Thursday night i hardly slept at all. I was excited for my trip and anxious that I would sleep through my alarm, so I woke up every 20 minutes and probably got about 2 hours of sleep. I got up at about 4:45 and heaed out the door at 5AM and rode my bike over to the train station. Even at 5AM there are at least 5 or 10 other people I see on bikes riding around to wherever they are going.
So I catch the 5:15 train and its moving pretty slowly for about 10 mins and then all of a sudden we just stop and all the lights go out. Uh oh. I’m not that concerned at the point because I still have plenty of time to get to the airport for my 06:50 flight. So we sit there for a long time and then I really start to get worried. The conductor comes on and says that basically the train won’t shift into the next gear and will only go a max of 30 km/h. I’m not sure what the normal operating speed is but I think its around 80km/h. so we limp into the next train station and they kick is off. its already 0615 by this time, so I’m definitely not making my flight. I catch the next train to schipol and get in around 7am. I pray that my flight is delayed or something but no such luck. I talked to the ticket agent at transavia and he says the next flight to berlin is not until Sunday. SUNDAY! They only fly one flight every other day to berlin. What kind of airline is that?? So I go to KLM, which is the only other airline flying to berlin Friday morning, and one way ticket is 200 euro. Ugh. So I call Thomas and explain the dilemma. I feel really upset and frustrated. I cried for about 20 seconds…. and then I got my shit together, quit feeling sorry for myself, and formulated a plan of action.
I walked down to the train station to see if I can get a high speed to berlin. There is one leaving in about an hour. I talked to the guy at the ticket counter and he says it will be about 105 euro for a one way ticket to berlin. So I tell him that I missed my flight because of the train etc. etc. and I’m able to negotiate a free ticket for the Netherlands portion of the journey. He says there’s nothing he can do about the portion of the train in germany, but it ultimately cuts the price in half so I take it. So for 50 euro I got a train ticket to berlin. The ride is about 6.5 hours, which puts me into berlin at about 3PM. As opposed to 8AM if I had caught my flight, but all in all I’m feeling ok about it. It could be a lot worse. Sometimes you just are unlucky. I think about all the times I showed up at Burbank airport or san jose airport 20 minutes before my flight and made it, or all those connections over the years I made by the skin of my teeth. I was bound to miss a flight at some point. Even if this one wasn’t my fault, it turned out ok, so I can’t let it ruin my weekend!
So I’m relaxing on the train, just looking out the window and watching the countryside speed by. The seats are quite comfortable. I’m sleeping like a baby for most of the ride. Even though its noisy with people in and out. I only slept 2 hours last night remember?? At the NL/gemany border, the train stops for about 15 minutes. Some border police come on board and out of the 20 people in my car they make a beeline for me and some middle eastern guy a few rows up. He’s obvious, but me? They examine my passport and give me the third degree and dump my bag out. They are pretty scary. I offered them a dutch almond filled pastry that I had brought for Thomas but they declined. I didn’t expect them to take it, but I thought it would lighten the mood. Wrong! Finally they move on and leave me alone and the train continues along. As we get closer to berlin, I notice a lot of young military guys are on the train. Probably going home for the weekend. I think 1-year of military service is still mandatory here. These guys looks like kids. Maybe 18 or 19. skinny and pale. Many of them are wearing glasses which only make them look more feeble. I bet they are counting the days until their 1 year is up!
As we get into the city, the first major thing I notice is the partially frozen river. It looks like an icebreaker boat went through it and broke all the ice into cool looking squares. It looks gray and cold out today. The other thing I initially notice is the graffiti covering nearly every empty surface within reach. Some of it is quite artistic and beautiful, but the majority is just unsightly tagging. Kids these days!!
