Germany – Part One

I went to Germany in July with my friend Dennis. I had told him about a music festival that I thought he would be interested in a couple of years ago. In telling him, I said that we should go if we were ever financially able to do it. Well last December he said he would be and I didn’t see a reason why I wouldn’t be so we planned it and went. I’m very glad we did.

First stop, Berlin. We flew Lufthansa and was very pleased with the service and comfort of the flight. I was so keyed up I only got a couple hours of sleep on the plane heading to Dusseldorf Germany. Then I didn’t get any sleep going from Dusseldorf to Berlin. Needless to say, I was dead tired by the time we got to our hotel. Dennis wanted to go see the city right away but I easily convinced him that we should get a couple hours of sleep first. Two and a half hours later, we got up and figured out how to use the BVG. BVG stands for Berliner Verkehrsbetriebe or Berlin Transit Authority. The transit system in Berlin is the best I’ve ever used and on top of that they have almost everything in both German and English. This helps tremendously with getting around but also helps people learn the German language. After a few days I stopped using English to navigate the system.

So we decided in our sleep addled brains that we shouldn’t try any serious sightseeing as we wouldn’t really absorb anything. So what to do on our first day. Wander. The wandering had a beginning point, Prenzlauer Berg. Our friend, Jay Miller, had been in Germany months before and ran into a hot dog vendor called Mister Miller Hot Dog. Jay found it greatly amusing and demanded we go there, have a Miller dog and take pictures. Hey, it seemed like a good idea at the time and it would make a friend happy. So off we went and found the shop on Schoenhauser Alle. We got a Mister Miller dog and decided that Miller’s dog had a funny tasting sauce and was oddly crunchy. The Miller dog isn’t very tasty but I imagine some of the other various toppings would have been better.

We then went wandering around Prenzlauer Berg to see what it was like. It’s in what used to be East Berlin. It has lots of graffiti tags but not a lot of graffiti art. I had heard that most of the good graffiti had been covered up a few years ago as people starting fixing up buildings in the district. If this was a former home to German punks it was looking a lot more fashionable these days. Most of the buildings had been recently renovated and painted. It does have lots of little bars, cafes and shops spread all over and not just on main streets. It was nice that it still had some character and had not been completely gentrified. We found a neat place to have brunch that I can’t tell you the name of or where it is. Buffet brunch and a .5l beer (Berliner Pilsner) for under 6 Euros. The most amusing thing happened late afternoon when we decided we wanted to sit and have a beer. When Dennis pointed out a place with tables out front, I thought he had pointed at a Donner place. He had actually pointed to a little bar just beyond it. So off we went. We go inside and order beer. Something odd immediately strikes me but I dismiss the thought and we head out front to consume our beverages. The proprietor came out to have a smoke and I inquired as to where the washroom was. Off I went to relieve myself and I look around as I go. Well it turns out that Dennis had directed us to a gay bar. That provided some good humored ribbing for the rest of the day.

Not much else to say about day one as we were incredibly tired. I did discover that humous there doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing as here. As far as I’m concerned, humous has garlic and tahini in it, not just chick peas.

Day two and more to come.

I’m back. Full post coming Monday

So I am in fact back from Germany. I have much to say but I’m holding off posting details until Monday evening. Most people I know are out of town for the weekend and won’t be checking anything until Tuesday. As this is something I want to share with people, I thought I would wait until people were around to read it.

Now to make sure I get my pictures fixed and posted this weekend so I have some galleries to link to.

I think I’ll also update WordPress so I can use my new iPhone with it…