Kiwi in Konstanz: Berlin and knuckling down before London!

Guten Tag!

So what's happened in the last 2 weeks... Well two Mondays ago I organised a group dinner at my local pub Brauhaus for the 'Haxe Satt' special. On Mondays it is all you can eat crispy pork knuckle, potato dumplings, sauerkraut and a jug of beer for only 12 euros, absolute bargain and such good food! So that went down a hit and it was great catching up with friends. As it was a long weekend coming up I felt the need to go away and do a trip somewhere- and I remember a while ago my friend Terese told me Berlin was the place to be on May 1st as there's a huge street festival, and the whole of Berlin is basically one big party. So I had a stroke of genius and suggested to her we should go- let's book it now! And hooray she was keen so after the dinner we went straight back to my house and bought bus tickets to Berlin for the weekend! So spontaneous. The next day we started looking into B&Bs and cheap accommodation options but she also messaged her friends there as she had done an internship in Berlin for 6 weeks prior to Konstanz, so she knew a lot of people. And one of her friends had a spare room for us which was so lucky! It was all working out.

Gorgeous sunset leaving Konstanz

We left on Wednesday evening and it was a 12 hour overnighter. We got the best seats though- right up the front on the top floor of the double decker, so we had more room to stretch out in front of us. We just talked for the first 4 hours and I managed to get about 3 hours sleep in total. (I struggle on planes and now busses it seems.) Arriving in Berlin the next morning though was a great feeling! Didn't feel tired at all, just excited and in need of a shower...

We got picked up from the station by one of Terese's friends who is a Berliner and he took us to an awesome café where we had a big breakfast with coffee and dun dun dun- beer. That's how we roll. We then got dropped off at our place of accommodation which was a nice apartment with 3 bedrooms. The other flatmates were very friendly. We dropped our things off and showered and then our first stop was Alexanderplatz! I again marvelled at the Fernsehturm (giant TV tower) and we went to a place I had been to last time I was in Berlin that had excellent currywurst. Mandatory snack here! We had one each, shared pommes and of course had a bier.
Our next stop was in Mitte- to Fassbender & Rausch- the world's largest chocolatier. I wanted to go back to get my all time favourite chocolates I had discovered, but alas they no longer had them! I was sooo saaaaad. But it was great to go back anyway and Terese hadn't been so we both bought other chocolates to make up for it.
We went upstairs to the café and my goodness it was such a shame I wasn't hungry because all the chocolate goodies on display and on the menu- decadent cakes, mousse, desserts, fondue etc looked so amazing. But I did have an ice coffee (that came with ice cream, whipped cream and chocolate) so that was more than enough!

We walked down the road to the famous Brandenburger Tor and then on to the Jewish Memorial, which is 1000's of concrete blocks of different sizes displayed on a field in memory of the murdered Jews. Underneath it is a massive underground museum which I hadn't been to so we spent an hour in there.
As it was getting dark we went back to our suburb, got supplies including breakfast, beers, vodka redbulls etc to go out that night. We chilled for a bit and then took the subway out to meet Terese's friend and more of his friends to a place called Brauerei which was an underground pub and brewery. It was filled with tables and benches like picnic tables, and you could bring your own snacks and food which was cool. It was a full table so there were heaps of us chatting and having a good time. We ended up ordering pizzas there for dinner at about 11pm and then stayed for a couple hours more before heading home as we were rather tired after our long bus journey.

MyFest

The next day was the awaited 1st of May! The famous festival is called MyFest and it was in the suburb Kreuzlingen where all of the streets were blocked off and over 20 stages were set up throughout the area with live bands and djs from all genres. There was an estimate of 1 million people there! So as you can imagine it was very crazy. There were tons of street food from all over the world and plenty of stalls selling different kinds of drinks. It was so fun walking through the roads- it really was one big party. There were people dancing everywhere and enjoying the music. In some places it was quite a mission to squeeze through the crowds though. There was plenty of entertainment around, including guys juggling fire on unicycles... We stayed until 10pm as it started to get a bit too dangerous- there were demonstrations and riots starting, and as soon as people starting throwing T&T on the streets- we were out of there! There were plenty of police to handle it though. They had been hanging around all day (in their swat gear) just waiting for break outs. Every year 8-10 thousand police are employed from all over Germany just for MyFest!

Alexanderplatz

We went to Alexanderplatz for a nice quiet drink, but first hung around the main square for a while and took silly photos. I suggested going to my favourite pub from last time called Möpse Trinken Bier so we all went just for the intention of a couple of drinks, but we ended up staying for hours right until it closed! Probably because it's such an awesome pub- decorated with random pugs all over the walls, and you pour your own beer at your table and there's a large screen that records how many litres your table has consumed and you can compete with other tables. Pure fun.