Thomas picks me up. I made it!!! We jump in his vintage passat and head over to the fugro berlin office before people start taking off for the weekend. I forgot how Thomas drives like a maniac. I made sure my seatbelt was really tight and was dismayed to learn there were no passenger side airbags. The office is on the outskirts of the city. When you walk in there is a really wide staircase and the stair hall is sealed from the offices. Its dimly lit. I feel like I’m going into a warehouse. We get up to the 2nd floor I think, and once you open the door there are long wide hallways with big high ceilings. Everything is white and sterile. Some nice paintings line the hallway corridor but the effect is misguided. It feels like a hospital. Hahah! Acutally.. it feels like a mental hospital in here! All the doors are shut. The high ceilings make it echo. The floors are tile or marble or some sort of hard surface such that you can hear your shoes as you walk. We go and meet some people. All office doors are closed and you can’t see through them. Its really cold and unwelcoming in there. I don’t hear any music or laughter or phones ringing or someone on the loudspeaker. The offices are enormous and usually have 2 or 3 people in them. One office would be the equivalent of all the offices from craig p. to Patrick s. (long), and double the width. The ceilings are also very high. Cabinets are built into the walls to maximize the space and each person has the equivalent desk space of 4 or 5 ventura desks. Each office has large windows on one wall. I also notice they all have nice new flatscreen (wide panel) computer monitors. It might be a mental hospital in here but clearly it has its perks to be committed.
So I talked to Falk for awhile (he used to work for FWI too), and helped him fill out some pile driving equipment forms. He’s never been on a pile driving site so I was trying to explain to him about the stroke height and the cushion and the hammer energy. I told him finally just download a video on youtube and it will make sense to you. I met KP who was from the fugro Houston office just in town for the week. He’s been working with Thomas and another guy here from fugro berlin, Roberto, on a refinery project in Russia. We all go out to this cool Turkish restaurant for dinner. Very yummy. Roberto likes to whistle. As we walk down the street he whistles all the time. Short punctuated 3-notes. Low pitch, high pitch, low pitch. I ask him why he’s whistling all the time. He says because “I want everyone to know that I’m happy and that I’m here”. I loved that answer.
After the Turkish restaurant we did a little bar hopping. First place was a lounge kind of place with fruity drinks and hip red décor. The boys were a little out of their element I could tell. We only stayed for one drink. After that we headed to a few more bars and ended up at a place kind of near thomas’s house. It was back to beer. Smoking is still allowed in some portions of the bars, or all portions, or not at all. I can’t figure out what the rules are exactly. After the last place I decided to head home and the boys stayed out much later at the request of falk. I remember thinking.. do i want to go home? No. Should i go home? Yah probably. I feel like i have that same conversation with myself on a lot of different subjects. Sure sometimes I do a lot of things I shouldn’t, but at least I know I shouldn’t be doing them. Sometimes the consequences are worth it I think. What’s the fun in always following the rules?
Saturday… we got up and headed out at about 10AM. Got some metro/train/subway passes and a quick breakfast of coffee (for Thomas and KP) and a croissant thing for me. We headed over to the Messe Berlin, which is about 20 minutes by metro and train.
I watch out the window as we ride. I can see the city up close. The graffiti stands out again to me. The Messe Berlin is an enourmous exhibition hall and this week they are showcasing GreenWeek in berlin. Vladimir Putin (Russian PM) was here in this very building yesterday! The greenweek is a food and cultural tour of countries all over the world. Its truly an all day thing but we went through it in about 4 hours. There is so much food from each country all different types and many countries are also serving traditional foods and beers and wearing traditional clothing and showcasing traditional dances or games or music. Its actually a really really cool event. Unfortunately, we peaked too early… eating lunch in Ukraine before we got to the areas of india and asia and france etc. the food was ok but we didn’t do it right. We should have eaten small things here and there instead of eating a sit down lunch. Oh well!!! Next time we will know :) I also had a Belgian waffle, some beer from south Africa, and I actually had some kangaroo meat from Australia!!! The kangaroo tasted just like steak but was a little more chewy and a little sweeter. And there you have it. There were over 30 countries represented, but surprisingly the USA was not one of them! we got some cool green week bags that say berlin on them. check out the picture below!!!
