Volume 2, Day 2
I got a pretty good night sleep, despite several roommates stumbling in at some point after a night of clubbing. I spent a couple hours downstairs drinking coffee and working on the computer until about 8am when my stomach started growling and I was getting a bit of wanderlust.
My first stop was at the Aldi to buy a big bottle of mineralwasser, along with an apple strudel and a pretzel for a breakfast. The offered me a receipt–this is notable because I had been hesitating at the cash registers by instinct waiting for a receipt and embarrassing myself when the cashiers were like “Can I help you?”–and I was surprised to find some surcharge of 25 cents on there. Checking a dictionary, I found it was for a “deposit.” I was confused about this for most of the day, but it eventually made sense (next time i went to store and looked closely at the price tags). I suppose 0.19 Euros for a bottle of mineralwasser is too cheap, so a bottle deposit on top of it is perfectly reasonable. Of course, now I need to figure out if I can actually get the money back. It must be the case because, in the evening, I saw a guy collecting plastic bottles.
Anyways, I crossed the train tracks to check out RAW-Gelande (more on this later) and the streets around Boxhagener Platz. It looks like a cool area, with lots cafes and stuff, but it was pretty early in the morning, and nothing was going on. I parked myself at Boxhagener Platz for about an hour to study German on my Handy. At 10, the fountain kicked on, and between that (which is perfect for kids to run around), the neighboring playground, and the kindergarten groups on their outdoor excursions, I really became primed for viewing the city through the filter of kids. It must be the resonance with my subconscious past, but its a weird. Normally, as I travel I think about things through a lens of “would my parents like it,” but now I’m thinking about things through a “would my China-based friends with kids like it.”
Moving on, I headed over to a green spot on the Google Maps, but it turned out to be a cemetery. I headed up to the big road for a stroll along Karl Marx Allee. If this is what Soviet German architecture is like, sign me up man. The buildings are big, the avenue wide, but it isn’t imposing at all. At least compared to the brutalism of Tiananmen Square.
I reached the Computer Game Museum and decided to shell out the 9 euro entrance ticket. When I overhear conversations in German, I understand maybe half. But when people speak to me directly, I understand zero. The ticket salesperson probably asked me three times in German (before switching to English) if I qualified for a discount ticket. (Also, just now as I am typing this at 7:45 am someone asked if I wanted to drink a beer. Repeated in German a couple of times and my brain did not process any of it). The Computerspielemuseum was pretty cool with an impressive collection of old hardware, tons of videos, and lots of playable games. I spent over two hours, and could have easily killed a day playing the arcade games. I would say some of the choices of playable games were a bit off, e.g. no one visiting a museum is going to plop down and play a few minutes of a role playing game like Final Fantasy VII that requires a major time commitment.
It was well past noon at this point, and I headed two blocks north to the Volkspark Friedrichshain, passing by a Lidl to get some food for a picnic. I wasted a lot of time in the grocery store going back and forth over my menu, but man, I’m really enjoying myself looking at the food. I wanted to get a salad, but they only sold one kind of salad dressing. I settled for a couple pieces of bread, a bag of Babybells, a fruit juice, and a bag of cookies.
I wandered about in the park, Berlin’s oldest, before finding a fairly shady spot by a pond. The hill was a bit steep, and I couldn’t quite get comfortable to take a nap after eating my meal. I also kept reaching into the bag for more cookies. It was the 500g bag of assorted cookies. For 1 euro (compared to 4 in China)! I must have known subconsciously that I would eat them all and I did.
I’m getting used to being in Germany and they way people go about their daily lives. Any stretch of grass is going to have a handful of white-ass men stripped down to sunbathe. Everyone, everywhere is smoking. It takes the most extreme punk aesthetic of tattoos everywhere (face, neck, hands) and piercings all over the face to shock my conservative East Asian values. Speaking of which, there was a Japanese bell on the other side of the pond. It was dedicated to denuclearization, but I couldn’t figure out when/where/who made it from the signage. I strolled a bit more around the park, enjoying the sunshine and the relaxed atmosphere before heading west to Alexanderplatz. I passed it on the north side to do a loop around Berlin Mitte.
I popped into St Marienkirche, half of which is scaffolded for renovations, and it felt weird to enter a gothic cathedral for the first time in a dozen years and with hundreds of Buddhist temples in between. I sat and listened to the organ for a while (the organist rehearses on Friday and Saturday afternoons). The church had free wifi, appropriately dubbed a “godspot.” The funniest part, however, is that the terms of service say you agree to follow “the laws of man, especially copyright law.”
