14th August
Weekend! I woke up at a fairly respectable time, did my washing, then hung it up on the makeshift drier created by Charlotte (2 brooms across 2 chairs.)
Eventually I left the house and headed to the Deutsches Historisches Museum (German Historical Museum) via an art fair. The museum was pretty massive, covering German history from 100BC- 1994, so I knew I was never going to cover it all. After seeing the temporary exhibitions on castles, and German reunification in 1990 I went round the modern half of the museum, covering 1918 onwards, which still took me a couple of hours with skimming some sections, so who knows how long it would take to go round the whole museum properly... After writing a couple of articles I went round Kate’s flat with some of the other girls for pizza, then quickly checked the internet at Rosenthaler Platz.
We headed out fairly early to CCCP Bar, a supposedly communist themed bar in Rosenthaler Platz. I wasn’t entirely convinced by the communist theme- the main quirk of the place was a rather odd 70s porn movie projected on to one wall. It did resemble a Communist state in that whilst people tried to convince us we were having a great time, as soon as we left we appreciated just how shit it was. After wandering round Berlin for a bit- everyone wanted to go to some big dance club, but a few of us decided we weren’t going to pay 12€ to listen to shit techno- Kate, Andy and I ended up at White Noise, an indie night in an underground club. I had a great time- it was like being at Fun Factory at the Union on a Monday night, except underground with less snakebite and more Germans.
15th August
Despite our late night partying, Kate and I managed to leave the apartments by 11.30 to head to Charlottenburg to visit the royal palace. On the way all the lights on our U-Bahn went out and the engine shut off, so we had to rethink our route slightly... We made it to Charlottenburg quite late, so decided to just go to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church and Erotik Museum and then come back another day to do the palaces.
We had lunch at this amazing restaurant that sold beer in litre glasses, so had quite a lengthy and relaxed meal! After our beer we were ready for the Erotik Museum, which was quite hilarious. Highlights included an interactive ‘find the G-spot’ game, a selection of chastity belts and a ‘guess the fetish’ game. Kate and I were also quite amused by a 50 year old man wandering round the museum by himself, who spent quite a long time reading the erectile dysfunction display...
Afterwards we headed to Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtniskirche, a church which was heavily bombed in WWII, and the half-destroyed tower has been left un-restored as a memorial. Next to it is a new church with windows created from the shattered stained glass of the old church.
We then got the U-Bahn to White Trash Fast Food, a restaurant above the club we went to the night before. The décor was very eclectic; an old Irish pub with a Chinese twist, covered in random pictures and old paintings... The food was good though. Afterwards we headed to B-Flat, a very cool jazz club, for a rather sophisticated evening of live jazz.
16th August
After language class we went to Schloss Bellevue, the presidential palace, then I saw a memorial to Beethoven, Mozart and Haydn in Tiergarten. I exchanged some money as was running low on funds, then proceeded to buy out the souvenir shop to get rid of my 100€ note. After finishing off my articles I headed to the internet café to send them off and check my emails. A fairly chilled day!
17th August
Language class was extremely satisfying today, as I had a German grammar and tenses breakthrough. Unfortunately this proved to be the highlight of the day. The afternoon trip was a visit to the Stasi Museum, which should have been fascinating but we had a tour guide so dull he managed to make spying seem boring... After 45 minutes I couldn’t take anymore, so snuck off and covered the rest of the museum alone, looking at secret buttonhole cameras and notes hidden in clothing and tyres. The evening was pretty dull as I was just editing articles- the next few days won’t be much fun but it is what I am here for!
18th August
No language today as it’s Wednesday, so time for our workshop with Caroline. My articles weren’t completely ripped to shreds, which was nice. The rest of the day was pretty unproductive, and I got very little done, but I did eat a lot of food in the name of helping Kate with her restaurant reviews. We also went to the chocolate shop, which has huge chocolate versions of Berlin monuments (and Titanic for some reason). After a late dinner I got a much-needed early night.
19th August
Today we had our progress meeting for the travel guide. Unfortunately half the group didn’t turn up so it was difficult to ascertain just how much progress had been made, but it seems like we’re going to be ok. I am writing the 600 word overview of Berlin’s history, which I am almost certainly going to regret volunteering myself for... As we now only have a couple of days to finish writing, Kate, Adie and I headed to Charlottenburg Palace to explore and take photos. We didn’t have time to go inside so decided to head back in the last week. We then headed to Museum Island, as all the museums there are free after 6 on Thursdays, to go to the Pergamon Museum (which we had been referring to as the Pokemon Museum.) The Pergamon Museum is difficult to describe, but it was absolutely amazing. Essentially they’ve just excavated ancient sites, taken them and rebuilding them in a museum. There was a massive Greek temple entrance, a Roman market gate, massive columns, and the entrance gate to Babylon. Everything looked amazing, and it was nice to be able to appreciate things without having to read loads of information.
