Tag: Germany

Volume 2, Day 11

I could feel the aftereffects of the alcohol in the morning, but didn’t harbor any regrets for my lack of sleep or hydration. After laying in bed for a while working up the courage to take a shower, I headed downstairs to be delightfully surprised by a functioning coffee machine with hot water. It has been nearly a week since I have drank my own coffee and I forgot how good it is.

Apart from the open air opera at one, the only other item on the docket was to visit the flea market at Mauer Park. I checked on Google to find that it didn’t start until 10, so I was definitely in no rush to leave. Hanging around in the room to charge my computer, it was insane to see how utterly wrecked the dorm room was after the weekend. The Americans had fled over night, the Lithuanian guy checked out early in the morning, and there was only one German guy left. He checked out too after housekeeping came by promptly at 10:05. Housekeeping was confused that I was hanging around, but I explained that I wasn’t checking out until tomorrow. They left, leaving the room in its chaotic state: a pair of sneakers, a locker full of food, bags of half rotten fruit, half drank sodas in cans and bottles, and several phone chargers were all either abandoned or forgotten in the rush to leave. I took the initiative to straighten up a bit and decided to add all the cans and bottles to my collection for recycling.

I packed up a bag with the groceries I had bought yesterday, a solar charger, and sunblock to go out for the day. I rented a Mobike and started biking towards Mauer Park, following the ring road around the north end of Berlin. I was probably about 80% there when I had the sudden stab of anxiety that I hadn’t locked my locker. Though I was the only occupant left in the room, who knows who else would show up. Unable to shake the obsessive worry, I turned around and headed back to the hostel. Somehow, I swear it was uphill both ways on the road. I dashed into the room to find that I had, in fact, locked up my stuff. Furthermore, housekeeping had made a pass through the room and it looked halfway decent. As if by ESP, the head housekeeper popped into the room shortly after me, pointed at the bin with pasta, pasta sauce, and a jug of laundry detergent. Is this yours? No. He pointed at the sneakers. No. He pointed at the wall chargers. Nope. Okay. I was half tempted to help myself to one of the plugs, since it would be helpful after losing the round pin adapter in Korea. But he was quick to gather up the items.

I checked my watch, and it was no late enough that there was no point in going to the flea market before the 1pm start of the concert. Feeling the pinch of spending 2 Euros on a fruitless bike trip, I had just enough time to walk to Babelplatz, so I headed back out the door and took a brisk hour long walk. The upside is that on the final stretch, I got to pass through some new neighborhoods. I was thinking that I’ve covered a lot of ground in Berlin and it was definitely time to move on.

When I reached the plaza, I was astounding to see how absolutely crowded it was. It took me a while to find a spot to sit down. There was almost an order to how people arranged themselves organically on their camping chairs or picnic blankets, but, in the Western mold, there was a bit too much space between and within groups. Of course, it didn’t help that every so often, a 7 ft German guy was completely sprawled out on the ground, occupying a space that would fit 20 or 30 Chinese people.

When I glanced at the concert program, I was immediately disappointed to realize it wasn’t going to be an opera. I had been hoping for a repeat performance of the Wagner title that I had only caught a glimpse of the day before. But Daniel Barenboim took the stage and introduced us in German and English to the two Romantic masters: Mendelsohn and Brahms to which we would be treated. He also made some comment welcoming the Japanese visitors. That was really odd because the featured soloist on the violin concerto was from South Korea. It was wonderful, in any case. I sipped on some wine, munched on bread and gummies, and took in the classical music surrounded by classical architecture on plaza. Though we were outside the concert hall, the crowd performed their part of listening attentively and maintaining silence. I was also hoping that the festival style setting would loosen up the audience for a return to the original styles. I don’t know where I heard it, but I recall that apart from chamber music, audiences to symphonies, operas and what not acted in much the same way that modern rock concert audiences do–clapping, cheering, hooting, hollering, and singing along. The overdue reverence and church-like hush of the modern symphony crowd is a huge part of what makes classical music so stuffy today.

They finished the violin concerto (in 3 movements) and a full symphony in just over an hour, and I was certainly disappointed for it to end so fast. After what must have been five, maybe ten minutes of standing ovation, Barenboim offered us an encore–a quick piece by Tchaikovsky–and the concert was over for good. During the performance, clouds had gathered in the sky to cast a gray pallor and a few drops of rain ominous hung over us like a sword of Damocles. For the second time, I noticed that my mobile data was essentially worthless when I tried to upload a post to Instragram. So, protip, don’t expect mobile data to work in huge crowds. The cell towers cannot handle the volume.

Since the concert was over by 2:30 (when I was expecting a 4 hour opera), I realized I still had ample time to walk up to Mauer Park and peruse the flea market. I passed some pretty hip neighborhoods on the way to the park, and would have possibly stopped for a snack if I hadn’t filled up so much on bread.

The park itself looked like a mini-Woodstock, full of hippies and artists doing their thing. Musicians provided a soundtrack to the bohemian paradise on the grass while people picnicked, played sports, or sold their handicrafts outside the scope of the flea market. The flea market proper was huge, and had a good ratio of commercial side hustles and sales of old/used goods. There were permanent structure eateries on one end and more temporary food stalls flanking the other end. I would say one could find pretty much anything there, though I’m not entirely convinced it would be the cheapest.

I took my time browsing, though I had absolutely no desire to buy anything. I wasn’t even tempted by the Legos. Compared with the weekend (farmer’s market), the sellers and shoppers were remarkably more international, and I barely heard any German being spoken. I tried to imagine what sort of side hustle I could do to bring in a little money. Would I cook? Would I fly back and forth to Asia, hauling suitcases full of cheap stuff. C and his wife have a jewelry business going. I wonder if they got started at the flea market.

After making several loops through the stalls, I decided to grab a little snack–a bratwurst, of course–and retired to the lawn in the park to eat it and finish the wine I was still carrying around. After eating my afternoon snack, I laid down for a short nap. Refreshed, I decided to pack up and begin the journey home. The first couple of blocks along the way were full of cheap restaurants, but it was too early for dinner and I was definitely not hungry, so I carried on.

