unmentionable amount of money due to its size) and then rode the s-bahn aimlessly, stumbling upon a church that was seriously damaged in WWII and the Victory statue. I set myself up with a beer right by the statue and enjoyed the view for a bit while writing in my journal.
Damaged Jesus statue.
Probably about half of the original structure is missing.
Not a bad day overall.
That night I grabbed dinner (kebab, what else) with some new friends from Ireland and France, then proceeded to jump back and forth between two groups of new friends all night. There I also met a group of Scottish lads, which is important to note as they will reappear multiple times in the upcoming weeks. I missed the game that resulted in the loss of part of an eyebrow for one of them, but suffice to say they take their bets quite seriously.
The next morning I met Chris to go on a walking tour we'd heard of, which as it turns out was just a bit more intensive than we had anticipated. Six hours later we had learned all about Berlin's history and I had bought a new book on the Berlin Wall, which I now carry around everywhere and find absolutely fascinating. The idea that the wall literally went up overnight just blows my mind. Imagine going for a few drinks on the other side of the city at a friend's and finding the next day you couldn't go home?
Also, the escape stories are excellent, my favorite of which is the "Trojan cow," basically a hollowed out display cow that was successfully used to smuggle people twice.
Anyway, it was a great tour and we loved it.
When you see a hippo bench, take photos.
Inside an old amazing 20s themed night club.
The only radler I've found that didn't suck. Most of them are just over sweetened alcoholic lemonade. Ugh.
Berlin Wall exhibit.
The hotel where Michael Jackson hung the kid off the balcony.
Walking inside the holocaust memorial.
This unassuming parking lot is directly above where Hitler's bunker was.
More Berlin Wall.
Didn't even notice the background until after the photo.
The fakest place in Berlin. The "American guards" double as male strippers at night. No, not joking.
Chocolate wonders.
Monument for the book burnings. "If you start by burning books you will end up burning bodies."
Museum island.
Compare this...
With this. Wow. It's amazing what one angry, hateful little man managed to accomplish.
But now comes the best part: Spreepark!
My accomplice and I took the s-bahn to as close as we could get, walking the rest of the way there where we discovered a pretty serious looking fence. Nope, they were not fucking around.
"We can totally climb over that!" - Chris, as I look on with skepticism.
We decided to do a loop around, to see if we saw any places that looked like a promising or easier entry point. Lucky for us, we stumbled on a part of the fence where someone had been industriously digging under, and ignoring the signs threatening guard dogs and prosecution of trespassers we shimmied under.
And the fun begins.
Sneaky.
At first we were trying very hard to be stealthy and quiet, but quickly gave that up seeing as how there literally did not seem to be anyone actually there, aside from a few other fellow rule breakers.
Chris turned out to be an absolutely perfect companion for this adventure, and we spent the next hour and a half gleefully exploring, posing for silly photos, making the teacups spin, and climbing up things (more Chris than me, on that one). Boy was it fun!
Overgrown roller coaster track.
There are no words.
Headless Dinos and Ferris wheel.
Victory! I found my T Rex!
The teacups.
Stoked on life.
Best companion for this adventure, ever.
Yeah, we did this, NBD.
Swan boats.
The old train tracks.
Journey to the middle of the swamp that used to be some sort of log ride, I suppose.
Aww school picture head tilt.
Chris dinosaur.
And how many people can say they rode on a headless dinosaur?
Noah's ark, grounded.
Chris had to get his climbing fix in.
We even hopped on the Ferris wheel for a minute, but wisely chose to disembark when it started moving in the wind.
By the end of the afternoon we started to get hungry and since we'd seen the whole place for the most part we decided it was time to see about that whole in the fence and making out way home. At this precise moment, we were "caught."
Now, note the quotations, because it was seriously the most fun I've ever had being thrown out of somewhere.
We were spotted by the elderly guard on a bicycle, and since it didn't even occur to either of us to run, we just strolled up to him whereupon he asked if we had passes (is that an option?) and then smiled good naturedly when we said no. He walked us to the guardhouse, where we met two of his companions, who offered us coffee while they filed a report. We also got the meet the "guard dogs," who turned out to be a husky puppy and a couple of really friendly mutts who attacked us with kisses. Then I thanked them for the amazing photos and we were escorted out through the front gate, saving us another trip through the dirt under the fence. And we giggled the whole way back to the hostel like a couple of naughty eight year olds. Seriously, one of the best adventures ever.
That night we hung out, had some beers at the hostel, and I said my goodbyes to Chris as I had a pretty early train the next day. I love you, Berlin, I will so be back!
That's all for today. Prost!
~Swan
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