Out and about in Berlin.

The next morning, we woke up to a wake-up call (which was hugely obnoxious and far too early) and got ready, then headed downstairs for breakfast. The offerings were juice, coffee and tea, as well as cucumbers and tomatoes, cereal with milk or yogurt, and breads, jams, meats and cheeses. We had a light breakfast and I packed a sandwich for later in the afternoon, and then we waited for the entire group to gather downstairs in the lobby before boarding the bus.

Our first stop was Checkpoint Charlie and the accompanying museum. It was an interesting place, but the information was haphazardly organized throughout the first two floors, and the most intriguing bits were the stories of the people who escaped or attempted escapes over or under or through the wall. The third floor was a mishmash kind of exhibit about religion and countries and other things that - at first look - didn't appear to be connected to the rest of the museum, so we left.

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We walked around a bit and I did some souvenir shopping, picking up some Berlin flip-flops and a lighter, as well as a few postcards. We wandered around the neighborhood and stopped for lunch at a Vietnamese place, where I had spring rolls and a beer (saving room for my sandwich) and Elia ordered a huge and delicious soup. From europe v2 From europe v2

When lunch was over, we milled around our meeting point for around 10 minutes. In the morning, we were one of the first groups, but by this time, the place was buzzing with all kinds of tour buses, and it struck me as rather commercialized, with guards in uniform posing at the checkpoint and charging an outrageous price of 1 Euro per person in a picture. Ridiculous how people capitalize on these things.

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Shortly after, we met up with our tour guide for Berlin, a certain Kevin Kennedy, who was nothing short of awesome. For the next three hours, he guided us through the city by bus, pointing out all the major sights and explaining the history and significance of them, as well as adding his own personal commentary which we found fantastic (but which offended much of the conservative Texas group). Some of the places we drove by or saw included: 

The Brandenburg Gate, The US Embassy, a Jewish Memorial, a Gay/Lesbian Memorial, and of course, many many strips of the Berlin Wall.

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After our tour ended, we found ourselves at the edge of the river, where a boat was waiting to take us on a one-hour tour of the city. It was at this point that I skipped out on the tour, heading instead to the nearby train station at Alexanderplatz and taking the S-Bahn to the hotel, where I settled down at a nearby cafe to watch the soccer game (USA versus Algeria). 

Unfortunately, the England versus Slovenia game was running concurrently, and the German media decided to air that match with only highlights of the other one every once in awhile. Disappointing, but the most I could ask for I suppose. The server at the restaurant befriended me since it was a bit slow (4 p.m. - not yet dinner) and he brought me beer, taught me some phrases in German, and made conversation with me. 

The game didn't appear to be going too well, but once the other match ended, it cut to the American game which was just ending, and I was able to catch the last few moments in which we scored!!! I started yelling, but of course no one around me seemed too interested, so I ran inside the restaurant to tell my new friend "Wir haben die Fussballspiel gewonnen!" and he grabbed me and hugged me and kissed my checks and told me how excited he was for me. Then he introduced me to his co-worker as his "new American friend" and explained that he was happy my team had one. It was quite a moment.

After I calmed down a bit, I walked back to the hotel, a couple bottles of Gaffel Kolsch in my bag, and opened them up while I waited for the group to get back from dinner (also a buffet, which I gladly skipped based off the previous night's experience). Everyone else arrived a bit later and I went up to the TV room to drink and go over the game with Jake (who - dedicated fan that he is - woke up at 6 a.m. and went down to Streets of London to drink and watch the game in the packed, standing-room only, pub).

After a little bit of downtime, I met up with the other girls and we got all decked out in our German gear and then set walking down the street to find a place to watch the Germany versus Ghana match. After a series of false starts, we ended up going down to King's Pub (which I'm convinced was a gay bar) and hung out with a few of the Texans, drinking beer and cheering for Germany, who won (of course!). 

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After the game was CHAOS. People and cars and flags and horns and screaming and cheering and honking in the streets for HOURS. We watched it and cheered at the passers-by for a good thirty minutes, but finally, Elia found me and suggested I go get some food, as I hadn't yet eaten and I was relatively drunk. 

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We made our way to an Italian restaurant and I ordered a pizza while Mario the pizzamaker was blowing kisses at Elia and calling her "bella". At some point I told him in German "First off all, she doesn't speak German, second of all, can I have some cheese and peppers?" and then later on I told him she was married, and when he asked me where her ring was, I told him it was so big and expensive that it had to be locked up in a safe in the hotel. He responded with, "Ok, boyfriend, hotel?" And I said "No, boyfriend San Francisco, ring hotel." His response "Not a problem for me". Haha.

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Anyway, once dinner was done, we made our way back to the hotel and I went to sleep in preparation for the next day.

The second all-nighter.

Just after midnight, we arrived at the train station in the middle of nowhere. It was dark and the inside was closed, which wasn't a good sign, considering waiting someplace totally foreign (in more ways than one) for more than four hours not only sounds like the worst idea ever regarding safety, but also the most boring thing ever.

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.