Manatee Out of Water: Berlin - 10/02/13

Dearest Berlin,

I did not realize how much I loved you until I left you. What a whirlwind, especially the last day.

Our drive from Prague to Berlin was a little less eventful than the trip to Prague, but still featured beautiful countryside. We took a pit stop in Dresden where a mini-Oktoberfest was occurring and had some more MEAT (though I finally had a decent salad - praise his name, amen). When we got to Berlin we dropped the car off at the Tegel airport and were introduced to the transit system which was a little less straight forward than Munich, but this is because Berlin is a much larger city.

The penthouse apartment Dustin zeroed in on did not disappoint in any way. The pictures did not do it justice and like many places in Berlin, it had automated/mechanized features, such as the sky windows that would close if it started raining. I guess the only downfall, if there was any, is that we had to walk up a large set of stairs over and over again. I think it was something equal to 9 flights since each apartment was 2 stories high. Anyway, it was well worth it and it helped me work off all of those meat calories.

Our first full day we headed to Checkpoint Charlie and to see one of the last remaining standing parts of the Berlin Wall. I have to admit this is the first time I was somewhere historical where I literally had chills just imagining what it used to be like.

At midnight was DUSTIN'S 30TH BIRTHDAY (so ollld) so we went to a "gay" bar nearby (in Berlin it seems the line between gay and straight bars is very fuzzy depending on the location) which was packed and covered in fuzzy red walls with distinctive lighting. We had a few drinks, and decided to take it easy.

The next day, "officially" Dustin's 30th birthday is also a national holiday, German Unity Day, celebrating their reunification in 1990. We didn't realize what a popular holiday this was and we went to Parliament (Reichstag) to try to get lunch, as it's the only Parliament building in the world where foreigner's can have a meal. It also offers spectacular views. Once we got to the area we realized that this was an impossible feat - there were thousands of people crowding into a closed off fairground area for celebration. We poked around and had some fair food, where I discovered currywurst and I don't get along.

As I noted on Facebook, it turned out the owner of the apartment we rented is a famous German voice actress. She was sweet and left Dustin a bottle of champagne for his birthday with a card in the fridge so we enjoyed the bottle, and I proceeded to break a champagne glass while I was getting ready in the bathroom. Thanks, Claudia, for not docking us on the Airbnb review for that. We headed out to a bar for gay night - it was packed to the gills so Darryl and I didn't last long and left Dustin to enjoy himself. :)

The next day was Darryl's last day so we spent some time one on one as noted in my previous sad Sally post. We tried to find one of the leftover watchtowers from the Berlin Wall and ended up in the wrong spot at the Soviet War Memorial at Treptower Park. Traveling is all about flexibility so we weren't disappointed and I could not believe the size of the most famous statue (36 feet tall!!), which is of a Soviet solder holding a German child, standing on a broken swastika.

We then went to one of the top rated restaurants in Berlin - a burger joint! - which was amazing. Burgermeister did not disappoint, and the bacon was actual "real" AMERICUHN bacon. I am often saddened in other counties/regions when I end up with a plate of ham or their interpretation of bacon. We stayed up really late as I booked Darryl a 6am flight (mistake), and said our goodbyes.

The next day was pretty much a wash because I didn't sleep well after staying up with Darryl, so Dustin and I stayed in that night with some Spanish red wine and had an evening full of laughter that was much needed.

Our last day... wow. We went to a late brunch - brunch outside of America can consist of a variety of foods, like 'traditional' breakfast food, then chicken wings, pasta salad, spaetzle, lasagna.. you never know. It was delicious and then we went to try to get into one of the most exclusive clubs in Berlin - Berghain.

Some clubs in Berlin are a 24 hour deal so we headed to the club at 1pm, which was one of the most surreal experiences of my life. We got in thanks to a connection through a friend and worked our way up the floors of the (pitch black except the top floor) club where crowds of people were dancing their faces off. I wont go into detail about what else is offered at Berghain, but we did not participate. :) Except in the ice cream bar! We danced and hung out for a few hours and then headed back out into daylight.

We made a reservation for dinner at Parliament after we were unsuccessful the first time, so went back for a fancy dinner. I unfortunately have to equate dining at the Parliament to dining at the Space Needle - overpriced and not good. But we were able to get into the dome and take some cool pictures.. at which time I broke my camera. I sent it home with Dustin for repairs and am really happy I brought a back up camera along.