In the evening I was going to go out, but with so much to do Friday I just went for pre-drinks, managed to get fairly drunk by accident, then went to bed.
20th August
I woke up slightly drunk, but still managed to make it to language class. Today’s trip was to Müggelsee, a large lake with a beach. Luckily it was a nice sunny day, so it was a great afternoon. Kitty, Katre, Kate and I went straight into the lake, swam to the nudist beach and had a brief naked swim until the boys started following us... There were lots of rocks which hurt my feet when I came out, but I thought I was just being a bit of a wimp. Ten minutes later I looked down to see that my toe was covered in blood. After washing away the sand and blood I realised I had a massive cut in the side of my toe, and that now I had noticed it, it actually hurt quite a lot. Fortunately there was plenty to take my mind off it. Unfortunately the main distraction was being constantly chased by wasps. Kate and I would be chatting, then one or both of us would have to leave and run about for a bit until the wasps went, then we would resume our conversation. When we left I tried to put my shoe on but it hurt too much, so I just walked with one shoe off until we got back. Later I had the not-so-enjoyable task of removing the blood-covered grains of sand from the cut. In the evening I had intended to finish my articles and do some editing, but ended up mainly just watching Mad Men and doing a bit of writing on the side, so vowed to be productive tomorrow instead.
21st August
After greatly enjoying our trip to Müggelsee we decided to check out another lake, so went to Orankesee. I had chosen this on the basis it had a big slide going in to the lake, which proved to be a excellent decision. In the evening Jack, Dustin, Chloe, Kate, Claire and I went to random reggae bar, where Claire and I ended up playing foosball with two random Germans. My German (who I can’t remember the name of) and I won, although I think my contributions were mainly just flukes as I was fairly drunk at this stage... We then left in search of a club via McDonald’s, but ended up wandering the streets for quite a long time. Eventually we stumbled across a random gathering of people round small fires playing guitars, and hung out there for a bit before getting a taxi home at 5am.
22nd August
Another sunny day, another trip to a lake. This time, Weisensee. A fairly relaxed day, although I unwisely got persuaded to swim across the lake and back... I managed it, but did think I was going to die at one stage. The evening was meant to be serious getting down to work time, but after a bit of editing, writing one article and starting another I got distracted by Mad Men. I was pretty knackered so figured would just go to bed, but then was presented with a load of new articles to edit... After ten minutes I gave up and went to sleep.
23rd August
After all the editing I had been given yesterday, as well as the fact I hadn’t finished my main article, I had to miss language and headed to St. Oberholtz for a day on the laptop. I was there for about six hours, so by the time I left I could barely see properly.
In the evening Jack, Chloe, Kate and I went to A-Trane, a jazz club in Charlottenburg that has a free night on Mondays. We then headed to a bar, where a random man started chatting to us. He had been raised in Leicestershire, lives in Berlin but works as a professor in France, and was quite interesting although extremely drunk. He bought us all a round of drinks though so we were happy! After a trip to Burger King we got a taxi home, and got in at about 5am.
24th August.
Despite my limited amount of sleep, I still managed to make it to language class, although my German skills were slightly affected. In the afternoon I went to the D.D.R Museum, a museum about life in the German Democratic Republic, which was good fun. You could sit in an East German car, listen to G.D.R radio stations, look around a typical G.D.R house and play with G.D.R toys among various other things.
After a power nap and some dinner a few of us attempted to go back to the Reichstag for look at Berlin by night. Unfortunately we got there slightly too late, so we headed to a Singapore-style bar and restaurant on Oranienstrasse for some cocktails. After two tasty but sickly cocktails Andy, Nicola and Charlotte went home, whilst Adie, Kate and I headed to another bar, lured in with the promise of free shisha. We then discovered they sold absinth, so duly ordered some absinth and beer and spent a couple of hours trying to work out how to blow smoke rings with the shisha. Whilst sat at the bar we’d noticed quite a few people who were clearly prostitutes wandering past, and when we headed off down to Rosenthaler Strasse we saw a prostitute every 10 metres... A group of German men started talking to us, enlisting our help as they were fed up of being harassed by prostitutes and they were left alone whilst they walked with us. We were then befriended by some 18 year old English guys, who had only been in Berlin a couple of days and were quite terrified by the onslaught of prostitutes! After helping them safely negotiate the prostitute zone and leading them to a club we headed to get beer and chips from 24 hour food place in Rosenthaler Platz. Adie was pleased when an Aussie girl befriended us, as she got to hear another Melbourne voice for the first time since she’d been here! At 4am we decided we couldn’t be bothered to hang around an hour for the first tram, so got a taxi back.
