On My Own In Berlin

November 17th--A completely different day in Berlin that didn't end until 4:00 AM.

Way warmer today--a balmy 2 degrees Celsius

I headed to one of the main town areas, Alexanderplatz, in the morning to try and join up with an "alternative" tour recommended by the owner of my hostel. I didn't see anybody, though, so I struck out on my own.

First stop was the Reichstag, the most famous German government building. I was curious about the line to go inside and climb to the top of the glass dome, but was soon discouraged:


So from there I wound my way towards the Brandenburg Gate, checking out some of the sights I had seen on Friday after dark. Along the way I had currywurst (bratwurst with curry) and hot spiced wine at one of the seasonal booths on the side of the avenue. Two great tastes that taste horrible together.

At the gate, I found masses of people again and decided to keep walking, remembering that it was a Saturday and it might be difficult to escape the crowds.

This fattist sculpture in front of the gate captivated me more than the gate did, somehow. Although maybe I was just being difficult.

I have no idea what was going on here, but I'm sure it involved some nice dumb Americans forking over money.

Just past the gate I saw another structure through the trees. I walked to it and found it was another Soviet War Memorial. On the way I saw a cool picture taken soon after it was built with the Reichstag in ruins behind it.


I tried to imitate the picture, but couldn't get quite the right angle. And then there was a big gun, and what little boy doesn't want his picture by the big gun?



Moving on to the west on the same road that connects the Brandenburg Gate to the city, I was suddenly flanked by huge parks on both sides and saw the German War Memorial, or Siegessaule, in the distance. As I walked, I took some time to meander in an and out of the parks, which of course had randomly beautiful monuments and sculptures every ten feet.




After I'd walked a bit, I saw this sign:


I blinked. A kilometer? I'd just walked more than a kilometer? It hadn't seemed like much of a distance at all. I think that's just because if had walked a mile I would have really been surprised, and since it's the unit of significant distance here my mind wants to equate the two. But seriously, kilometers are kind of wimpy. I feel like I could take a quick jaunt around the block and hey, just walked a kilometer.

At this point I started thinking about the two systems and had a sudden surge of US pride. Everyone (including me) always says that the metric system is so much more logical, maybe we should convert, etc. But the metric system is about as unpoetic as it gets; think of all the references to distance in poems and songs you've heard--any meters in there?

And I would walk 804 kilometers
And I would walk 804 more
Just to be the man who walked 1,608 kilometers
To fall down at your door.

Take that, Europe.

Soon I arrived at the Siegessaule, which is massive. It was built to celebrate Germany's victories in the three wars that ended up solidifying Germany into a centralized nation in 1871. Now it's the rally point for the Love Parade, the "biggest street party in Europe", according to my guidebook. One of the most interesting things I read about it was that the Nazis moved it out to its present location to make room for new buildings they wanted. That seems crazy to me. Yes, let's just pick up this enormous stone monument and just, you know, put it over in the corner like it's a piece of furniture.

After the long climb to the top. The inside was full of graffiti, and weirdly, enormous amounts from South America. I don't know if they make a pilgramage or what. I also saw "Daniel Rudio" three times. Little overkill, wouldn't you say, Danny?

View from the top back into the city.

After the Siegessaule, I wanted to try to get out to the suburb of Potsdam to see the famous gardens and parks there, but I found that after the half hour journey it had become to dark to really see anything. The quickly failing light can be an enormous con to a trip at this point of the year, although I hadn't had any real problems before this.

But where did all the light go?

There. It's the big model of Potsdam in the train station. Happy?

It was time to head back to the hostel, have dinner, and then go out to an indie rock club I had seen during my tour on Friday. I wanted to get a glimpse of the apparently fantastic night life in the city.

I had met another guy staying in my room the night before, a Frenchman named Olivier, and he said he might be around to go out later on. Before I went to the room, however, I talked with the hostel owner Glenn for a moment. When I mentioned the club I was going to, he said he thought there was another American going to the same club. He took me to the cafe next door to introduce me.

His name was Robin, an expat from Oregon living in the Alps and vacationing in Berlin. He in fact wasn't going to that club, but one near it to do a ritual dance/song thing from Kazhakstan. Apparently it was pretty rare to be able to do it outside the country, so I thought yeah, why not, I'll do that too.

I returned to the room to meet a new person staying there, a Kiwi named Anna. She'd been working on a yacht in Croatia and was now visiting her brother who worked at the hostel. She said Olivier had checked out and left, because he had gotten an apartment in Berlin. Hmm.

After some conversation, she said she was going to see one of the hostel staff's band play at a bar with her brother and Glenn. She invited me along, and, suddenly full of options, I agreed.

I describe all this mainly because Saturday night completely eliminated my worries about meeting people to hang out with after staying with preexisting friends and family for so much of the trip. I just tried to roll with things and be open, and it got much easier.

We went to the bar and saw two bands, then ended up at a converted-warehouse club way off the beaten track. It was literally in an alley, but crowded with people and great music--it was everything you might hope for from European club, with an amazing industrial feel. Through Anna and her brother I met something like 10 people, all really fun and interesting to talk to (except for when I had to explain to the two German guys why I was sure that the government wasn't behind 9/11...).


Another full day, making it that much harder to get up and leave the next day.