Today we left for our four-day trip to Berlin. We had to meet at 8.30 outside the building in which our language class was held. Stopping by a bakery after getting off the bus into town, we stocked up with some bread for the road. Finally getting on the bus at 9.20, our show got onto the road. Around 13.00, we stopped at a German rest stop for lunch. German rest stops are pretty fancy, usually combining a fast food restaurant, a convenience store, and a “petrol” station. From those who tried it, the German Burger King that was located at this rest stop was even better than some American Burger King locations.
Upon reaching Berlin around 15.00, the first thing I noticed were many, many political signs hanging all over the city. I especially noticed signs for the “Piraten Partei” and one against Muslim treatment of women, saying “Unseren Frauen bleiben frei!” (“Our women stay free!”). We checked into a place called Heart of Gold Hostel, six people to a room with bunk beds. Plain accommodations, but fun, and sufficient for a group of people who probably would not be spending much time in their rooms, aside from sleeping.
Shortly, I shall be writing a post in which I introduced all the “players” in my program, but for now I will start easing in on using names instead of “friend(s).”
After getting settled in our rooms, a group of us went along with Erin (friend from California, in my same CEPA program, goes to UC Davis), whose friend lives here in Berlin and who was going to show us around the city. We grabbed dinner at a noodle place in one of the train stations, then walked around the city in the evening for a few hours, before ending up at a place where Erin’s friend used to work.
Called “The Pub,” or something very much like that, food and drinks were served in a unique way here. In the middle of each table were four beer taps, pointing in different directions, with a rotating digital screen over the top of it. From this screen each person could manage their own personal tab, order food and drinks without having to call over a waiter, order music requests to be played, and play games. The main attraction, however, was the taps. Upon entering the place, one of the employees seated us, “activated” the table, and brought us glasses. This allowed one to serve themselves as much or as little as they desired, from the tap, and one paid by volume taken. While other drinks could be ordered via the digital screen, the only beer on tap in the middle of the table was the special Berliner pilsner, Berliner being the brand, local of course, and pilsner being the type of beer. As it turned out, pilsner really was not much to my liking. There was certain spiciness to it that I did not much like.
We got to experience more of Berlin at night on our way back to the hostel. In a way, Berlin reminded us a lot of New York. The various sections of the city…ethnic areas, high-roller fashion streets, university areas…all actually gave us the impression at times that we were not, in fact, in Germany.
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