i went to germany!
I was in Germany last week for a week which was my first trip out of the country by myself. It was an adventure that I wish lasted longer, although even if I hadn’t bought train tickets in advance, I couldn’t have stayed longer as I’d run out of money. ’Tis the life of a broke student, but at least that week happened! I was in Berlin for four days and in Cologne for three. In both instances I was visiting friends with the goal of seeing areas that a tourist like me wouldn’t know exist. That worked better in Berlin than Cologne for health reasons, but it was nonetheless both enjoyable. What wasn’t enjoyable was the night train. Let’s just say it was my first all-nighter.
I had the first two days to myself so I went out and saw common sights like the Brandenburger Tor, Bundestag, the Cathedral, Konzerthaus, Berlin Wall Memorial, Holocaust Memorial and some museums that I’ll be posting about in the next days. A lot of this was actually boring because I had seen so many pictures and videos of it already. I imagined the Bundestag to be bigger and more imposing considering it has seats for 630 representatives. It looked about as big and imposing as the Austrian parliament which has seats for merely 182 representatives. I didn’t enter it because I wasn’t that interested in its insides, made less interesting by its „modern“ glass front. At least the park out front was nice, though a lot of the area between the park and the Bundestag was barricaded for reasons unknown to me.
The city was a lot prettier and cleaner than I expected it to be. I had such a negative image of Berlin before going there. I assumed I’d see overdosing drug addicts everywhere, dirty streets, no trash cans, no public drinking water sources or public toilets, horrible public transportation, and unwalkable streets/slim sidewalks. None of that was the case, except nearly no public drinking water sources. Allegedly, the city has over 250 drinking water fountains but I only found three in my four day stay that was spent mostly walking on foot in the city center. I had to resort to buying bottled water, something I never have to do where I live. But other than that, public transportation was fast, clean, on time, and often air-conditioned. There were spots where drug addicts gathered (a sign of a failing social safety net, not a personal failure of the addicts), but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I expected.
The first thing I noticed after leaving the night train was how big the central station was! Multiple levels from which intercity express and regional trains depart, a subway station attached, trams out front, and a suburban railway all in one huge station. Truly a place to get lost in. The city felt so big and lively, and felt this way even when I ventured away from the center. Its districts felt like small cities belonging to a big uber-city. Compared to that, Vienna is a village, which has the upside of its public transportation system being less complicated, I suppose. Some of the subway stations in Berlin’s city center looked like palaces—another shock. They had billboards educating about the area’s history instead of ads—another big shock. Such stations were not to be found in the east, though. A lot of the stations in the east looked like they hadn’t been renovated since the Nazis were defeated, with some of them still using that font for their signage you see in documentaries about the Nazis.
Sign at S Nordbahnhof
One of my objectives for Berlin was spending time in both former West and East Berlin to see how different they are still. The East is quite a bit more rundown than the West from what I’ve seen. The lamp posts look different and like they haven’t been cleaned in forever. They are also significantly older, simply judging by their design.
Left is from West Berlin while the right is from East Berlin. Taken at the Berlin Wall Memorial.
If you arrive there as a tourist, you’ll likely stay in the West and move about in the western part of the city. You wouldn’t see how relatively desolate the eastern part is in comparison. From the subway stations to the buildings and gathering locations of delinquents, you can tell East Berlin suffers from relative poverty to this day. Most tourist attractions are either in the West or on the former border to the West so they don’t look as bad. But once you venture further east, you see how bad it is. In fact, all the problematic areas I’ve been to were in the east. The first stop further east is Alexanderplatz. During the day it’s okay, but at night it becomes a hub for trouble. The city’s answer is more policing of the square which in my opinion is a stupid dead end. Similarly, at the train station Kottbusser Tor, they are planning on installing AI surveillance to combat criminality in the area. Yes, more violence and surveillance to combat violence in the area that is plagued by structural poverty is certainly the solution; not social programs and assistance to help its inhabitants out of their misery!
The city was greener than I expected, and by that I don’t mean park areas. All streets that were larger than a lane were flanked by trees on both sides. Larger streets had trees on islands around their middle. Unfortunately, the trees were either young or positioned badly as they didn’t provide for much protection from the sun. It was hard walking in the shadows so I got a sunburn despite wearing sunscreen. Somehow the buildings didn’t provide a shadow either. They weren’t tall and neither are they in Vienna, but I think Berlin’s streets were wide enough that sunlight crept onto the sidewalk no matter what.
