There’ll Be A Hot Time In The Town Of Berlin

8/29/10

I didn’t do a whole lot of things outside my hostel yesterday, but I still had a great day. I woke up and had breakfast and showered before going back downstairs and seeing the girls and Steffano at breakfast. We hung out a bit before splitting up, with promises to call later for plans.

I went to my new (cheaper) hostel to get checked in, It is a really great hostel, mostly because of the staff. The cleaning lady is a scattered German woman of 65 who is friendly and walks around talking to herself in a mixture of German, French, and English. The owner is a nice man who treats his employees well, watches a lot of tv, and puts out free pastries in the evenings and mornings that the bakery next door gives them (leftovers). The internet is free, but to remain so it locks up every ten minutes for about 30 sconds.

I spent most of the day flirting with Cathleen, a German girl who works the front desk. She is sweet, pretty, and definitely has history but a decent head on her shoulders.

I also spent time hanging out with two people from my hostel and brought them with me when I went to meet Steffano to go out. It was a pretty quiet night on the streets, but I still got a taste of the night life. Again: Berlin is a crazy city. We added two to our group, a Hungarian girl and Italian guy we met on the streets. She left early, but he was fun. He spoke a lot to Steffano in Italian, and to me in German with an Italian accent. He has been in Germany six months and has picked up great German. He has also been in Berlin a month and between him and Steffano we found some good places. We got back to the hostel around 3am after finding Kebab for about 1,50 Euros.

We’re All Friends

8/28/10

Yesterday started out with bad vibes but ended up very good. I was stressed for two reasons: Lynn was leaving for Burning Man for a week and had nowhere for my cat to go, and I also found out that the check I wrote for my first month’s rent was a personal check, not a cashier’s check, which meant that the money had not been taken out of my account yet when I thought it had. So I have $700 less than I thought. However, looking at my bank account, I only spent $600 at most last month, which is not only amazing, it’s shocking. When I go after a goal, I tend to take it as far as possible, and this is no exception. When I first got to Europe, keeping my budget to $1000/month seemed impossible. I have not only met that goal, I have shattered it, and it’s a good thing, too, or the $700 hit would be much worse.

*BREAK* After seeing what beautiful drawings Alanna drew on in my journal, one of the girls that I hung out with the night before asked if she could contribute an entry. This is hers, following a large drawing of “Shalom” in Hebrew:

 

“Sorry, that’s kinda ugly. But you know that the purpose is what counts! Nice meeting you Jewish Aaron! Mazel Tov! Don’t forget the Jewish connection! Cheers! (For your next Journal Entry: “yesterday night I had so much fun. I met these two gay girls that were so awesome! Yey!”–May from Israel

and her girlfriend (from Holland)

Finish what you started/Do as you say/I will do it tomorrow/Just not Today.

Thanks for the time and the life lessons! Good luck and have fun with the travels. Cheers, Jinan xoxo.

*End Break*

I walked around sight seeing a lot of the day. The most memorable things I saw were Potsdamer Platz and Checkpoint Charlie, where East and West met; East Berlin (which is very grey and depressing) and the holocaust memorial, which is a grid of stone slabs at different heights and with uneven ground…very disorienting and isolating, and one of the best memorials I’ve ever seen.

After the sight seeing, I went back to nap. I was going to go out again later, but was tired and in no mood to go out, especially by myself. I was going to just go to sleep, but decided to at least wander downstairs for a bit and see if there was anyone to talk to. I ended up meeting Steffano, an Italian student studying in Germany and looking for an apartment, a very sweet German Girl (Ibi), and two great gay girls from Israel and Holland. Both had lived in Amsterdam, and the girl from Holland had gone to school at UC Santa Barbara–small world! We hung out upstairs for awhile and talked for a long time. They’re both free spirits, but down to earth. It ended up being a great end to an otherwise so/so day.

I called dad for the second time to wish him a happy birthday (he didn’t pick up my original call yesterday) and got to talk to him for a half hour for under two euros.

