Volume 2, Day 3
I must have spent at least four hours in the morning writing and studying German, and I also spent 20 minutes working out in the courtyard. I declined to go for a jog because I was thinking I’d do a lot of walking.
As I was about to head out the door to a fleamarket, my plans were slightly derailed by the arrival of an email. A mutual friend had put me in touch with a Berlin-based contact. Earlier in the morning, I had dashed off a “hi” message, not really expecting a prompt response. At this point, there isn’t much of a story to tell, other than that I had a window of a couple hours where I looking for Wi-Fi hotspots and refreshing my inbox to see if we were going to arrange a meetup that day for a lunch or coffee.
Having sent out a reply and not wanting to sit around the hotel lobby waiting, I headed up the street to find the fleamarket. It wasn’t there, though, I felt validated that the sign was clearly there advertising “Jedes Samstag.” I headed a little further north to the Boxhagener Platz, where there was in fact a Wochendmarkt. Because there were no available Wi-fi hotspots and I was waiting for a email response, I didn’t walk around the farmer’s market. Instead, I headed back towards the hostel and popped into the shopping mall. I browsed the Rewe Supermarket after dashing off another email to kill time for a bit.
I headed back to the hostel for a few minutes before literally turning around and going back to the supermarket to buy some stuff for lunch. I was hungry and went a bit overboard buying a salad, cherry tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and serrano ham to make a hearty salad.
I ate my lunch at the hostel courtyard while a group of women and one guy were practicing a dance routine for a performance at the Carnival of Cultures. There was a lot of twerking involved, so they attracted the attention of a group of guys roaming around with beers in hand. Finishing my lunch, I went into the lobby where the sofas are more comfortable than the picnic table to study a bit more German.
I started getting sleepy so I ran upstairs to take a nap. It was nearly 3pm before I got back up and I realized I was wasting the day. I still wanted to checkout the weekend market, so I wandered over that way. As I was leaving the hostel, I heard a huge racket. There was a truck rolling down the street with a punk band playing on it. A police van with a dozen officers in riot gear followed dutifully a short distance behind. I need to get over to this Culture Carnival. It has got to be insane.
The Farmer’s Market was wonderful–exactly what one would expect of a farmers market: produce, herbs, cheese, sausages, handicrafts, and a couple of stalls serving Turkish food. I was stuffed, but I grabbed a doppio espresso and leisurely wandered around, “channel switching” between snatches of overheard conversations, 95% of which were in German. Maybe it was the caffeine boost or the more static nature of the market, but I found it much easier to eavesdrop of conversations than in the streets and parks. Actually, roaming the streets, I feel I am as likely to eat not-German as I am to hear German.
During my second loop of the market (which wasn’t that big to begin with), I noticed that most of the stalls were breaking down and packing up. The market must end by 4pm. I headed back to the mall for the nth time, finally determined to get a SIM card. I lurked around the Saturn electronics retailer where I observed one foreign tourist get set up with O2 service before deciding that I should just roll the dice on the cheapest option–the Aldi downstairs. I bought the 12.99 Euro starter pack and headed back to the hostel to see if I could manage the registration on my own.
I don’t know how long ago it was, but Germany has some strict identity verification laws for telecommunications. I had to plug in a bunch of information to the AldiTalk website (only available in German) then go through a webcam live interview to get registered. The UI is a bit patchy and created a bit of a headache by sending me to a German speaking interviewer even though there were options for different languages (e.g. English and Turkish) and I definitely selected English. I muddled my way through until there was a problem with my data. Relaunching the registration process, I noticed that my passport validity date was entered incorrectly. I blame the UI because I specifically entered the right year through the popup calendar. Anyways, the second time through was in English and went very smoothly. So, I should be paying 3.99 for 500 MB of data on a 4 week cycle deducted from the 10 Euro starting credit. I’ll need to pick up another 5 Euro recharge from an Aldi before I leave Germany, but I should be all set as EU rules forbid roaming charges.
I hung around the hostel not really sure what else to do. Most of the travelers are in large groups and there isn’t really the chill backpacking atmosphere where everyone is friendly and striking up conversations. It would help if I smoked and was drinking like a fish, but nonetheless, Berlin is a bit isolating. Having nothing better to do, I fulfilled my filial duty with a Skype call.
Afterwards, I decided that there was no point in hanging around the hostel, so I grabbed the left over paprika chips and my picnic blanket and decided to grab some beers and lay out on the lawn. On the way, I decided I might as well go a little further and go have a beer at the Holzmarkt. I still grabbed some mineralwasser and a couple beers (a Becks and a Grapefruit thing that I guess wasn’t actually a beer and only 2.5%) at a supermarket on the way.
The Holzmarkt was crazy packed. I sat alone and drank my beer. I was originally thinking of getting a pizza there, but the prospect of queuing twenty minutes for a second beer plus thirty minutes for a pizza did not seem too appetizing. I decided, I might as well save money and grab something cheaper outside. In the end, I walked all the way back to the hostel without getting anything else. The truth is, I wasn’t actually that hungry and it was already past 9pm.
I headed up to the room to try to chill out and watch a movie before going to sleep. I got through about 20 minutes of The Sixth Sense before my eyes started drooping uncontrollably. I don’t even think it was dark outside before I went to sleep. These long summer days are insane. I thought Beijing had long summers, and I was just in Sapporo, northern Japan. It’s mindboggling, but I guess it explains a lot of the European character.
| Groceries | 9.22 |
| Double Espresso | 1.5 |
| AldiTalk SIM card | 12.99 |
| Beer & Water | 2.72 |
| Draft beer | 4 |
| Total: | 30.43 EUR (237.3 RMB) (USD 34.35) |
Running Total: 3291.9 RMB (USD476.4)
Daily Average: 1097.3 RMB (USD 158.8)