Back at the hostel, I still had the entire room to myself, which was nice, especially when needing to make a Skype call. But, on the other hand, I was feeling a bit bored. I walked down to the back garden to look around and though there were still people around, the hostel was considerably emptier than the previous two nights. I decided to pop over to the little restaurant at the entrance of the S-bahn station and have a pizza with a glass of draft beer. It was nice. The weather was pleasant and the sky presented a dramatic tableau of clouds in the late afternoon sunlight (despite being 8pm). I drilled vocabulary to keep myself occupied. After being presented with the check (despite not asking for it), I paid, finished my beer, and wandered back to the hostel (some 10 meters away).

I sat on a bench by myself for a hot minute before deciding to sidle up to a group of revelers who were clearly speaking English among themselves. Here were the backpackers, mostly individual travelers who have coalesced into a group through shared English-speaking and love of alcohol, tobacco, and partying. Apparently, some of them had been drinking continually since the previous day. There was an American, several Australians, an Irish girl, and a German guy. Almost immediately after I walked over and greeted them, the South Africans showed up. I caught up with them briefly, then decided to get more to drink. I went with the German guy (he was from the Black Forest region) over to a Spati to buy some beers. I grabbed the coldest and cheapest beers I could find, but it took a while because he had to get cash from a machine. Back with the group, I must have hung out for 2 hours, participating in conversations with various configurations of people. When I finished my last beer, I decided to call it the night. I think they would have happily gone all night, and were even actively discussing going out to a club. It was 11 and I was done.

I went up to the room and watched a couple videos on Youtube before passing out and sleeping quite comfortably. The night air was cool, and the windows were open just right for the breeze to circulate.

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Mobike	2
Bratwurst	2.5
Hawaiian Pizza and beer	12.2
Spati beers	2.9
Total:	19.6 EUR (152.9 RMB) (USD 22)

Running Total: 5731.4 RMB (USD 827)
Daily Average: 521 RMB (USD 75.18)

Volume 2, Day 10

Despite taking it easy on Friday, or perhaps because so, I slept in a bit in the morning. Of course, my definition of sleeping in is still on the early side. In any case, I spent a leisurely morning in the hostel, popping over to the supermarket for some pastries and helping myself to a little coffee from the breakfast. I would have paid for a coffee from the coffee machine (and taken free water to make my own), but the machine was off. What choice did I have, asks the person seeking rationalization.

It was nearly noon before I even realized it, and I was feeling good from focusing so intently on my writing and studying. I went over to the Kaufland to buy a salad, and remembering that the supermarkets would be closed on Sunday, went ahead and bought bread, wine, and gummy just in case. I ate my salad in the hostel as the staff were cleaning up from breakfast and then rushed off downtown on a rented Mobike. I ditched the bike when I got stuck in traffic and street repairs near Alexanderplatz and walked the last two blocks to the German History Museum. A good part of the reason I wanted to stay the extra weekend in Berlin was to have a day to roam the museum.

I bought my ticket and headed upstairs to begin browsing the exhibits. Fans of art or medieval weapons would definitely be rewarded by the museum, which houses several complete (and shiny) suits of armor, some even posed in jousting position on an armored horse. Meanwhile, hundreds of portraits of various people I’ve never heard of provide pepper the halls. I feel I got a bit of a refresher on European history from the fall of the Roman empire to modern times, but a lot of the exhibits were out of order and the introductory texts generally assumed a lot of familiarity with the topic on the part of the reader. Note, I am saying European history because it is impossible to untangle German history from the rest of the continent with shifting borders, power dynamics, and religious wars.

I finished WWI and headed downstairs with an hour left before the museum closed, but of course the sections covering the Weimar Republic, the rise of Nazism, WWII and post-war Germany were far more extensive than the upstairs exhibits. It’s not an exact analogy, but I was surprised by how many details in the Nazi playbook remind me of the trajectory China is on, particularly in the way the CCP frames its historical narrative and is gradually increasing its control over all culture, media, and thought.

I had to pick up my pace when the fifteen minute announcement came over the loudspeaker, meaning I only had 10 minutes to get through the second world war and five minutes to cover the cold war. When I stumbled out of the museum at 6, I realized I had spent more than four hours in there and could have easily spent another 2.

I was going to load up a podcast to accompany on a walk to Kreuzberg, but the strains of an opera wafted through the air. I crossed the street to Babelplatz (in front of Humboldt University) to find the plaza was broadcasting Tristan and Isolde on a large screen. “Staatoper fur Alle” is an annual tradition to bring the state symphony out of its opera hall (adjacent) and provide free classical music to the masses. I made note of the 1pm start time for Sunday and scheduled “free opera” on my to-do list.

On the other side of Gendarmenmarkt, I spotted a small family run supermarket that was unexpectedly open on a Sunday and popped in to have a look at their fridge case. I was even more surprised to see a decent selection of cold beers at cheap, cheap supermarket prices (the kiosks and spati tend to be priced like a convenience store, of which I have yet to see. It is weird to go from the land of 7-Elevens, Family Marts, and Lawsons to Europe). So, I couldn’t resist dropping a euro for some monk-made beer.

I continued to wander south, passing a man-made urban beach (a collection of bar/restaurant stands with sand and beach chairs), and Checkpoint Charlie. Near Merhingplatz I spotted another open supermarket and took the opportunity to grab a snack (little salami sticks) and a Carlsberg (much less selection of cold beer) before finding a bench along the canal to sit down and have a rest while I waited to meet C at 7:30.

C and I met on the bridge and walked a bit along the canal to another plaza where a band was playing House of the Rising Sun from a trailer attached to a bike. As were walking up, the police were already closing in to shut down the unlicensed concert. It was a bit loud, considering they had powered amps. C’s friend from Hamburg, R, showed up fortuitously and we hung around chatting for a while before heading to Tang’s Chinese Kitchen after 8.