Outside The Wall

8/27/10

Yesterday was long. I spent the first part of the day walking all over Berlin…well, not ALL over because this city is huge. I walked for five hours yesterday and only covered the tiniest portion. This is definitely a city you have to use public transportation for.

I woke up around 7 and went down to breakfast, where I saw the Canadian guy from the night before. He was leaving, but he marked a ton of things on my map for me to go see, and he told me about a few museums that were open. I had my breakfast (which was a good German breakfast: healthy and energizing) and after using the internet I began walking. I mostly walked around Kreuzberg (where my hostel is situated) and then kept going east toward the Berlin Wall. I walked through several very nice parks and saw a lot of the area. Here is what I know about Berlin from my walk so far: it is an active city, with people biking or running all over the city and at all hours of the day; it is a trendy or “hip” city, and everywhere you go you see posters for clubs, music, shows, and other events as well as the way people are dressed; it is a diverse, but very young city with a large population of people in their late teens to early twenties; it is a city where anything can be found, if you look hard enough and/or know where to look. Pot seems to be awfully easy to find, if you want it, and just walking down the street or in the parks, you see a lot of the Universal Berliner sign for “want some drugs?”: the not-so-discreet head nod.

After quite a bit of walking and a bit of being stuck in the rain, I made it to the Berlin Wall, a section of which remains with beautiful art covering it. Some of it was silly, and some of it had a very serious message, but all of it served as a reminder of how monumental this barrier was in peoples’ lives and how much hope was inspired when it came down. It was a symbol of oppression that not only kept East Berlinners out, it kept West Berlinners in. I had an opportunity to talk to a Russian girl in my room, and it was amazing because she has such a sense of shared history with Germany. She was thrilled to see the things she has heard and learned about, especially the different perspective.

I went back to the hostel around 3:30 and took a nap. I then went to a museum that was open for free from 6-10om, a really wonderful art museum with a lot of impressionist and realist art, which I like the most. I saw original Monets, Manets, Cezannes, paintings from Degas, and even a Van Gogh. I ended the night around 10 with a kebab. Overall, a good day.

Have a Drink On Me

What a great way to start yesterday morning. I woke up around 5am and kept my eyes shut until around 6am when it was impossible to stay asleep and security was beginning to move people. I started talking to some people around me and struck up a conversation with a Finnish guy (Petri) and a Danish girl (Michelle) who both live and study in Copenhagen and were in Hamburg for the night for a concert. They had been up all night and they talked me into heading down to the bar in the train station (this was at 7am).

They both began buying me drinks. I literally had beer for breakfast. Within two hours at the bar, we shared four rounds of pints and Petri and I also each had a shot. I was drunk before 8am. The two of them were very fun; Petri operates a very successful nonprofit music magazine in Denmark as well as pursuing a Master´s degree, and Michelle is in the middle of her Bachelor´s degree. Both invited me to Copenhagen to stay with them, and I very well might take them up on that offer after Prague.

When they left to catch their train around 9am, I walked to the bus station to catch some sleep before getting on the bus. I slept nearly the whole way to Berlin. Berlin has crazy vibes to it that remind me a lot of Buenos Aires, the way people in hostels prepare themselves for the inevitable party each night. It is definitely a party city, but also has a lot of history and character. Graffiti everywhere, HUGE, and dense, young population, and a kind of frantic feeling to it in a lot of places. It is definitely a city you would have to live in to get the full experience, and those are just my impressions from the first few hours.

I met a nice Canadian traveler who had been here for two weeks and gave me a few good tips. I allowed myself to rest last night, though, and didn´t do much. I will spend all day doing that today.

I did eat at an amazing kebab stand last night. It is cheap, fairly healthy, and SO good, and right outside the door of my hostel. There was a line for it; Kebab places are like the Starbucks of Europe, and they are everywhere. If you have to wait, you can usually just walk next door or across the street. Clearly (and actually) this place wasa worth waiting for.

Surprise!

