All Aboard the Berlin Banter Blog!

Hello my darling readers,


I'm actually writing this within a few days of me arriving back from Berlin and haven't left it for a few weeks as I usually do. I hope you are proud of me and appreciate this great display of effort!

I suppose that I should start at the very beginning, as I hear that it's a very good place to start... My journey started at 7am on Friday when I got a taxi to the station. Unluckily, my driver was one of those ridiculously chatty taxi drivers. Now, I have nothing against them and I would even go as far as to say that it's quite pleasant to have a friendly taxi driver, but there should be a law that they are not allowed to talk to you before 9am. I know this sounds very antisocial, but the last thing I want to do at that time of the morning is to make inane small talk with people that I will never see again, particularly in a language that isn't my mother-tongue! It was all the usual questions like "Where are you from?" at the beginning, but once he found out I was from London, he started telling me a story about how he went to London once for three days when he was fifteen, and asked whether I knew someone called Peter who lives in St. Albans. Funnily enough, I didn't. For all of you Non-British folk, just because we live on a small island, does not mean that we all know each other!!! Needless to say, I was relieved to get out and onto my bus to Frankfurt airport, where I could plug in my iPod and nap!

Once arriving at the airport (ridiculously early, because it was the only bus that would get me there on time) I checked in and decided to get something to eat. Now, in an English airport, it is usually wise to eat after you have checked in and gone through security as there is less stress and there are usually a better selection of restaurants. Not in Frankfurt am Main, though... (Or Berlin Tegel for that matter). There was only one restaurant after security and I ended up paying a ridiculous amount for a Flammkuchen that I didn't even eat half of because it was a bit grim. By the time I arrived in Cottbus, I was starving, so was thankful when Emily suggested that we went and got something to eat!

Emily gave me the guided tour of Cottbus as we walked from the station to the main part of town. She said that is was fairly typically East German, but it was pretty dark and misty, so I didn't really get a chance to have a look. She showed me where she worked and we went to a lovely restaurant, which is quite like Giraffe in England. Em recommended the cocktails, so we set to work deciphering the mammoth cocktail list. Finally I settled on a strawberry margarita and Emily decided on a kiwi type thing. When the waitress came to take our order, we said which cocktails we'd like and she replied in German. I didn't catch what she had said, so said "Ich weiß nicht!" (I don't know!) Emily didn't understand what she had said either, but instead of saying that she didn't know, she decided to ignore her and hope that she went away. After a few awkward seconds of her looking at us expectantly, Emily just turned round to her and said "Ja." This seemed to satisfy the waitress and off she went. We just collapsed into giggles as we really didn't have a clue what we'd just agreed to. We were soon to find out, though... As our cocktails arrived, there were four on the tray and I thought "Oh the girls on the table next to us have ordered the same! What a coincidence!" How wrong I was. By saying "Ja", we had actually agreed to double cocktails! The waitress looked ridiculously shocked when Emily and I erupted into giggles again! Thankfully though, it was a situation that could have potentially turned out badly, but actually turned out quite well!

[Our double cocktails faux pas]

[Margarita time!]

The next morning, we got up early for our day trip to Berlin. Berlin is about an hour away from Cottbus on the train, so we lugged ourselves out of bed and caught the train at 9am. On the train into the city, the East and West divide was still really noticeable, which I was quite surprised about. Our first stop on our tour was what remains of the Berlin wall, which we headed to after meeting up with Emily's friend Martha at the Hbf. The station that we got off at to see the wall was in East Berlin, and I was quite shocked to see how different it was from what I'd seen of the West. I think the term that one of us used to describe it was "bleak". I know that it's just one part of the city, but I would have thought that it would have been more developed, particularly as it is a tourist destination and due to the fact that there is an O2 arena there. The arena looks so out of place and, setting it apart from everything else, I really did feel like I had been transported back to East Berlin in the 1980's. The wall is covered in all sorts of graffiti, some sending out political messages and some purely decorative. It was so interesting to see and one my personal highlights of the day.

[Berlin Wall]

[Half East, Half West]

The next stop was Checkpoint Charlie in Friedrichstraße. Friedrichstraße is quite clearly the shopping district of Berlin and it felt quite similar to London. I didn't know what I was expecting Checkpoint Charlie to be like, but I certainly didn't picture it the way it is! The best way to describe it, is that that it's  just chilling in the middle of a road full of shops. It's actually situated right next to one of the biggest capitalist brands that you can think of; McDonalds. (Some irony there, I feel.) Seeing as it was my first time in Berlin, I completely sold out to the tourism industry and paid €2 to have my photo taken with a soldier in front of the Checkpoint. As Emily took the photo, the soldier said to me in a strong Russian accent: "You have boyfriend?" I was a bit shocked as I told him "No". As I said it, Emily told us that she'd taken the photo but the soldier told her to take another one. He then held out his arm for me to take and as I did so, he said "You have boyfriend now." It took all of my concentration not to laugh in the middle of the photo being taken!

[My new "boyfriend" and I at Checkpoint Charlie]

After lunch in the German version of Wagamama, we headed down to the Brandenburg gate. When we got there, we suddenly realised that none of us knew what the Brandenburg gate was. Such bad German students! Thankfully, we found an information board that told us everything that we needed to know. In case you were wondering, it's a former city gate. You learn something new every day! We then walked down to the Reichstag, which is a really impressive building. Unfortunately you have to book tickets in advance, so we couldn't go in, but I suppose that it just gives me an excuse to go back to Berlin, doesn't it? At that point, Martha left us and Emily took me to see the holocaust memorial. I have quite mixed feelings towards the memorial. It is basically a series of large concrete blocks in the middle of a square. I didn't like it too much as there was nothing telling you what it was and if nobody told you, then you wouldn't think anything of it. I suppose that's where the problem lies for me, it was too easy to overlook. Having said that, as you walked deeper into the labyrinth of stone, it did have a sense of atmosphere to it that is appropriate for what it symbolises. I have heard a lot of different opinions about it and if you haven't been before, I would definitely encourage you to go and see what you make of it.

[Brandenburg Gate]

[Emily and I infront of the Reichstag]

[Holocaust memorial]

[Walking through the memorial]

Later on, Emily and I headed towards Potsdamer Platz, where there was a little Christmas market going on. None of the others were open yet and in some ways, it's a shame that I didn't visit a few weeks later when they would be open! We then decided to get something to eat before heading back to Cottbus. We ended up in Alexanderplatz, where the iconic TV tower is located. Unfortunately, we weren't able to see the top, as it was so misty! I caught a glimpse of it on my way back into the city on my way home the next day, though!

[Em and I being silly while waiting for the train]

So there you have it, my weekend in Berlin in a nutshell! I had an amazing time and would definitely like to go back again.

Thanks, as ever, for reading,



Bel xxx

P.S. In other news, after being inspired by Emily riding her bike this weekend, I finally got my saddle lowered today so that I can actually ride mine now! I christened it by riding down to the Mosel river and back up through town. As you may know, I'm not the most coordinated person in the world, and I received a few amused looks as I wobbled my way through town. Oh well, practice makes perfect!