As requested by a friend of mine, I am starting to write about my journeys in this blog. So, I‘ve just been to Berlin. Now I am in the train, on my way back to Aarhus. I decided to go Berlin last week, just booked the tickets and went there without thinking too much about it. Normally I don‘t make spontaneous decisions like that because I am limited by my responsibilities. Fortunately, this time I had a short vacation and no plans, so it was the perfect time to do it!
I will not speak about the trip itself. I took a train from Aarhus and after several changes and 8 hours I was in Berlin. It was my first time there. I‘ve passed through the city before and I only remember that the central station (Berlin Hauptbahnhof) was huge. Hell it is! First, I went out to see Berlin outside the train station and the Bundestag (which is 5 minutes from Berlin Hauptbahnhof). Then I went back and took a train to my hostel. Berlin has extensive transportation system (S-Bahn – city trains, U-Bahn – subway, trams and buses). I had to take the S-Bahn to Warschauer Strasse and then the U-Bahn for just one stop. When I got off at Warschauer Strasse I was a bit shocked. The feeling reminded me of the moment when I went out of the central station in Napoli, Italy. There were graffiti everywhere, it was dirty, ugly. There were people screaming and drinking everywhere. I got off the U-Bahn at Schlesisches Tor. The station there is just miserable. Then I walked 5 minutes to my hostel. The street was full of bars and restaurants, there were people everywhere, and it was still dirty and a bit depressing. Reminded me of a big city in Eastern Europe. Moreover, the architecture of half the buildings is socialist.
The hostel I stayed in was ok. Ok describes it quite well: nothing special about it, just an average place. Not very clean but certainly not dirty. Small kitchen. The beds and the space in the room was enough, it wasn‘t crowded. However, the place was not very social. I didn‘t actually met nice and interesting people there. Many of the guests couldn‘t speak English, so I couldn‘t communicate with them. Some of them spoke only their language and German: French and German, Spanish and German. What the hell, people?! I can‘t believe that there are people who speak some foreign languages but not English… It is THE international language… I met Italian guy with very bad English who couldn‘t speak German at all. That guy was looking for a job in Berlin. Good luck with that. Imagine how desperate he must be :/ I also met a German girl who spoke English with French accent. She was a student in Berlin but she was living in the hostel while searching for an apartment. The Spaniards that arrived yesterday didn’t even reply when I said „Hi“.
I went out alone soon after I arrived. Just took a map and my wallet and went for a walk. I forgot to take my camera and my glasses. At Potsdamer Platz I met four Swedes (or they met me). They were lost and they saw that I have a map, so I took them to their hotel as if I am a local. I walked around the centre of the city and I was waiting for my train at Alexanderplatz around 23 h when I met two guys from Israel and a girl from Brazil. They also asked me for directions and I helped them. I ended up partying with them until 4 am. We ran into a street party: some guys with a tractor and a sound system stopped in the middle of the road and started playing music. There were people dancing around and we joined the party! There were some people who started dancing in front of cars and the party actually blocked the traffic. The police came and took the „hosts“ and their tractor.
The next day took the free city walking tour. It was nice, much better than the free walking tour in Rome. I saw things I wouldn’t have seen otherwise and I heard things I didn‘t know before. And I found out that a guide in Berlin makes good money: the group was about 25 people and at least half of them left a 10-euro tip to the guide, the others left less. I also want to be a guide…
In the evening I went to a pub crawl. It was nice, we went to several clubs. I was sticking to the Swedish group (damn, I‘ve lived in Scandinavia for too long already 
). There were people from all over the world but most of them were in groups or with their boyfriend/girlfriend. I met some nice people there. We partied until 4 in the morning. When I left there were still people everywhere on the streets. There were street musicians and sitting on the ground around them. The atmosphere was nice, it was something different from what I‘ve experienced before. It was the nightlife, the culture of Berlin. When we asked the guide of the pub crawl what is a typical club in Berlin, he said „It is an old and abandoned warehouse, which someone spotted, put fucking awesome sound system and decided to make parties there“. On the way back there was a guy in the U-bahn, who was singing and playing the guitar. I guess normally I wouldn‘t like being disturbed when I am tired, but I did like it. All the people in the train started singing with him and supporting him. It was amazing! I got off a few stops after mine and had to take a train back.
I didn‘t sleep at all on the night between Friday and Saturday. On Saturday I decided to go to a different place in Germany. I went to see a friend in Magdeburg. On my way there something happened to the tracks at one of the train stations so we waited about 2 hours there. The journey took a long long time! I also had a short walk in Leipzig that day. In total I spent about 12 hours on trains – it was exactly the way I wanted to do it: music playing, train, travelling, me thinking. I love doing that!
I spent the entire Sunday walking around the city. I went to places I‘ve been to on Friday and to some other parts of the city. In the afternoon I went to the monument of the angel in Tietgarten. I went to the top of the monument to see the city from above and I think I spent about 1 hour there enjoying the view. One of the areas of Berlin really reminded me of Varna: the buildings, small green areas around them, trees, garbage here and there. It felt like home. I also went to a place called Mauer Park (Wall Park). It is a very dirty park with people from all over the world, sitting and drinking beer, talking, playing music. There were many street musicians and dancers there. It was not a nice and clean and cosy place but it is a place where you experience the different, where various cultures meet. That day the headphones almost becameme a part of my ears. I kept them on my ears with or without music playing I think I am becoming the biggest fan of James Blunt in the world…
The German girl who speaks English with French accent told me that the dirt and misery encourage creativity. I guess she‘s right to a certain extent. I took one of the last trains after midnight. Again, there was a guy playing the guitar and singing. This time I took a video of him!
Thus ends my first trip to Berlin. Today I had to wake up at 5:30 to take my train to Denmark. Berlin is not my city; I am not that much into urban culture, underground, electro and house music and graffiti. The time I had there was not as good as in other places I‘ve been to. However, the city has its own style, own vibrance. It is unique and I love it. It‘s culture is something everybody has to experience and I certainly recommend it. It has a lot to offer. I didn‘t have time to visit any of its many museums. But I want to go back there by the end of the year, I haven‘t got enough of it!
One more thing… Happiness only real when shared…