Day 3-5: Berlin
One of the biggest factors in getting us all the way to Europe was the prospect of New Years with a huge group of European questies we'd made friends with in the first semester of this year. We got in to the pretty impressive all-in hostel at 10pm of the 30th, and we before we could even finish remarking how cheap the beers and food were, the party had begun.
We were staying in the hostel with Aureo, Claire, the Annas, Sofia, Henrik, Tonje, Caro, Umar, Pauline, Maddo and her cousin Sarah. We met a few more on the way, including Adam K-Rudd and his european squeeze, Can, Mirko, Jana, Pippi, Yasmin and Katy. We spent 2 hours at the hostel breaking the rules (there's a trend here) by drinking together in one of our very small dorm rooms. We headed straight out after, to a large decrepit alleyway full of empty old buildings, graffiti, drug dealers and drunk partygoers.
(some photos of the alley we took later on a quieter night)
We spent the night at a random bar, drinking and dancing until 4am
It was obvious we were going to enjoy ourselves here.
A 1pm wake up had us moving late, but we still managed some decent sightseeing, walking to a section of the Berlin wall before checking out the New Years preparations in the city centre. Compared to the neat and cosy Paris, Berlin was a bit of a shock, with very open planning and lots of mess and graffiti. It was also a sign of things to come as we saw fireworks for sale everywhere and heard them exploding around the place every minute or two.
The wall was not immediately impressive, but the graffiti and history kept us entertained for the long walk.
We headed back just in time for our planned dinner at a cheap local restaurant+bar. 4 euro pizzas and potent cocktails had us ready for a huge night.
After dinner was when the fun began.
In most cities at new years, you watch the fireworks.
In Berlin.. you are the fireworks.
We went to the Oberbaum bridge for midnight, and had an absolutely mindblowing countdown and New Years, open champagne bottles being passed around and fireworks going off around us in every direction.
This video pretty much sums it all up. Caution: yelling
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, spent mostly at a nearby bar/club with separate areas to drink inside and outside.
The next day was a complete write off, as we barely left the hostel room and got acquainted with the local energy fizzy tea (?) drink club-mate (cloob-mah-tah in german, CLUB MAAATE in aussie).
All of a sudden it was our last day in the city. Thanks to a late flight, we had most of the day free and made sure we actually got something done. It would be great to say exactly where we went, but we pretty much just followed Jana around as she showed us some interesting sights closer in to the city. First stop: coffee and waffles at a hipster cafe
Jana showed us around the city after this, which was a bit more of the same as the first day except with a bit of extra mess from new years.
After some well deserved Bratwursts, we checked out the Holocaust memorial in the city centre before finishing the day chilling out at a Shisha bar.
We took the alleyway back home to retrace our steps on the first night-
After that it was time to leave. Only one small setback before our flight - we had our airport terminal evacuated!
Luckily we were only delayed an hour, and we were on our way to Copenhagen, hoping that big Niklas was waiting at the airport with a car and all his home comforts.
One of the biggest factors in getting us all the way to Europe was the prospect of New Years with a huge group of European questies we'd made friends with in the first semester of this year. We got in to the pretty impressive all-in hostel at 10pm of the 30th, and we before we could even finish remarking how cheap the beers and food were, the party had begun.
We were staying in the hostel with Aureo, Claire, the Annas, Sofia, Henrik, Tonje, Caro, Umar, Pauline, Maddo and her cousin Sarah. We met a few more on the way, including Adam K-Rudd and his european squeeze, Can, Mirko, Jana, Pippi, Yasmin and Katy. We spent 2 hours at the hostel breaking the rules (there's a trend here) by drinking together in one of our very small dorm rooms. We headed straight out after, to a large decrepit alleyway full of empty old buildings, graffiti, drug dealers and drunk partygoers.
(some photos of the alley we took later on a quieter night)
We spent the night at a random bar, drinking and dancing until 4am
 |
| Exec! |
A 1pm wake up had us moving late, but we still managed some decent sightseeing, walking to a section of the Berlin wall before checking out the New Years preparations in the city centre. Compared to the neat and cosy Paris, Berlin was a bit of a shock, with very open planning and lots of mess and graffiti. It was also a sign of things to come as we saw fireworks for sale everywhere and heard them exploding around the place every minute or two.
The wall was not immediately impressive, but the graffiti and history kept us entertained for the long walk.
We headed back just in time for our planned dinner at a cheap local restaurant+bar. 4 euro pizzas and potent cocktails had us ready for a huge night.
After dinner was when the fun began.
In most cities at new years, you watch the fireworks.
In Berlin.. you are the fireworks.
We went to the Oberbaum bridge for midnight, and had an absolutely mindblowing countdown and New Years, open champagne bottles being passed around and fireworks going off around us in every direction.
This video pretty much sums it all up. Caution: yelling
The rest of the night was a bit of a blur, spent mostly at a nearby bar/club with separate areas to drink inside and outside.
The next day was a complete write off, as we barely left the hostel room and got acquainted with the local energy fizzy tea (?) drink club-mate (cloob-mah-tah in german, CLUB MAAATE in aussie).
Jana showed us around the city after this, which was a bit more of the same as the first day except with a bit of extra mess from new years.
After some well deserved Bratwursts, we checked out the Holocaust memorial in the city centre before finishing the day chilling out at a Shisha bar.
After that it was time to leave. Only one small setback before our flight - we had our airport terminal evacuated!
Luckily we were only delayed an hour, and we were on our way to Copenhagen, hoping that big Niklas was waiting at the airport with a car and all his home comforts.
Wunderbar!
ReplyDelete