Day 103 - 108 - Berlin, and a Fallen Gumby

My extended jaunt to Berlin was one of the best things I've ever done. Unfortunately, for newly European Gumby Haus member Jordan, Berlin resulted in a torn MCL and a Eurotrip in limbo.

Day 103 - To Berlin

This was the first trip I've taken with a large crew of Leidenites - James, Chase, Marissa, Dani, Karen, and Michelle all went - and we all met up at Leiden Centraal and then headed to Schipol. My first EasyJet trip was better than expected, and we arrived in Berlin a bit after 8 pm. We took a train into the city center and made our way to our hostel (BaxPax Downtown), which was very nice. After moving in we headed out to meet Dani's Berliner friend Kersti at a Mexican restaurant and cocktail bar, Que Pasa. They served a pretty good chicken burrito, and I'm fairly sure this was the first Mexican food I've had while I've been here. Also, the Long Island Iced Tea is a silly drink.

After this we headed to Tacheles, a famous artist squat in a giant building that was just recently reclaimed by the city and auctioned off. The entire building is covered in graffiti, like all of Berlin, and there are tons of artists with spaces inside. There was even a club in one of the rooms that you had to walk through plastic door flaps to get to, and I remarked that this all felt like an episode of Skins, what with our absurdly cheap, delicious German beer bottles in our hands. Afterwards Kersti had us hop on one of the trams and we rolled over to what was described to us as a goth club. I was excited to see something that sounded rather quintessentially Berlin, and the people and decor inside were about what I was expecting. The music, however, was completely bizarre. I shouldn't know every song played in a metal club. That's how you know you're doing it wrong. I guess metalheads are allowed to have their moments when they jam out to garbage like Drowning Pool and (!) Green Day (!), but the musical stylings were a bit disappointing.

Afterwards we headed back to the general area of our hostel, which was pretty lively at night. We stopped and chilled at a shisha joint, where I was first exposed to the delicacy that is Spezi - a uniquely German mix of cola and orange pop. It's delicious, but better with ice and not from a bottle. We finally made it back to the hostel at some absurd hour as the sun was coming up. A successful first night in Berlin.

Day 104 - Tour and Kreuzberg

We woke up late and went off on the U-Bahn to the Brandenburg Gate for a free walking tour of the city. We had a funny British tour guide named Rob who knew a ton and took us on a really good, if not a bit excessively long, tour of the historical sights of Berlin. We saw plenty of the Wall, a moving Holocaust memorial, plenty of rebuilt buildings, and got a really thorough history of the city during WWII and afterward. I guess I hadn't thought about the extent to which Berlin was destroyed and then rebuilt after WWII, and never really thought about life in East Berlin while the wall was up (and how remarkable the very existence of such a wall is!). I absolutely love Berlin because it combines my favorite aspects of 20th century historical study with a creative, thriving, dynamic 21st century urbanism.

After the tour we went back to the hostel to recharge for a bit (we got some delicious ice cream somewhere in here), and later set out to meet Kersti in her Kreuzberg neighborhood, which is diverse and hip and so full of life. After hanging at Kersti's apartment for a while with our 79 eurocent .5L Carlsbergs (what a wonderful city) we ventured out into the lively streets and went to a delicious pizza place where we promptly destroyed a pizza per person, and all agreed we could have eaten four more. We considered and then rejected a burlesque show, and somehow ended up back at a different location of Que Pasa for more cocktails before venturing over to SO 36, which was bumping Turkish dance music to a diverse crowd. It was really quite cool to be in such a unique environment, and we had a great time. We left for a bit and ventured over to a very chill, but also very popular, bar that Kersti convinced the bouncers to let a bunch of Americans into. Marissa, James, and I had a nice, long, relaxed conversation over giant German brews before heading back over to SO 36, which at this point was playing more straightforward German techno. We danced our hearts out for a while and eventually made it home with the sun coming up, once again.

Day 105 - Michael and Jordan and a Fallen Gumby

Dani went off to meet up with Kersti and the rest of us late risers ventured out to lunch at an Indian restaurant that was rather delicious and featured the most shockingly nice bathroom I've ever set foot in. I've been craving Indian food for a while and this place delivered with a very good lamb curry. Afterwards we wandered through a street market where I picked up some cool old East German stamps for my grandpa, which I hope make it back to the States with me intact. Marissa and I didn't feel like going into the Pergamon Museum with the rest of the crew, so we just sat in the wonderful museum island park and soaked up the sun and ambiance of such a wonderful city in front of the Berliner Dom, which is one of the more impressive buildings I've ever seen. After we reunited we walked the royal boulevard, grabbing some ridiculous German spaghetti ice cream (ice cream served to look like spaghetti) before making it to the Reichstag, which is a really impressive building.

After regrouping at the hostel we set out to meet Dani, Kersti, and Kersti's boyfriend Martin at a restaurant in the gorgeous Potsdamer Platz for a traditional German meal. The waiter was a bit of a creep, but the place had a massive beer selection, and my Czech pilsner was good, but I was especially impressed by the Namibian beer I counseled James to get. My model UN pride kicked in, having represented Namibia in high school, though we did question the use of water for beer in a drought-plagued nation. I had an absolutely delicious meal of boiled beef in horseradish sauce - the chef's specialty, apparently - and enjoyed my bite of James' pork knuckle - the height of traditional German food. Afterwards we split from Kersti and headed back over to the area near Checkpoint Charlie to look at more stuff about the wall. From here we made plans to meet up with Jordan, who had been with his friend Michael who is spending the semester in Berlin this whole time, and ventured into a new Berlin neighborhood for more cocktails before reuniting with Jordan. Michael took us to a super trendy bar called Wendel that was featuring an avant garde (read: bad) band when we walked in, but luckily the music ended soon after we arrived. Michael counseled us to get special unfiltered German beers, and they ended up being delicious. After a fun time talking we stopped off at a burger joint under the train tracks that Michael described as having the best burgers in Berlin, and with a grilled bun, it was hard to disagree.

