OK, we’re finally sitting down to do this! It’s been a few days and everything’s pretty much ready to go. Photos are up and the videos are done. It’s taking a bit to actually get the videos uploaded, but by the time we get everything typed out, they should be ready!
Way back on the 17th we got up at the crack of dawn (5AM ish) and made our way down to the train station to catch our 6:30 train. We rode three hours, then transferred in Munich. Then it was an hour to Nuremberg. There we did the final transfer for our 5 hour jaunt into Berlin. The train ride was actually pretty quiet. We were on ICE trains for the last two legs. They’re super nice, 200KPH beasts. We spent the time playing Angry Birds. Mary Jo slept a bit.
We got in to the Berlin train station about 4PM. I had printed out instructions on getting to the apartment, leaving the train station at about 4:15. I also had instructions for leaving at 4:30, in case we missed the first set of public transportation. It’s a good thing we had those. That place is huge! We actually had to stop and ask on how to get to the second set of transportation. We made our way up to a little train platform, caught a train a few stops into the city, then transferred to the subway. The subway brought us to the general area, but I didn’t think ahead far enough and kind of had no idea where to go from there.
Fortunately for us, a nice lady on the street had a map and we found the right street. It was actually right there, but having a map to look at sure helped! Once on the correct street, we still had to find the building. We did pretty well. We walked past it, then doubled back and found it. We rang the apartment, but a guy was going in just then, so we tailgated. We went all the way to the top floor and there was the group waiting for us.
A quick explanation here. When looking for a place to stay, we initially were looking at hotels, but then someone had the great idea to look for rentable apartments. We did some digging and found Old Town Apartments. We stayed in Sabicas… Sabicos… no, Sabicas. Anyway, it was a two bedroom apartment with bath, balcony, full kitchen, and small livingroom. The livingroom also had a fold out bed/futon thing. It was perfect for the five of us. And the price was great! It worked out to be 30 Euro per person per night. Hotels started at 60 per person per night. No complaints here.
Ben did a short video tour of the place:
After the customary greetings, we went in search of food. There was a bio (organic) market down the street, so we went there and got some sausage, potatoes, onions, and a little wine. Ben, Jaci, and Mike went back to the apartment to start cooking while Mary Jo and I went down to a regular supermarket (Rewe) to get dessert and some drinks. We came back with pudding and a crate of beer. Europe has this system where you get glass bottles, pay a deposit, and then return the bottles for your deposit back. So our crate of beer was a plastic crate with 24 glass bottles. It’s different, but makes a ton of sense! And it’s really easy to do.
I suppose you have no idea who Ben, Jaci, and Mike are, huh? Well, Ben is the co-host of The Zipline Show, Jaci is his wife, and Mike is a long time friend of their family… and one of our interview guests in the early episodes! They were planning a vacation and had the idea to go to Berlin, then Mary Jo and I could come up at hang out with them.
We got back, made food, then sat around chatting until everyone went to bed… and since Ben, Jaci, and Mike (collectively referred to as “they”) had been up since they left the States, they were in need of sleep! We (as in, Mary Jo and myself) did some Internetting, then went to bed.
Everyone awoke late, but refreshed! We’re into Friday now. We decided to go down toward the Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag. A great thing about the apartment is that it’s right on a subway line that goes to all the tourist stuff in the city center. We all got 5 day passes for the entire transportation network, so we could just hop on the subway, zip into the city center, and check out all the stuff down there. That’s just what we did.
Once we got off the subway, we started walking to the Brandenburger Tor. Ben and Jaci were pretty excited to be out and about.
On the way, we ran into the Holocaust Memorial. The memorial is a series of large stones arranged on a rough grid, but the ground isn’t level, so although the tops are roughly level, you can walk down between the stones and they get well above head height.
It’s a little annoying in a way though because it’s this somber memorial, but the design is such that it’s like a big maze. It’s really odd how much fun it is to walk through there. There was even some people playing Marco-Polo… or they were looking for a guy named Marco. We saw a little structure off to the side that turned out to be a museum beneath the memorial. It was free, so we walked through that. Of course after we came out, we felt like jerks for having fun in the memorial. Or at least, I felt like a jerk.
We continued down the road and before long we were at the Brandenbuger Tor. It’s the last city gate of Berlin. It’s also the thing people think of when they think “Berlin”. Or at least that’s what I’ve been told. I guess I don’t see why anyone cares about it. Whatever though. At least it’s impressive looking.
We took the time to do all the “tourist” photos in front of it.
We even had some people ask us to take a group photo for them, so we asked them to do the same for us!
And since this is the thing associated with Berlin, it seemed like a good place to do the world wide phone book tearing bit, so we stepped off to the side and I did that quick.
Pffffft! Pictures are lame! Take a up a notch with video!
Much better.
We hit up a Starbucks that was right there for a little warmth. The entire time we were in Berlin it was pretty cold. Way colder than it had been/currently is in Linz. At least it kept us on our toes. Anyway, we walked down to the Reichstag. The Reichstag is the place where the German governmental body meets. Ben was pretty excited for this place, but because of recent terrorist threats, you needed to sign up for tours 1 week in advance. We didn’t know that, and since they (Ben, Jaci, and Mike) were only going to be there for 5 days, that was out. Ben was pretty bummed. We got pictures of the outside though!
Jaci took a group photo of the rest of us, but I noticed something was missing. I ran over to Jaci and grabbed hers, then we got the “correct” version of the group photo, as shown here:
Mary Jo and I had been sharing the big cup, so I didn’t have anything in my hand for the first version.
We looked around a bit, then hit a gift shop across the street. They had gigantic rubber duckies. Like, a foot across. I wanted one pretty bad, but that’s the kind of thing where after shipping charges to get it home, and the hassle of carrying it around, it would be like a 100 Euro duckie… that’s outside my price range.
We walked back up to the Tor (gate… Brandenburger), walked through it like big important people, then walked back toward the subway stop. On the way we saw the Salvador Dali museum. That was something Mike wanted to check out, so we did that. If you don’t know anything about Salvador Dali, he’s the dude that painted the melting clocks. He’s a weird dude… as is his museum. Let’s put it this way: the lobby had a peeing piano.
Still, it was an interesting place to visit. There was some pretty neat stuff, but also some really weird stuff. After having our minds warped, we went back outside and noticed a chunk of wall. After the wall came down, they installed a brick line where the wall was. So you’ll be walking around the city and see this brick line in the ground. In front of the museum they had the line and some chunks of wall.
By this time it was getting late, so we headed back to the apartment. Mary Jo knows a friend that lives in Berlin (Marlena), and we had planned to meet her at the apartment then go out for supper. So, that’s just what we did. Marlena recommended a Mexican food place, so we headed down there. We were happy to be warm and nearly fed.
This is where we announced that it was Mary Jo’s birthday. Everyone was surprised. Oh yeah, we got them good. We ate, then decided that cake was in order. On the way to cake, we stopped briefly at a little photo booth and attempted to cram 6 people in there. The results were less than stellar, but at least they were amusing. While we waited for the photos to print, Ben, Mike, and I ran across the street to get an awesome picture:
That’s right, super Apple product display!
We did a little walking and some train riding, then arrived at our cake place. It was a good way to cap off the evening.
MJ and Marlena:
We even went around the table and said happy birthday to Mary Jo in as many languages as we could (including one programming language).
After that Marlena went home, since she has a job and real life that needs attention, and we returned to the apartment. While waiting for the train, Ben showed us his burrowing technique for keeping warm.
And that, ladies, gentlemen, and kids, was our first few days in Berlin. We’re just getting started though. Check out Day 3 next.
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