The Hizzle of T-Fizzle

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04/03/2007:
Our train back to Berlin did not leave at the crack of dawn as our train out did, but it left fairly early. Early enough that in order to do further sightseeing in Prague, we would have to truly get up at the crack of dawn. Instead we opted to sleep in a little bit. We woke and packed and got some breakfast from the cool kids lounge and then went down to wait for our taxi.

The taxi was right on time and took us right to the station.

For some reason, Nádrazí Holesovice was either uncommonly empty yesterday or uncommonly crowded today. We were in the station around the same time both days, but for some reason today there was a lot of people. Touristy people. With all of these travellers in the station who were there with a purpose, Holesovice seemed a lot less seedy than before. Had we stepped off the train into this environment I might not have been quite so skeeved out.

In the station were a bunch of American girls. Pretty young I’d say…17 years old maybe? They seemed *awfully* young to be travelling without any adult supervision…or at least a beefy male to back them up. One of them approached me and asked me about a train to Italy. “You do know there are other train stations, right?” She said that her train was leaving from Holesovice. “Is this Holesovice?” Yes. *Whew* For a minute I was concerned these girls weren’t even in the right station.

Meanwhile, our train was listed as delayed. I took advantage of the extra time to waste the remainder of my Czech crowns seeing as how by the time I ever come back that currency will be long-gone. I suppose I could have kept some as a souvenir, but I don’t need the clutter. Believe me.

At some point we decided our train’s arrival was imminent. We went out on the platform where it was shockingly cold. I believe there were snow flurries in the air. There was a single tramcar sitting on the track. Was this the cause of the delay? I suggested that we all just get behind it and push it out of the way, but this plan did not last long. Everyone was cold and we went back inside.

The train was not super late in the end. An hour, maybe? I don’t recall completely. We found our car and boarded and I was disappointed to learn that we did not get a cool compartment to ourselves. For the ride home we would be in normal train seats. Sometime into the ride, Mike revealed a stash of fruit in his backpack. He had the foresight to take a little snack along for the ride. X had a banana and the rest of us had apples.

The rest of the ride was fairly uneventful. Because we didn’t have private cars, and the dining car seemed pretty crowded, we went there in shifts. The girls went first while we held down the seats and then X came and got us and we went back and assumed their table at the dining car while Kate and Mary went back to the seats. On the long walk through the train we went through the smoking car which was astounding. You could smell it two cars away and it was thick with smoke. I’m pretty tolerant of smoke and it threw me for a loop! At the dining car I had some sort of sausage and lentil stew that I really liked.

We arrived back at our lovely apartment and kicked back for a few minutes to change, freshen up, nap and plan dinner. We also planned some activities after dinner - namely a ride on the 100 bus that goes around the touristy attractions so that we could see them light up at night. We also wanted to visit the Siegessäule.

All week long we had been going back and forth about visiting a kneipe. You see, my guidebook described kneipen as, basically old-man bars. Seedy joints where neighborhood people went to get blitzed after work. It specifically said that women rarely ventured into these dives. But Mary, on the advice of her guidebook and a co-worker had been lobbying to visit a kneipe listed in her guidebook. At some point I mused to X that maybe Mary’s guidebook described kneipen more favorably, so we decided to compare. Sure enough, Mary’s guidebook talked of the kneipe being a friendly neighborhood pub where the whole family goes out for a drink and a cheap bite to eat. It would be interesting to visit the kneipen listed in my guidebook to see if they really are seedy dives.

In any case, spurred on by the favorable description in Mary’s book we sought out the kneipe that she thought was most interesting. We stepped inside the main entrance and it wasn’t beautiful. It did seem like an old-man bar. In fact it was full of old men - actual old men in the 60+ range, a lot of them playing cards. This might not be the crowd we’d normally hang out with, but they did not seem a dangerous lot. We got some looks as we entered but nothing disconcerting. There were no tables in the bar but someone spotted a door leading off to another room. We went through to find more of restaurant-like area. This area was completely empty. We sat down at a nearby table.

On the table was little metal cube that had a picture on it of a crossed-out cigarette. Presumably this room was a non-smoking section. A bit of an extra bonus since people smoke pretty much everywhere in Berlin, including at the dinner table. While they eat. Shortly after we sat down, a pleasant waitress buzzed by the table and sat down an ashtray! We got a chuckle out of this. Evidently the non-smoking section is not heavily enforced!