This was the point at which we discovered the trains were done running for the night (it was Sunday, afterall). We finally figured out we could hitch a bus back to the general area of our hostel, and after much debate about the proper route to walk, we finally made it to familiar territory around 2:30 am. At this point Karen, Marissa, James, Michael, Jordan, and I split off an went to another shisha place, where we were treated to a hilarious Turkisk pop song about Facebook on a loop for at least a half hour. We finally wandered back to the hostel around 4, and I was giddy to set up a laptop in the hostel lounge and with Karen, Marissa, and James watch the Wings and Sharks in Game 5. I miscalculated game time, and tuned in just as Danny Cleary was tying the game, and go to watch the Datsyuk-Lidstrom-Holmstrom magic that won it for the Wings. I was elated. One of the best nights ever.

It was not a great night, however, for Jordan. After he left us he went to the Brandenburg Gate with Michael and ended up falling down and tearing his MCL. This was/is most unfortunate, and the fate of his month-long trip hangs in the balance as he decides whether to gut it out in Europe on crutches for a month or head home for potential surgery. Most unfortunate, indeed.

Day 106 - SUSHI and Tempelhof and Wine

Kersti took us to a Chinese/sushi buffet that was the best thing ever. I'd been craving sushi for so long, but it's so expensive in Leiden, so it was awesome to be able to eat as much as I could stuff in my mouth. I was most undignified about the whole affair, and certainly got my money's worth. Sushi is just the best. I'm no expert, so I don't know names, but whatever one I ate that had a deep fried crust around the edges and was warm was the best thing ever. Afterwards we (slowly) wandered around the Mitte neighborhood we were in and stumbled upon a really nice park and plenty of cool graffiti. At this point we decided to split up, and James and I headed to the former Tempelhof Airport, home to the Luftwaffe and site of the Berlin Airlift, and currently a massive public park. I suggest you read the wiki as it has an absolutely fascinating history.

The current park is just awesome. It's probably the largest public space I've ever seen (I've seen Central Park, but you can't see the whole of it at any one time) and was teeming with people playing every sport imaginable and having a wonderful old time. The airport building itself is massive and impressive, and we had a great time walking around and enjoying it. Afterwards we wandered through a cool Turkish neighborhood before hopping on the U-Bahn back towards the hostel.

After hours of indecision, we headed out to grab some food at a doner stand before heading to a cool bar where you pay 2 euro for a glass and get to drink all the wine you want, and then pay whatever you think is reasonable for what you drank on the way out. It was full of people and clearly a pretty cool place to be, and having never been at all a wine person, it was nice to be able to try a lot of different kinds without having to pay a pretty penny. We had a fun time talking about all the German hipster hotties around us, and I learned a thing or two about wine (though I'd still much rather be a beer snob). Afterwards we headed to a bar called White Trash Fast Food, where we proceeded to have the most delicious "lemonade" ever. It was pretty empty, but I got the sense that on crowded nights it's quite the hip place. The night was complete with fries and mayo from a stand and a confrontation with hilariously drunk Dutch boys who were less than coherent. Two episodes of Freaks and Geeks in the hostel lounge later, we were asleep once again when the sun was coming up.

Day 107 - Departure

After checking out of the hostel we grabbed DUNKIN DONUTS (haha!) and went to a park along the Spree to relax, which we did for several hours before meandering our way to the train station (with a pit stop at a playground). After futilely battling the German train ticket machine we hopped on a quite late train to the airport, which put us at the airport less than a hour before our flight was supposed to leave, and proceeded to test my anxiety issues. We made it onto the plane without any issues and landed in Amsterdam a short while later. Berlin was incredible, and probably my favorite city I've been to so far. There's so much life and energy in the streets there, and it's a city that simply has to be experienced to be appreciated.

I spent the rest of the day in bed, doing nothing but catching up on all my sports news, of which there was plenty. I was able to stay awake for the awesome first period of the Wings game, and was so glad to see that they pulled off the victory when I woke up. I'm so excited for Game 7. I'm planning on actually pulling off staying up for it.

Day 108 - Market and Laziness

I spent almost all of the day procrastinating. I did make it to the market to get kibbeling and kiwis, and I finished off with some clutch grocery buying decisions. I saw the lovely Kelly a couple hours ago, but other than that it has been an uneventful day. Bike trip tomorrow with Dutch culture class, which I hopefully wake up in time for, and which hopefully my bike is able to handle. I need to get the University of Michigan Law School application done soon. Or at least start working on it. Time to be a bit productive, eh?

Here are some pictures!

Brandenburg Gate.

Holocaust memorial.

Section of the Berlin Wall, victim of souvenir hunters.

Berliner Dom.

Tacheles.

Reichstag.

Tempelhof.

Cool street art.

Thanks for reading! Further updates will surely be boring for quite some time.