I didn’t catch how long Tang had lived in Germany, but these guys, who are a bit older than me used to regularly come to the restaurant back in the day. We were also joined at dinner by an Italian guy, his sister, her son, and another German. It was quite an international party. I got to speak to Tang in Chinese every time she came by the table, but she spoke confident German to the other guys. It was interesting experience overall. The food was pretty good, a given since the cooks are brought in from China, though it was obvious that they weren’t masters of every dish, which were drawn from different regions of China. When I talked to the cook at the end of the night and found out he was from Hunan, it made sense from the taste of the dishes. I had heard the chef was from Sichuan at the beginning of the night and made a point of ordering classic Sichuan dishes, but they weren’t quite right.

There was a lot of alcohol involved, and by the end of the night, Tang’s husband was sitting with us and pouring liberally from a bottle of Shanxi fenjiu. We didn’t disperse until after 1 am and I was really tired. The neighborhood was super quiet, but C and I biked part of the way together, passing through some areas bustling with activity and revelry. I was back in the hostel by 2am and I noticed that the Americans, who had a 6am flight, were already checked out and gone from the room.

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Pastries	1.58
Groceries + lunch	7.31
Mobike	1
Deutsches Historisches Museum	8
Monchshof beer	1.15
Carlsberg + salami	2.56
Dinner	25
Mobike	2
Total:	48.6 EUR (379 RMB) (USD 54.73)

Running Total: 5578.5 RMB (USD 805.6)
Daily Average: 557.9 RMB (USD 80.56)

Volume 2, Day 9

Though I am somewhat eager to get out of Berlin and into the “real” Germany (Berlin is quite the international Disneyland), I figured it would be good to spend one more weekend before moving on. Disappointed with the hostel scene, I had reached out to a couple of couchsurfing hosts to see if I could find a better place to stay over the weekend. However, one had straight up rejected me and the other had not responded as of Friday morning when I needed the check out of the Generator Mitte Hostel. So, I quickly scrolled through Ctrip to see what was available. Since Berlin is a weekend destination, the prices shoot up a lot on the weekends and these massive hostels also sell out, but I managed to find one that wasn’t too insanely priced. Unfortunately, it was also a Generator, so I am going to be stuck a couple more days without a shared kitchen.

I finally figured out the pfand system in the morning after grabbing a quick coffee and pastry at my usual bakery. I brought my collection of empties to a supermarket that had a recycling machine, popped them into the mechanized scanning receiver and got the print out for a deposit return. It was really cool because I was able to get some more bread for basically nothing.

I wasn’t in a particular hurry to get out the door, so other than checking out 5 minutes before the 10am cutoff, I parked myself at a table in the corner of the courtyard to work and study for a couple hours. My Greek roommate and PhD candidate was also checking out that day and came and chatted with me for a bit. Its crazy that he is planning to live in Berlin and basically only had a regular backpack and a totebag worth of stuff with him. That is traveling really light. While we were talking the courtyard periodically swelled with people as what tour group spontaneously congregated for a few minutes in a deafening cacophony of voices. But, like a whale surfacing for air, after taking a deep breath, it exhaled the mass of people and dove back to the quiet ocean bottom.

During one of the quiet breaks, I managed dragged my stuff over to the tram stop right outside the hostel to move out to the suburbs. I had my five euro note ready to feed into the onboard ticketing machine, but for some gd reason the machines on the tram only accepted coins and there was no change machine. What sort of third world public transportation system is this? Am I so spoiled by Japan? I’m definitely thinking if I had to make a spur of the moment decision to either live in Germany or live in Japan, there would be no question. So, once again I saved 2.8 euros by not buying a ticket.

It was a very convenient commute with no transfers and a 2 minute walk from the tram stop to the new hostel, which was dubbed Prenzlauer Berg. Technically, I think the neighborhood is actually closer to Friederichshain than Prenzlauer Berg, but whatever. It is the suburbs, way out of town, with not too much around apart from housing. The hostel benefits from the space and is a lot more comfortable than the cramped Mitte location. There are dozens of tables in the “cafe” where several people are permanently camped typing away at their laptops, while a constant rotation of people eat their takeout food. Though there is still a “no outside food or drink rule,” the guests here are blatant rule breakers and it all seems to be fine.

I was able to check in right away despite being there before the official check in time, and I was fairly impressed with the room. It was far larger than Mitte and the windows could open up. There was a lot of garbage strewn about the floor and I’m not sure it ever gets swept or sanitized. Ah, hostel living.

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon researching travel plans. Though I have a basic itinerary of Germany for a month, Spain for a month, and visiting friends in between, there isn’t a real obvious solution to the traveling salesman problem. Also, Spain is so far, or in other words, France is big.

I was in need of a caffeine fix, so I decided to explore some of the neighborhood outside the hostel in search of a cafe/bakery. I didn’t find one, but I did stumble across a giant warehouse of a supermarket called Kaufland. As grocery shopping is among my favorite activities when traveling, I had to take a stroll through the store and I ended up buying a salad and a soft drink. I wandered over to a park to eat, but it was straight out of Grimm Brothers fairy tale–complete desolate and overrun, fallen trees blocking the paths. I found a bench on the other side of the park and sat down to enjoy my late lunch–the one to-go salad in Germany that came with a “balsamic vinaigrette.”

I headed back to the hostel and bought a coffee from a vending machine. I’ve noticed that apart from the fresh barista espressos, coffee in Germany has a distinct but bad taste. What I am trying to say is that the coffee that came out of the machine tasted just like the coffee that was served with breakfast and is only marginally better than instant. The important point, however, is that the self-service coin-operated coffee machine also had hot water on tap, which appeared to be free so I guess I could make my own coffee.

