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!