[Preface: The following journal writing of a weekend excursion in Berlin, Germany in September of 2013, is presented here completely unedited, as it is written directly from my Fifth journal book. It is [9.5] hand written pages.]
Next travel agenda: Berlin, Germany - for the third time. Guy's weekend in September '13, with Elin's brothers Andreas and Christian, and Kjell Arne, and three others who I have not met.
It's the first of September, a Sunday evening, 8PM. I'm flying out on Ryan Air from Rygge airport, on Wednesday September 4th at 10:30AM. I'll be in Berlin just after noon. I'm there until Sunday September 8th - my flight home leaves at 9PM - so I'm basically going to be in Berlin for five days. Christian and his friend David who is British, Andreas and his friend Kjell Arne, with two more guys are driving down from Southern Sweden in a mini-van that they all rented. They won't be getting into Berlin until Thursday evening (Sept. 5th) around 6PM. So, I will have about a day and a half there alone - and again also on Sunday (Sept. 8), they will all leave to drive back home that Sunday morning and my flight goes at 9PM that night. I'll have pretty much all day Sunday in Berlin alone too. Almost three days alone in Berlin! The Arcotelvelvet hotel where they all are staying at was completely booked up, so I'm staying in a hostel called Generator - it's on the same street as the Arcotelvelvet, some blocks away. This may get interesting.
Right now it's just a few minutes over 8AM, it's Wednesday the 4th, my friend Knut drove me to the airport - I was here at 7:30AM - two and half hours to wait. I'm all checked in. I bought a few magazines for the flight, and now here I sit in an airport café. The night before, Elin and I went to bed at 11PM but it took me a while to fall asleep. I laid in bed thinking, words for another poem ran through my mind - (I need to remember, get them together and written.) - I guess for the first time ever really, I really thought about LBK and his stories of solo European journeys and adventures. I had to admit to myself I was nervous about this trek. I thought...about - how LBK did quite a lot of solo journeys...to travel alone. I know I should be fine, everything should go OK. Hour and a half flight - the plane was not so full, I took a window seat right behind the wing and ended up having the row to myself. Somebody - one of the ladies sitting either in front of me or behind stank real bad - like she needed a shower. The plane landed just before noon, took the train from the airport, making one connection change...I thought I was going to have to go all the way to the main big central station but I double checked the route map on the train and realized I could jump off one stop before. I walked a couple of blocks and found the Arcotelvelvet where everyone else is staying. I went in there to double check it was the right hotel and to ask directions to the Generator hostel where I was staying. It was just a block away. I went to the Generator to check in but my room wasn't ready, so I left with my backpack, walked a block or so up the street, found a café and ordered a beer and a pizza. An hour later I went back to the hostel and got checked in, I had to buy a lock for 3 Euros for the luggage locker in the room, I dropped off my bag, grabbed my camera, and headed out walking the city streets of Berlin. I shot graffiti and street art shots, found a skate shop called Titus, sat at a café across the street from the T.V. tower drinking a one liter glass mug of beer. At the café I met a guy named John, he was from Sarasota, Florida, had been living in Amsterdam for a few years, and just moved to Berlin to study. I walked around and shot some more photos. The evening was coming on, I went back to the hostel, to the room to rest and see if any of the other people who were staying in the room were there. The room had four sets of bunk beds for eight people. I got back to the room and there was one guy, Mario, he was from El Salvador but lived in Australia. We were talking for a while then I went down to the hostel café for dinner. When I got back up to the room Mario was still there with three more of the people staying there - a guy named Marcus from Stockholm, Sweden and two French girls who I didn't get their names. We all talked for a little while then Marcus and the two French girls left, Mario fell asleep, and I rested for a bit. There were two other guys staying in the room as well, but I haven't really met or talked to them yet. Sometime between 8:30 and 9PM I got back up and went down to the hostel bar. Drinking beer, sitting at one of the sidewalk patio tables in front of the hostel - I met some folks from Ireland, three guys and a girl - Ryan, Steve, Craig, and Sara. We drank, talked, and made fun of the hookers that worked the street in front of the hostel until about midnight, then I called it a night and went back up to the room to sleep. I didn't sleep so good that Wednesday night.
The next day - Thursday - I spent about four hours of the day from late morning to mid-afternoon again walking the streets, shooting photos and checking out the city. I started the day with a coffee at a café around the corner from the hostel, I went to Check Point Charlie which took about thirty minutes to walk there, then I went to the Holocaust memorial, then to the Topographies Des Terrors museum. It was around 3:30PM when I got back to the hostel. At the hostel café I had a late lunch with Mario, drinking brews and talking travels. I went back up to the room to rest and wait for the guys to get into town. Around 8:30PM I went to their hotel and waited for them in the lobby. We took the subway into the West Berlin side for dinner and pub hopping. A night of drinking. (The group was me, Christian and his friend David, Andreas, Kjell Arne, Martin, and Fredrik.)
On Friday I met the guys at 9:30AM in the Arcotel lobby. We went for breakfast, then Kjell Arne and Christian took off to go meet with one of Kjell Arne's friends for a few hours. Andreas, David, Martin, Fredrik, and I spent the early afternoon walking around East Berlin. We walked by the T.V. tower, went to the Brandenburger Tor, hit the DDR museum. By 1PM we all met back up at the Arcotelvelvet, we had a 2PM scheduled tour of the Berliner Kindl brewery. Back on trains, subways, and trams. The brewery tour was sweet. It cost 9 Euros and included sampling brews in the brewery pub. We all got wasted. The Friday night was dinner and more pub hopping - lots of drinking as usual.
Saturday was the typical start, I met the guys at 9:30AM in the hotel lobby, we went for breakfast, then hit the city. The main thing we did on Saturday was hit up the Teknik museum - (Technology museum). It was well worth the 6 Euro admission fee. The place was huge. It was everything from early German technology - computer, film and photography, chemistry and medicine, auto and trains, textile, beer brewing, airplanes and boats, communications, just so much. It was awesome. We spent a few hours there. Berlin Saturday night life - dinner and pub hopping.
The last day - Sunday - I was up by 8AM, I got dressed and packed all my stuff back into my backpack, I checked out of the Generator Mitte hostel, put my backpack in the luggage room for the day, I met the guys at 9AM for breakfast at the café next door to the Arcotel, and by 10:30AM they were loading up their gear into their rented van and taking off to head home. We said our goodbyes, shook hands and hugged, wishing safe journeys home. Once again I still had the Sunday afternoon alone in East Berlin. My flight home was at 9PM, I planned to take the 5:20PM train back to the airport - it may have been a bit early but I liked giving myself the time at airports - checking in, security checks, etc. So I had about six and a half hours of the day. I stopped back at the hostel to go to the luggage room and get my camera and jacket from my backpack, then headed straight to the T.V. tower. It was a fifteen minute walk. Two hundred and three meters above East Berlin with a 360 degree view. The ticket was 12.50 Euros. I only stayed up in the tower for about a half an hour - shot photos of the city and sat at the bar drinking a brew. I left the T.V. tower and walked the thirty minutes to the train station, I wanted to take care of the tickets arrangements right away. I got my ticket and a train schedule, then walked ten minutes back to the hostel. It was twenty minutes over 1PM, I had about four hours left. I sat at the hostel café drinking beer and writing. Now I felt like Kerouac or Bukowski.
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