When I headed up to the room, I met one of my roommates and chatted with him for a bit. He was from Lithuania/Uzbekistan, and was trying to get into a university in Berlin, though it appears he had missed the cutoff to apply for the fall semester. As I was just settling in to review German vocabulary on my phone, two Americans came into the room bringing food. The girl, J, ate her Burger King. The guy, A, had a can of Mountain Dew and several roasted chickens from the supermarket deli. A had somehow bought three chickens when he only wanted one and was trying to give them away. The Lithuanian guy, N, gladly accepted one after finishing the pizza he pulled out of his backpack, and I accepted one eventually after talking to them for a while. It was good and solved my dinner issue, but I was still unsure about what to do in the evening. I had been looking at a couchsurfing meet up, but it was a bit far to go to.

The Americans went out to smoke, and at some point I wandered outside to think about my evening plans. I bumped into the Americans again and kept talking to them and their third friend, who had also showed up. There were an interesting bunch. They were from rural, upstate New York, and this was their first time abroad. They were on a five week madcap tour of Europe, smoking like chimneys, drinking like fish, completely clueless and utterly homesick. If I invented them, it would be too unrealistic, but they embodied the worst stereotypes of Americans, but I’ll just say I enjoyed seeing things through their eyes for a fresh perspective.

A and I went to find an Aldi that was on Google Maps, but was just a pit in a ground so we went to the Rewe City just around the corner from the hostel. I grabbed something called a “Tequila Beer” and a bag of paprika chips. A needed to go up to the room for some reason, so I took a walk around the backyard to find somewhere to sit. I had just settled down, sampling the sweet French concoction and launch the language learning app when someone came up to apologize to me for some offense I hadn’t even noticed. In any case, I went to join this group of girls from South Africa who were each drinking a bottle of red wine. While we were chatting, A and J eventually came looking for me and joined us. I guess South Africa is a pretty cheap place, at least compared to the US or Europe. The girls had to leave to go to a bar crawl they had signed up for and paid for online (?!), which was a shame as two of them were quite cute.

I had finished my beer, and decided to pop over to the supermarket for another, but I was 5 minutes too late. They had just closed. It was probably just as well because I didn’t need the calories. I headed up to the room, where the third American was laying in bed in the dark, scrolling through her phone and swigging wine. I turned on one light, so that I didn’t have to grope about in the dark and got ready for bed. Before I could turn the lights back off, the other two Americans came in and the three of them talked loudly until midnight, keeping me awake as I could hear them over the podcast I was listening to with a sleep timer.

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Coffee and bread	3.67
Hostel (3 nights)	318 RMB
Salad and drink	2.77
Gummi (after -.15 pfand return)	0.8
Coffee	1
Beer and chips	4.47
Total:	417.1 RMB (USD 60.23)

Running Total: 5199.4 RMB (USD 750.55)
Daily Average: 577.7 RMB (USD 83.42)

Volume 2, Day 8

After a rest day, it was one again time to explore some of Berlin’s glorious sites. I decided it was necessary to go out to the palace in Charlottenburg, and if I had time, to visit the Berggruen Museum, which is also out there. Charlottenburg is about 8 km to the west of Mitte, and checking the route via public transportation, Google Maps recommended way to the south and transfer to some ring line. That seemed unreasonable, and I figured biking might be a better option.

I had been doing some research into Mobike. Although one (out-of-date) blog cited the price as 0.5 Euro per half hour, the actual Mobike app burst my elated bubble by indicating that the prices of bikes is now a uniform 1 Euro per twenty minutes. I believe that is the market consensus among the half dozen or so dockless bike shares that are all over Berlin. So that is something like 10 times the price of the same service in China. However, the app aggressively advertised discount commuter cards: 20 yuan for unlimited riding in 30 days. That would pay for itself with three rides! Unfortunately, because I had purchased a 10 ride discount card in Beijing and didn’t use all the rides, Mobike won’t let me purchase a new pass in a new market.

I decided to bike anyways, because 1-2 Euros for the bike is still cheaper than the 2-3 Euros for public transport and more fun. The Mobikes are actually noticeably larger and after cycling furiously for ten minutes, I realized it had 3 gears. Okay, so the better bicycle is worth a little bit more money, but I still wouldn’t say its worth 10 times as much. Having also priced Mobike in Japan, I wonder if the company’s international pricing strategy is to be just barely competitive with public transport. However, given how underpoliced and overpriced the public transport is, in Berlin at least, they are competing against “free.”

Once I figured out I could shift gears to maximize the efficiency of my effort for speed, it was a lovely ride, once again following the river around the Reichstag and through Tiergarten. However, when I parked near the palace in Charlottenburg, the pain point was enhanced by the automatic conversion into RMB. 15 something for a single ride when I would typically load float 10 RMB and have it last months. Ouch.

For the palaces, I purchased the Charlottenburg+ “through ticket” that includes the old palace, the new wing, some mausoleum and lookout post in the gardens, and a new pavilion. As the audio guide was included in the price, I took the free smartphone with a single app and followed the self-guided tour. I don’t have any pictures to share because I refuse to pay 3 euros for a photo permit as a matter of principle.

I can still remember visiting several of King Ludwig’s palaces in Bavaria back when I was in high school, and compared to that experience, I suppose I am more appreciative of taking in the Baroque/Rococo/Classical architecture/interior design. It’s still not my cup of tea, but it I enjoyed the hour long tour of the old palace. I was most struck by how much china and orientalist themes were weaved into so many of the rooms. The plaques in Chinese museums discussing the porcelain trade with Europe give only one side of the history, but seeing how much Princess Charlotte loved porcelains, to the extent of buying them by the crate, gives me a richer sense of the fashions of the 18th century (among the wealthy at least).