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Saturday 14 August 2010
Jazz, museums... and the meaning of life
9th August 2010
Today was my first day in the advanced group, and I actually understood some things so it wasn’t quite the disaster I was expecting. Vocab still isn’t coming back to me though which is quite annoying. After language lessons we went to the Badeschiff in Kreuzberg, which is an outdoor pool and beach bar. The pool is on top of the river, which feels rather weird when you’re swimming in the pool. It was nice to have a fairly chilled out afternoon and still feel like I was doing something.
When we got back I grabbed some pizza from the supermarket then went to the internet cafe to write up my article and check my emails, then headed back home for an early night.
10th August 2010
Today was pretty uneventful- after language class we went on a visit to Zitty magazine, one of Berlin’s top magazines, which was quite short but pretty interesting, then briefly went to the shops at Postdamer Platz and got some postcards before heading back to the apartment.
In the evening a few of us went to a couple of bars, one of which was a slightly random punk bar, but it was a fairly nice chilled out evening.
11th August 2010
In the morning we had a journalism workshop, where we read out and critiqued each other’s articles, then we were finished with our organised activities for the day.
Dustin, Andy, Charlotte, Adie and I went to Potsdamer Platz to quickly visit the shops then we separated to do our own thing. I went to the German Resistance Memorial Museum, which is in the buildings where von Stauffenberg planned the failed assassination attempt on Hitler (you know, the guy Tom Cruise played in Valkyrie). The conspirators were shot in the courtyard of the building, and there is now a memorial there. The museum itself was really interesting, as I knew very little about German resistance during World War II, although as nearly all of the exhibits were in German I was at the mercy of the audio guide, which unfortunately skipped nearly half of the rooms. After the museum I went to Tiergarten, a massive park, where I wrote my postcards by the river with a small mouse for company.
In the evening a few of us went to Yorckschlösschen, a small jazz and blues bar, which was amazing. There was a great atmosphere and the band was brilliant, and after the saxophonist jumped on the table for a solo we all vowed to return before we left Berlin.
12th August 2010
I decided to be a bit of a rebel and skip classes in the morning as I was knackered, so after a thoroughly enjoyable lie in I went to our project meeting. This was fairly uneventful apart from the fact I had knelt on the floor in the office, not realising there was a piece of glass there until I noticed a small pool of blood around my knee. It was slightly disgusting, but it was a tiny cut and I was slightly high on Haribo sweets so it didn’t really hurt...
After the meeting a few of us went to Oranienstraβe and had a look at the art around there. It was quite cool, with lots of artists displaying paintings and sculptures, and lots of random creations made of scrap metal scattered around the place.
After going back to the apartment to grab our laptops, we decided to get some dinner before heading to the internet cafe. After what seemed like forever (but was probably about 15 minutes) wandering in the pouring rain we managed to find somewhere with room for the 7 of us. Helpfully, they had an English version of the menu, but the translations were somewhat dodgy, including such classics as ‘glass soup.’ By the time we made it to the internet cafe it was nearly 11, so we didn’t spend that long there before we headed home for bed.
13th August 2010
Friday 13th! Unluckily for me, I seemed to have missed something fairly important in language classes the day before and spent the first ten minutes with absolutely no idea what was going on. Luckily I eventually got it, although the class didn’t get much easier, as we ended up discussing the meaning of life- in German.
Afterwards we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was really interesting, with lots of information and a recreation of the Death Strip between the two sides of the Wall. I then headed off to Museum Island to have a bit of a wander round and formulate a plan for my museum day tomorrow. (Almost everyone is going to Berlin Zoo, which I don’t really fancy.) After about an hour walking at the exterior of the beautiful museums I decided that I was now in love with Berlin and wanted to live there, and sat down in front of Berlin Cathedral to write the last of my postcards.
After I was sat writing for a while a man came up and started talking to me. He introduced himself as Jann and guessed that I was a humanities student, and started talking about how you can tell what people study by looking at them. After telling me had lived in Colchester for a year, I told him that my nan lived near there, but rather than seize upon this piece of common ground he started asking me what I thought of Eastern European art. As I did not feel he was attractive enough for me to pretend I was interested, when he offered to take me to an exhibition of Eastern European art I politely explained I couldn’t as I was meeting my friends shortly. (I was meeting them 3 hours later, but he didn’t need to know that). I then left my spot by the Cathedral and got the tram home. In the evening a few of us girls decided to have a pyjama party, so had a chilled evening chatting and drinking wine.
Today was my first day in the advanced group, and I actually understood some things so it wasn’t quite the disaster I was expecting. Vocab still isn’t coming back to me though which is quite annoying. After language lessons we went to the Badeschiff in Kreuzberg, which is an outdoor pool and beach bar. The pool is on top of the river, which feels rather weird when you’re swimming in the pool. It was nice to have a fairly chilled out afternoon and still feel like I was doing something.
When we got back I grabbed some pizza from the supermarket then went to the internet cafe to write up my article and check my emails, then headed back home for an early night.
