German Puns are the Wurst

Guten Tag from Germany!

Because I only have three classes I'm responsible for so far, I decided this would be a great weekend to escape Prague for a bit. Two friends from my TEFL course made an appointment in Berlin, Germany to sort out their visa paperwork. Apparently, to work legally in the Czech Republic, we need to visit a Czech embassy in a nearby country. The nearest/cheapest choices are Berlin, Budapest, Bratislava, and Vienna. I am still waiting on my landlord papers to come in, so I am not yet able to make an appointment at a Czech embassy. However, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to visit Berlin with some friends so I decided to tag along as a third wheel.

It's really amazing how simple it was to getaway to Berlin for a weekend. All I had to do was book a roundtrip bus ticket online and find a cheap hostel for three nights. I woke up at 5:30 AM on Friday morning so I plenty of time to find the Prague bus station and board my bus to depart at 7:30. The bus was extremely nice; there were free movies in Czech and English as well as hot beverages. We had to stop at the Czech-Germany border for a quick passport check, then a brief dropoff at both Dresden and the Berlin airport before arriving in the heart of Berlin. Total trip time was five hours.

It was a bit of a hike from the German bus station to our hostel in the middle of the Mitte district of Berlin, but it gave us a chance to get used to the metro system here. It really made me appreciate the simplicity and efficiency of Prague's public transportation; the German transportation lines still don't make much sense to me. I also have a renewed appreciation for the value of the Czech crown. The euro is pretty damn expensive, clocking in at 1.36 the value of the US dollar. However, Berlin has been an amazing city to explore! It's unlike anywhere I've ever been. It's very large, but quite peaceful. The architecture is a unique combination of ancient and modern. I took quite a few photographs as documented on Facebook, but I was only in a small section of Germany's capital. You could easily spend a week here and still have plenty left to see.

Our first day here, we headed for the Berlin TV Tower after a quick bite to eat in a nearby cafe. For just 12€, we were taken to the top of the tower just in time to see the sun set over the Berlin skyline. We did some more exploring, grabbed some drinks and a nice dinner, then headed back to the hostel. This was my first stay in a hostel, and it has been a good experience so far. If you don't know how a hostel works (this is for you, Mom), it's a very inexpensive way to find accommodation and meet all kinds of (typically younger) people. This hostel has a Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy theme, which I would be a lot more excited about if I had ever read Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Unfortunately, you do have to deal with a lot of assholes in hostels. Americans in particular. There's a large group of them here who have been stomping through the hallways in high heels, screaming about hair-straighteners, being douchey bros, and referring to the Berlin Wall as "that graffiti wall." My six-person room has been nice so far though. People come in and out respectfully as not to disturb the others who are resting.

Day two in Berlin consisted mostly of a walking tour. A very nice, but quirky, American man who had been a Berlin resident for 17 years gave the tour. It lasted from 10:45 to 5:30, and we estimate that we walked near seven miles. He knew the history of the city inside and out, and we got to see some of the most fascinating parts of the city. Again, pictures and explanations of all these sights are posted on Facebook. We finished the night in an authentic German restaurant with some of the best food I've had since I've been abroad and then hit up a small gay pub called Sharon Stonewall. It was too pink for my taste.

Day three was museum day. We slept in, then went to the memorial for the homosexual victims of the holocaust, and then headed to the Topography of Terror Museum to read about the beginning and end of Hitler's "final solution" regime. Disturbing stuff. After that, we headed for the DDR Museum (German Democratic Republic), a "hands-on" exhibition of life in East Germany after the fall of Hitler and before the destruction of the Berlin Wall. We stopped at a delicious chocolate bar where I had a sinfully rich brownie and hot chocolate, then headed back to the hostel for a quick cleanup. And that's where I am now. The hostel has a good happy hour deal (2€ for two Beck's beers from 7:00-8:00), so I'm taking advantage of that and the free Internet while Kizz and Wenone escape my third wheeling for a romantic date in Berlin. Now that happy hour is ending, I have no excuse to stay in the hostel bar, so maybe I'll find a nearby cafe for a lonely dinner. Or maybe I'll be social and meet some foreigners in the hostel. 

 

Beer is my only friend now.

-Anthony