After finishing the first tour, I headed around the palace to explore the wooded grounds and find a shady bench to have my prepared picnic lunch. Of course, I had swung by a supermarket in the morning to buy a bottle of mineralwasser and a couple bread rolls. I also should, compared to my childhood years, that I am totally down with the carbonated mineral waters. Yes, please! It is interesting that the garden grounds are open to the public, and as I slowly ate my lunch, alternating between doing German vocabulary drills and flicking insects off of me, I saw so many locals walking their dogs, taking jogs, and wheeling their strollers over the graveled paths. Though the garden immediately behind the palace was of the classical mold–i.e. geometrically arranged paths, trimmed hedges, and fountains–most of the garden had a more romantic (i.e. naturalistic) feel of trees and grasses grown wild and free.

After lunch, I headed into the mausoleum and was rather blown away by the fine marble renderings of each of the four individuals in repose. It is true craftsmanship to capture the texture of the textiles in stone. I headed over to the Belvedere in Schlossgarten, passing several “cosplayers” dressed in centuries old courtly attire. The Belvedere housed three floors of more porcelain, mostly table servings as opposed to vases. I swung by the New Pavilion next for a quick look at its art exhibit, highlighting the paintings of a handful of German masters who also had a hand in the palace history before touring the New Annex, which is attached to the palace but cleverly separated so that they can charge you separate admission.

The annex also included a smartphone audioguide and a roughly 50 minute tour that strangely involved a lot of backtracking. I wouldn’t say that the new annex was particularly better or worse than the old palace. In any case, it is actually hard to distinguish them. For example, I can’t remember which had an extra section concerning the history of the whatsitname royal family of Prussia. I need to go the German history museum because I gleaned some information about the rough timeline of German political history from about 1100 onwards, but need to see it presented a little more systematically and with lots of maps. You know, for like that period when Napoleon conquered most of what we think of as German and Prussia was almost entire located within present day Poland. Chinese history is so much easier because it is all presented through the Marxist lens of “unified China” that tries to erase the existence of distinct kingdoms and cultures.

I was pretty tired by the end of the tour, having spent a solid four hours looking around the palace and its grounds, so I decided to give the museum a pass. The prospect of another ten euros for an entrance ticket just to see a couple of Picasso (when literally every city in Germany has a museum with a handful of Picasso’s, or so it seems from perusing the guidebooks) felt a bit steep. I also decided to walk back so that I could get a closer look at the Charlottenburg Rathaus and enjoy Tiergarten.

I only walked a couple blocks before I spotted a cheap looking bakery and stopped for a cheap pick-me-up: a coffee and some walnut cake thing (even though I could have bought two croissants for a euro, what a steal!). I sat for about twenty minutes, alternately being blinded by the sun and enjoying the cloud cover while I drank my coffee and flicked through vocabulary. Properly refreshed, I started the proper walk, and barely noticed the 7 km distance as there was plenty to see in Tiergarten–e.g. the victory monument in the roundabout, and the monument to the 20 Russians who died when they swept through Berlin pillaging, raping, and murdering. Why the f*ck is the German government paying to preserve a monument installed by the USSR (indirectly) commemorating war crimes committed against them?

I took the opportunity afforded by a leisurely stroll to also get a closer look at the Reichstag and pass once again through the Brandenburg Gate. I wanted to pop into this one free museum where there used to be a crossing point in the Berlin wall, but they insisted I get rid of my backpack. I didn’t have any coins for the locker and I suddenly felt it wasn’t worth it.

I was back and chilling in the hostel before too long. The weather was nice, so I eventually went over to a supermarket to source some food. I grabbed a bag of salad and in place of dressing a little package of antipasta (which contained cheese, olives and roasted red peppers in a bit of oil). Feeling nutrient deprived by my bread heavy diet, I also sprung for a fruit salad. I couldn’t resist a Rittersport bar. I sat in the park for a long while, slowly eating my dinner in between reviewing chapters of a textbook and looking around at the groups of young people enjoying the sunny evening.

When I returned to the dorm room, it didn’t seem quite as miserably hot as previous nights, and I managed to finish “Avatar” despite the rather raucous crowd in the courtyard below.

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Coffee and pastry	4 EUR
Bread and water	2.3 EUR
Mobike	2 EUR (15.39 RMB)
Charlottenburg+	17 EUR
Coffee break	3 EUR
Salad	6.3 EUR
Total:	34.6 EUR (269.9 RMB) (USD 39)

Running Total: 4782.3 RMB (USD 690.5)
Daily Average: 597.8 RMB (USD 86.3)

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It’s interesting that Mobike’s internal exchange is 7.695 RMB per Euro. That’s quite cheaper than the floating rate (per Google, today) of 7.78. I would almost appreciate it if I wasn’t so flush with cash (in Euro) and starting to realize that I might have to use my credit card for any intercity buses or trains.

Volume 2, Day 7

After a long, sweaty night, the room had cooled enough by the early dawn to be almost comfortable. However, I dragged myself out of bed determined to get in a run. As I was lacing up my shoes, I fired off a text message to C to see if he was free to grab lunch.

The run was also a mini-tour of Berlin. I headed along the water around the Reichstag and through the Tiergarten as far as the Victory Pillar before doubling back to pass under the Brandenburg Gate. I paused my podcast and the run tracker so that I could spend a few minutes walking through the Holocaust memorial. Sobered up, I headed south along where the Wall used to be down to Potsdamer Platz and continued to follow the invisible wall east to Checkpoint Charlie. From Checkpoint Charlie, I cut north through the Gendarmenmarkt, marveling at the churches and opera houses before reaching Museuminsel. Not quite ready to end the run, I tacked on a loop around Alexanderplatz. Finally, I reached the workout equipment in Monbijou Park, but could only do a single set of pull ups and push ups before I completely pooped out.

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I chugged several glasses of water and took a long, cold shower to recover from the run. Though it had been cool when I set off, the day had warmed up significantly. The dorm room was back to its oven-like temperatures, and I spent ten minutes standing around half naked and fanning myself.