10th August 2010
Today was pretty uneventful- after language class we went on a visit to Zitty magazine, one of Berlin’s top magazines, which was quite short but pretty interesting, then briefly went to the shops at Postdamer Platz and got some postcards before heading back to the apartment.
In the evening a few of us went to a couple of bars, one of which was a slightly random punk bar, but it was a fairly nice chilled out evening.
11th August 2010
In the morning we had a journalism workshop, where we read out and critiqued each other’s articles, then we were finished with our organised activities for the day.
Dustin, Andy, Charlotte, Adie and I went to Potsdamer Platz to quickly visit the shops then we separated to do our own thing. I went to the German Resistance Memorial Museum, which is in the buildings where von Stauffenberg planned the failed assassination attempt on Hitler (you know, the guy Tom Cruise played in Valkyrie). The conspirators were shot in the courtyard of the building, and there is now a memorial there. The museum itself was really interesting, as I knew very little about German resistance during World War II, although as nearly all of the exhibits were in German I was at the mercy of the audio guide, which unfortunately skipped nearly half of the rooms. After the museum I went to Tiergarten, a massive park, where I wrote my postcards by the river with a small mouse for company.
In the evening a few of us went to Yorckschlösschen, a small jazz and blues bar, which was amazing. There was a great atmosphere and the band was brilliant, and after the saxophonist jumped on the table for a solo we all vowed to return before we left Berlin.
12th August 2010
I decided to be a bit of a rebel and skip classes in the morning as I was knackered, so after a thoroughly enjoyable lie in I went to our project meeting. This was fairly uneventful apart from the fact I had knelt on the floor in the office, not realising there was a piece of glass there until I noticed a small pool of blood around my knee. It was slightly disgusting, but it was a tiny cut and I was slightly high on Haribo sweets so it didn’t really hurt...
After the meeting a few of us went to Oranienstraβe and had a look at the art around there. It was quite cool, with lots of artists displaying paintings and sculptures, and lots of random creations made of scrap metal scattered around the place.
After going back to the apartment to grab our laptops, we decided to get some dinner before heading to the internet cafe. After what seemed like forever (but was probably about 15 minutes) wandering in the pouring rain we managed to find somewhere with room for the 7 of us. Helpfully, they had an English version of the menu, but the translations were somewhat dodgy, including such classics as ‘glass soup.’ By the time we made it to the internet cafe it was nearly 11, so we didn’t spend that long there before we headed home for bed.
13th August 2010
Friday 13th! Unluckily for me, I seemed to have missed something fairly important in language classes the day before and spent the first ten minutes with absolutely no idea what was going on. Luckily I eventually got it, although the class didn’t get much easier, as we ended up discussing the meaning of life- in German.
Afterwards we went to the Berlin Wall Memorial, which was really interesting, with lots of information and a recreation of the Death Strip between the two sides of the Wall. I then headed off to Museum Island to have a bit of a wander round and formulate a plan for my museum day tomorrow. (Almost everyone is going to Berlin Zoo, which I don’t really fancy.) After about an hour walking at the exterior of the beautiful museums I decided that I was now in love with Berlin and wanted to live there, and sat down in front of Berlin Cathedral to write the last of my postcards.
After I was sat writing for a while a man came up and started talking to me. He introduced himself as Jann and guessed that I was a humanities student, and started talking about how you can tell what people study by looking at them. After telling me had lived in Colchester for a year, I told him that my nan lived near there, but rather than seize upon this piece of common ground he started asking me what I thought of Eastern European art. As I did not feel he was attractive enough for me to pretend I was interested, when he offered to take me to an exhibition of Eastern European art I politely explained I couldn’t as I was meeting my friends shortly. (I was meeting them 3 hours later, but he didn’t need to know that). I then left my spot by the Cathedral and got the tram home. In the evening a few of us girls decided to have a pyjama party, so had a chilled evening chatting and drinking wine.
Monday 9 August 2010
Party on the U-Bahn!
4th August 2010
Today we didn’t have our language classes as we were having our first journalism workshop with Caroline, which included such joys as the ethics of journalism... I wasn’t sure whether any of us working on a travel guide would have thought about taking secret cameras and secretly recording in places, but at least we now knew that this would be unethical. After lunch Katre, Gemma and I went for a layout meeting, as we’re doing the design of the page layout for the guide. Afterwards we were joined by Adie and went to a photo-journalism exhibition which was really interesting. There were displays of work by photographers such as Robert Capa, George Rodger and Cartier-Bresson, with a wide range of photographs. There were some particularly harrowing photographs of the liberation of the concentration camps, as well as some more recent photographs capturing the war in Afghanistan.
