This will not be story of a city, but of a globetrotting friendship which started about 3 years ago in a country far, far away called Arkansas, US of A. A friendship which surpasses borders, cultures, bureaucratic shit and traditions. A friendship which lasts for a lifetime.
So, what do you get if you take a wild Mongolian, a bitchy, but always honest Austrian, a too nice to be true Bulgarian and a Macedonian with a constant crave for adventure, and put them together in the bohemian party capital of Europe? I have no idea what you get, but it was sure fun to experience it :)))
I have to warn you, I will not try to paint a picture of Berlin to the unknown reader, rather I would try to bring closer our adventure to our friends who weren't able to join us.
Day 1: ARRIVAL
With only an hour of sleep after tossing and turning all night I get in the dawn of the day to the Skopje airport-Alex Maximus, or officially known as Alexandar the Great. The flight goes all good and before the coffee starts to kick in, I'm already in Germany. Passport control lady looks at me suspiciously and asks me a ton of questions-it would have been better if we went out for coffee so I can tell her my life story. I will never understand these visas-I mean even if all of the 2 million Macedonians leave to live and work in the EU (which counts like 460 and something million people) they will not feel it. Besides, if I have the visa, it means that the Embassy already has my life story and there's no need for passport control lady to nag me about it.
Anyways, I set my unappreciated Balkan feet to German territory and go off to experience the public transport. Coming from the Balkans, I can only admire and can never understand the ability for precise organization the Germans have-everything runs on time. So I get on the bus, to experience the famous "potato in the truck" feeling, which apparently is inherent in every public bus in every country. Also, people in the bus are soooo quiet-no one talks to no one, everybody minds their own business. Ze Germans are not so good in English as I thought, so while getting instructions from an old lady about my last bus stop, she gets frustrated from her inability to help me and I miss the stop. She starts to yell in her scary German language "AUS, AUS, AUS!!!!" and I freak out and get off the bus at the next station. A little bit of walking later and I meet Val, the too nice to be true Bulgarian. We go together to meet Uuree, our wild Mongolian friend for lunch in the school cafeteria.
The dorm is our warm house for the next 7 days and is freaking far away from the central pulse of the city. The plan for today is to feel up Berlin, initially get to know the neighbourhoods, see the center and finally pick up our sassy Austrian Sandra from the main station-Hauptbanhof. Finally our group is complete-the Holcombe girls are ready to explore Berlin. We end the day with greasy Chinese food and cold German weis beer-Bavarian style, in the garden, under the clear sky of Berlin. The cold doesn't let us stay up for so long, so we go to our tiny beds in our tiny rooms to wait for the morning in the comfort of our dreams.
I fell asleep like a baby. I've never been to Berlin before and yet the environment seemed to familiar, just like the good old days of Holcombe-Sandra and Val were roommates again, me and Uuree, and we were hanging out in our rooms in the end of a long day making plans for party in the night. We expected Rob to come in the room and socialize for 5 minutes :)))
Day 2: BERLIN-ONE STEP AT A TIME
The hungry tourists that we are, we wake up early to plan the route over a morning cup of coffee. Three book-tourguides, 3 smart heads, and Internet and still we can't draw a precise route-in the end, who cares...
We get off at Parisier Platz, for a photo session with the Brandenburg Tur. While in the area, we go to the huge area of concrete blocks which looks like a really depressive labyrinth-The Jewish Memorial. The artist who designed it wanted people to think about the Holocaust and listen to the souls of the 6 million victims of the Nazi terror. Today, tourists don't really connect to the morbid purpose of the monument, rather interact with it in their own way. I kind of like it... It's not an ordinary monument, rather a concept which is an object of individual interpretation.
After "getting my DDR visa" at Potzdamer Platz, we went on a hiking tour of the city-around Tiergarten, Schloss Bellvue, the Victory column, the "Pregnant Oyster" building and other surprises along the river Spree. We would just lay down in a park to feel the softness of the grass on our bare and tired feet or snack on some German delicatessen-like wurst or pretzel.
While walking around the city I got the impression that no one has some serious business to take care of, there's no rush of the big city life which comes with big business. Yes, Berlin has the big American city look, but trapped inside is a heart of a poor, careless artist. Being one of the cities with highest unemployment rate in Germany, it's no wonder that even Monday feels like weekend in Berlin. Poor, but sexy-can't argue with that.
We wrap up with a street breakdance performance and walk back to the famous Unter den Linden street. Maybe once it was the heart of Bohemian Berlin, but now it's full of tourists... The bohemian heart of Berlin beats in the dark alleys far away from Mitte.
And yet the day is not over... We give up on walking and take the tram to Hackescher Markt-only to discover more surprises there. By accident, we take a wrong turn in one street and it's like Alice went through the Rabbit hole-we are no longer in Berlin, but in little Italy-a small Italian town square scenery opens up, peace and quiet and a cute little pizzeria where the waiter greets us with "Bonasera". This can only happen in Berlin.
and it's as far as I got with my writing... The plane ride ended and I got back to Macedonia... the rest of the story when I won't be too lazy to finish it.
P.S. I recommend reading this article with the tunes of Bloc Party, "A weekend in the city" album...cause of all the Berlin reference :)))