Once concern with eating at a kneipe is that they are not really touristy so you are less likely to find English-speaking staff or English-language menus. I don’t know how much English the waitress knew - we all try to be polite travellers and just do our best in German and hand signals. She did fairly quickly determine that we were English speakers and did bring us an English menu. I always carried a guidebook that included a food dictionary, but having an English menu always makes things simpler!

This seemed like a good opportunity to get a Berliner Weiße which was described in the guidebook as one of the things you *have* to do in Berlin since it’s something pretty much unique to Berlin. I asked for it mit grün which includes a shot of a woodruff flavored syrup since that also seems to be the most traditional of all the options. Actually, I ordered a different kind of beer mit grün and I believe the waitress told me that you wouldn’t want to put that syrup in anything but Berliner Weiße, so I heeded her advice. It is definitely different and I can see why it’s very popular during the summer months!

For dinner I got this dish that had a name that I cannot recall but it was bloodwurst and liverwurst fried up with potatoes and onions and maybe some sauerkraut into a sort of hash. I think you would have to try pretty hard to come up with a meal that is more unhealthy and more offensive to the senses. It was really, really good. Frying liverwurst is a brilliant idea.

At some point during the meal Mike, who had previously mentioned not feeling very hungry, declared that he was going to opt out from further touring activities for the evening and just get an early night. He was looking a little bit pale. Mike and Mary departed and X, Kate and I finished up and paid. We decided not to go touring without Mike and Mary after a long day on the train. On our way back to the apartment, we got a little bit lost. A very nice woman noticed us huddled around a map and asked us (in German) if we needed help. At least I recognized the word for “help” in there somewhere. Kate used this opportunity to use the one German phrase she has truly mastered “Ich verstehe kein Deutsch” or “I understand no German.” The woman chuckled. We pointed to her on the map where we wanted to go and she pointed us in the right direction.

Meanwhile back at the apartment, Mike and Mary were in bed. Aunt Bern and company were supposed to arrive the next day so our plan was to meet them for dinner. Since we had this awesome apartment with this awesome balcony and the weather was beautiful, we figured after dinner we could hang out at the apartment. To celebrate the occasion I had picked up a case of Berliner Pilsener at ReWe during our last shopping excursion. I have no idea if it’s good beer, but really it’s hard to find BAD beer in German. In ReWe there were a couple of guys who were giving away some Berliner Pilsener schwag to go with a discount on the case and they seemed to enjoy practicing their sales pitch in English. We scored a pen, a lanyard, a metal motorscooter keyring and a model tractor trailer Anyway, we had this case of beer so we figured we’d crack into it. Kate and X and I sat and talked and drank for awhile. Well Kate didn’t drink because despite feeding her beer in every restaurant she just can’t get into it.

After awhile, Mary came out to chat for awhile. She wasn’t feeling all that great either. Suddenly, Mike runs past and into the bathroom and gets sick. Mary goes into to assist…and soon after she gets sick, too! After things started to calm down we got the sick soldiers to bed and then retired ourselves. Not a very spectacular day for us!

To see all of the pics from the trip, head on over to the Gallery!

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03/29/2007:
At last the day had come to depart on our next adventure. We all piled in Mike’s car to head off to Berlin, Germany with a side trip to Prague, Czech Republic. The trip to Newark was uneventful. We got the airport and checked in and then went to get some food. Our outbound flight was delayed by a couple of hours which was probably a blessing in disguise - our original flight plan would have got us in to Berlin fairly early in the morning and also would have us in the air earlier in the evening. The delay meant we would not arrive in Berlin until after 10AM and we would hopefully be a little more tired and able to sleep during the flight.

While we waited for the flight, we discussed some of the places we wanted to see and began working out a rough itinerary.

Kate, having slacked off on her German-language studies, tried to pick up a crash course in the language.

Mike and Mary chilling at the gate.

Kate and X by the gate.