After greenweek, we headed back to the apartment because falk had forgotten his cell phone and bag in thomas’s car. Falk was staying at some no-tell motel that didn’t have a phone or a receptionist so the whole thing was quite a quagmire. We got that situation sorted out, and then headed back downtown to a museum called The Story of Berlin. It has several levels and tells a chronological history of berlin. From its beginnings and wars and religion and more wars and its division and then the wall falling. It was a good crash course and it was vital to my appreciation for the city to know some basic history. Thomas and KP enjoyed it as well. Afterwards, we met up with falk and Roberto and roberto’s girlfriend jasmine. We went to this cute Spanish restaurant named Don Quijote and I had some really good vegetable paella. Although it was a long dinner, probably 2.5 or 3 hours, I was used to it so not a big deal for me. KP was quite tired and wanted to head home. Falk wanted to go out to the bars. It was about 11PM and I was having a desire to watch the pineapple express. Why? Who freaking knows.
Oh lets go back to thomas’s apartment. I forgot to write about it earlier. It’s the most perfect European apartment. Everything i thought a european apartment should/would look like. it looks straight out of an Ikea showroom. Its artsy. Things are so neat and clean. It matches. There are curtains. The furniture is navy blue and the cabinets and shelves are a light wood. The carpets are blue. There are framed photographs hanging expertly on the walls. Pictures from around the city. Nearly all he’s taken himself and enlarged and framed. There is one especially beautiful one of some geese flying overhead in formation. The colors are sepia toned. The apartment is small, only about 450 square feet i think, but its expertly and efficiently arranged so it feels quite large. Perfect for one person! The apartment is located right across from a big park where theres lots of people running and biking. The tram is right across the street as well, and on the corner is a cool Italian restaurant. Perfect location it seems, and parking is easy as well! I can see why Thomas kept this apartment this whole time while he was in the US. I wouldn’t have given it up either!
Sunday! I can’t believe i only have one day left here. Must make the most of it! I woke up and my eyes were really swollen. I think I’m allergic to something. But by afternoon they are feeling fine again. Who knows. We head down to the kreuzberg district and there is 6 of us out for breakfast. Breakfast was phenomenal and I wish they had something like this in ventura. They had this amazing fresh fruit with jams and cheeses on a big plate with a big basket of assorted rolls. I saw other people order that. I got some fruit and yogurt with a special kind of toast. Also amazing! And cheap… only about 7 euro for everything including my hot chocolate. I would definitely go back. After breakfast we went to the northwest area of berlin to do an underground tour. We had about an hour to kill and tried to climb up a big outcrop where a flak tower still stood. It was really icy and although I was having no problems clomping around in my boots, Thomas and KP were sliding around all over the place. So we couldn’t go all the way up but it was cool to see the tower up close. I imagined them shooting down planes from up there. Its hidden nicely by a bunch of trees so its in a really good spot actually.
The underground tour was fantastic. So glad we went. The tour guide was amazing and a plethora of knowledge. She was greek/german/Mexican and had a funny accent and a funny personality. She explained in great detail about how the bunker was constructed and why and how and the timeline and everything all really came together and made sense. We toured an underground bunker originally built to alleviate soil weight above the subway, then used for goods storage after WW2, but then converted into a nuclear bomb shelter during the cold war. We now know it wouldn’t have done anything if a nuke was actually dropped in berlin. The shelter was too shallow and the roof was only 1m thick. But, it was big enough for about 2,000 people to survive for two weeks. Inside, the walls were painted with a special fluorescing paint that glowed in the dark so you wouldn’t have to use electricity all the time. There were rows and rows of cots and storage areas, a medical room, a kitchen, showers and bathrooms. There was a generator that provided air circulation that could be operated manually if electricity was cut off from above. The shelter was never used. The shelter was also connected to one of the subway stations, that was equipped with huge doors that could seal the station in the event of an emergency. I thought that was a clever use of an existing underground facility. The same was done in London. The tour also talked about all the underground tunnelling when the wall was built, and how the subway stations were closed on certain lines that ran through east berlin, and how people used to try to escape to west berlin through the sewer systems. Overall it was a fantastic tour. I would recommend it to anyone!!
