BERLIN - Part 2

Days 51-54 – Ali Attack!

We had a special visitor during our time in Berlin. Our good friend, Alison Winter of Romiley, arrived a week into our time in Berlin. We met her off the train and first things first – a cup of tea to catch up. After this we set off towards our new pre-booked accommodation. The very swanky Wombat’s Hostel, slap bang in the centre of town. Despite how central this hostel was, we did manage to get lost trying to find it. We eventually got there and happy in the company of an old friend, we soon started to make new ones too. Paul was his name and for four nights we were to be roommates. So as a merry band of four we went into the night like the Berlin girls of night, but without the corsets over the bubble jackets and short skirts over jeans! As you’d expect we started with food; amazing Vietnamese to be exact at amazing prices. Eating in one of the trendiest districts and the food was still cheap. Absolutely love this city!

After that we naturally sampled the hostel bar and following some advice headed to a bar a few doors round the corner. This bar had a dirty battered door that we both recognised. Inside there were red lights and retro furniture that we’d see before; everything was frighteningly familiar. It was indeed the bar we were taking to on our first night in Berlin. Kaffee Burger was its name and we learnt quickly that this place was an old hang out for arty types in the GDR (German Democratic Republic). So our first night with our lovely old friend and our lovely new friend was capped off with a terrifying sense of de ja vu.

The next day, we had all agreed to go on the ‘free’ walking tour of the city. They actually work on a tips basis and apparently the guide has to pay for you to be on the tour! Regardless these tours are infamous amongst travellers and one of the most commonly offered pieces of advice when anyone says ‘I’m going to Berlin, to which the rest of the room says ‘do the walking tour!’

It is good advice as well, because it’s a brilliant was to orientate yourself in the maze of Berlin; hitting most of the ‘must see’ sights too. It gives you an amazing amount of history in a digestible form and makes the most ordinary looking parts of the city come alive. You’re not going to be given the details here, but you know our advice if you go to Berlin. If you go on the tour, you also get 1 euro off the price of the 100+ strong pub crawl ran by the same company run 7 days a week. When all is said and done we did this tour on a freezing cold morning. For three and a half hours we walked with numb fingers and toes, but we all had a brilliant time with our Scottish tour guide.

That night we met another two of our roommates and went out with another two new friends; Eion, from Dublin, and Bret, a travel writer from America. This night was a rainy night and after we had ran from place to place, we found ourselves caught in a downpour. With that we relied on our trustworthy friend – The Van (parked conveniently close). So we dived in and all of is sat there wet through and drank our reserves of Van Beers. Who needs a bar. Love The Van!

The last full day/night we spent in the company of Alison, Paul and Eion was Halloween. It was a particularly fun filled day, beginning with a visit to the GDR Museum whilst Toj, like a lone ranger, went to the Berliner Dom (cathedral) alone. An odd experience considering the cathedral did not look out of place to its Baroque-styled neighbours from the outside, yet was only built between 1895 and 1905. It was refreshingly different to other cathedrals we’d been in to date and free on Fridays. Good choice Anthony. I took the opportunity to walk around the Dom outside with views across Berlin for a small fee of 1 euro. Yep, definitely good choice.

The GDR Museum was an interactive experience, allowing you to get a feel for life behind the iron curtain in the strangest of ways. It displayed clothes you could try on, a Trabi car you could sit inside, an apartment you could walk around, and all of it was accompanied by strangely understanding descriptions. If you want a surreal view of life in the GDR, this is the museum for you.

Aware that this night was our last night was our last hurrah we made the most of it, traversing Berlin physically and musically. So we took in some live drum and bass, in a special bar called Café Zapata. It has a man made beach outside and a mental dragon that breathes fire onto the dance floor. The beer is ok and it’s a hot and sweaty dive which counts for a lot as well.

Our next port of call was The Bang Bang Club in the centre of town where The Horrors were DJ-ing. Having stood in the cue outside for a while and spoke to the crowd about our trip and the work of Genesis, we drank and danced the night away. We arrived back to the hostel safe in the knowledge we’d all feel horrible in the morning. Oh and we did feel horrible!

So our last few hours with Alison were spent, like old times, grumbling about our hangovers. We said goodbye to our new friends and past roommates. Then set on the sad drive to the airport, which was livened up by some Van Dancing, which is a little like Irish dancing in reverse, where one can only move the top half of the body due to the sitting position. So Alison flew off into the sunset and three became two once more.

Days 55-56 – The Van meets The Generator

Our time in Berlin post-Ali was, to be honest, somewhat less active. We had been burning our candles at both ends and so a few relaxed days were in order. This would have been the case, but we hadn’t bothered to book a hostel and thought we’d save some pennies and sleep in the van. Immediately a though prang to our minds. We would return to the beast and sleep in the free car park outside The Generator. This was truly the perfect crime. The place has toilets, showers, it was open 24 hours and it was so big no one would ever know we weren’t staying there. The best thing however was that in the morning we could walk in, eat breakfast, take butties for lunch and leave with no suspicion or questions asked.

For the first night everything went perfectly to plan, the Gods smiled upon us. It was warm enough, we showered and ate in the morning and it was all ‘free’. The second night however didn’t go as well. For a start the temperature dropped well below freezing during the night. Secondly Phil came down with an “upset stomach” (euphemism for the runs), so he had to run across the car park and the main road, into the Generator and past the night reception staff. With this he spent the rest of the night curled up on a sofa … ahhh. After this experience we booked another hostel.

Travelled = 1,781 Miles