On Saturday we slept in and then went out to have what we were told is Berlin's 'best kebab'. I was very sceptical as I am a giant döner lover and have had one nearly every week since arriving here (don't judge me). But the Berliner insisted and said once you try it you will pack your bags and move to Berlin. And oh my god he was right it was the best I've ever had!!! WHY can't I live there?... Anyway, it was the perfect start to the day after a day of drinking! Afterwards we went to see a big grand palace called Altes Schloss. It was surrounded by beautiful large gardens with a lake and many ducks and swans. We chilled there for a while and then headed to Siegessäule, which is a large victory column with a giant angel on top that you can climb for a gorgeous view over Berlin. (Climbing those 100's of stairs killed me). After recovering and enjoying the view, we went to Bikini Berlin a famous mall and had a pick me up coffee at Einstein café. The mall is well-known for one side of it having an entire glass wall which you can look through into next door- which happens to be the monkey enclosures from the Berlin Zoo! That was pretty cool. We observed a large family of baboons for quite a while. Then after a quick currywurst we got some more supplies for that night in anticipation to 'party like a Berliner' (not going home until the sun has risen). Needless to say there were red bulls in our supplies...

The girls

Late that evening we went out to the party area of Berlin and went to a cool bar with different sections, one a dance floor, one a room full of couches and tables and a nice outside area that had its own bar. It was an awesome environment with good music and the group of people we were with (Terese's friend and co) were a lot of fun to party with. They introduced me to a new favourite shot- Mexicana! I was so reluctant to try it at first because the idea of tomato juice does not appeal to me at all. But I'm so glad I tried it and I ended up having loads of them! (Don't worry I was pretty sober when I arrived...) It tastes like spicy tomato soup- so delicious! So a great time was had by all and we danced until 5am. We made moves to go home, but not before our obligatory greasy food. We all went to an Italian place the Berliners knew as very good and I had an awesome lasagne. And voila, I got home and the sun was up and the birds were chirping... I had partied like a Berliner. Then I slept until 1.30pm haha. But my friend didn't fare so well so we didn't even leave the house until 4pm! Waste of a day really but what can you do?

We walked to Mauerpark which is famous on Sundays as a great hang out place with friends and family. It has a giant flea market, food and drinks, entertainment, live music etc and it was packed with people, it was really cool. The park was enormous. We watched a street performer release himself from a straight jacket that had giant chains wrapped around him... ah Berlin. We had fun looking through the markets and ate an awesome Turkish flatbread wrap and a had a beer sitting on a hill overlooking the crowds of people. We stayed for a couple of hours and once it got dark Terese's friend drove us around Berlin once more for a final tour at night- cause apparently everything looks cooler. And that was great because I got to see all my favourite places again- the Reichstag, the East Side Gallery (the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall), plus so much more. Berlin is absolutely enormous- 6 times the size of Paris. I was really sad to be leaving the next day.

That was a long bus ride home but it was nice to see the German countryside during daylight this time. It was good to get back though and back to reality- I had (still have) a load of readings to catch up on. I got home at 9pm and didn't go to bed til after midnight, so it was a massive struggle to get up at 6am the next day for class (Tuesdays are evil- my only insanely early class). I was super tired that afternoon so I had a 3 hour nap haha. And then it was back into the routine and another week of classes and readings.

I started working on my first assignment that is due the day after I get back from London- so I'm trying to get as much of it done as I can before I go. On Friday afternoon I was invited to Hörnle to hang out which is a super nice area I hadn't been to before now, so I'm glad I went- its stunning! It's right on the lake side, a gorgeous area with spas and thermal hot pools, waterslides and a big picnic area with flat grass where people gather to lay about in the sun or play sports. I spent a few hours there which was nice as it was a super hot day. Not quite bikini ready like some of the other girls there though...

There was a big party that night and the group I was hanging out with organised pre-drinks at someone's house before-hand. But everyone ended up having so much fun at the first place, we didn't even want to go to the party- we had our own party. I didn't get home until after 3am (I live practically next door though so very convenient). I suffered a bit the next day cause let's just say I brought over a bottle of vodka and did not return with it... I did share some of it though I didn't drink it ALL myself..... I also shared one of my treasured packets of tim tams which went down a huge treat to everyone.

On Sunday our family did a big group Skype for Mother's day which was nice and the rest of the weekend was spent working on my assignment around my multiple TV shows I have to watch. And that's about it! I'm going to London tomorrow! That's why I thought I better finish this blog before I go, otherwise I'll probably have to write about another whole month again. (And also I'm procrastinating). I'm really excited to be going back to London and I can't wait to see my friend there- we are going to have the best time!

Tally ho!

Ps. Summer has arrived- it's already getting up to 27 degrees in May! If you remember in my first post the forest I walk through to go to uni used to be skeletal- and now it's bushy and green! =)
More Berlin pics below.