After the underground tour, we headed more towards the center of the city. We hit up some souvenir shops for KP and I got some postcards. I really haven’t been buying any souvenirs here. Just postcards to send people. I’ve been working on my scrapbook that’s really the only souvenir I need. We left KP to do some shopping and me and Thomas went to the Brandenburger Tor, which is a big gate or entranceway into the city. Flanking the gate is the newly constructed US Embassy, as well as the French, British, and Russian embassies. The gate looks like the one in Brussels at the entrance to the military museum. Very similar actually. We stopped to get some hot chocolate and a pastry and there’s a guy in there in a military uniform. Thomas says he’s just an actor paid to stand outside the gate so people can take photos with him. Similar to the guards at Buckingham palace I assume. After the gate, we walked over to the Reichstag, which is the german parliament. It starts to rain. Lightly. I’m used to it. You can see all the blue seats in the parliament. So this is where the magic happens. You can go right into the building and tour around, even when parliament is in session. I can’t remember if that’s possible in the US but dont I think so. I wonder if Germany is trying to make their parliament very open so relieve any suspicion from other countries or from their own citizens.
After Reichstag, we went over to Potsdamer Platz, where the sony building is. Its very modern over here. Looks like its all been built in the past 10 years. big tall buildings with glass facades. The sony building includes a cable suspended white umbrella thing. Quite a piece of art made possible through expert engineering. It happens that they are setting up for the berlin premier of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. There’s a red carpet rolled out and cameras set up everywhere. Unfortunately, the premier is not until tomorrow (Monday). Darn!!! I missed B. Pitt and Angie by only one day!!! There’s a big shopping center in P. Platz as well. It seems really touristy around here. A lot of the postcards depict this area of berlin, but its not really representative of the rest of the city.
We moved onto the Berliner Dom, which is a beautiful catholic church. Its in fantastic condition, and in a round shape, which big columns and towering vaulted ceilings. Its very peaceful inside. There are big heavy doors to open. The alter is lit up with many candles.
I light one candle in a little side room. The church feels awe inspiring, but welcoming still. Note dame in paris was amazing but it was a bit ominous inside. I didn’t feel that way here. I’m glad this structure survived the war. Lastly, we went over to the Fernsehturm (TV Tower) and Rote Rathous (city hall). The TV tower was constructed in the 70’s (I think?) and is the tallest structure in berlin. I didn’t go all the way up because it was already dark out, it was raining, and it cost 10 euro. Boo. But, I did go into the base and saw all the photos of the tower during construction. They even sell a perfume shaped like the tv tower that claims ‘you can smell like berlin’. Well I give myself a little spritz. Smells ok actually! We met back up with KP and then it was nearly time to go to the airport. I’m not ready to leave!!
My overall thoughts of the city were 1) Its much larger than I expected. It had about 3.5 million people, but the actual area of the city is probably equivalent to manhatten plus all the boroughs. So even though there are lots of people living there, it doesn’t really seem like its crowded. 2) the drab russion architecture is a bit disappointing. It seems to me that after ww2, the city was hastily rebuilding the city and architecture took a backseat to necessity. The buildings look very similar, small windows, about 5 or 6 stories high. Buildings constructed after the wall fell seem to have much more emphasis placed on design and aesthetic. 3) the public transportation system is quite extensive and easy to navigate. I would think it would be practical to not have a car here. 4) the city has a very dark and militant feel. But it’s beautiful nonetheless. Like a dark beauty. it reminds me of the movie American Beauty. 5) I wonder what it was like to live here for your whole life. to see both world wars, the cold war, the wall come up and the wall come down, and now the emergence in the new millennium. To endure Hitler and then Stalin. Thomas said that it took people 20 years to get a new car in west berlin. 20 years! Parents would order their child a car when the child was born. Unreal! 6) there are a lot of young people it seemed. Kind of a rebellious nature…hence the graffiti I imagine. A form of self expression. I didn’t find the men or women particularly striking, or having any poignant distinguishing feature. Seemed just like regular people. 7) my favorite city that I visited. I must return. In the summer.