I had to be back out the door by noon to meet C at his apartment in Prenzlauer Berg, and it was a brisk, sweaty walk over there. I didn’t realize that the layout of Berlin has buildings hidden behind buildings, where you have to pass through the street side building and a small courtyard to reach a second, hidden apartment building. As we were heading out, we ran into his pregnant wife and mother-in-law on their way back from some errand. Then, we biked over to Wedding, which is a very “international” part of town, where a lot of Turks and Arabs have relocated as they have been priced out of other neighborhoods through rapid gentrification.

C had some errands to run, so I accompanied him to a DM (drugmarkt) before we went to this amazing little Turkish restaurant. There are Turkish restaurants everywhere in Berlin, and though I hadn’t sampled any yet, I took him on his word that this place was special. After lunch, we swung by a hardware store on the way back to buy paint. He had to get back to work on a translation project, so after a quick coffee, I bid him adieu and rambled back down to my neighborhood.

At least on a bike, one gets a bit of a breeze, but back on foot, I realized once again just how strong the summer sun could be. I was grateful when I spotted a little window selling gelato and got a cone of raspberry sorbet. It didn’t last two blocks.

I returned to the hostel and plugged my phone in to charge while swiping through social media a bit. But it wasn’t too long before I decided I wanted to go hang out in a cafe and study German. I packed a bag with my picnic blanket and the remainder of the wine (for later) and headed over to the little bakery I had discovered on museum day. I ordered a coffee and a cookie of some sort and sat at a table on the sidewalk. It was very pleasant, though the sun had disappeared behind dark clouds by that point. Around 6pm, I figured I had sat there long enough and moved to the park to switch to wine. However, the trees were dancing the chacha in the strong gusts of wind as the thunderstorm slowly built up of the city.

I plopped down on a bench and continued drilling myself on German, daring the elements to open up a torrential downpour on me. It was a good half hour before the first subtle drops began to fall, but the rain didn’t begin until I was firmly ensconced back in the dorm. The Greek PhD student was around and we chatted for a bit, commiserating over how hot the room was. It was still pretty early and with the weather, no point in being outside, so I pulled out my computer and harddrive to watch a movie. I watched more than an hour of (James Cameron’s) Avatar before I started getting sleepy.

It was good to have a rest day and a cheap day. It’s still going to take at least a week to get the flight properly prorated so the daily average looks more reasonable.

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Eis	1.6
Coffee	3
Total:	4.6 EUR (RMB 35.9) (USD 5.18)

Running Total: 4512.4 RMB (USD 651.7)
Daily Average: 644.6 RMB (USD 93.1)

Volume 2, Day 6

Although I have been a little scared off from museums due to the fairly high ticket prices, I discovered that there is a single through ticket for the 5 museums on “Museum Island” that is less than the price of two of them. Therefore, in order to get my culture fix, it would be worth shelling out the 18 Euros. Since the museums are only open 10-6, I had to make sure I paced myself so that I didn’t run out of time. I intended to get to the first museum right as it opened, but it made more sense to walk a couple blocks to hit a supermarket (finally open after a several day break!) and buy a couple croissants/rolls to fuel the museum spree.

At the Bode Museum, the woman at the ticket counter asked if I had a student ID, and I figured it was worth a try with my old BLCU campus card. It didn’t work, probably because the card was falling apart. Ethics of pretending to still be a student aside, I could really appreciate some discounts on these museums and stuff.

I don’t really want to provide a play-by-play through the museums. Overall, I was pretty blown away both by the artworks in themselves and the palatial architecture housing them. Bode was all about art, while three of the museums: Altes, Neues, and Pergamon, housed archeological antiquities. The fifth museum–Alte Nationalgalerie–was also an art museum. All are worth visiting. They weren’t nearly as crowded as I was worried they would be, but there were plenty of tour groups roaming about. Some of the buildings on the “island,” notably the James Simon gallery are under construction meaning there were plenty of cranes and scaffolding to dodge on the outsides. Similarly, only half of the Pergamon was open with the namesake Pergamon altar not currently accessible to the public. The Gates of Ishtar were still there and awe-some.

I was kind of crashing early afternoon, so after the fourth museum, I decided to go find some coffee or ice cream to give me a boost. I wondered over to the Hackesher Markt area and looked at a couple of gelato places, but balked at the prices. I was about to walk all the way back to the hostel to see if I could “steal” some hot water to make my own coffee, but I spotted a bakery on a side street. I ordered a capuccino and some sweet bread (streudelschnecken). It was cheap and perfect.

Newly energized, I headed back to the island for the fifth and final museum and allowed myself to take my time roaming its galleries.

I can’t believe how hot the insides of all the museums were. I think I only felt air conditioning two times across all the galleries. It was nearly 30 outside (86F), but inside was several degrees warmer (over 90F). By the afternoon, most people were attempting to fan themselves with the museum maps. It didn’t work very well. It’s barely June. How are these museums going to deal increasingly hotter summers? How have these paintings not already melted? I suppose the marbles and bronzes will survive just fine, but it seems reckless not to install some sort of climate control. Tourists are going to start dropping dead of heat exhaustion, especially when no water is allowed inside and there are no water fountains. I was running down to the single restroom in the basement of the museums and drinking water out of the bathroom tap like an animal to stay alive.

I finished the last museum about 4:30 and headed back to the hostel to chill out for a few minutes and get on the internet. There wasn’t anything going on at the hostel, so I decided to head over to the Lidl to finally get my salad on. I made a nice picnic with a loaf of ciabatta bread, a bottle of Riesling, a snack pack of cheese (gouda and bergkase), and a packet of gummi. I found a found a spot on the lawn of Monbijiou park and enjoyed myself.

I headed back to the hostel at about 8pm to shower and attempt to go to bed early, but it was so hot inside the room. I just laid there for hours fanning myself. I don’t think I managed to fall asleep until nearly 1 in the morning.

