Saturday, 23 May 2009 / Sunday, 24 May 2009

O finally it was Saturday, the day that will be remembered and looked back on for days to follow. Our only plan still was to meet at the train station at 9:00. I got up and packed and tried to prepare for what I was about to witness. On the way to the tram I ran into my neighbor, the same one that I had dinner and coffee with earlier that week. We had a short a little chat. I was already late getting to the train station and I was the one who told people they had to be on time to the train station. After explaining that I was not going to be in town for the next day and a half, he let me go and I got to the train station.

Everyone was there and ready to go; there were 8 of us. We got two 5-person day passes that allowed us to travel on any non-ICE train in the country of Deutschland for 24 hours. They were very cheap, and a reason why we decided to leave on Saturday and not on Friday. I was hungry, so I went to Subway as well as did most of every once else in our group. Then, we went to the track where the train was supposed to arrive in a couple of minutes. While there, a young lady walked up to us and asked us, essentially, if we had an extra ticket to Berlin. Indeed, we did, and she joined our group. Her name was Maja, and she dressed very weird, at least compared to us Americans. She was a great help though. We had to get off in Wittenberg to switch trains to get to Berlin, and she knew where we had to go. Also, when we had finally arrived in Berlin, she helped us get out of the train station and to the city center, more specifically Alexanderplatz, right next to the TV Tower. The TV Tower was in West Berlin and was responsible for broadcasting television and radio to the residents in East Berlin during the time of the GDR, when there was a wall built to separate the West from the East. Also, I was able to snag Maja’s number before we got off the train. I got to say I was even impressed with myself with my smooth maneuvering in acquiring it. We do, in fact, have a common taste in music, Techno.

Any ways back to Berlin. We did not really have any plans or anything when we got there, so we were kind of lost and awestruck on how big Berlin was and how extensive the subway and bus system was built up. So, we just decided to walk around and try to absorb the atmosphere we just dropped in on. We walked through a flea market by a fountain by the TV Tower. I was focused on trying to figure out where we were and where we needed to go based off of the research I had done the night before. I was using a map of Berlin Jay had gotten from his host family and this thing was huge. It I had been unfolded all the way, it would probably been 5 feet long and 5 feet wide. Berlin is a gigantic city. It turned out we wanted to be at Alexanderplatz for one of the tours I had researched, but while trying to find the rest of the group we ran into a lady who was handing out flyers for her company’s touring bus trip, I decided it was better to do that because it was cheaper, and we were able to get a deal for Potsdam. We were hoping to stop there on our way back from Berlin the next day.

We jumped on the bus and were on our way to seeing the big sights in Berlin. In the first 5 minutes, the guide told us where all the bars were, so we now knew were we wanted to find a hostel after the tour was over. When we reached the Brandenburg Gate, we jumped off the bus to get a closer look and take some closer look. The area was insanely crowded because of the celebration of the Republic of Germany being founded 60 years ago, but we were able to get some pictures of ourselves in front of the big gate and with our professor’s book that he had written. It was pretty cool. A couple of us were approached by a gypsy who wanted some money for her mother and daughter who had traveled to Berlin two weeks ago and now had no money or food. I politely declined because once you give money to one person, you feel you need to give your money to everyone that asks you. Chances are her story was a complete fabrication. We jumped back on the bus and continued our tour to the Main Train Station and other sites in the city, including the old Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie.

When we got back to the area by the fountain and the TV Tower, we asked the lady who told us about the tour on where we could find a hostel by the strip of bars, which included a 24-hour bar called “AM to PM.” We found a hotel, but it was expensive so we went down the street to find another hostel. We were unsuccessful so we went to the AM to PM bar to have a drink and think of what we wanted to do. To cut the long story short, we walked around for an hour or so looking for hostels. We were tired and hungry and because of that our tempers were growing shorter and shorter by the minute and each unsuccessful attempt we had at each hostel we found. Finally after a trip on the subway system, we found a place by the zoo that we had passed earlier that day on the tour. While Frank was checking us in to the A&O Hostel, the rest of us sat down and ordered ourselves another beer. During this time, Frantz found an ad for a pub crawl that was going to start at 8:00pm. It was currently 7:00pm, so we needed to sort of get a move on if we wanted to do this pub crawl. We moved all our stuff in and found a döner place right below us, which is pretty much a gyro place in the US. I ended up eating two döners I was so hungry. We went back up to the hostel and had another beer while we waited for someone to come pick us up from the hostel. Keep in mind that in this pub crawl, the guides were walking around handing out free shots at each bar.

When the girl came to pick us up, we headed to the 24 hour bar called Am to PM to meet up with everyone else that was going to join us for the great adventure. We were given a Beck’s Gold beer upon our arrival and the fun started. Our first bar was decorated in old GDR flare. I ordered two beers and two Jäger-bombs. Once I got my drinks, the stupid drunk Brit that was on the pub crawl felt the need to up one on me and ordered the same thing but also ordered two pitchers of waters. I don’t know if he ever got the waters, but it was the principle of the thing, which does not really make any sense; however, I am sure you get what I am saying. In Berlin and I believe all throughout Germany, you are allowed to carry an open container on the streets, so the conscious was to take advantage of this opportunity while we can. When we left the first bar, we were sure to have a beer with us to carry on the streets to hold us over until we reached the next bar. Um, the second was interesting and is easily describable as a small disco place that had a bar in which no one was dancing. After a couple of drinks and an hour later, we headed to the third bar where they were giving free shots out with every beer you bought. It was bad news, but I was already heading that way anyways once I had a Jäger-bomb at the first bar. At this bar, we got into a conversation with a guy who turned out to be like the head guy who inspects produce and purchases it to be shipped to the US. I do not know what company he works for, but he was very interesting and will probably never find another guy like him. At this bar, I felt the need to smoke a cigar since I saw Nick sitting outside at the picnic table smoking one. I am not sure whether this was a good idea or not. I enjoy smoking cigars, but I don’t really like smoking after I have drunk. However, by smoking the cigar, I was then not drinking any alcohol, so it is hard to say really which was the lesser of the two evils. I’ll just leave it up to the reader to decide. On our way to the fourth bar, a different guy on the tour was trying to teach some German so I could pick up to German girls. I was decently gone and kept telling the guy that his tries were futile because of the state I was in at the current time. He did not seem too pleased with me. At the fourth bar, there was an inside area where people were dancing, an outside area that was covered in sand, and a second floor. Troy and I tried to find the second floor but came up empty handed. This is about the time I stop remembering what happened the rest of the night.

The next morning (Sunday), I awoke in my bed in the hostel in Berlin with a little bit of a hangover and feeling very tired. For about an hour or so, the eight of us there relived the night before and tried to piece together the portions we do not remember. Sadly, no one remembered what the club looked like nor did anyone have pictures to look at to try to jog our memory of what had happened the night before. The only thing people remotely remember were the hookers on the street on our walk to the tram. We think they were wearing all white, white knee-high boots, white skirt, and a white top. We also remember them being really, really hot, but then again we were all really drunk at the time. We dragged ourselves out of bed finally and got our stuff together to get ready to go back to Leipzig. On the way back, we were going to stop in Potsdam, but apparently, the train on the way back does not go through Potsdam, so we did not get to see any of Potsdam.

Once back in Leipzig, we stopped for food in the main train station, and then, I headed home back to the apartment and passed out. When I awoke, the host family had returned from their trip from the Baltic Sea, and head white asparagus to make for dinner that night. It was very good. Then, I went back to sleep and prepared for another day at BMW.