F my life
I made a tactical error on our first day. Since I had not yet totally figured out the metro system, I thought “hey, let’s just walk to the Brandenburg gate, it’s only 2.3 miles, no problem!” Well, since I hadn’t really tested out my new shoes on a sustained long walk, I managed to get blisters on the heels of both of my feet (I am writing this on Saturday, and they are a little better by now).
Added to this, you can see the Siegesaulle (angel tower statue from Wings of Desire) from the Brandenburg gate, but when you actually walk over towards it, you quickly learn it seemed far closer than it actually was (it was more than a mile walk). After this we decided it would be much wiser to use the metro system. I found it to be fairly easy to figure outand we ended up riding around on the metro for the rest of the afternoon getting off at random stops to see the city.
(I wrote the next section after getting back to the room after the night out).
Thanks to a gang of English folks we met at the Wombar I can honestly say I’ve experienced the Berlin nighlife (I know whoda thunk coming from me?). For once my encyclopedic knowledge of British pop culture has paid off (success!!!!). After a long day of wandering around Berlin, Arvin and I were hanging around the Wombar on the terrace and we met a group of people from Manchester, UK. After Arvin struck up a conversation we both managed to get ourselves invited out onto a night onto the town with these cats (and I surprisngly at least got to experiene the quintessential Berlin nightlife – it being 3am when I’m writing this – Arvin wisely decided to cut his losses and tucked in at 1:30am).
Just a word about these english cats (Harshal, Kulbir, Jenny, Sonya and Dan), the nicest people I have ever met, totally accepting of our Americanness (I’m sure helped by our total self-deprecation). I’m pretty f-in wasted as I write this right now, but I at least wanted to get something down before i forget anything.
Awesomely enough Harshal, Kulbir, Jenny and I totally got into a pretty serious discussion about Anglo-US politics and culture and due to my Extensive knowledge on the subject matter I’m sure i helped endear myself and Arvin to them.