Yesterday was a very surreal day, but I can´t figure out why. Maybe it was the confusing weather and the wind adding energy to the air. At any rate, I did enjoy it. I woke up around 10, though my roommates were a bit noisy in their leaving earlier, and showered and booked a hostel in Berlin. I also called the bus company to book my ticket to Berlin from a payphone in the train station.

I walked up to the meeting spot early, figuring I could write while I waited for Alanna. She came a half hour late, as expected, and we first went to the bus station to take care of my ticket. After sitting ahwile and contemplating what to do, we walked to an absolutely beautiful park where we spent the whole day walking around and talking and just being outside. It was filled with flowers and fountains and even a few kids games that we couldn´t help staying away from. At one point, Alanna filled a page of my journal with drawings and notes and inside jokes from the last three days, kind of like a yearbook. I loved it. Katerina, a German girl I met in Brazil, was comprising her journal not only of her own thoughts but of other peoples´writing and memories as well. I loved that idea, but I have never asked anyone to write in my journal, and I eventually abandoned it. When Alanna asked if she could write in it (and she is the first person to have done so in five months), I was quick to let her.

Alanna left around 6pm and I stayed in the park awhile longer, listening to music before leaving to get dinner. After eating and writing at the train station, I headed back to my bench by the water. The weather was nice, the skies were clear, and it was generally a nice evening. I was just falling asleep and feeling really good about there being no rain when the wind picked up and blew in a MONSOON. I was literally soaked before I even realized it was raining, and I could do nothing but laugh and smile. It was just too funny. But I was wet, and sleeping somewhere cold was not an option, so I walked back to the train station thinking I would either stay awake all night or sleep until they made me move somewhere else. As luck would have it, I was able to sleep there, and after testing the waters a bit, I (and several other travelers) ended up sleeping quite soundly until about 5am when they started waking people up for cleaning.

A nice day with an adventerous twist to end it. I am just glad I adopted the attitude that I did and didn´t let a little rain bring me down.

Down By The River

8/24/10

I left my bench around 8am or so for the train station, where I planned to use the internet and get a few things squared away before meeting Alanna at 12. I was worried about a worstening cough, though, which had developed from what I believe was a sinus infection I got at Celia´s. I was worried about developing pneumonia and got information to get to the hospital, which was walking distance, to go see a doctor.

I met with a doctor without having to wait long, and after she got all of my history she took a blood sample to test for signs of infection. She didn´t tell me that I couldn´t leave during the 2 hours it took to test the blood, so I spent the first hour thinking I was forgotten and the second hour enjoying a warm place to sleep when I learned that I was waiting on the test results.

I walked back to the train station to meet Alanna, a half hour late and hoping she had given me a grace period. I had to do it in an absolutely soaking rain, though. I was completely wet after 2 minutes before getting out my poncho to cover myself and my pack. Alanna wasn`t there when I got there, but she came back for a second check after getting coffee and I learned that she had also been very late. We hopped on the internet, where I booked a hostel for that night, and went out to get myself checked in.

We spent the day just walking and talking, really. We didn´t see much, but we did make it to the waterside on a nice walk and we saw an impressive underwater tunnel under the Elbe. We sat next to the river for about an hour or so.

Later, we went shopping and I made my famous nachos in the kitchen at my hostel (which had no knives or plates).

Live For The Music

8/13/10

Yesterday was a really cool day. I got into Hamburg at 7am after an only semi-comfortable bus ride. I was very comfortable until someone chose to sit next to me after getting on 2 hours into the ride and I had no space to get comfortable from then on.

When we got in, I scoped out a grassy area outside the bus station and lay down for a few hours to catch some extra rest. It was cold, though, because of the wind and I only got a bit of true sleep. Around 10:30, I got moving. The plan was to simultaneously explore Hamburg and look for an internet cafe to book a hostel for the next night and also to solidify my plans with Katerina. Hamburg is a nice city, but not a lot of things to see, and for its size it was qUIET. It was a grey Sunday morning and everything was closed and there were almost no people on the streets. I saw a few old buildings and a Cathedral that had been bombed during the war and was now a monument. I had already given up on my internet search, knowing that I could take care of it the next day, when things were open.

