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Published: March 28th 2008
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OK, I am not in Berlin right now truth be told - I'm in London at work. I had my first chance to travel since last year when Alexis and I took four days to visit Berlin and Hamburg three weeks ago (and me with a rubbish cold and sore ears). It was just good to get back on the road in some way, just for four days, to get on a plane and go somewhere they don't speak English as a first language, see new stuff, do new things. We travelled uber-light having learned our lesson in South America - both of us can survive on very little, so we put pretty much all our stuff combined into Alexis' brand new backpack which is half the size of his old one, but more than enough.
I had forgotten that British airports are now ridiculous post-July bombing attacks, and Alexis' warnings to me not to bring my usual arsenal of shower stuff went unheeded, and of course they took it all off me (but left me with some razor blades allowing me to take them into the cabin??) at the first hurdle, but I wasn't too fussed. After the bag scanning, the frisking, the shoe scanning and the suspicious looks gauntlet, we were on our way. Arriving about 10pm in Berlin we had to decipher the U-Bahn (or whatever the overground bahn is called, as there was a strike both days we were in Berlin so no U-Bahn, traims or buses) but we made it into town, spying the cathedral and the tower on our way down on the train, and we walked from there (stopping for a customary bratwurst and currywurst at a local stall) to our hostel in Mitte, the arty, cool bit of town. It was bloody freezing. I was amazed to find that our hostel was not only really clean, but warm, with duvets, toilet roll, and a hot shower!! coming from south american hostels, I hadn't realised the difference in standards you could get in Europe. It was a palace. We didn't spend much time in it on our arrival though - as Brits Abroad it was our duty to go forth and drink. Alexis and I are not exactly big drinkers, and neither of us are good at holding our drink, but we didn't realise that we'd end up totally shitfaced. We had a great time - lounging in two or three different drinking establishments, or boozy cafes as I'd say they were compared to pubs here or cafes - and refreshingly we didn't have to endure andy All Bar One/Slug and Lettuce style chain cafe pub bar places, they are all indiviudually owned and styled, with some being modern chic, others arty lowdown chic in reclaimed gothic buildings, and others tiny candle lit holes done up with reclaimed velvet couches and old cigarette machines with a variety of classy and affordable cocktails. So we were happy sitting in a darkened corner and supping cocktails, then from one place to another, then another, with a shot of Absinthe in between - which I think tipped us both over the edge. We both felt like a million lira until we got back to our room....Next morning we both had some of the worst hangovers we'd ever known (well not worse than my Cuzco spewathon at 4000 feet above sea level) but we forced ourselves out of bed, to a cafe for breakfast, and down to the Brandenburg Gate to meet up for our Red Berlin tour.
That tour was pretty long but very interesting. I think it would have been even better if it wasn't for the strike, as the route was changed to accommodate the lack of trams we were supposed to take to other cool parts of the former DDR. We were taken to the former Russian Embassy, with its staues of The People on top and its preposterously grandiose architecture and gold leafing at street level; also the American Embassy with cameras watching our every move as we walked past, and a hideous car with a furry american flag interior; and the British Embassy, the ugliest postemodernist building there, of which apparently the Queen herself said: "I suppose someone must like it".
We walked on past the office of Aeroflot, the former Soviet airline with a very shady past, and our guide, who was born in cmmunist Bulgaria, told us tales about the rebuilding of Berlin after the war by women - since all the men were pretty much dead - by hand. We went on to the Stasi Museum which was fascinating - the amount of thought and cash that went into preserving the ruling powers in communist times, the fact that one in every 6 Berliners was a Stazi agent (sometimes a double agent), the extreme paranoia and the resulting ways they kept tabs on everyone, the torture chambers for children informing on their daddies, the recording equipment planted under the living rooms of grannies and the fat transcripts from those recordings that were kept in a building that had to have its structure reinfored to hold the strain of the thousands of transcripts. Weird.
We then spent two days in Ahrensburg, a little town just outside of Hamburg where Alexis' brother and his family live, relaxing, walking, and eating.
Since then work has been non-stop - I am in charge for two weeks while my boss is away and I'm being moaned at by most of the editorial team for not coming to the pub with them on this Friday evening at 5pm (when I finish at 6pm anyway). Jobsworth? nope, just snowed under and trying to get a magazine to press on my own without any experience. I'd rather forego a pint and do a good job, then go get wasted.
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