Soul Searching in Berlin 9/29-10/2

This past weekend Isabela and I went to visit our friend Magda in Berlin. I have to say Berlin and Morocco are tied for my two favorite trips so far. Morocco because it felt good to be getting down to my roots by being around Arabs, and Berlin because well... Magda was there, but also because I've never been to Germany and there is so much history that I love from that country. I would like to go to Germany and Poland and see a lot of the places I've read about during the Holocaust and learn some Slavic languages while I'm at it, but I don't foresee that happening in the near future.

The three of us, along with Magda's friend Lindsey and some of her other friends too did all kinds of tourist and non-tourist things. Lindsey was super nice and treated us like we were long lost best friends, so I was happy to see that Magda has someone like that with her while she's abroad. She even made us sangria for before we out for the night, like a Madrid welcome to Berlin present haha. We all had a lot of fun together.

The first night Isabela and didn't get to Magda's apartment until around 1:30 am! Seeing her at the airport was like a breath of fresh air after all that traveling, so sitting on the train wasn't so bad just longwinded. The plane was late, and the train from Schöenfeld Airport to Magda's place took quite a while. Isabela told me that schöenfeld literally means beautiful field, so its ironic that perhaps where there was once a beautiful field there is now a cemented lot of planes.

After getting to Magda's we took about 20 minutes to change and go out to the German nightlife. The bar had music like a disco and people were dancing but it was more like just a bar. I thought the setting was very grunge and cool, it reminded me of the movie Uncle Buck when the niece is in the middle of the woods with her boyfriend and everyone's drinking beer and theirs a trash of fire in the background with a dimly lit atmosphere. It was like that. It was a lot louder though and there were people dancing. I even had a spontaneous dance-off with a drunk Canadian woman who could actually probably out-dance me any day. I also experience my new favorite beer called Augustener, and learned that German beer in general is one of the only beers I would ever drink.

After the bar Magda and Isabela and I headed towards getting falafel around 4am, when we were suddenly stopped on the street by a girl poking her head out of a bar with a DJ (and not very many people) and she yelled in English "Hey it's my birthday! Come in!" We all looked at each other really quickly and said why not, and went into this stranger's birthday party. They gave us free beer and took pictures with us. I don't remember the girls name, or anything much after that, but she was from Sardinia, Italy and lived in Berlin. I talked to her in Spanish since most Italians can understand Spanish, and she just responded in English. It was cool. Her brother and his friends were visiting and they were all celebrating together. Her whole crowd was pretty drunk, and the boys were a little bit sketchy. At one point, a drunken and seemingly homeless man walked in and just held up his arms in the doorway like he just scored a touchdown and was walking into his party. It was probably the funniest moment of the night, but he was kicked out.
After leaving and getting falafel, I face planted on Magda's floor and fell asleep.

The next day we woke up kind of late, and started cramming in the sites we wanted to see. We went on tours of the museums on Museum Island. We saw Renaissance art, Egyptian art, Islamic art, and some really old stuff from the Stone Age. I thought the Islamic art was the best. After museums, which I was happy that Magda came along too even though that's not really her thing, we went to get some food, and we relaxed for a while before heading out for the night and meeting up with our friend Ryan who was visiting from Prague. There was a big group of us that went out to the bar that night because Ryan had a group of friends he knew from Prague and Berlin. We hunted for food longer than we should have because its hard to find resolutions in big groups, but eventually we had eats and settled into a bar. After the bar we came back to Magdas and I passed out again. The nights were really cold and the days were like they are in Madrid, warm like summer. Apparently its supposed to get colder there very soon, so I was glad we weren't visiting later in the semester instead of the time we chose.

It was kind of funny because, I am a person who is always hot, so I would wake up in the middle of the night hot and sweaty and look at Isabela who is wearing layers of clothes and bundled up in a blanket.

Saturday, we woke up and got ready to go on a 3 or 4 hour walking tour. Magda didn't want to come, and I don't really blame her. She lives there and does all of that stuff probably all the time, so if I were her I would have gone back to bed. Isabela and I trucked onward seeing Checkpoint Charlie, the Berlin Wall, Brendenberger Tor (Brandonberg Gate), the Holocaust Memorial in Berlin, and a parking lot that is built over where Adolf Hitler's bunker was that he killed himself in. We saw lots and lots of things and our tour guide gave out a lot of information.
The Holocaust Memorial was made very interestingly too. Every person could create their own opinion of what the blocks of cement lined in files and all different heights might mean. I felt like they were tombs, and when I went to the center where the tallest blocks were I felt like maybe it was meant to feel like you were in the Jewish ghetto. I'm not sure. Our tour guide pointed out that one of the rules of the memorial is to not step on the blocks, but if you are standing along the outskirts there are blocks that look like tiles as part of a sidewalk so its very easy to unknowingly break the rules; maybe it has something to do with humanity.
After the tour ended we met up with everyone, walked around a market, and went to lunch before taking time to rest and going out one last time.

Our final night was a girls night, Lindsey, Magda, Isabela and I all went to this club because it was free entry and we each had 3 free drink tickets. We walked in, and it was dead empty. We got there early to get in for free so it was only 11:30ish. The DJ was playing redundant techno music, and we fooled around a little but when we were ready to leave we ended up in another room. In this room there were double the people and there was a different kind of music playing. We kept going into the next room and the next room and we realized we were in a labrynth of rooms each playing different kinds of music. Finally, we ended up going between the hiphop/reggaetone room and the 80s/90s room until we decided to call it a night.

Some things about German men; They are mostly full of themselves and can be rude because of it, they pee anywhere and everywhere they want, and they are extremely rude and blunt when trying to pick up girls. Obviously that is according to how I experienced Germany, but it seemed to ring pretty true. In Spain guys smile, lick their lips, even whistle sometimes... but in Germany, they say "allo vant to fack." And while walking along streets guys would just stand next to each other with their junk out peeing like dogs, on buildings and trees. Isabela and I even saw a guy peeing next to the construction site for a church in the middle of the day with people walking all around.

I had a lot of opportunities this weekend to sit back and observe and take in my surroundings, which I think was good for me to slow down and reanalyze the way that I rationalize my experiences in my head. One night the three of us read information for our horoscope signs, as well as to see what our compatibility with each other would be. Even though my Scorpio sign sounded like a deranged, jealous, and passionate person who might become a killer; it was overall kind of accurate, just very extreme. I don't think I could ever be that violent. Anyway, it was nice to know that the three of us were compatible friends because otherwise it might have spoiled something by giving us preconceived notions.

Sunday we woke up really late, but had enough time to see some interesting things. We went  to the German version of Madrid's El Rastro market. It was like a bunch of thrift store and yardsale type stuff in a field. We walked around and I got a vintage leather backpack for 5 Euros. I guess it's not really vintage because they sell them everywhere, but it was cheap and looked old because it was used. For all I know it could have been around since the war! Maybe I'll create some kind of imaginary story for it to make it sound even cooler.

I learned a little bit of German. Hello, goodbye, can I have a beer, I love you, excuse me, and I'm sorry, tramp, this is good, and I think those are all of the phrases I've learned. I also learned that if I say things in a deep angry voice, quickly, and with a German accent, than I am kind of already speaking German. Magda even taught me how to read German a little bit, so I would ask her random questions about how to say stupid words. It was fun, I think I love the language a lot and it would be really cool to expand on that. Das ist ein gute idea. (According to google some of my German accented English is correct in German. What can I say... Ich ben gute.)

Overall, I had an amazing time and I can't wait until we see Magda again when she comes to visit in Madrid, maybe even before that when we all go to Paris.