We boarded the plane and found our seats. I had an encounter with “Scary German Guy.” SGG might have been in a rock band. He was travelling with 4 or 5 other people. His head was completely shaved except for a 2-3 foot braided pony tail coming out of the back of his head. His beard was similarly braided and of a similar length. When I went to put my bag in the overhead compartment, I found 2 of the packets the airline leaves in every seat containing blankets, headphones, etc. These were presumably extras and were in the way, so I took them down to put them in the next bin over which had a small space that was perfect for them. Apparently they were actually claimed by SGG and Mrs. SGG. Why they didn’t keep them in their seats with them like everyone else is beyond me. SGG stood up, yoinked the bags right out of my hand, and threw them back up in the compartment. Because he didn’t say a single word, I assumed he did not speak English, so I decided that now was as good a time as any to start fumbling through German. With a combination of elementary German and hand signals, I managed to convince SGG that I was not trying to steal his blankets (Why would I? I had one of my own already!) and, again without saying a single word, he took them down and put them in his seat pocket. I put my bag up. Mrs. SGG smiled at me. A smile that said “I know he’s a jerk, but you handled him admirably.”

Later on, all of us recalled thinking “I hope this isn’t the way most Germans are!” Fortunately they are not.

The rest of the flight was fairly uneventful. I stayed up for awhile watching the movies and then tried to get some sleep. I put on an album that is approximately 70 minutes long and tried to get through it as many times as possible. I found myself falling asleep for about the middle 50 minutes and waking up for 15-20 minutes at either end. In this way, I got a fairly decent amount of sleep. I also observed during the flight that SGG and his party were all fairly good at English. Certainly better at English than I am at German. SGG’s silence was simply because SGG is…well…SGG.

I was also mildly nervous about our arrival in Berlin. This was really my first time travelling in a region where it was entirely likely that communicating in English would not be possible, and my command of the native language was not that great (I’m not fluent in Spanish, but I can at least get by…and I’ve never been in part of a Spanish-speaking country where no one speaks English). To add to the concern, we had booked an apartment for the week. We had seen pictures of this apartment online, but let’s face it - pictures are easy to fake. The place could really be a total dive, and the owner could be a total flake. I really felt bad for Mike since he had read about booking apartments for European trips and would no doubt be the bad guy if it turned out to be a disaster. I took comfort knowing that we had only paid a deposit, so if the place was a total dump we could turn tail and find a hotel.

We landed in Berlin sometime around 9 or 10AM, claimed our luggage and went through customs. Thus did we encounter our first challenge - getting a taxi to our apartment. The taxi stand was easy enough to find and did not appear to function any differently than it would in the US, however we needed to find a van large enough to carry the 5 of us and our luggage. As luck would have it, after a few minutes, just such a vehicle dropped some people off and Mary ran over to see if he could take us. Of course the driver was happy to be able to jump the line at the taxi stand (I hope he didn’t get in trouble for that) and there were no other large vans in sight, so this worked well for all of us.

It did not take long to get to the apartment building, which was in a very nice-looking area right along the river Spree, adjacent to Schloss Charlottenburg. This was encouraging - the building was at least not in a slum! We buzzed the penthouse apartment and were soon greeted by Patrick, the very warm and friendly landlord. A French expat, jazz afficionado and former restaurateur, Patrick speaks at least Engish, French and German and knows all about hospitality. All fears of a sketchy of apartment and sketchy landlord were allayed when we walked in the door. The apartment was beautiful and spacious. Patrick spent a long time showing us around and giving us advice on operating all of the appliances and fixtures, some of which are quite different from those found in the US. He lives in the penthouse with his wife and assured us that one of them would always be around if we needed help. He also gave us some tips about how to get around.

This is the main living room (and Kate’s bedroom). Clicking on it will take you to the album containing all of the pics of the apartment and the views from the balcony.

If you are interested in staying here, please let me know - we can get you in touch with Patrick. When we booked, we believed the weather would be too cold to enjoy the balcony, but it was very warm all week!

One of the appliances was a fancy Solis Super-Automatic espresso machine. Patrick clearly felt this to be one of the apartment’s greatest features. It is a great thing - beans go in one side, water goes in the other side. You select how much water you want added to the espresso, push a button, and 30 seconds later a hot cup of coffee squirts out! The coffee was very good, but Mike and I were both intrigued at the idea of a machine that squirts out a single cup of coffee in a short time. I made a note to research these things when I got home.

