1. i'm a liar
2. uh...
3. i'm on another continent
Moving on. I've decided to work on the next two segments of my horribly unkempt travel blog one after another, much like the the matrix and lord of the rings trilogies, because the next two combined are almost as good as the first one.
episode 2: hello berlin. i've missed you so. (or: before the midnight train to amsterdam)
I should preface this segment by saying that i'm actually writing this on the train OUT of amsterdam (and posting while in Bruges) and also there is no midnight train INTO amsterdam at least not from berlin. where you should be pretending i'm writing this.
being in Berlin again was a trip, literally and figuratively. I was both surprised at how much of berlin i remembered from the first time i was there and also with how little i apparently saw of the city at that time. one fact remains: berlin is still on the official list of cities i would live in outside of the bay area. for your (read: my) consideration, that list:
-portland
-berlin
-tokyo (pending)
-hong-kong (pending)
I was really excited when we got into town because we were able to find a room at the hostel generator, which is where we had originally stayed. Many of the fond memories i had from berlin were from that hostel. several years later i have realized this was because i was a kid. which is exactly what that place was filled with: kids. i'm young, but this place made us feel depressingly old. shit-tons of loud, gangly, awkward pre/actual teens were running amok and i could not share in there fun because i had already had it. Something i didn't remember about the generator is that it actually lies on the outskirts of the city proper, situated in an area that can only be described by telling you to think about where the ebay and yahoo buildings are in that area near first street where it starts to give way to santa clara and alviso. my old memories of that place remained untarnished, but making new ones there was going to be difficult.
The dönner shop around the corner from the generator was still there! in fact a couple of the guys that worked there SEVEN YEARS AGO still worked there. I'm sure i find that a lot more exciting than they do (or should). This place was actually surprisingly better than my memory served. it was open 24hrs and had a bar! this is where manni and i had established our temporary watering hole. a respite from the screaming children relishing their first legal beers.
One of our last nights there i was in a drinking mood (as you probably know i often find myself in). after a long day out, zim retired and manni and i took down a few rounds of 1.50 bier, pomme fritte, and jaeger bombs. before we realized it, the place was overrun with bros! They were a college football (not soccer) team that were in town for a few days before playing some team in prague. apparently american football is starting to pick up a following out here. i wish cricket would do the same back home. So shortly after we introduced ourselves and met a few of the guys they all took off for some club. we stayed and chilled with another round and eventually made the acquaintance of the team's coaches and chaperones who were actually pretty cool to chill and drink with.
They headed inside while we continued to hang out outside and a lone bro approached. "oh no!" he exclaimed (it's story time now in case you didn't catch that) "What's wrong?" we asked. "I want a drink, but i can't go in there" he lamented. "Why not?" we continued inquisitively. "the deal is we're allowed to drink out here, as long as it's not at the same place as our coaches." he explained. "not a problem!" and with that manni went in the shop and came out with another round of jaeger bombs...or a bier...my memory's kind of fuzzy....anyway. So while we imbibed we asked him where the rest of his bro-kind were and he explained that they were at some place called club matrix. now i was kinda faded at this moment, but that still doesn't explain why i thought it would be a good reason to go there with him to meet up with the rest of his team. even more unbeknownst to me is why/how i got manni to agree to go.
25 minutes later (and almost getting the lone bro and ourselves completely lost) we made it to the club. dark as fuck: check. thumping bass: check. american pop/club beats: yup. I don't know why, but i was excited. being out felt nice. we lost the dude and never found his friends. I'm actually fine with that. we then awkwardly bounced from room to room each with its own dj and bar. if there was some kind of organization to the club and its rooms, it never made itself clear to me. i kept drinking. i'm pretty sure manni stopped. eventually we ended up outside and i got into a conversation with somebody at the bar. i was happy i finally found somebody to talk to, but i'm sure i was the opposite of eloquent. i was speaking some hybrid of english and deutsch which i'm sure was hard to understand even if you spoke both languages fluently.
Now at some point during this conversation manni told me he was ready to take off. i heard him, i was just too committed to care. manni really was ready to take off though so he did. and i stayed. my conversation ended shortly after as my new single-serving friend re-joined their party so i went back inside determined to have a good time. this is very difficult when you're drunk in a place that doesn't exactly inspire long conversation filled with people that barely speak your language. i figured a bottle of water and a sit-down might be in order. i do love a good people-watch. two for one drinks applied for the water too which helped. i sat down and enjoyed the scenery while drinking incredibly fizzy water. a girl and her friend looked inquisitively over at me. I'm thinking more single-serving friends. That apparently was not on their minds. "hey!" she shouted at me. I stood up as not to be rude. "hey, what's going on?" i replied. "what's your fuckin' problem?!" she yelled. "umm what?" i was confused. had i bumped her earlier when getting my waters? "I know you're a fuckin cop, what're you trying to do?" she screamed rather accusingly. "what? haha, i'm sorry i'm not a cop. i'm just a drunken american. i'm also alone as you can probably tell". "oh!" she looked kind of embarrassed at this point. "i'm sorry i thought you were like a cop or something" she explained in what i'm pretty sure was an australian accent. "nope." i said. i would've assumed this would move on to a "where are you from/what are you doing here" conversation. I was wrong again. after the potential threat had been neutralized, she walked back to her friend and they walked away to a room with another thumping soundtrack. it was probably time to leave. so i did. well i tried to anyway. i was convinced i had checked my bag when i came in but all the coat-check girl could find was my hoodie. after about 20 minutes and lots of frustration i gave it up for lost and decided i really needed to head back to the hostel.
For those of you following at home, you've already probably pieced together that i am at this point:
-still drunk
-far away from my hostel
-alone
I stepped out of the club and found...daylight. what the fuck? how long was i in there? what time is it? i have to pee.
Those were about the only thoughts i was able to muster.
Just before i had left, i "knew" how to get back home. the frustration of losing my bag had apparently flushed any of that knowledge out of my head though and that made the trip back interesting. i put my headphones on, threw on some bonobo, and started walking...somewhere. i walked and walked until one of the tram stations looked familiar. that didn't happen, so i decided to just jump on a random tram and see if it eventually took me to a station that looked familiar. this was not a better plan. in fact it was worse, as i kept falling asleep on the tram missing many stations. i finally got off and tried the walking plan again. it failed again. i really needed to pee. i decided to try the tram plan again (i guess i didn't learn the first time). Success!! i know alexander platz! hooray large landmark train stations. i peed for what seemed like an hour and finally jumped on a train that i knew would take me home (and had the previous day).
my battery's about to die. i will post this and continue the story in episode 3: revenge of berlin
- Chem
Location:Langestraat,Bruges,Belgium
