Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Day One "Berlin" - Off to a rocky start...


When oh when will we have teleporters! 
Seriously 26 odd hours in a buzzing metal shell sucks. But I'm in Berlin now so it's all good and that's the only complaint you'll hear from me about it.

We landed in Berlin at 10.05am and were greeted by a slap of fresh cold crisp air as it was -1 degrees.  Germans in their typically efficient manner had us off the plane and out of the airport with 15mins of touching down. Got to love 'em.  

Once we step foot off the plane it was the first moment I became truly excited about the trip, even to the point of doing a little Gene Kelly dancing jump coming of the plane, just a tad excite!.  :)

We took the cab down to Nollendorf Platz to our apartment, and along the way I began to remember why I love this city so much. The colours of the city during winter are some beautiful, the contrasting buildings, and the people. There are still areas of the city that have barely been touched since the war, homes that are so small that they can really only be called a shack, but even that shack has a sense of pride to it.

Of course the real fun started once we arrived at the apartment, we realised the german prepaid sims had not full activated yet, then both phones crashed and could get the started again, then couldn’t get the number for the guy we booked our apartment whom was going to be meeting us at the apartment! So after a comedy of errors we finally located or landlords number and David went in to a store to ask if he could make a call.  Thank the gods we had the foresight to arrange some cash before arriving so we could at lest get some coffees! :) It’s all about perspective.

Just as David walked into the store at ask if he could use their phone, our landlord arrived and showed us into our apartment. Turns out he thought we were calling him once we arrived and had tried to call our aussie numbers, but due to our phone issues we had no idea. Oh well.

Lovely apartment on the third floor and so very very quiet. So quiet in fact, that I have that post dance party ringing in my ears from the constant plane noise for the past 26 hours.  After sorting out the phone and sim card issues, getting online, showering (oh it’s good to be clean!) and changing it off to get some lunch.

We took a quick walk around the corner to one of our favourite cafes, Café Berio for hot chocolate, delicious burger and cheesecake. It’s good to be back in Berlin and see that some things have still not changed. It’s a smallish café with art on the walls and decorated in a slightly tacky 1930’s style, but not in a bad way. It feels comfortably gay and tacky and very welcoming, the boys always have a smile to spare and the service is great.

Upon walking back to the apartment, via the long way around, we bumped into my best friend Raz who had arrive the previous day.  Once again all is right in the universe.

Berlin, I’ve missed you!


"Let the mind be enlarged to the grandeur of the mysteries, and not the mysteries contracted to the narrowness of the mind." 
- Francis Bacon

No comments:

Day trip to Neuschwanstein Castle

Our second day trip while in Munich was to Neuschwanstein Castle, located in Schwangau, Bavaria. We took the train out there as a part ...