BERLIN, Part 3 - New Year's Eve

Oh, Berlin. The more I go, the more I fall in love with this city.

Thursday

Thursday morning, George, Tyler (American friends also studying in Mainz) and I all made the 5 hour trek to Berlin. The ride was uneventful, except for the fact that Tyler and I had to sit on the floor the whole time… right in front of two bathrooms… since we didn’t make seat reservations and the train was completely full. Ah well.

Hamburger Bahnhof

When we got to Berlin, we had another American friend who’s studying in Mainz, Drew, meet us at the Hauptbahnhof, checked into the hostel and then made our way to the Hamburger Bahnhof, which is a modern art museum (Andy Warhol, etc.) in an old train station. Well, it looked awesome on the outside, but we got there an hour before it closed, and the line was super long to get in, so unfortunately we didn’t get to see anything inside.

Thursday night, we met up with some of my CBYX friends who were staying with us at the hostel and went to a bar around Kreuzberg, the neighborhood of Berlin we were staying in. Beforehand we picked up drinks for New Year’s Eve the next day, but accidentally ended up leaving all of it at this bar. Whoops!

Friday

CBYXers in the hostel

New Year’s Eve. Friday, a couple of us went straight to a party supply store for the night’s events. I was in heaven! Karneval masks everywhere, silly string, New Year’s hats, and more fireworks than I could count spilling off the shelves. (Side note: Fireworks are legal all over Germany for 72 hours around New Year’s Eve… that means, they go ALL out. There are no restrictions. You see people blowing up REAL fireworks out of beer bottles on a dark, busy street and firecrackers shot out of windows. It’s complete chaos… and incredibly fun). After picking up some great party supplies, I took the guys to Dolores California Burritos… it was Round Two for me, and yet again delicious, and for everyone else, it was a little taste of home that they had been craving for some time now. Who knew a few burrito ingredients could be so comforting?

Fireworks out the window

Friday night, we all got ready at the hostel, which by the way, was one of the best hostels ever. It was so completely chill (we owed 4 nights’ worth of money for 6 people each, and they said we could just pay them whenever we wanted. Whaaat?)…. On top of having our own bathroom, free breakfast, and a cool staff, they also gave us a HUGE 8 person room (even though we only paid for 6 people) and said we could have the room to ourselves. I was completely surprised, especially since New Year’s Eve is one of the busiest times for hostels in Berlin. Well, it worked out perfectly. We had some other people stay with us, and so all of our costs went down, and it was also the perfect room for a fun pre-party before we all went out.

A couple CBYXers came to our hostel and we talked for awhile, then we all headed across town to a CBYXer’s apartment who is currently living in Berlin, where even MORE CBYXers were. He cooked some delicious food, we set off some fireworks, played some games, and then group by group, we headed off to the Brandenburg Gate.

The group I went with and I were completely unfamiliar with the part of town we were in, and we didn’t have a map, so we thought we could just walk to the gate. Pssh…. Heels were not a good idea. We walked FOREVER, and finally, right before midnight, we found a side entrance into the celebration, but we were still about a mile or so away. We decided we weren’t going to make it, so we posted up on the street, and a couple of us ended up riding one of those upside down spinning carnival rides. SO. MUCH. FUN. I don’t know if I’ve ever laughed so hard in my life. I attempted to take pictures while up there, but they didn’t turn out very well, for obvious reasons.

We found a bus to take us back to the CBYXer’s apartment, and I ended up staying there for the night since it was closer than my hostel.

Saturday

The Morning After.... all over Berlin

Saturday, a CBYXer and I headed back to my hostel to get some free breakfast. I got ready and then some of my friends at the hostel and I went to the Sony Center to see the Museum of German Film and Television. They had a big display of the top-grossing films from the 1960s to the present (in the East and the West) and I found it hilarious that there were a huge amount of Native American inspired films. One of the most popular German actors is a guy that portrays a Native American. I just really don’t get why Germans are so fascinated by the subject (I mean, it IS a fascinating part of history, but not even many Americans know all that much about it, so why do Germans?). When I lived in Bremen, they had a huge mural of Native Americans in the train station. Why? No idea. In Mainz, a relatively small city, there is a random Native American shop with dream catchers and such. When I went to talk to high school students in Bremen, they all asked me what I thought about the Native American “situation”. Huh? It made me really want to learn more. Anyway, just completely random.

American size burger!

Saturday night, a couple of us went to a place called “White Trash Fast Food”. It was… amazing. It was a restaurant that served “American” food (think HUGE chili cheese burgers and onion rings, etc.)… but it was also a bar/big dance party/tattoo parlor. How awesome is that?! We nommed on our huge burgers (until I found out mine had mayonnaise on it… gurrr! I promise, I’m getting less picky but pickles and mayo will never be part of my palate!), then made our way to the bar/dance party and danced for a long time to some 80’s, 90’s, and current American music. Fun fun fun.

Sunday

Waiting forever at the train station

Sunday, George, Tyler and I were supposed to go back to Mainz, and then go to Prague the following weekend. But then we thought, why would we go all the way back to the West when we’re already in the East? Two of our other guy friends, Drew and Russell, wanted to travel a couple of more days, so we all thought, why not go to Poland? HECK YES. I am definitely down for spontaneous trips… sign me up! We go to the train station to get train tickets figured out, but realized how busy and full all the trains were since the holidays were ending. We couldn’t get a train to Poland, but then George had a really good idea… what about Mitfahrgelegenheit? Mitfahrgelegenheit is a German website where you can search for carpool rides throughout Germany and Europe. If someone is driving from, for example, Frankfurt to Prague, then you can meet them in Frankfurt and pay them usually only around 20 Euro for the ride. It’s awesome for both parties. The driver gets gas money and company, and the traveler gets a super cheap way to get to their destination! George looks it up and finds a Mitfahr leaving from Dresden to Krakow, Poland the following morning. We sooo lucked out. So, to Dresden we went. (Really cheap ticket since it was the weekend and we were in a group… another great deal in Germany called the Schoenes Wochenende Ticket).

Check out pictures from New Year’s Eve in Berlin in my Berlin Picassa album here!