---

Breads	1.47
Museuminsel	18
Coffee break	3.5
Picnic	8.19
Total:	31.16 EUR (243 RMB) (USD 35.11)

Running Total: 4476.5 RMB (USD 645.4)
Daily Average: 746.1 RMB (USD 107.6)

Volume 2, Day 5

I had originally only booked four nights to begin with, and having gotten my fill of party central Friederichshain, I was interested in relocating to a different part of Berlin. For my last day in the IndustriePalast, I decided to spring for the breakfast buffet. It was worth it. I certainly ate a ton: muesli, yogurt, fruit, bread, butter, cold cuts, tea, coffee, juice, I ate it all. I packed up my stuff and checked out right at the 10 am cut off. The strangest thing, however, is that I only paid for my breakfast at checkout. In other words, I realized there wasn’t a system to keep people from just going into the breakfast hall and helping themselves without paying.

I needed to take the S-bahn to my new location and dragged my luggage over to the train station. I discovered a bit of a problem when I attempted to buy a ticket from one of the only two machines on the platform. The station is under a bit of renovations and there is no manned counter anywhere. The vending machines only accepted bank cards. Several people were trying to shove cash into the machines which had cash slots, but were either broken or programmed not to accept cash (theft risk?). After watching several trains come and leave as I was queuing for and unsuccessfully buy my 2.8 euro ticket, I decided to just hop on a train and see what happens. Nothing happened. At Hackersher Markt, I simply walked straight out of the station. Are Germans just extremely honest or is it really that much trouble to install some turnstiles?

I walked about ten minutes up the road, passing an old synagogue (appropriately called Neues) to my new hostel. Though I was a couple hours before check-in, the guy at the front desk said the room would be ready in about 30 minutes if I wanted to wait. I waited. This new hostel is part of a chain, and let’s say I now know to avoid it. There is no shared kitchen and we are not allowed to eat or drink on the premises because that would cut into the bottom line of their restaurant, cafe, or bar, which are more expensive than literally anything just outside the hostel. The 6-bed dorm room is a pretty tight fit and stuffy because the windows are locked.

I understand air conditioning isn’t very common in Europe, but I thought buildings would at least be designed so that you could open some windows and let the air through. It has been a perpetual struggle not to die of heat exhaustion even though it gets down to 60 at night. I swear Thailand or the Philippines are more comfortable because even the cheap room gets an electric fan.

Despite being a “travel” day, I still had the full afternoon to explore some more of Berlin, and I took a walk through Monbijou Park, enjoying views of Museum Island and the Berliner Dom. I was interested in visiting the DDR Museum that is also right in the area, but given the line of people out the door, I decided I might as well keep walking for a bit. So, I kept heading south to the Nikolaikirche. Obviously, I didn’t pay to go in, but the small cluster of alleys around Berlin’s oldest surviving building is pretty interesting. Afterwards, I swung back north, passing the Rathaus from a different angle. I went to see what exactly the Berlin Dungeon was and quickly decided it wasn’t worth paying for. I also passed the aquarium somewhere along the ramble.

I headed back to the DDR Museum, which no longer had a line to buy tickets, but was still crowded AF. Its a good museum, and I spent close to two hours looking at the exhibits. A lot of stuff was hands on, and they recreated an entire “modern” apartment.

After the museum, I headed back to the hostel to chill out for a bit, and met two of my roommates briefly. I had an appointment to meet that contact from a mutual friend at 5. We ended up grabbing a beer from a Spati and sitting on the waterside across from museums. We talked a while, C is an interesting fellow, but he had to run for a dinner appointment at 7.

I went back to the hostel to change into workout gear and returned to the park where there was a collection of pull-up bars and monkey bars and a lot of shirtless men exercising. I got in a good workout, and in an ideal world would have had a bit of a picnic afterwards. I still had a half packet of oil and vinegar salad dressing and a half box of cherry tomatoes, so I just needed a bag of salad and a bottle of water. Unfortunately, Monday was still part of the holiday, which meant that all the supermarkets were still closed. I’m completely flabbergasted by this. It’s one thing to close on Sundays, but to close for two consecutive days is insane. All the fresh food will be rotten by Tuesday morning. I tried quite a few supermarkets before giving up on the quest to eat healthy, and resigned myself to drinking tap water, which for some reason only came out hot.

My dorm had three more people in it when I returned. One guy was on his way out the door, but was chatting to the newly checked in college girls. I chatted with one or the other of them while waiting to use the shower. I was in a debate as to whether I was hungry enough to want to go out and buy food from a restaurant or whether I’d just skip dinner. About the time the two girls went out to meet their friends to get dinner, I decided that I should find something to eat.

After being propositioned, I found a currywurst stand and had an order of currywurst with fries. The fries were so crunchy and good. It was weird that they charge 20 cents per condiment, but it was cheap overall. I felt a lot better with food in my stomach (I must have been hungry after all), and decided to grab a bottle and enjoy the cool night air in the park for a bit. I sat over by the water where people were dancing to swing music. I didn’t dance, didn’t want to. I just enjoyed the atmosphere while reviewing a bit of German on my phone app.

Eventually, I headed back to the dorm for a sweaty sleep.

---

Breakfast Buffet	6 EUR
Dorm (4 nights)	578 RMB
DDR Museum	9.8 EUR
Beers	2.3 EUR
Currywurst	4.4 EUR
Total:	753.5 RMB (USD 108.9)

Running Total: 4233.5 RMB (USD 611.85)
Daily Average: 846.7 RMB (USD 122.37)

Volume 2, Day 4

Though the Karneval der Kulture was taking place over a four day weekend, Sunday was to be the highlight with a big parade. As that was scheduled to begin at 12:30 and I was up bright and early at 5am, I had plenty of time to kill in the morning. I drank coffee and focused on German language study, but still ended up feeling a bit peckish and restless. I went out to stretch my legs and find a bakery or something. German supermarkets close on Sundays for some anti-capitalist reason, but there was a bakery in operation. Despite the weather report indicating cooler temperatures, the way the was beating down on me convinced me that I needed to switch to shorts.

