Day Eleven - More Berlin

Today the 3^rd October was the 21^st anniversary of the reunification of Berlin, so to start with it was a public holiday and also they had this lovely big fair in the park … 100’s of thousands of people attended but it was so well thought out and organized I swear the local country fair would have seemed busier than this place.

We caught the hop on hop off bus early to get our bearings and “hopped off” at the fair where we wandered around in the sunshine… drinking punch or beer if that is your preference and eating everything and anything even remotely German. I had my first ever Belgian Waffle and it was amazing but I have to say after the rocket fuel disguised as punch I left off any more eating … I don’t think my stomach could deal with much after that.

We then did the obligatory visit to check point Charlie (which is completely new, nothing original there at all but interesting all the same) looked at bits of the wall and really just followed the line where the wall used to be for a while. This is where I had another of those wonderful goldfish moments …. See by now you would all know I am ridiculously scared of heights … well when Ben saw that Berlin has the largest fixed helium balloon in Europe he was adamant that he wanted to go. I also at the time did the whole “sounds like fun … lets do it” thing. All was going very well until we actually got 150 meters into the air and with the wind blowing like crazy, the balloon rocking around like it was going to snap the cable I finally decided it might not have been such a great idea after all. However like always I survived… and I didn’t throw up which at this point with my stomach still not happy with the punch was a major victory to both me and my pride.

We had another dinner at a German beer hall and to be honest, if I never see sausage, pork knuckle, schnitzel or dumplings again it will be way to soon. It so heavy and there is always so much of it right now im stealing the salad of hubbys plate in the vain attempt to get somewhat of a balanced diet… hubby on the other hand is eating all of his meals and then ¾’s of mine in an attempt to eat as much of this food as is humanly possible.

A couple of little points I wanted to mention and I even noted down in case I forgot them … I love love love German street names. Not only are they super cute but they are also pretty damn obvious. Take this name for example Unter De Linden …. Translated it means Under the Lime Trees and it is the most lovely long boulevard with lime trees lining not only both sides of the road but also the middle too creating the most lovely space I have seen in ages.

Oh and we had a very cool taxi driver take us home tonight. We got in the car and told him where we needed to go and held leaned over the seat, held up his ipod and said … “now before I start driving … what type of tunes do you guys like.” That in itself is pretty damn cool but wait it gets even better. I told him just to press play because I was curious what he actually listens to when he has the choice… on came Dean Martin. Now I am a closet “old school” fan and we started talking about Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin Etta James and Louie Armstrong and hubby piped up “Hell yeah, I love old school” Obviously at this point I could have kept quiet and let him keep his pride but of course it was just way to easy so I asked him exactly who his favorite “old school” were?  Hubby kind of stuttered a bit before going … “Well you know “Old School” like Jonnie Cash, Cat Stevens, Michael Jackson and U2” …. The remainder of the trip home was rather quiet because no one could really come up with a comment on how he had managed to put U2 and Frank in the same category. (Evil I know but hey … we are married)

One more day in Berlin before we are off to Warsaw and to be honest, there is so much to see and do here 3 days really didn’t cover it. It is definitely a place I would like to return to even if just to take a bit more time to actually look at all the old buildings and museums. 

Day Ten - A Beginning in Berlin

This morning we woke up headache free…. That’s right hubby and I managed to survive Oktoberfest without hangovers! We were due to leave Munich at 10am but walking out of the hotel we were floored that we couldn’t even see the car the fog was that thick. Driving to the airport we almost erie … the road seemed to float on clouds and I have to say Ben and I just stared out the window in awe at the way the fog just seemed to cover everything.

Obviously the flight was delayed however we didn’t really mind too much. I had finally found a coffee shop that did good coffee and made sure to overindulge …. He he he.

Arriving in Berlin at 3 we checked into our super mod hotel Swissotel Berlin which was totally amazing but really freaky because there are two glass lifts in the building which look out over the 8 storey lobby. Oh oh oh but in each room there is a Nespresso machine, the receptionist was actually sorry it didn’t come with George Clooney but to be honest, im just looking forward to good coffee in the morning.

We wandered the streets till dinner, where we found a super cute Italian restaurant with an all German menu and just pointed at something and hoped for the best. I had the most amazing mix of three pasta’s and hubby ended up with his first pizza of the trip. It was nice to have something slightly different to the sausage and pork knuckle we have been focusing on over the last few days but tomorrow we have our eye on a bar in the sky…

A couple of things I have noticed, it’s a really pretty city with lots of modern buildings working together with the older buildings in the area. The streets are very green with trees turning golden and mounds of leaves scattering the lovely wide footpaths.

The other thing I love so far is the cafes that just sit on the side of the street. This isn’t unique for Australia but what is amazing is they don’t face each other over their latte or ale they all face forward towards the street. Hmm, it was quite disconcerting with 50 or so people who all just stared as you wandered past.

We are sitting in bed now trying to work out what to do during our time in Berlin. Its going to be a busy two days but there is so much to do and so little time …. That may well be my new catch phrase. 

Day Nine - Oktoberfest, friend or foe....

So Oktoberfest … Been there, done that and now have the shirt. Honestly im struggling with this diary entry. Okbtoberfest is like nothing I have ever experienced and while there are a whole bunch of great things to write about, there are also a few disapointments.

Let me start with the good bits. We ended up sitting in a smaller tent to start with and I … the worlds biggest beer hater was stuck drinking litre steins because they didn’t have anything smaller … honestly she almost laughed at me when I asked for a smaller glass. The atmostphere is loud, boisterous with everyone determined to have fun. All of the tents and gardens we visited were decorated according to their theme and seemed to be well set out allowing for lots of people and seats. Dressing up proved to be the most fun - I got mistaken for a local german girl at least 4 times with one person eve telling me I was lying when I said in a very clear Australian accent that I was not german. It was great fun and to be honest, the outfits are so damn comfortable I was quite sad to be putting my jeans back on this morning. Overall I enjoyed the whole day including dressing up but there was one or two things I thought were either a little bit crazy or else could have been handled better.

First of all bathrooms. There were two ladies bathrooms for the entire garden we were in (nearly 1000 people) meaning if you did need to use the bathroom, which was frequently with the beer you had to wait in a line for over half an hour.

Secondly we were both surprised with just how busy it was. Everyone says it busy but I think we hit the perfect storm of busy. It is the second last day of the festival, it’s a public holiday weekend for the locals and it’s a perfectly sunny day. So it was amazingly freakishly busy and we were almost overwhelmed with the amout of people at the event.

Thirdly and please don’t take this the wrong way … the Italians. For some reason over 30% of Oktoberfest attendees were Italian and while up until now I have had nothing against them today really opened my eyes. The ones we met seem ogle and grope anything female and more than one girl in the bathroom line pulled their tops up because of the “Italian Pervs with their slippery hands”. I even had one guy walk up and take a picture of my boobs … im sorry but not cool boys.

Finally I am amazed at just how they serve anyone and everyone alcohol, no matter how drunk you are you still seem to be able to order and be given a drink. This means as you walk along the streets you see hundreds of rather drunk visitors passed out on the side of the road. Personally this shocked me more than anything else, they seem to be able to just lay down where ever they were and sleep it off.

As I said overall it was an awesome experience, would I come again… im really not sure, its so busy I don’t know if it would be worth returning just to sit in the one spot and drink beer. Am I glad I went and experienced it myself … hell yeah. Tomorrow its off to Berlin and im really looking forward to the history.