On the way to Berlin, I met two Korean girls, Younghee and Eunhee, because none of us were sure about which train to board. The two of them are sisters who live together in Seoul, and now they are travelling through Europe for a few weeks. Neither one speaks English perfectly, but Younghee lived in Canada for a year, so she does alright and helps Eunhee out if she has trouble.
They were not planning on coming to Berlin until Sunday, but because the B&B in Praha had so many unreasonable rules (about noise, hours, internet, etc.) they decided to leave a day early. Thus, when we arrived, the first item on the agenda was finding a hostel. As luck would have it, the hostel at which I am staying had an extra twin room available, so they decided to stay there.
To get to the hostel, we had to take the 240 bus, but as soon as we found the bus stop, rain started to pour on us and within seconds, we were soaked.
I was very happy when we found the hostel, St. Christopher’s, not only because it was dry, but because it seemed very nice. Downstairs was a large, clean bar, restaurant, and internet cafe that always had people in it. My room was also clean, but it had eight people, so I was a little unsure about it. After changing and claiming a bed (not that important actually, since there was only one left), I went back downstairs to meet Younghee and Eunhee for dinner.
Even though the hostel served food, we wanted a really nice dinner, plus it had stopped raining, so we decided to go out. After walking for about ten minutes towards the East Berlin TV tower, we found a really good authentic German restaurant. I had a ‘Berlin Meatball’ with fried egg and a side of potato salad. The meatball was made of pork instead of beef, had a lot of spice, and was deep fried. Very delicious… The potato salad was much more like I am used to than the one in Switzerland, which made me happy. I noticed that Younghee and Eunhee ate off of each other’s plates without hesitation and without asking, so I remarked that I could tell they are sisters. Instead, I learned that in Korea, sharing food like that is very common and happens between friends at almost every meal. Unfortunately, I had already cleaned my plate, so I had nothing to offer them. Instead, when dessert came (I ordered potato pancakes with apple sauce), we split that. As it turns out, this was the best meal I would have in Berlin.
After dinner, we came back to the hostel to talk a bit more before bed. The two of them are very nice and decided to buy me a drink. I said they shouldn’t, but they did anyway.
I didn’t sleep so well, sadly. I fell asleep fairly easily, but was repeatedly awakened by people returning from clubbing. By 5:00, one guy had started to snore very loudly, the sun was up and shining through the window onto my bed, and the girl with the bed under mine arrived back very drunk and amazed at my blond hair. I finally got up at 8:30, took a shower (one not good shower for ~40 people), and went downstairs for breakfast.
Thankfull, breakfast at St. Christopher’s was really good. Cereal, orange juice, apple juice, toast, jam, salomi, and cheese. I also checked my email; I had a few from Erin about apartments. She looked at some and sent me emails about them. Some had fees for real estate agents, and some didn’t. I agreed with her choice that the one being rented by owner was best and said that if she didn’t see a better one soon, she might as well go ahead and rent it.
By now, it was 10:25, so I had to go join my tour group. A company called NewEurope runs free NewBerlin walking tours every day and picks people up from the hostel at 10:30. Younghee and I wanted to do that, while Eunhee wanted to spend the day in museums (she plans to be a curator someday).
The tour was very good. Our guide, Erica, showed us the Brandenberg Gate, a Frank Gehry building that just looked like a plain bank on the outside, sections of the Berlin Wall, the Reichstad, the location of Hitler’s bunker, various churches, Nazi and East German buildings, monuments, and Museum Island. I really liked most of the monuments in Berlin. The new ones, like the Monument to the Murdered Jews of Europe, or the memorial of Nazi book burnings are more subtle and thoughtful than big statues, etc.. The tour actually lasted about four hour, so at the end, we were very hungry. We ate lunch at a Bratwurst stand and sat on a bench outside. Next, we wanted to explore the underground section of the Holocaust memorial more, but we couldn’t find our way back to it. Instead, we ended up listening to the orchestra practice for an outdoor concert and walking through a park in West Berlin next to the old Berlin Wall until we realized that it was after 6:00, which is when we should have met Eunhee back at St. Christopher’s. When we arrived, it was almost 7:00, so we felt very bad that Eunhee worried about us. For dinner, we went to an Italian restaurant and had pizza.
I came back to my room to go to sleep, and discovered the drunk girl that woke me up in the morning. Her name is Nomi, and she turned out to be really nice, actually. She gave me a lot of advice about Barcelona, where she lived for a month. In the States, Nomi is an elementary school teacher in the Bronx. I started talking about Boston, and discovered that the other person in the room went to Harvard, but is moving to NYC in the Fall to go to Columbia.
In the morning, I had to check out of my room. I had decided to stay one more night, but there was only a single available, so I had to take that for 40 Euro.
I met Eunhee and Younghee at the TV tower in the morning. They were very apologetic for being 40 minutes late. Apparently, their new hostel was barracks-style, with 35 people in one room in a dark basement, so they didn’t know what time it was. Next, we went to the Jewish Museum (just about the only museum open on Monday) until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. The museum continued the Berlin trend of minimalism and symbolism in architecture, but in this case, I felt it was a detriment. Because it was a museum, a more coherent, informative exhibit would probably be better than trying to leave your visitors disoriented and confused, even when that feeling might help one empathize with the Jewish plight.
By now, both of the girls were starving because they skipped breakfast in their rush to the TV tower, and as it turns out, they are used to having big breakfasts every day. We ended up at a reasonably priced steakhouse for lunch, where I had tortillini carbonara. After lunch, we walked around a bit, checked them into their new hotel (they didn’t like the dorm, so they left), and went back to where the outdoor concert was going to be. It hadn’t yet started, so we went to a cafe for espresso and hot chocolate. The menu was German, but the waitress was Korean, which worked out well for our group.
Unfortunately, the concert wasn’t free like we had hoped; it was actually 50 Euro… So, we listened outside the gate for two pieces, but finally just decided to leave. We didn’t know what to do, but because the girls were so late in booking a room, they ended up with a really nice (expensive) place on the 30th floor, so they invited me up to look at the view. We ended up watching “My Best Friend’s Wedding” in German and talking about differences between Korea and the US.
Upon my return to the hostel at 11, I checked my email (of course) and learned that Erin and I have been approved for our new apartment! Now I have a place to live, so I can start planning what to put in it!