Around 11am, I gave up on hanging around the hostel with any vague idea of forming an impromptu group and headed over to the Karneval grounds. It was a good 3 kilometers away by the direct route, but I took a scenic route, cutting through a number of parks and the heart of Kreuzberg. I must remark that every single bench of the first park had a drug dealer. I’ve seen tons all over the Friedrichshain area, which I guess makes sense with the clubbing culture. But, it is annoying, to constantly have to fend off the low key sales pitches (“How are you doing?”).

While wandering through Kreuzberg, I noticed a bustling Mexican restaurant (called Que Pasa). Their Sunday brunch looked like a decent price, and if there was actually Mexican food involved, it may be worth bookmarking. I’ve also noticed at least five “Que Pasas” around Berlin.

I was following a green strip along a river/canal the final stretch to hit the corner of the Karneval. The first collection of booths was all Latin American food and I was stricken with an urge to start pricing plane tickets from the US to Chile. My stomach was growling and I had to start thinking about strategizing my consumption. Especially, considering how insanely priced the alcoholic offerings were. That certainly didn’t seem to slow down the Germans, many of whom appeared at least two sheets to the wind. I crossed the river on a bridge to the main section of Karneval, where there was a greater variety of food stalls interspersed with the odd stage and amateur performance. Spotting a bratwurst shop, I had to grab one. Perfekt.

Checking my watch, I saw there wasn’t much time until the parade was to begin so I skipped the rest of the karneval to head two blocks south to actual parade route. People mountain, people sea. Spotting a Spati, I popped in to grab a refreshment and milled about along the parade route looking for a decent place to watch. The parade was really something. I had an inclination that a German Carnival of Cultures would be racially tonedeaf, and I was not disappointed in that regard. Most of the floats (or more like processions as it was less about a big vehicles than thematic groups of people) was aiming to capture the spirit of some global culture. The first one was about Amazonian aboriginals, so I got to see lots of white people pretending to be First Nations.

I was smart to pick the side of the parade route with my back to the sun (so it wasn’t shining in my eyes), but it still sizzled my back. Having long since finished my first beer, I was getting thirsty and eventually decided to risk losing my otherwise good spot on a beer run. I had to walk a couple blocks south from the parade route to find a Spati (bodega) and picked up two. I watched another hour or so of the parade and it seemed to be almost over, so I decided to hit the pizza place on the corner selling “mini-pizzas” for 2.50 each. A so-called mini pizza is essentially just a quarter of the full-sized oblong pizza, so upon further reflection I realized that these Italians have a pretty good scam going. (Based on countless research, a full pizza costs 6-8 euros). Obviously, the pizza was amazing.

I headed back towards the bodega to grab another beer and I was shocked to notice that they had increased all the prices. In fact, I could clearly see one guy still quickly working to cover all the original price tags with handwritten new prices. Surge pricing for beer, that’s a new one. Whereas the shop had been empty on my last visit, it was now completely full of people. There was an international group loitering around outside the front, and when their leader called out in English “ok let’s go, keep moving,” I impulsively followed along.

It was a school group from some university in some small town in Germany, just in town for the Karneval. I chatted with several of them while walking along the streets. They turned left at some point back up towards the parade. Because of the parade, the police had closed all the adjoining roads to traffic, so the massive crowds of pedestrians had taken over a lot of the streets in a sort of impromptu block party. While heading up this one street, there was a group of German youths who had chalked out a disco floor and dancing to a pair a speakers propped up on a third floor window. Carried away with the spirit of the day, I stopped and danced for a while.

Alone again, I continued to find that the parade was actually still in full swing. An African DJ was playing beats out of the back of a pickup truck and about a hundred partiers were following along. I slipped into that crowd and continued dancing. I dropped out of the parade at the next Spati to get something to quench my thirst. As this shop was right on the parade route, there was a queue to even get into the shop. I must say, though the shop owners upped the prices in response to the celebration, they weren’t exactly gouging us. The beer was still a fraction of what it would cost at a bar or restaurant.

I sipped my beer and watched the parade for a bit, occasionally moving backwards against traffic to see what was coming next. As an Indian float came by playing a textbook Bollywood type track, I noticed two familiar faces in the following crowd of dancers. It was two of the university students I walked with for a bit. I merged into the parade again and danced along the route all while marveling at the chance of meeting that group again. It wasn’t much longer before they exited the parade and I tagged along. The next goal was to find somewhere to sit and rest and have a drink. According to Google Maps, there was a park nearby, so we headed that way.

While loitering on the street at one point, either waiting for stragglers or debating specific plans, a German drug dealer came by to peddle marijuana. How refreshing to have a local drug dealer. I think he was selling at 10 euros an ounce and the students just started forking money over to him. “Give me one, no, make it two, actually five.” I tried to intervene to haggle a little bit, but astute businessman that he was, he clearly saw no reason to leave any profit on the table when the customers were so eager to part with their money.

We found the park and decided to split up to source food and beverages. I went with one guy to grab some beers and water. We returned to the rendezvous point, but still had to wait a while for the food group to return. The food group did not actually bring any food back with them. Afterwards we headed into the park to find a place to sit down. On one field, there were two impromptu discos set up with actual speakers and djs. We hung out for a while, but around 7, they had to take off to meet up with the rest of their group. I figured that was a good time for me to begin the journey home.

When I was only a couple blocks away from the hostel, I spotted a Turkish bakery and bought some calzone type bread filled with spinach and feta. Three doors down, I spotted a line for gelato, and ate my bread while queued for dessert. It came in a waffle cone. It was amazing. In fact, the whole day had been full of just the best food.

I returned to the hostel, drank a lot of water, and finished watching “The Sixth Sense” before going to sleep.

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Shokolade brotchen	1.5
Bratwurst mit brotchen	3.5
Beers	6.8
Pizza	5
More beers and water	3.5
Backery	1.6
Eis (Shokolade mit minz)	2.2
Total:	24.1 EUR (188 RMB) (USD 27)

Running Total: 3480 RMB (USD 503)
Daily Average: 870 RMB (USD 125.75)

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.

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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)

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.

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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)