Two weekends ago Tina, Rachel, and I went to Berlin for the weekend. Packing only a backpack (because extra luggage costs extra money on easyjet), I can now say that I have traveled to another country with only a small backpacks worth of stuff(and trust me, packing wasn't easy). Our flight didn't leave until 9:25 so we made sure to get to the airport with plenty of time to spare. At the airport we quickly realized that all the staff were big jokesters. The guys checking our passports told us they were tired and wanted to know if we would take over their job for a bit, another guy checking our boarding pass started to sing New York New York to me when he looked at my passport, and asked Tina (whose full name is Kristina) if she was like Christina Aguilera. Then when we were about to go through security, we quickly took off our scarves, belts, any metal, and naturally our shoes. Upon seeing this the workers started laughing at us and said that taking off our shoes wasn't necessary because “We are not in America.” This cracked them up so much that for the five minutes it took our stuff to go through the scanner and for us to gather everything back together they just kept telling us that “We are not in America.” With no luggage to check we were never told what gate to go to. After asking someone and arriving at the appropriate terminal we realized that our flight wasn't even listed on the screen. We panicked slightly that we may have missed our flight so we asked again and were told that it wasn't listed because they didn't even know exactly what gate it would be coming to. This is around the time that we learned if you are going to fly on a cheap airline, they don't tell you where you are supposed to go until 20 minutes before you board.
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| We finally found the right gate |
The flight was only 45 minutes long and we landed in what appeared to be, as Tina put it, “The parking lot of a grocery store.” It was the sketchiest airport I have ever been to. Rachel's brother, Samuel, has been living in Berlin for about the last month so we were lucky enough to have a personal tour guide as well as a free place to stay. After finding Samuel , he brought us back to his apartment, which is on the 5th floor (hiking status). Fun fact: the second floor of his apartment building is home to a children's dentist office located right across from an AIDS clinic (interesting combo). Friday night we went out to a hole in the wall bar-literally. This place actually seemed to be a hole in a wall. The atmosphere was very relaxed, and cozy though. People were sitting on milk crates and the only source of light came form candles spread out around the place. Saturday morning we woke up early and spent the entire day exploring Berlin.
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| Make shift bed on the floor...so comfy...NOT! |
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| Berlin is very proud of their stop and go men |
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| Entrance way to the city |
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| Holocaust Memorial |
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| Berlin Cathedral |
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| Where did the other L go? |
The Berlin Wall was incredible to see-it had the coolest murals painted on it.
The Kunsthaus Tacheles used to be a department store in the Jewish quarter but was later turned into a Nazi prison camp. It was later taken over by artists who still have it to this day. There is graffiti everywhere, random sculptures, as well as artists all over showing their work and selling replicas. Apparently it is a pretty big tourist destination but I definitely would not have gone there on my own. The place was very sketchy and I felt like I was trespassing the whole time.
For lunch we went to Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap-a small stand that is known for its durums. I'm not sure exactly what was in it, but it was amazing. The meat was cut from a giant hunk of spinning meat and I was told it was chicken. I didn't ask questions.
Later that night we went out to a gay bar. It's amazing the things you see outside of Greenville. After the gay bar we went to a rave called Berghain. Little did we know this is one of the most popular raves in Europe. From the outside it looks like a run down prison, and waiting to get in has been compared to judgment day. The bouncers faces were covered in piercings and tattoos. They looked us up and down in order to judge our worthiness to go inside. I'm not sure why they let me in. Upon arriving in Germany I immediately noticed that their style was very different. Most people wore black, and if you didn't have some sort of facial piercing you were a minority. So there I stood, with my Steve Madden boots, gray peacoat, and pink floral scarf...and somehow got in...It is really hard to explain what Berghain was like, so I highly recommend reading about it here Berghain Berlin Since no cameras are allowed I couldn't take any pictures, but I found a couple online that people had somehow taken-google image it! The music that was playing was amazing. After being described as "quite possibly the current world capital of techno” it did not disappoint. The music itself was not loud-I could talk in a normal voice and everyone could hear me fine. However, the bass was turned up so high that it pulsed through your entire body, with different tones rattling different bones (rhyme!) If you closed your eyes and just let your body move to the music you could get into a trance-like state. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. My pink sweater and scarf set me apart from most of the other people there (many of whom were men in their 50s wearing various small pieces of leather clothing...including chaps without jeans underneath (wonderful image now permanently burned into my memory) and suspenders looped through nipple rings). This place put me as far outside of my comfort zone as I have ever been in my life-and it was amazing! I never felt threatened by the people there-they were too busy dancing, or in the “dark rooms” (see wikipedia-it's not lying), or probably doing drugs. However, in a place like this, leave it the Americans to find on the very top floor an.... ICE CREAM BAR! We were the only ones in it - everyone else was probably preoccupied by everything else Berghain has to offer. I'm sure you're wondering-and the answer is of course I bought myself some ice cream. If you randomly find an ice cream bar in a rave-it's a sign from God-and you can't not buy any. Around 4:30am we discovered one of the many giant swings (a roughly 10 feet x 10 feet square piece of metal hanging from the ceiling). After sitting/lying on it for a while we started to realize just how tired we were. The swing was rocking us to sleep. On our way to the door to leave, the music somehow sucked us back in and we danced for a good 30 minutes more without having any idea where the time went. We finally managed to leave around 5:30am- only to find that there was still a line of people waiting to get in. The Germans were no where near done for the night. Rachel's brother said they will stay there until probably noon the next day. I don't know how they do it. Sunday we woke up in time to meet my friend Mike. He has been living in Leipzig since last August. It was so nice to see a familiar face from back home. We spent the day exploring the city as well as visiting the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory/Store and of course having lunch at Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap again.