You may be wondering about this picture. This is the “shelf toilet.” It seems to be a German tradition. There are a lot of apocryphal stories about just WHY this is a common commode in Germany from it being a way to force men to pee sitting down (sitzspinkel) or perhaps so that you can inspect your own work to help you look out for diseases. I had read about these but didn’t really believe it was true. It is. And it’s VERY unpleasant.

And here’s a view from our balcony looking west towards Schloss Charlottenburg. The view was amazing.

This is the view back east towards central Berlin.

Again, to see the rest of the pics, click the pic of the living room or check out the album in the gallery.
After getting settled in the apartment, we went out to the grocery store, ReWe. Getting there involved a nice walk in a park along the river. I noticed a lot of graffiti around and this made me a little nervous that the neighborhood was not as safe as I thought. As the trip wore on, I realized that there was graffiti EVERYWHERE in Berlin. Grocery shopping is a great and free thing you can do as a tourist to really see how people in other countries live and eat. They don’t have any shopping bags in these grocery stores - you are supposed to bring your own. They do sell canvas totes for a couple of Euro. They make a nice cheap souvenir. Some other things we noticed are that eggs are sold un-refrigerated and they eat a lot of “paprika” potato chips, which are actually red pepper flavor and quite tasty.

Our plan was to save money by cooking breakfast every morning. We picked up eggs, bacon, bread, strawberry jam, juice and other items. We joked with Mike (who had picked up the jam) that we would never finish it, but over the course of the week I think we pretty much knocked it out!

We dropped off our groceries and decided to set out and get to work. We decided to do some “light” tourism since it was our first day and we were tired from the flight. We hopped on a bus and took this towards the Ku’Damm to visit the Hard Rock Cafe. Yes, corny, but all of us have gotten into the habit of picking up glasses, pins and whatnot at the various HRCs around the world. We also grabbed lunch there to help ease us into the particulars of the region’s food. Not that there was much German about the food in the HRC. We explored the area around the HRC a bit and then went back to the apartment to freshen up before meeting up with Maria and Colin for dinner.

We left the apartment and took the U-Bahn to Eisenacherstrasse near Maria and Colin’s apartment where Colin met us and brought us back to their place. They showed us around and we hung around catching up for a little while prior to heading out for dinner at Massai, an African restaurant. This was a great opportunity to get some fairly adventurous food. I had an assortment of meats in a sort of curry sauce. They also had some fruit-flavored beer. I had the banana flavored one and it was great. Eating in Berlin is typical Europe - it’s a relaxed pace and no one minds if you hang around in a restaurant for awhile after your meal. If you want to order something else or pay your bill, you just call them over…otherwise you will be left alone after your meal is served. Maria and Colin gave us some good tips on German culture (spicy food is not common, for instance), tourism (free state museum entry on Sunday!) and getting around (the 100 bus basically goes by all of the major tourist attractions). They also felt that Germans in general were very closed-off. Not necessarily mean like SGG, but just that they keep to themselves. I think I big part of this is simply part of urban life - New Yorkers don’t really seem all that friendly to an outside either. Another part of it is surely that they are on the rebound from a very bizarre and oppressive half-century of life.

After dinner we headed back to Schöneberg where we got some ice cream. X and I chose a flavor call Butterkeks which had all sorts of good stuff in it wafer cookies, butterscotch, etc. Very tasty. We then spent the evening walking around the Schöneberg neighborhood looking at the signs there that are part of the Bavarian Quarter Memorial. This memorial is comprised of 80 signs that are on lamp posts and illustrate the laws that were put into effect as Hitler rose to power and began oppressing Jews, homosexuals and other minorities with increasingly restrictive policies. The link will take you to a site that has pictures of all the signs and English translations of all the captions. While were there, Colin translated for us. It was an interesting experience and one that I imagine a lot of tourists do not realize exists.

Finally around 10 or 11PM, we headed back to our apartment. We had managed to make it through the entire day without falling asleep, which is a good step in battling jetlag - exhausted from our travels, none of us had any trouble sleeping through the night. I was feeling a lot better about our trip - everything that was concerning me had worked out. We even found the language barrier to be very minor - many Berliners speak good English and between the 5 of us, we could get by OK in German.

It was shaping up to be a great trip!

To see all of the pics from the trip, head on over to the Gallery!