A Berlin Weekend

Saturday and Sunday Susan and I went into Berlin. Saturday started out rainy, but we made our train with plenty of time, and the weather improved – improved meaning that it stopped raining. It was very hot and humid until the late afternoon when a light breeze made the day spectacular.
When we arrived we decided to follow the signs to “Museum Island” and we bought a 7 euro ticket that covered all of Museum island for a day. We went through the Bode museum of sculptures and other artwork. It was a good size, but the collection was nothing spectacular. At one point I was in a room while an old woman with some kind of thick eastern European accent attempted to ask the guard where the staircase was in English. He just kept shaking his head and she said: “You don’t speak English do you? What am I going to do!?” I felt bad that she was getting so worked up, so I went over and told her that I spoke English. She asked me where the stairs were, and I remembered seeing a door at the end of a room I had just been in, so I explained to her that it was down the hallway and that the room was blue. After a few more minutes, I made my way back so that Susan and I could go down the stairs and leave. We found this old woman with a whole group of other old people, and they were all arguing, and she just kept yelling “blue room! Blue room!” I was so nervous that I had given them the wrong directions, so I got their attention and let them follow Susan and I. Turns out the room was blue – woops, and the door led to a balcony, not the staircase. I felt horrible, and the whole group seemed extremely confused and just kept arguing. Susan and I walked over to another guard and Susan asked him where the stairs were in German, he actually did direct us through a blue room that we had come through before, and I tried to get the attention of the large group, but they were just teeming and very upset and did not notice me. They were only a few feet from the guard, so I decided to leave it to him, though I still feel rather embarrassed that I was quite the opposite of help!
After that museum, we went to the Pergamum Museum, and it was amazing! We saw the Ishtar Gate (which was just too big to get into one photo), and the Greek temple of Telephos! Yes, the whole front of the temple was inside the museum! It was amazing. The whole structure was dedicated to ancient history, and it was absolutely amazing to behold. Afterward we wandered around a bit more, but it was already mid-afternoon, and we had promised to meet Mareen at some point. We sat down on the steps of the Berlin Dom (Cathedral) and called Mareen; turns out she was sitting on the lawn about a hundred yards in front of us. We got ice cream and then found dinner, at a restaurant we came across with a rather annoying waitress who hovered over us (literally, she was like, pressing against my back and watching me look through the menu), she was kind of annoying, and Mareen pointed out that tipping is not mandatory in Germany…
The ride home was very long. The train was about ten minutes late to begin with – which is not unusual here – but the already 3 hour train ride was extended by a twenty minute stop at one station while they were experiencing technical difficulties. Luckily there was a man whom I recognized that studies at the English Institute with us, because Susan didn’t understand the announcements they were making, and he told us what they were saying.
Sunday was also a nice day – and the sun even came out! Though we had an eventful train-ride down. You see, weekend regional tickets are very cheap, and they hold up to 5 people, so there are people who go to train stations or get on the trains and then wander up and down asking people if they can join on their weekend tickets. We’ve had several people ask us before, but each time we just played the dumb American card and they moved on. While on the train however, this man, probably in his 30s, came over to me and just would not stop talking! I finally got a few words in that I don’t speak German, and he just kept saying ticket! So I pointed him to Susan in the aisle across from me, who had our ticket (the one that holds up to five people) and he directed his attention to her. She understood that he wanted to get on our ticket, and he was so persistent and annoying that she showed it to him like he asked. He pointed out that we could hold up to 5 people on it, and that he and his friend would be willing to pay us 18 euros to get on our ticket. Finally we agreed, and he paid us and told us that he’d be back! We though, geez, hopefully he stays away, his talking was so annoying! But come back he did, and kept trying to talk to Susan and even me in his few words of English that made very little sense when he tried to string them together. He managed to get out of us that we were getting off in Berlin, and he said – I’ll be back for that! And he got up and left. Susan and I exchanged nervous glances – I really hoped this man was NOT trying to stick with us after we left the train! An old man came around and checked our tickets, and we told him that we had two older men on our ticket as well and he just nodded his head, punched our ticket and moved on. Later the man came back, and I pretended to not notice his presence on purpose, but it seemed like he was trying to buy the ticket from Susan, which is what she gathered too. After several more minutes of him not leaving her alone, she just gave him his money back and we left. Since we were supposed to meet Mareen at the first stop in Berlin, not the popular “Hauptbanhof” (main train station), we quickly got off the train in case the man came looking for us again.
We met up with Mareen, and the three of us took the U-Bahn (subway) about 20 minutes outside the center of the city, where there was a “culture carnival” going on that weekend. It was amazing. All day we wandered around and looked in booths with anything and everything from every country you could imagine! There was music from almost every booth, and they seemed to be having a competition as to which nationality could play their music louder. It was packed with people, just elbow to elbow, but I managed not to get anything stolen, which I found rather astonishing I must admit. There was even a parade that went from 12:30 pm to 9 pm. We only stood and watched for about an hour of it, but all the costumes and the dancing were spectacular. I didn’t even take any pictures because I was just mesmerized. It was a fantastic day – even if our feet did hurt pretty bad by the end of it. I started out with Indian food for lunch, then “softeis" as a snack, followed by a crepe with nutella, and finally a few churros. There was so much food I just wanted to try it all! But I restrained myself for numerous reasons. I bought a pair of glass earrings as my token of the day, which were pretty cheap for handmade glass jewelry (6 euros), and very pretty.
The train-ride back was uneventful (luckily) and Susan and I decided to go back to playing the dumb American card if someone asked to get our ticket again.
Today was a lazy day. We packed and checked things for our trip to Munich, on which we leave tomorrow. A 9 hour train-ride with one stop-over, I’m confident that we can handle it, though I’m not so confident that I won’t get stressed out at some point. We’ll be gone from Tuesday the 25th through Monday the 31st. I won’t be bringing my computer with me to the hostel, so you’ll all just have to wait another week to hear of my adventures. I know, I know, you’re all just yammering to hear more! And it’s completely understandable, I am one interesting person. So until next week – Gute Nacht!