19th August, 9:24am Berlin

So day three of my holibobs and back at my favourite place for a cup of tea, Marche. Probably ‘cause I’m enjoying the practice at asking for tea.

Last night was filled with some strange and pretty dark dreams. Mostly vague and sexual (putting that down to the Helmut Newton exhibition) The other was about a wee guy who volunteers at my work. In my dream he appeared at the door with a horrific look on his face and collapsed into my arms vomiting a strange white liquid in an Aliens style. I awoke after that one and lay in the dark of my scabby hotel room letting the strange feeling of foreboding and fear that comes after a nightmare soak into me.

Another thing about last night was that I got a couple of pretty choice insect bites both of which are on the left hand side of my back. Awesome, more stuff for me to complain about in this diary (I’m such a moan).

Today I’m off to the New National Gallery where I’m led to believe I’ll see some paintings by Magritte. After that I’m going to try and find a gallery that Kendra mentioned in her Email. It’s on a street called ‘Orientalburger’. Well, that’s what my brain keeps telling me it’s called.

Man, they dig the wasp here (if you know what I mean).

I have it in my head that this trip will get me closer to my dad somehow.
I’ll write more about that when I get back through.

18th August, 2009 9pm Berlin

Back on the Kurfenstendamm Strasse at the Marche having another tasse Schwartz tee mit milch ordered in German and I didn’t get a horrified look for it.
Speaking of horrific things, about a quarter of a mile ago I felt my blister pop and the water from it soak into my sock.

Fascinating fact: The water that builds up in a blister is actually the plasma that makes up blood but without the red blood cells.

Question: How do I know that?

I’m feeling a lot better than when I last wrote. My sore feet are really not helping. Totally gave up on the TV tower and just sat in the square reading my book and knocking back what appeared to be Berlin’s equivalent of a Big Issue seller.

Was a pretty mammoth trek today. Would be nice to figure out how far.

Last night I tried the German version of Italian cuisine which seemed pretty Italian (not that I’d really know). Went for the German version of a Chinese meal tonight and it wasn’t bad at all. Had pork ribs in a very subtly Chinese gravy followed by sweet and sour king prawns which were also not bad, similar to what you would get in Glasgow.

Managed to get by with my crap German and the waitress seemed to appreciate my apologies for knowing such little German. My pride at getting through the meal ordering process was short lived however. In the street I forgot about the cycle path and was chased off it by some chiming bike bells like the no good Johnny foreigner that I am.

Some highlights from today:
Seeing a man speed by on a big joyfully singing to himself.
A man with a superman t-shirt juggling fire.

18th August 4:30 2009 at the TV Tower


Feeling a bit blue. Morning was pretty good. Went to the museum of Photography and looked at some photos by Helmut Newton. They were totally amazing. I saw a guy that looked really like him but since I’ve been back I’ve since found out he died five years ago, ha ha.
After that it was a trip through the Tiergarten (which is becoming my favourite place in Berlin) to the National Gallery. Some amazing sculpture and lovely paintings but a bit frilly and boring after a while.
The queue for the TV Tower was so long I didn’t bother going up. Opted instead to try some Currywürst. Obviously my German is causing more offense than I thought or maybe it’s just a cultural thing but if I had a gun that woman would be dead if not the würst for wear!!! Ha ha!!!

Feeling a bit isolated now and this want to talk German is starting to make me feel a bit inept (it’s not like I studied it for four years in Secondary school!!!) It probably doesn’t help that my shoes have raped my feet. My pinky toes are just all blister now. Been walking since 8am give or take a five minute rest here or there.

Travels In Berlin 09 part 1

18th August 9:35 2009 Berlin

So here I am drinking Black Tea with milk that I asked for with my shoddy German and sitting on the Kurfürstendamm.
It’s my second day here in Germany. Yesterday was a fairly epic journey.
Got into Berlin at about 1pm and then made my way to the Bannhöf to catch some train Savingyplatz. In my head this was going to be easy.
Somehow I got a ticket out of the crazy vending machines and just stepped on the the first train I saw. I saw a family sitting on the train looking pretty German and so asked them, in as much German as I could muster, if this was the right train. They looked pretty confused. Luckily there was a woman sitting behind me who filled me in and assured me I was on the right train, in English of course.

I think there’s some kind of rule about Scottish people being drawn to each other. From the outset my journey has been plagued by these two Scots guys who were at the bus stop waiting to go to the airport back in Glasgow. We’ll meet them again later.

Out of the train at Savingyplatz and then a bit of a hunt for my hotel. When I got there I was impressed by how shabby it felt (not what I was expecting at all) but when I got up for breakfast this morning the sheer volume of food made up for that. Look...

I didn’t really want to get too caught up on the touristy vibe straight away and so got onto a main road and walked.
I passed some cool street performers, a mime with a puppet of a head in their hand (very freaky), some break-dancers dancing to a guy playing drums. here was also a strange sport event (probably to do with the games) which including children racing a cardboard cut out of a famous sports personality and a Napoleon Dynamite lookalike doing yo-yo tricks along to the Blues Brothers version of ‘Everybody Needs Somebody (to Love)”.

Further along the road I came to the Wilhelm Memorial Church, the big gold angel which I also went the hundreds of stairs to the top of. I wandered through the Tiergarten, saw some naked people, some alpacas and some Hyenas.

Some highlights of the day were; 5 crows landing in front of me while I sat in a wee park at 5 o’clock, a caterpillar being attacked by ants and having a wasp crawl across me without stinging me.

Stopped on the way back to the hotel to get some toiletries, cause of the stupid c**ting travel restrictions. Stopped in this wee italian restaurant, failed at asking for a table, failed at asking for orange juice. It was totally awesome.
For starters I had seafood salad and then a ham and mushroom pizza for the main. T’was good but pretty pricy.

It was during that meal that I saw the two Scots guys again and so shouted at them. They didn’t seem to happy to see me.

Ended up back at the hotel at about 9pm with very sore feet and legs shaking from fatigue. Showered (which was amazing) turned on the TV and promptly fell unconscious.

Awoke at 7am today and had rollmop, pate bread, cheese and juice for breakfast and tried to plan my day. There is so much to do in Berlin it’s hard to know where to start. My pal Kendra, who’s from Berlin (I think) gave me a some places to check out but I’m finding it hard to get my bearings and find the places on the map. The guide book is confusing too.

I’m just about to check out the photographic gallery which is round the corner. I think I just got chatted up by a German guy round there. He seemed to be asking if I had my willy pierced too. Maybe he was just interested.