Berlin was so much cheaper compared to Copenhagen, so every chance we got we were buying ourselves some kind of delicious pastry. I was also able to get a thimble to add to my collection! By Sunday night we were exhausted and ready to go back to Copenhagen. However, while waiting to board our plane, the emergency inflatable slide decided to pop out and inflate. This hindered our departure just a little in that now they had to find someone to deflate it and either roll it back up properly to put it back in or find a new one to install. Thank you easyjet. All in all it was an awesome weekend but I dont think I would like to study there for four months. Let me just say that I was very happy to be back in Copenhagen.
The Kunsthaus Tacheles used to be a department store in the Jewish quarter but was later turned into a Nazi prison camp. It was later taken over by artists who still have it to this day. There is graffiti everywhere, random sculptures, as well as artists all over showing their work and selling replicas. Apparently it is a pretty big tourist destination but I definitely would not have gone there on my own. The place was very sketchy and I felt like I was trespassing the whole time.
For lunch we went to Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap-a small stand that is known for its durums. I'm not sure exactly what was in it, but it was amazing. The meat was cut from a giant hunk of spinning meat and I was told it was chicken. I didn't ask questions.
Later that night we went out to a gay bar. It's amazing the things you see outside of Greenville. After the gay bar we went to a rave called Berghain. Little did we know this is one of the most popular raves in Europe. From the outside it looks like a run down prison, and waiting to get in has been compared to judgment day. The bouncers faces were covered in piercings and tattoos. They looked us up and down in order to judge our worthiness to go inside. I'm not sure why they let me in. Upon arriving in Germany I immediately noticed that their style was very different. Most people wore black, and if you didn't have some sort of facial piercing you were a minority. So there I stood, with my Steve Madden boots, gray peacoat, and pink floral scarf...and somehow got in...It is really hard to explain what Berghain was like, so I highly recommend reading about it here Berghain Berlin Since no cameras are allowed I couldn't take any pictures, but I found a couple online that people had somehow taken-google image it! The music that was playing was amazing. After being described as "quite possibly the current world capital of techno” it did not disappoint. The music itself was not loud-I could talk in a normal voice and everyone could hear me fine. However, the bass was turned up so high that it pulsed through your entire body, with different tones rattling different bones (rhyme!) If you closed your eyes and just let your body move to the music you could get into a trance-like state. It was like nothing I had ever experienced. My pink sweater and scarf set me apart from most of the other people there (many of whom were men in their 50s wearing various small pieces of leather clothing...including chaps without jeans underneath (wonderful image now permanently burned into my memory) and suspenders looped through nipple rings). This place put me as far outside of my comfort zone as I have ever been in my life-and it was amazing! I never felt threatened by the people there-they were too busy dancing, or in the “dark rooms” (see wikipedia-it's not lying), or probably doing drugs. However, in a place like this, leave it the Americans to find on the very top floor an.... ICE CREAM BAR! We were the only ones in it - everyone else was probably preoccupied by everything else Berghain has to offer. I'm sure you're wondering-and the answer is of course I bought myself some ice cream. If you randomly find an ice cream bar in a rave-it's a sign from God-and you can't not buy any. Around 4:30am we discovered one of the many giant swings (a roughly 10 feet x 10 feet square piece of metal hanging from the ceiling). After sitting/lying on it for a while we started to realize just how tired we were. The swing was rocking us to sleep. On our way to the door to leave, the music somehow sucked us back in and we danced for a good 30 minutes more without having any idea where the time went. We finally managed to leave around 5:30am- only to find that there was still a line of people waiting to get in. The Germans were no where near done for the night. Rachel's brother said they will stay there until probably noon the next day. I don't know how they do it. Sunday we woke up in time to meet my friend Mike. He has been living in Leipzig since last August. It was so nice to see a familiar face from back home. We spent the day exploring the city as well as visiting the Ritter Sport Chocolate Factory/Store and of course having lunch at Mustafa's Gemüse Kebap again.
Berlin was so much cheaper compared to Copenhagen, so every chance we got we were buying ourselves some kind of delicious pastry. I was also able to get a thimble to add to my collection! By Sunday night we were exhausted and ready to go back to Copenhagen. However, while waiting to board our plane, the emergency inflatable slide decided to pop out and inflate. This hindered our departure just a little in that now they had to find someone to deflate it and either roll it back up properly to put it back in or find a new one to install. Thank you easyjet. All in all it was an awesome weekend but I dont think I would like to study there for four months. Let me just say that I was very happy to be back in Copenhagen.
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