Because of how even the building height was, you could also see the TV Tower from everywhere. Built near the former Berlin Wall in the GDR part of the city, it was supposed to be an imposing building looking over the west side. Having seen it up close it looks as boring as the Danube Tower in Vienna. Another curious building was the spy station on Teufelsberg which is now closed. It is also a Cold War relic. The Drachenberg, from which the spy station is visible, provides a view of the city. This hill came about after WW2 from rubble which is really cool and puts into perspective how wrecked this city was by the war. Maybe not as much as Warsaw, but still a lot if a hill that high could form from just rubble.
View from Drachenberg
On my last day, my friend and I decided to try our luck at getting into Berghain which is the techno club in Berlin. We knew we wouldn’t get in because our wardrobes weren’t prepared for it, however, I didn’t want to leave Berlin without having tried. We stood in line confused at the longer line next to us which we soon learned was awaiting entrance to Lab.oratory, one of the wildest gay sex clubs in the city. While we were waiting, we observed how many people were being rejected at the entrance—people who had us out-dressed. So we came up with a plan: I would act like an English speaking tourist while my friend would appear as my city guide. It was so that a) we wouldn’t appear like a straight couple and b) it would look like I’m not there for long, so the bouncers may feel more sympathetic towards letting us in. We didn’t even get to act out our plan. We had barely said hi when were already on our way out. It was a hilarious experience nonetheless because of the way the bouncer kicked our asses. She was nonchalant, leaning back, and acting like it was a non-personal attack. Iconic!
I got so drunk that night that I woke up on five hours of sleep, sick enough to fear puking, but not sick enough to actually puke and relieve the sickness. I had a five hour train ride to Cologne ahead of me, though. Eventually a pharmaceutical saved the day (for me and other passengers). My train ride from Berlin to Cologne was unnecessarily complicated because of some technical difficulties at Deutsche Bahn, but we ended up arriving on time. I had already made plans for the first known Bearblog Meet and Greet that wasn’t organized by Herman himself. I was meeting Ava and I didn’t want to arrive late. A hangover, five hours of sleep, and a five hour train ride don’t leave you looking your best. I kid you not, I could spot Ava from a mile away. I saw that green wig, and moments later the horns, and knew exactly who that was. When she showed up before me, I felt mogged by every metric. Almost height-mogged because of the blocky shoes she wore. She looked fabulous which overwhelmed me.
We took the wrong tram twice or so, but eventually got to a nice vegan restaurant where we spent most of our time. For the people who thought Ava was an old man cat-fishing as a 30-year-old woman, she isn’t. She’s also the same person we text with, by the way. Myth dispelled. We cut our time together short because I was tired and met the next day again at a cafe. Maps lied that I only needed 13 minutes to get there, but I was 20 minutes late because of how terrible Cologne’s public transportation is (specifically on Sundays). Ava wasn’t dressed like a fantastical elf that day and because she was with her wife, I didn’t recognize that they were the ones I was looking for at first. That day, I had the best bagel ever for breakfast. I wish it was half as easy to handle as it tasted, though. Then we walked around until the museum we wanted to go to had opened, which, as you can guess, was gay all around. I’ll post about it in the coming days.
After the museum, we parted ways and I had my afternoon to spend however I pleased. I went sightseeing which in Cologne meant just walking around aimlessly. Aside from the Kölner Dom and the city’s Rathaus, there wasn’t really much to see. The city was everything I feared Berlin would be. It stank, had shitty public transportation, narrow sidewalks, and no drinking water in sight. I spent my evening checking out its night scene which wasn’t that fun alone, but not the city’s fault. The next day, I tried to give the city another chance and walked around again. Honestly, it’s just not a pretty city that I’d visit again unless I’m visiting someone there. I ended up going back to the hotel to rest a bit before my night train back which arrived at the station two hours late. But at least I arrived in Vienna on time.
My night train experience was bad, but as I later learned, pretty standard. Lying on my back on my way to Berlin wasn’t an option as the others didn’t want to pull out their seats for that. The seats were also so hard that even when we pulled them out in our cabin on the way back, it wasn’t a comfortable sleep. We were so close to each other that my legs were being squeezed effortlessly by other human bodies. I arrived at home with my left ankle burning from the ankle upwards. My neck also suffered under sleeping the way we did. Mind you, the way back was significantly better than the way there. I could at least sleep a little.
If I were to plan my trip again with what I know now, I would pay for a bed on the way to Berlin, take Flixbus from Berlin to Cologne because it’s cheaper, and then fly back from Cologne which would be cheaper and more comfortable. I’d rather suffer for an hour with Ryan Air and flying at all, than be stuck in a train cabin like that again. I doubt I’d go away alone again, because I felt lonely at times. I’m a lonesome guy who enjoys spending time alone, but seven days alone and away from home was a lot for even me to handle. Still, I don’t regret the experience whatsoever.