Berlin, Germany

It has been a pretty quiet week since Lukasz left on Wednesday to go home to Poland for the weekend. So I went to lunch with Andre, Marc, and Gorik on Thursday to the beach. The weather had been great the last couple of days, and they said it may be the last time they get to go out for lunch. They are pretty cool bunch of guys to hang out with. I didn’t realize Andre was a Scientist. He wants some cheap labor too, so in addition to Thomas & Dario, working for him might be an option in January. And he says he’ll let me go on the ski trip…. Anyhow, since I had absolutely nothing to do this weekend, I decided to go to Berlin this weekend instead of next. It was my last Eurail trip. I took half day off from work & headed out on a 2:48 train. I was supposed to get in at like 9, but an accident in Rheine caused a delay in our train. Fortunately, I met a cute German boy – Timor – who kept me company and up to date on the announcements. We took the rest of the trip together, and it was like 1am by the time I arrived at my hostel…. I was so tired.

Surprisingly, I was up around 8 and out and about by like 9. It was a beautiful day in Berlin. Absolutely gorgeous weather. I first walked through Potsdame Platz to the Brandenburg Gate and Reichstag. The Reichstag had a huge long line so I didn’t bother going in. I hung around the gate area a bit, getting a donut, and chilling, enjoying the weather. At about 1045, I joined up a walking tour, led by Matt – an American. It lasted until like 1430, with a 30 min lunch break. He took us all over the place, giving us a little history of each place. Very good tour, and it was free!! But of course, we tipped him in the end. The tour started in the gate and parliament area, and then moved on to Hitler’s bunker & the wall. Then to Checkpoint Charlie, Babelplatz, museum island, and so forth, to Alexander Platz. I walked back from the end point to the hostel, stopping here and there for a break. It was like 5 when I got back, and I had been out and about walking for like 8 hours! I was so beat, especially since I didn’t get to bed until late last night. So I took a nap, got up about 7, ate dinner at an Indian place, and then came back to the hostel. I was going to read a book for a bit, but a stupid American girl turned off the lights. On top of that, another stupid fat girl snored the whole fucking night. It took me forever to get to sleep. You could hear other girls tossing and turning and sighing too. I shook the girl awake a few times but she fell right back asleep and started snoring. Uggghhh.

I didn’t have much of a plan for the last day here. Thought about heading home a bit earlier since I couldn’t be bothered to lug my backpack around and walk a lot today after yesterday. But I did go back to the gate area, and realized, hey, the Berlin marathon is today. You could see bunch of people, kids and adults, running around warming up for the race. The race starts at 9, which I was there in time for, but I decided to head to Reichstag to see if the lines were shorter today. Sure enough, I got up right away to the cupola. Nice view, but I would not have waited more than 20 minutes to come up here. I saw from top tho that the race had started, so I headed down and over toward the gate. Turns out the finishing point is near the gate, and it would be a while before the first runners got there. But, the kids and paraplegics got a head start or a shorter leg or something so they were coming up on the finish line. It was pretty cool to see these kids and paraplegics giving all they have to this race. I cheered on a few, and then grabbed a donut again at the Dunkin Donut around the corner (they have free bathroom). Around 1030, I decided to stake out along the fences since the first adult runners would be by in about 30 minutes. A few party favors to cheer on the runners were being given out. I got a flag from Kenya and Japan. I think the male lead was from Kenya and the female lead was from Japan. They run the 26 miles, or 42 km, in about 2 hours. Incredible. That’s like a 4 minute mile. I couldn’t do a 4 minute mile if a mile was all I had to run. Anywas, I also picked up a balloon clapper, a thumbs up poster, and a whistle. I was running out of hands to hold all this crap. I stuck the flags in my hair to free up some hands. I stuck around until close to 12 to watch and cheer, but I think majority of the runners came in well after that. Anyhow, I took off for the zoo station, still looking like a spectator with flags in my hair and clapper and whistle in tow. One dude wanted a picture with me. I guess I looked pretty silly. Anyways, I managed to catch the 1256 train, got all my connections, and made it home by 8.