In the evening the plan was to go to a cool bar/club, but we were confidently led in the opposite direction and ended up walking for about an hour before giving up and spending the rest of the evening in a bar in Alexanderplatz. The evening was greatly enhanced by challenging Dustin to jump and touch various street signs and high-up objects, and laughing at Jack’s relative lack of jumping prowess.
5th August 2010
I enjoyed language classes a lot today, as learnt some new stuff and actually remembered some German which was a nice change. For lunch we headed to Potsdamer Platz and saw the Sony Center, and I experienced my first bratwurst. I was slightly indifferent- it was ok, but I think I prefer normal sausages...
After some food we went to Topography of Terror, an exhibition situated opposite the old Gestapo torture chambers documenting the crimes of the Nazi government. It is quite unique in that it focuses on the perpetrators rather than the victims, documenting the bureaucracy and processes which allowed these atrocities to be committed. It was quite interesting in that it also looked at what happened to Nazis after the war, but I was shocked at the sentences, if any, served by some of the leading figures involved in the Nazi war crimes. Unsurprisingly it was quite depressing, and we all emerged in quite a sombre mood. After going back to the apartments for food we headed to Kreuzberg to go to the open air cinema, but we had some geographical issues and ended up pacing up and down the same road until Chloe, Jack and I decided to ditch the group and drink beer at the playground. Although the rest of the group found the cinema 5 minutes later, the playground was definitely a great idea, with lots of tyre swings and a zip-line. After rediscovering our childhood whilst drinking beer we headed to a nice bar where the bar man told us about some of the good clubs, and the dark rooms came up again. He referred to them as “a place where you can get down to business quickly.” I feel we won’t be checking them out any time soon... We then went to another a cool bar before heading back to the apartments for bed!
6th August 2010
Today we had our final German lesson with Barbara, which I rather enjoyed after having a slight revelation in which I finally understood how the dative case worked. I am now slightly scared as next week our group is merging with the advanced group...
In the afternoon we went to the beer festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I enthusiastically tried several types of beer, and had a taste of home when I found they had Brothers strawberry cider. I was fairly sober, but a drunken Kitty and Katy decided that some dancing in the rain was in order. We stayed until the evening, then went back to the apartment for food and a power nap. I went for pre-drinks but bailed on the night out as I was still shattered. This proved to be a wise decision as some of the guys had almost got into a fight with some neo-Nazis...
7th August 2010
Today we went to Potsdam to see the royal palaces, and met at Alexanderplatz at 11am. We were slightly depleted in numbers after the previous night’s festivities, with Chloe and Claudia managing to sleep until 4pm (apart from a break for lunch and a shower!) After grabbing a McDonald’s we got on the train to Potsdam, which was my first experience of a double decker train. It was slightly anti-climatic as it was much the same as a single decker train, just with two floors.
After getting the bus to Sans Soucci, one of the royal palaces, and seeing the grave of Frederick the Great, (which was covered in potatoes, as he introduced potatoes to Germany apparently) we then had a 2km walk to the New Palace for a tour. A highlight of the tour was one room where the walls and ceilings were covered in shells and stones, with the sea theme completed by a dead 18th Century flying fish. However, the best thing about the tour was the fact we had to wear massive slippers to protect the floor, which meant we just slid and shuffled our way around. It was like ice skating but with less falling over.
The evening’s festivities involved a spot of pre-drinking before heading out to a club in Kreuzberg which had its own Motown night. On the way we stumbled upon an impromptu party on the train- a group of people taped coloured bin bags over the lights, stuck up a disco ball and pumped out dance music and passed around beers. We decided to miss our stop to join the party train, then got off a bit later and headed to Lido.
The club was great but rather hot, and the combination of Motown and heat reminded me of Wednesdays at Welsh Club. A great night!
8th August 2010
The day began well, waking up naturally for the first time since I’ve been here after lying in until 12.30. Chloe, Claudia and I headed to one of the big flea markets in Berlin, which I absolutely loved. 2 dresses and 1 pair of earrings later we headed towards the sound of what seemed to be music... It was in fact karaoke, watched by a crowd of hundreds. Apparently this happens every week, and each performance is filmed and put on the organiser’s YouTube channel. I found the karaoke hilarious, especially when Germans would sing English songs with their made up words, but I had to leave when someone started brutally murdering The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take.’
In the evening Jack, Dustin, Chloe and I went to a blues bar, but unfortunately the music had finished already, so we just went for a quick drink somewhere else and vowed to head back Wednesday.
Today we didn’t have our language classes as we were having our first journalism workshop with Caroline, which included such joys as the ethics of journalism... I wasn’t sure whether any of us working on a travel guide would have thought about taking secret cameras and secretly recording in places, but at least we now knew that this would be unethical. After lunch Katre, Gemma and I went for a layout meeting, as we’re doing the design of the page layout for the guide. Afterwards we were joined by Adie and went to a photo-journalism exhibition which was really interesting. There were displays of work by photographers such as Robert Capa, George Rodger and Cartier-Bresson, with a wide range of photographs. There were some particularly harrowing photographs of the liberation of the concentration camps, as well as some more recent photographs capturing the war in Afghanistan.