I was pretty tired, and I was contemplating finding my way back to the grassy area for a nap when I stumbled onto a concert/show/festival that was being set up around 1pm. It was the third day of a three day rock show in the city, and I decided to hang out and watch since I had nowhere to be. Regardless of the quality of music (I liked a couple of bands and disliked quite a few of them), it was a cool thing to find and one of those things that you can feel comfortable sitting at for an entire day without being questioned. During the concert, I struck up a conversation with a very sweet and pretty Aussie girl, Alanna, with whom I have spending a lot of time with since. She is fun and quirky and playful, though with a boyfriend, but very good company. From the concert, we left to go get some food. We walked around for awhile but everything was closed and it started raining as well. We had fun, though, and eventually ended up at the main train station on the advice of a very nice resident that I asked and ate at Burger King.

After dinner we walked to the water (Lake, Pond, River, I don´t know), and sat talking on a bench under a tree that kept us dry while it rained lightly. She left around 10pm and I was going to sleep by the water until it started raining and I had to find a new place to keep myself dry (and warm). I went back when it stopped raining later in the night (I really liked that spot) and slept a bit longer.

Waking Up In (Amsterdam)

8/21/10

I didn´t get in touch with Celia about the keys, so my plan was to stay at her place until she got back in the afternoon, and maybe even stay with her an extra night or two, if I was correct about her wanting to see me. I had a light breakfast (I was feeling very unhealthy with all of the junk food and sitting around) and was getting ready to settle in for a bit and wait for Celia, but one of her housemates came down to find me and tell me I could give her the keys when I wanted to so I could leave. I had mixed feelings about this; a part of me wanted to see Celia again and I was actually contemplating staying, but another part of me knew it wasn´t a good idea. I already felt like I had fallen into a routine and been sedentary for too long; I also knew that spending more time with her would be wonderful, but it would only lead to the wrong kind of attachment when I have to keep moving.

So, I went to an internet cafe, picked Celia some more flowers since the others had died, packed, and was out in about an hour. I had purposefully not booked my bus to Berlin from Amsterdam because I was still contemplating staying longer with Celia, and that came back to bite me in the ass. By the time I got to Amsterdam and found a place to book my bus ticket, I learned that the bus was alerady full. This meant that I was faced with either spending a night outside in Amsterdam or change my destination or find a way to head back to Leiden and ask Celia if I could stay for one more night. None of these were very appealing at the time. I had wanted to see Hamburg, and I checked for a ticket. I booked the bus overnight, getting in at 7am the next day, but chose not to book a hostel to balance costs.

Amsterdam was another whirlwind, but first I want to address some impressions of the city that I left out of my other entry. The buildings all lean, the windows are misaligned, and the streets are curved so much that it is very disorienting for getting around the city. The city LOOKS like it was built by stoners who just dropped their houses wherever. The streets are also littered with the afterthoughts of people partying: beer cans, bottles, and cups, joint roaches and cigarette buts, and food. Despite this, it is not a dirty city; the garbage is just noticeable based on its common element. It is also one of the very few cities in the world that I feel the tourists are integral to the vibe of the city. These people come to drink, smoke, and fuck, and have a great time; that is what the city has become: a place to have a good time. Without the tourists, it would be a different city. It is unreal, and has a very Disney feel that I can´t explain, like everything is a well-crafted illusion that does not reveal the true Amsterdam unless you go very far behind the scenes.

Afte rI booked my bus, I went to the Anne Frank House. What struck me most about the place was not its size or isolation, though two years of that kind of isolation could drive a person to insanity; it was the complete absence of fresh air and natural light. I cannot imagine enduring two years of that, except as a last resort for survival. They let me bring my pack in with me, which was very nice of them becaues they had the right to turn me away (I didn´t see the sign until I got to the front of the line…the Dutch people have been VERY accommodating).

After, I went to a coffeeshop and sat for about an hour talking with people, spent some time in Dam Plaza people watching, found a concert on th water in one of the canals (they always seem to have something going on In Amsterdam, a lot like San Francisco) and they also have canals, like Venice (Leiden too). I was offered heroin (and refused). It was a cobblestone street and difficult to walk around with my pack all day, but I was free and back to adventuring again. I caught my bus to Hamburg with no problems.

