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.

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