In the evening the plan was to go to a cool bar/club, but we were confidently led in the opposite direction and ended up walking for about an hour before giving up and spending the rest of the evening in a bar in Alexanderplatz. The evening was greatly enhanced by challenging Dustin to jump and touch various street signs and high-up objects, and laughing at Jack’s relative lack of jumping prowess.
5th August 2010
I enjoyed language classes a lot today, as learnt some new stuff and actually remembered some German which was a nice change. For lunch we headed to Potsdamer Platz and saw the Sony Center, and I experienced my first bratwurst. I was slightly indifferent- it was ok, but I think I prefer normal sausages...
After some food we went to Topography of Terror, an exhibition situated opposite the old Gestapo torture chambers documenting the crimes of the Nazi government. It is quite unique in that it focuses on the perpetrators rather than the victims, documenting the bureaucracy and processes which allowed these atrocities to be committed. It was quite interesting in that it also looked at what happened to Nazis after the war, but I was shocked at the sentences, if any, served by some of the leading figures involved in the Nazi war crimes. Unsurprisingly it was quite depressing, and we all emerged in quite a sombre mood. After going back to the apartments for food we headed to Kreuzberg to go to the open air cinema, but we had some geographical issues and ended up pacing up and down the same road until Chloe, Jack and I decided to ditch the group and drink beer at the playground. Although the rest of the group found the cinema 5 minutes later, the playground was definitely a great idea, with lots of tyre swings and a zip-line. After rediscovering our childhood whilst drinking beer we headed to a nice bar where the bar man told us about some of the good clubs, and the dark rooms came up again. He referred to them as “a place where you can get down to business quickly.” I feel we won’t be checking them out any time soon... We then went to another a cool bar before heading back to the apartments for bed!
6th August 2010
Today we had our final German lesson with Barbara, which I rather enjoyed after having a slight revelation in which I finally understood how the dative case worked. I am now slightly scared as next week our group is merging with the advanced group...
In the afternoon we went to the beer festival, which I thoroughly enjoyed! I enthusiastically tried several types of beer, and had a taste of home when I found they had Brothers strawberry cider. I was fairly sober, but a drunken Kitty and Katy decided that some dancing in the rain was in order. We stayed until the evening, then went back to the apartment for food and a power nap. I went for pre-drinks but bailed on the night out as I was still shattered. This proved to be a wise decision as some of the guys had almost got into a fight with some neo-Nazis...
7th August 2010
Today we went to Potsdam to see the royal palaces, and met at Alexanderplatz at 11am. We were slightly depleted in numbers after the previous night’s festivities, with Chloe and Claudia managing to sleep until 4pm (apart from a break for lunch and a shower!) After grabbing a McDonald’s we got on the train to Potsdam, which was my first experience of a double decker train. It was slightly anti-climatic as it was much the same as a single decker train, just with two floors.
After getting the bus to Sans Soucci, one of the royal palaces, and seeing the grave of Frederick the Great, (which was covered in potatoes, as he introduced potatoes to Germany apparently) we then had a 2km walk to the New Palace for a tour. A highlight of the tour was one room where the walls and ceilings were covered in shells and stones, with the sea theme completed by a dead 18th Century flying fish. However, the best thing about the tour was the fact we had to wear massive slippers to protect the floor, which meant we just slid and shuffled our way around. It was like ice skating but with less falling over.
The evening’s festivities involved a spot of pre-drinking before heading out to a club in Kreuzberg which had its own Motown night. On the way we stumbled upon an impromptu party on the train- a group of people taped coloured bin bags over the lights, stuck up a disco ball and pumped out dance music and passed around beers. We decided to miss our stop to join the party train, then got off a bit later and headed to Lido.
The club was great but rather hot, and the combination of Motown and heat reminded me of Wednesdays at Welsh Club. A great night!
8th August 2010
The day began well, waking up naturally for the first time since I’ve been here after lying in until 12.30. Chloe, Claudia and I headed to one of the big flea markets in Berlin, which I absolutely loved. 2 dresses and 1 pair of earrings later we headed towards the sound of what seemed to be music... It was in fact karaoke, watched by a crowd of hundreds. Apparently this happens every week, and each performance is filmed and put on the organiser’s YouTube channel. I found the karaoke hilarious, especially when Germans would sing English songs with their made up words, but I had to leave when someone started brutally murdering The Police’s ‘Every Breath You Take.’
In the evening Jack, Dustin, Chloe and I went to a blues bar, but unfortunately the music had finished already, so we just went for a quick drink somewhere else and vowed to head back Wednesday.
Tuesday 3 August 2010
Welcome to Berlin!
