Berlin and Beyond

After my experience this past weekend in Berlin, I fully understand why I named my blog what I did (apart from the poor grammar).

The excursion began with an amazingly long bus trip on the Autobahn. Because of regulation in Germany for bus drivers, we could only travel a certain speed and were required to take several pitstops in order for the driver to rest. Though this bus ride was somewhat painful, it was again an opportunity to learn more about the German culture. One interesting observation is that Germans really know how to run their bathrooms efficiently. So in order to use the public bathrooms, one must pay 50 Euro cents for entrance. After using these futuristic, self-cleaning toilettes, one receives a voucher for 50 Euro cents to spend at the station. Of course no one wants to loose their 50 cents, so they spend it on a 5-12 Euro meal from the station. Brilliant business!

When we arrived in Berlin, we checked into a massive youth hostile located in East Berlin. I stayed in a room with 7 students, all with different nationalities. These nationalities were Canadian, Czech, Lebanese, Australian, Canadian, German, Spanish, and American(me). Quite cosmopolitan. The first evening we decided to keep things low key and enjoyed a few beverages in the courtyard of the hostile. After an hour or so of socializing, we ran into some Swedish guys, Bobo and Max, also staying in the hostile. They had a few other Swedish friends staying in Berlin and I ended up hanging out with them for the rest of the weekend. These guys are some of the coolest and most happy-go-lucky people I have ever met. They always wanted to go out at night and really knew how to have a good time. I even learned how to speak some Swedish!

During the days, we went on tours and explored all of the history of Berlin. We went to the Dome, museums, art galleries, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, The Brandenburg Gate, and climbed the Berlin TV Tower. Though it was amazing seeing the many historical places in Berlin, I have to say my favorite part of Berlin was a specific art gallery and of course, the night life. The art gallery, Babylon Gate, is located in a 4 story, once abandoned building that was bombed during WWII. Artists from all around the city squatted on the property, filled it with amazing art, and eventually won ownership of the place. All of the walls are covered in grafitti and other various pictures. There are several rooms on every floor, each occupied with a different artist with their unique collection. I cannot even begin to describe the volume of creative output coming from this place.

Of course as in all of Germany, there are several discotechs that one can enjoy. On Saturday night, in an effort so visit as many of them as possible, we went on a pub crawl. Now when I think of a pub crawl, I imagine something like 15-50 people. On this pub crawl, there were over 200 people! We would come to a club, take over the place, do our business, and walk to the next club. Just walking in this massive group of people was an amazing experience. Cars and buses would stop for us, people from different countries would sing their typical drinking songs, pictures were being taken, and one had the opportunity to meet people from all over the world. This was the place to be. Many of the clubs were former warehouses or bunkers gone discotech. Half of the time it felt like I was in a movie from the 80's. Graffiti everywhere, people sitting around in tents smoking joints, drug dealers on the corners, punks, hooligans, and all types of people filling the street all hours of the night. Berlin does not sleep!

All in all, I really loved Berlin. The city has so much character and personality. Because of the recent reunification of the East and the West, the city has a unique opportunity to rebuild itself and I was right in the middle of it. Though in the 4 days I was there I got only about 15 hours of sleep and was running on adrenaline half of the time, I had an amazing experience. Ich bin Berliner! (The correct way to say it JFK!)