As luck would have it, a taxi pulled up moments after we disembarked from our train. The driver was familiar with the routine of people arriving late at night to spend the night in the airport, so he quoted us a price of 18 euros and we were off.
Our conversation was fantastic, half in German and half in English, as we talked about our trip agenda and he told us about his life and the airport. Once at the airport we realized that we weren't the only ones there, and I bought a beer while Elia got some snacks and the two of us set up camp in a small corner. She laid down to sleep for a bit, while I drank my beer and did some writing. After about an hour, I decided to try and sleep, and since I had had two large beers in the evening, I was pretty exhausted and was able to sleep thoroughly (but uncomfortably) for about two hours.
By that point, we only had an hour or so left before check-in began, and it came quickly. The bummer was that I didn't realize we'd have so much stuff and we hadn't picked the option for a carry-on when we purchased our tickets, so we were charged an extra $50 each to check our bags. Ridiculous, but we didn't have many other options at this point.
Once that was done, we went upstairs to grab some breakfast, and then went to the security checkpoint (where we realized that every country seems to have its own regulations on how that process is done) and proceeded to spend the next hour-and-a-half in the super packed, totally freezing, loud as all heck terminal.
We finally boarded our plane just as 6 a.m. It was my first time flying RyanAir, which is a super low-cost carrier, but at the same time, it is super no frills, aka kind of janky. The employees were all jerks (expected) but it got us where we needed to go for less than any other kind of transportation, so it served its purpose.
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I ended up falling asleep before takeoff, waking only just before we landed (the flight was an hour long) in Berlin. We got off the flight, grabbed our luggage, and then followed the directions to the hotel, given to us by the hotel website, which ended up being...wrong.
See, the S-Bahn in Berlin was under construction, so it ended up re-routing us, and we reached the end of the line after about 45 minutes of riding and not having come to our stop. Frustrated, I called the hotel, and the man working the desk told me he couldn't help me and that I needed to figure it out myself. I then called our tour guide, Anita, who was at the other airport (we flew into Shönefeld and they flew into Tegel) and told us to catch the 109 bus, which is the bus that runs from Tegel but not where we were.
Feeling a bit helpless, I inquired from an older man how to get to our stop, Savigny-Platz, and he gave me a series of transfers, from one tram, to another, to the underground and then walking. It was complicated but our only option, so I thanked him and we headed outside.
We took the M1 tram like he suggested, only it ended and kicked everyone off before our stop. Again, frustrated, I attempted to read the map, but that was too confusing, so I asked another local, who was kind enough to give us the most perfect directions.
After another tram, and another train, and a few blocks of walking, we arrived at our hotel close to 11 a.m., nearly three hours after arriving in Berlin. Unfortunately, since no one else in our group had arrived yet (and they were due to arrive in three separate groups throughout the day) they wouldn't let us check in. Instead, we put our bags in the luggage room and camped out on the couch.
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Eventually, we must have been too unsightly, or they might have taken pity on us, because they suddenly woke us from dozing on the couch (after nearly an hour), gave us a room key, and sent us upstairs, where we both immediately climbed into our beds and passed out.
I ended up sleeping about three or four hours, so after I quietly milled around the room and hotel and organized stuff. I ended up running into Jim, who said that he and Renate and Florian had arrived recently, and that the rest of our California group was out and about, but we needed to meet in the lobby at 6 p.m. to go to dinner with the group from Texas, who would be arriving just prior to that.
I returned to the room and hung out until Elia woke up, and told her the plan, so we decided to explore. She got ready and we stepped out, and a block or two later, we ran into Jesse, who was walking with two of his friends who were also visiting Berlin. They parted ways, but he joined us as we went on a search for snacks, ultimately settling on baked goods at a Kamps.
We eventually made our way back to the hotel, although Elia stopped off to look in a few shops, so we went on ahead without her and met her as it was time to get on the bus.
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The Texas group was... well... Texan. They had accents that made me feel like I was surrounding by a couple dozen Sookie Stackhouses, and as goes with the high school territory, they were loud and slightly annoying, but maybe I just have a low tolerance. Perhaps a bit of both.
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Our bus took us to Alexanderplatz, which is one of the larger and more prominent squares in Berlin, where we had a dinner buffet at perhaps one of the most uncreative restaurants ever, inside the Galeria Kaufhof (which is a German chain large-scale department store of sorts).
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Afterward, we had a bit of time to explore the store before meeting outside. Our group decided they wanted to visit the TV Tower, or Fernsehturm Berlin, but we weren't terribly interested, especially since it cost extra, so we accompanied the tired Texans back to the hotel.
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Once there, Elia got ready for bed but I wasn't quite tired, so I wandered down Kurfürstendamm until I came across Haus Der 100 Biere where I ordered a couple Kölsch and did some writing. In the middle of my second drink, I got up momentarily to use the restroom and when I returned, there was a couple sitting at my table.
They laughed when they saw my face and asked if they had stolen my table, to which I told them they could have it if they let me join them. So I continued to have a couple more and the two (a couple in their 50s most likely) told me about their lives and asked me all about mine. It was a memorable night and the three of us closed down the bar.
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