Berlin Day 1

Saturday, July 17, 2010
Today we went to see Hamburg, which draws most in the harbour area of town. It did however, have a few markets and walking areas that we went to check out first. The first thing we saw once we got off of the subway was a triathlon finish line. So the streets were pretty busy and lots of cheering so we just wondered around for awhile and walked in the general direction of the harbour. Once we arrived at the harbour, it was a pretty dodgy area of town, we found a beach bar that overlooked the harbour to sit and grab a drink at (No worries it was 11am by then). The bar had sand and lounge chairs and we got to see the boats coming and going from the harbour. The next big attraction in Hamburg is a building shaped like a ship. It comes to a point at the front of the building like a ship and had balcony’s that we supposed to look like decks. The building was pretty disappointing to say the least. It vaguely looked like a ship but was in the middle of nowhere (merchant’s district) and wasn’t very exciting. It was kind of a letdown. Needless to say Hamburg didn’t have a whole lot to see although we didn’t do the free walking tour here so we probably missed a few things but all in all was just pretty chill. We had noticed that a lot of people were dressed up all day and there were a lot of 70’s costumes and luau gear. So we grabbed someone to ask what was going on...it was Hamburg Day!!! Ahaha...well not really...but it was a major German holiday and Hamburg is famous for their celebration. Too bad we were leaving for Berlin but oh well...can’t win them all. We were pretty amped about heading to Berlin though so we got ourselves to the train station and off we went. Berlin here we come!!! We arrived around 7 or so to our hostel (again just on the edge of central Berlin) had a shower, got dressed, grabbed some pamphlets and were ready to paint the town. We decided to grab a quite bite to eat and hit the pub crawl. We found this outdoor restaurant with German food and sauerkraut (which is not easy to find) so we sat down and asked for an English menu, decided and the server came to take our order. So he had said something to us in German and I asked I am sorry what does that mean in English. He didn’t understand what I said so asked me to repeat it. So I did, and with a confused look just asked “food or drink” of which Heather responded with “both”. AND THAT WAS IT!! He stormed off and was mad about something. We weren’t sure what happened and thought we may be grabbing someone else to come talk to us as we couldn’t understand each other. Oh no!! He just walked away and completely ignored us. We tried to wave him down a few times but it became clear that he was angry about something or perhaps we somehow offended him. Who knows? So we decided to leave and eat elsewhere. Anyways, back to the pub crawl... Berlin had an alternative pub crawl though that took you to more local spots and different bars than the typical club pub crawls. We decided to do something different and give it a try. Why not? We started at a hippy bar, with mushrooms on the ceiling, and 70’s tunes and was just a strange decor, but the beer was cheap !! We met some Irish boys and one from L.A. that we ended up hanging out with the rest of the night. Next we went to a “goth” bar that was playing Bryan Adams when we arrived...hehe. The decor was definitely goth and the music did get a little more rock with some Motley Crue but that was the extent of that. We also met some girls originally from Vancouver and now teaching overseas in Cairo, South East Asia and Germany. They were pretty chill. The next bar and the most unusual was the Ping pong bar. HILARIOUS!! It’s a round robin game of ping pong, so you walk around and hit the ball on your turn and once out leave until the game has been won. Then it starts again! It was pretty fun although we weren’t great with our coordination! A lot of locals were pretty into it but we still had a good time. The next place was pretty chill, not sure what kind of bar is was, pub like I guess. This is where the drunk L.A. guy broke his glass into Heather’s glass. That was about the time we lost him and presumed he went home. Oh well! We had a dance party at the next bar with crazy lights and some good tunes and finished at a “club” which was half Karaoke. The karaoke was a hit, the club, not so much! It was a ton of fun though and definitely not your typical night out. All in all, a good first night in Berlin!