1st August 2010
3.45am- the perfect time to start any form of adventure. Or so I told myself as I got ready to leave the house, bleary-eyed and thoroughly unimpressed at the fact I was starting my day when it was still dark outside. After a straight-forward car journey and an uneventful airport experience I was finally on my way to Berlin. The flight was frustratingly short, and I was unable to supplement my 3 hours sleep, so when I landed in Berlin I was in full zombie mode. After getting my baggage I found Katie, one of the other people on the programme, and shortly afterwards we were met by Marcus who was taking us to our apartments.
The journey across Berlin was enlivened by Marcus’ titbits of information about the city. My favourite piece of advice concerned Germany’s liberal attitude towards sex and Berlin’s nightclubs: “avoid the darkrooms- unless you like fornication with strangers.”
I was impressed by our apartments, which are quite spacious and have a large lounge separate to the kitchen, and a balcony. In my apartment is Katre from Estonia, Donna from Canada and Charlotte from Derby. After unpacking I went for a power nap, but was so tired I didn’t wake up until 3 and half hours later, but was just in time for dinner. About 15 of us went out for dinner at a steak house in Alexanderplatz. Unfortunately I could not fully understand the menu, and my steak seemed to be mainly pepper. I tried to plough through, but after the majority of my tastebuds were destroyed I had to admit defeat and give up on the steak. We then went for a drink at one of the beach bars... there are no beaches nearby but the bars have deckchairs and sand, which makes for a slightly surreal drinking experience. After my super nap I wasn’t quite tired enough for bed when I returned, so watched three episodes of The Thick of It before calling it a night.
2nd August 2010
The day began at 10am with our ‘orientation’, which mainly consisted of getting lots of information in a short space of time, but at least I know what I am doing now. After lunch we went on a 3 hour walking tour of Berlin. The tours are free, but the guides don’t get paid so ask for a donation at the end of the tour. We began at the Old Museum, where Hitler had held Nazi parades, and saw all the main sights of Berlin including Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the Nazi ministries. Oh and the balcony where Michael Jackson dangled his child out of.
I realised how much of a history geek I was when we got to the site of Hitler’s bunker... The site is completely unremarkable- it’s just a car park and a patch of grass- but I had guessed we were walking across the spot where Hitler had committed suicide as I vaguely recognised the car park from a Nazi documentary I had seen about four years previously. No cool points for me.
We also saw the Holocaust Memorial, which was a slightly odd experience. The memorial is controversially solely for Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and consists of hundreds of concrete slabs. It isn’t much to look at, but inside the middle of the memorial the tall stone slabs feel very oppressive and intimidating, which I suppose is the intention, but I left unconvinced that this was an appropriate way to commemorate the millions of Jews murdered during the Nazi regime.
After the tour ended Kate, Claudia and I split from the rest of the group and went to the Reichstag building. The exterior is the original building from the Kaiserreich (although partially rebuilt after extensive bombing during World War II) but the inside is extremely modern, with a futuristic-looking dome at the top of the building. The dome, designed by the British architect who designed the Gherkin building in London, has a spiral slope which you can walk up, and the centre consists of a series of mirrors. After finishing our tour of the Reichstag building we were going to go back to the apartment, but then we got hungry so jumped off the tram at Alexanderplatz and got some fish and chips. Whilst eating our meal a tramp stood watching us, waiting for us to finish. Not to take our food, but our empty bottles- here you can get money if you take back empty plastic or glass bottles, so you regularly get followed by tramps if you’re about to finish a drink! We then went to a bar for a drink. I am not yet fluent in beer language, so have started a game where I order random types of beer to see what they are like. My beer was quite ale-like, but in a pleasant way, which was good as I’d ordered a rather large amount. We then got on the wrong tram, but made it back to the apartment eventually...
3rd August 2010
Today- language classes begin! I was in the intermediate group, and soon discovered I had forgotten almost all the vocabulary learnt at school. It was a long three hours.
We then went to the East Side Gallery, which is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. The wall is covered in artist’s paintings, which were really interesting to look at but slightly spoilt by the fact they had recently been repainted. The artists who had painted the wall in 1990 repainted it last year, but this time had added their websites and email addresses, which I felt detracted from the messages portrayed in the paintings. We then strolled through Kreuzberg, and were all slightly over-impressed by some giant benches. When you see the photos, you will see why. Or think we are all weird. At lunch I continued the beer game, ordering ‘krystallweiBe’ which possibly means something to do with white and crystal, but it tasted nice so I was unperturbed by my lack of knowledge. When we got back we grabbed our laptops and headed to the nearest cafe with Wi-Fi. I ordered another unknown beer, which sounded vaguely like rhubarb beer, which in fact was rhubarb beer, which is surprisingly nice. After I’ve uploaded this I shall be off to get some food from the supermarket, then may go out, rain permitting!