Save Tonight

8/21/10

The post before this was a rest day and uneventful. I was supposed to leave Celia´s place yesterday. I was packed and had Celia´s sheets washed, cleaned up the place, and picked Celia two small bouquets of flowers from her neighbors´garden and put them on her desk.

Janneke came by on her lunch break, originally to pick up Celia´s keys, but she told me that Celia had texted her saying I could stay longer; she gave me a look that told me Celia wanted to see me again. I kept the keys–I was planning on taking a night bus out of Amsterdam the next day (today) and staying an extra night was perfect. I just had to figure out how to get Celia her keys back, but I couldn´t find a good alternative and emailed her to let her know I would stay at her place until she returned to ensure that she could get in.

I didn´t want to stay inside all day, and I was feeling like healthier food as well, so for most of the day I was outside and eating fruits and vegetables. I met a Welsh traveler waiting for a coffeeshop to open and hung out with him for a few hours. He is a great juggler and gavem e a lesson…I improved from bad to inadequate.

This has been a cool opportunity to experience some of what living in another country would be like, and I do want to find a way to live in Holland for awhile. Celia gave me a place to stay, and my own space, when I had no place to go before. There is a lot of grattitude here, and I don´t know many people who have experienced anything similar. I have had a nice time relaxing and being ´normal’ for a bit and discovering Holland. I am also glad to have gotten off of the beaten track and found a place (Leiden) that most people don´t make it to. It was a great find, and I really enjoyed it there.

Living in Sin

8/19/10

I am moving to Holland. What an awesome place with amazing people and great history, and a cool vibe. Zaneke picked me up around 11:30 and we walked into town. She also took me to a bunch of historical spots, like the church where the Pilgrims worshipped before heading to America (they went Leiden, first), Rembrendt´s house and studio, some old courtyards and alms houses, etc. She knew a lot about the history of the place. We also stopped by an outdoor market where I sampled some Dutch cheese (which is AWESOME). In Holland, they buy cheese by the Kilo, so when I only asked for 100 grams, the guy joked with me that I had already sampled twice that much and was awfully stingy. He was quite nice and eager to make us laugh.

We went back to Yankeke´s place for lunch before I headed to Amsterdam. She had bought stuff for tuna sandwhiches and I took care of making it. I said goodbye after lunch and headed to Amsterdam around 3pm. The woman I bought the ticket from gave me a small discount and when I told her I wouldn´t need until the last train at 4am to make it back to Leiden, she gave me a semi-ominous ‘You never know, you ARE going to Amsterdam.’

She was right, to an extent. Amsterdam is crazy; it´s like Disneyland for adults. The people are all young and cool and relaxed, and bikes fill the streets even more than in Leiden. The buildings are very old, with awesome brick architecture, and you can feel that this is a city that has a lot of history. Half of the magic is just walking around and watching and observing. I never thought I would find a city that I liked as much as San Francisco, but Amsterdam is it.

I walked all over and found the Anne Frankhouse, which I will go to tomorrow or the next day. I went into a coffeehouse where there was literally a stoner meeting upstairs and everyone was up there smoking what they had and passing it all around. The red light district was nuts, though there were fewer exposed body parts than I was led to believe, but I was surprised to see the hookers actually getting business. It felt very shady, especially walking down a street with no light except for red bobbles up and down the sides. I even saw a hooker come out of her window to attack a tourist woman who had taken a picture of her, a big no no.

I am going for at least one more day, but what a city. It has everything you need as a hippy from drugs to food to sex. Amsterdam has more sin than Las Vegas, and more freedom than San Francisco. It is intense, but amazing; a shock to the senses, and it is one of few places I wouldn´t mind getting stuck. Still, I was glad to be able to unwind in Leiden at the end of the day and happy to leave for the night. I was exhausted, and staying in Amsterdam would have been a lot to handle (though fun).