The whole area was so typical European and scenic. I could see the spires of another Cathedral (Berlin Dom?) a block away, the city hall is on the other side of the plaza which has a giant fountain of Neptune in the middle. The Ferhsehturm, which has been my primary point of orientation is right there. Walking back past the TV tower and the train station, there wasn’t really much at Alexendarplatz proper. It’s mostly just shopping malls and department stores and trams and pedestrians mixing it up. My only regret for pigging out on the cookies was that I couldn’t dare get any gelato, which was being sold everywhere and looked amaaazing.
I followed Alexanderstrasse to Holzmarktstrasse to head back towards my hostel. I was looking for something on Holzmarktstrasse that was mentioned in the Lonely Planet, but I didn’t quite remember what. The street is cut off from the river, but at one parking lot I spotted people milling about with beers on the riverside. So, I headed in and discovered the ramshackle artist collective that is Holzmarkt. I swear I was transported to Southeast Asia. Between the chill vibe of people hanging out and drinking, the shoddily built shacks housing the bars and restaurant counters, and the young Europeans who embody the gap year backpacking look, you could have teleported the whole setup to Vang Vieng and no one would have noticed.
The beers seemed a little pricey and I still wanted to let my liver recover for Beijing, so I found the proper exit and continued along the street back home. As I was walking along the East Side Gallery for the nth time, I noticed literally everyone was holding a beer. This city is insane. I thought it was strange that they all had the same beer until I came across the pickup truck with twenty crates of Sol beer. They were giving it away for free. I couldn’t exactly pass up free beer, so I headed to the grassy area between the wall and the river to sit for a while. Finishing the beer, I left it next to a trash can where there were already a dozen others. Is it littering if there is already litter?
Back in the hostel, I sat in the back courtyard to study for a bit. However, someone asked me if I had a light. I didn’t, but I could see a smoker through the window in the smoking room. I borrowed his lighter then sat over by the Indian guy who needed it to finish his joint. He had just arrived from Amsterdam and was planning to party a couple days in Berlin before going to eastern Europe. The sun kept moving around the building and after shifting out of the sunlight a couple of times, I suggested we go inside.
A couple of Dutch guys were playing pool and we sat by the pool table. They finished, and we played two games. I went up to shower because I was feeling gross from being outside all day. The Indian guy was also staying in my room so he was hanging around. I charged my phone a bit while getting in a bit of internet time before I agreed to go out. We headed up the street to a streetside stand selling currywurst and draft beer. We walked around the RAW-Gelande area, which looks like rundown warehouses (being adjacent to train tracks) but is now a collection of bars and music venues. It was already past 8pm but the sun was still high in the sky. Since he was planning on going clubbing at midnight, he had tons of time to kill and was asking me about cool places to hangout and get a drink (or have a smoke). I mentioned Holzmarkt and suggested we grab a roadie. Walking back past the S-bahn station, several street musicians were set up. The first (a single guitarist) was playing Metallica to small but enthusiastic audience. The second (a pianist) was playing Pachabel to indifferent passerbys. The third had a huge audience. A petit girl playing folk music that sounded like it could be original.
Continuing the journey, there was a very drunk and shirtless man, rolling around on the sidewalk. I gave him a wide berth, but when he got up and started walking away, leaving his cellphone (and lighter and rolling papers) on the sidewalk, I got worried. A group of Spanish tourists called to him, but he was too drunk to hear them. So, I grabbed the cellphone and ran him down.
We barely made it down to the corner before my companion needed to stop for a cigarette break. Noting the time (past 9 pm and still light), I started thinking about needing to go to sleep at some point. We didn’t go much further, stopping in the park by the Wall, which was really crowded with various groups having their drinks. I had long since finished my drink and either wanted another or to go to bed. I hung for a while as my companion prepped his hash-infused cigarette, but eventually bid him goodnight as I was bored and crashing.
It was a long day. I hope they aren’t all like this.
| Breakfast | 1.52 |
| Computer Game Museum | 9 |
| Lunch | 4.42 |
| Pool (1.5 per 30 min) | 0.8 |
| Currywurst & Beer | 6.5 |
| Dunkel Beer | 1.5 |
| Total: | 23.74 EUR (185 RMB) (USD 26.77) |
Running Total: 3054.55 RMB (USD 442)
Daily Average: 1527.3 RMB (USD 221)