3.45am- the perfect time to start any form of adventure. Or so I told myself as I got ready to leave the house, bleary-eyed and thoroughly unimpressed at the fact I was starting my day when it was still dark outside. After a straight-forward car journey and an uneventful airport experience I was finally on my way to Berlin. The flight was frustratingly short, and I was unable to supplement my 3 hours sleep, so when I landed in Berlin I was in full zombie mode. After getting my baggage I found Katie, one of the other people on the programme, and shortly afterwards we were met by Marcus who was taking us to our apartments.
The journey across Berlin was enlivened by Marcus’ titbits of information about the city. My favourite piece of advice concerned Germany’s liberal attitude towards sex and Berlin’s nightclubs: “avoid the darkrooms- unless you like fornication with strangers.”
I was impressed by our apartments, which are quite spacious and have a large lounge separate to the kitchen, and a balcony. In my apartment is Katre from Estonia, Donna from Canada and Charlotte from Derby. After unpacking I went for a power nap, but was so tired I didn’t wake up until 3 and half hours later, but was just in time for dinner. About 15 of us went out for dinner at a steak house in Alexanderplatz. Unfortunately I could not fully understand the menu, and my steak seemed to be mainly pepper. I tried to plough through, but after the majority of my tastebuds were destroyed I had to admit defeat and give up on the steak. We then went for a drink at one of the beach bars... there are no beaches nearby but the bars have deckchairs and sand, which makes for a slightly surreal drinking experience. After my super nap I wasn’t quite tired enough for bed when I returned, so watched three episodes of The Thick of It before calling it a night.
2nd August 2010
The day began at 10am with our ‘orientation’, which mainly consisted of getting lots of information in a short space of time, but at least I know what I am doing now. After lunch we went on a 3 hour walking tour of Berlin. The tours are free, but the guides don’t get paid so ask for a donation at the end of the tour. We began at the Old Museum, where Hitler had held Nazi parades, and saw all the main sights of Berlin including Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the Nazi ministries. Oh and the balcony where Michael Jackson dangled his child out of.
I realised how much of a history geek I was when we got to the site of Hitler’s bunker... The site is completely unremarkable- it’s just a car park and a patch of grass- but I had guessed we were walking across the spot where Hitler had committed suicide as I vaguely recognised the car park from a Nazi documentary I had seen about four years previously. No cool points for me.
We also saw the Holocaust Memorial, which was a slightly odd experience. The memorial is controversially solely for Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and consists of hundreds of concrete slabs. It isn’t much to look at, but inside the middle of the memorial the tall stone slabs feel very oppressive and intimidating, which I suppose is the intention, but I left unconvinced that this was an appropriate way to commemorate the millions of Jews murdered during the Nazi regime.
After the tour ended Kate, Claudia and I split from the rest of the group and went to the Reichstag building. The exterior is the original building from the Kaiserreich (although partially rebuilt after extensive bombing during World War II) but the inside is extremely modern, with a futuristic-looking dome at the top of the building. The dome, designed by the British architect who designed the Gherkin building in London, has a spiral slope which you can walk up, and the centre consists of a series of mirrors. After finishing our tour of the Reichstag building we were going to go back to the apartment, but then we got hungry so jumped off the tram at Alexanderplatz and got some fish and chips. Whilst eating our meal a tramp stood watching us, waiting for us to finish. Not to take our food, but our empty bottles- here you can get money if you take back empty plastic or glass bottles, so you regularly get followed by tramps if you’re about to finish a drink! We then went to a bar for a drink. I am not yet fluent in beer language, so have started a game where I order random types of beer to see what they are like. My beer was quite ale-like, but in a pleasant way, which was good as I’d ordered a rather large amount. We then got on the wrong tram, but made it back to the apartment eventually...
3rd August 2010
Today- language classes begin! I was in the intermediate group, and soon discovered I had forgotten almost all the vocabulary learnt at school. It was a long three hours.
We then went to the East Side Gallery, which is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. The wall is covered in artist’s paintings, which were really interesting to look at but slightly spoilt by the fact they had recently been repainted. The artists who had painted the wall in 1990 repainted it last year, but this time had added their websites and email addresses, which I felt detracted from the messages portrayed in the paintings. We then strolled through Kreuzberg, and were all slightly over-impressed by some giant benches. When you see the photos, you will see why. Or think we are all weird. At lunch I continued the beer game, ordering ‘krystallweiBe’ which possibly means something to do with white and crystal, but it tasted nice so I was unperturbed by my lack of knowledge. When we got back we grabbed our laptops and headed to the nearest cafe with Wi-Fi. I ordered another unknown beer, which sounded vaguely like rhubarb beer, which in fact was rhubarb beer, which is surprisingly nice. After I’ve uploaded this I shall be off to get some food from the supermarket, then may go out, rain permitting!
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