Germany!!!

July 16, 2012
I wake up and I need to quickly grab a breakfast before my shuttle at 7:15 and free breakfast starts at 7:00. I sent my friend Lisa a postcard and Sara, who is in Dusseldorf, who I don’t know really well, but hopefully we’ll hang out.
I packed the night before and I gather some quick things and then head to breakfast. I surprisingly see the gorgeous Maria, the Mexican I randomly met. I have a quick convo with her and she was too tired to go out Saturday night after sightseeing. She says she has my Facebook in case she needs tips with anything in Budapest, but she never ends up adding me. Whatever, things didn’t work out, but that is one freaking hot girl, that definitely is only half Mexican or something.
I catch my shuttle and make my flight. The public transit bus from the airport to the hostel is actually really easy. I take a nap and decide to start walking around. It’s rainy, but it’s nice to soak in the city. I get myself lost looking for a currywurst place. I quickly realize that despite me having a transit pass, walking just 2 spots on the subway can take me 30-40 minutes and that the city is actually huge. Budapest was big, but in the residential sense. Berlin is just big for the sake of big. New York, you can get half way through the city with the walking you would do in Berlin.
I finally find the currywurst place after only having breakfast and it’s a great feeling, especially having a beer with it. I get back and start doing some writing about Budapest. My computer clock decides to fucking go behind an hour despite me being in the same timezone as Budapest.
I planned on going out, but then I’m an hour short and it’s suddenly 10:30. The Australian Shawn that I met in my room earlier is asleep when I go in. I quickly take a shower and get ready and see that there are two girls sitting in their bunk bed. After I’m showered, dress, shaved, hair did, and ready, I quickly whisper to the two girls if they would like to come out with me. They agree and I wait downstairs with a beer.
Most importantly, I must preface this with how party party this hostel is. You walk in, there barely is a front desk and almost all the lobby is basically a nice lounge bar. The whole night, people have been loud, rowdy, and drinking. The lobby is fucking just crowded every night of the week with people. The hostel allows for this too. You can drink your own liquor and beer that you buy cheap at store. Why they would allow this when they’re a bar that sells beer and liquor is beyond me. Hell, they put out glasses and ice for people so they can drink! What a crazy place.
While I’m waiting, I’ve never seen a larger shipment of beer and liquor into the place. People are just bringing bags and bottles of booze into the hostel to just drink their faces off. The girls finally come down and we head out with this British guy they met before. They’re French cousins, Marie and Sophia. Their English is pretty decent actually and throughout my time there, Marie teaches me how to say “putain” with everything as that’s the proper way to curse in French.
It’s annoying and raining and it turns out that despite my expectations of Berlin, they place is freaking dead. It’s a Monday night, but still. We walk around for almost an hour before giving up and realizing that the busiest joint (despite being in the busy part of down, where the major train station is) is actually our hostel! What a crazy idea. We call it an early night though and end it.

July 17, 2012
I get up and make the breakfast buffet they have for 4.90 Euro. It’s not bad as they have fresh German bread rolls, which are really good, and German black bread. Then there’s loads of cold cuts to make sandwiches, nutella, yogurt and muesli, fruit, and fresh cucumber and tomato. You also get coffee. I stupidly order eggs for 2.50 Euro too.
People are crazy with stocking up on food, so I do the same. I then notice that someone is making sandwiches and packing them, which makes sense. If you have quality bread and cold cuts, why not do that for your day of tourism. I’ve never had a breakfast this big before and damn is it holding me down. I have to realize, figure out what I’m doing, and start my day. The great thing about it is that it keeps my energy going and I only had one beer the night before, so I’m in a super energetic mood and my body and mind are rolling.
I go to Museum Island, which is one the River Spree. Berlin is really beautiful with this river running through it. The island has 5 museums and I go through 4 of them. My favorite is the Alte Nationalgalerie, which is older paintings. The rest are what I’m less interseted in, the Pergamon Alter, Eyptian, and Greek and Roman. I run through those really quickly and then go to the Berlin Cathedral, which is a really beautiful building with its mix of dirty and clean exterior. I get all the way up there and get to see Berlin and how sprawled out it is.
I then go downtown to get one of the famous dishes here, Mustafa’s Doner Kebab. It takes a while for me to get there as I have to transfer twice. It turns out to be one of the best sandwiches I’ve ever had. It seriously is that incredible. It has about 10 ingredients and they work so well together. It’s huge and along with my big breakfast, I can’t eat anymore. Right next to there is another famous spot, Curry 36, for currywurst, but I can’t do it.
I get back and take a nap. I then introduce myself to Shawn, an Australian that’s staying in the room. We want to make plans to go clubbing. We find out that Cookies is open, it separates itself by opening on Tuesday. We get a bottle of vodka and start pregaming. Sophie and Marie come back late, but they’re also down to go out. Jay, a Taiwanese guy, comes back and we invite him out too. We walk out there, which takes about 30 minutes. However, I’m drinking during it to keep it short.
After getting lost for 10-15 minutes, we finally find it and I ask the bouncer if there is a dress code for the girls since they’re dressed casually from walking around all day. He rolls his eyes as if that would be an issue. We finally get to the front and for some reason, they will only allow the guys in and not the girls. It is ALWAYS the other way around, I have no clue what is going on. We don’t ditch them obviously and just leave, though I am really curious how it would’ve been because the crowd seemed to be dressed classy and online, the pictures of the place made it seem really swanky.
Apparently the girls overhear in French that the club is trying to go for an “older” group. The girls were dressed down and I guess that was their demise. We walk around looking for a bar and we literally spend over 1 hour just walking around and then heading back. It’s freaking exhausting as we walk around empty streets looking for a bar, but it’s a shitty area about bars and they’re either closed or empty. Freaking “city....”
We eventually give up and we head back done for the night.

July 18, 2012
Drinking to get rid of all that walking did not really help. I wake up a bit hungover after we (or I) finished that bottle of vodka. I go to hang out at Starbucks because I was looking up clubs and accidentally put a Trojan on my computer, what a fucking idiot I am. It was really worrying that I couldn’t even get control of my computer, but after an afternoon at Starbucks because of their superior internet, I was able to fix it. It’s a joke at the hostel, don’t even think about watching anything Youtube, because it will not load.
I return and Shawn, Sophie, Marie, and I decide to get dinner. I’m starving at it’s already 10:00 by the time we leave. I try to pick the crowded restaurants that we walk by, but they’re set on this Lebanese place for some reason. We finally choose this Thai/everything Southeast Asian place. The food actually turns out quite decent, but we order a beer and sit there as the rain comes pouring down real hard.
We then walk with a beer to White Trash Fast Food, a well-known spot. Walking around with beer is awesome as it’s a pregame, relaxing, and cheap dammit! 1.80 Euro ($2.20) from a pizzeria or whatever fast food spot for .5L (or a pint) of whatever really good quality Czech or German beer. I get myself Staropramen.
While we’re drinking our beers, we meet these two Swedish guys that are just wandering around. They couldn’t look more miserable as tourists in a different country. They were skeptical about walking into White Trash because of the name, I tell them it’s a joke, and to just go in. They just mope around and we tell them to really go in, we’ll see them inside. They finally do.
Standing outside, I get super excited. There’s a live rock band playing inside and I just get the night jitters. I look like an idiot jumping in place and flailing my arms because the past two nights have been completely dead. I’m in Europe dammit! I’m here to have fun!
We go in. A 3 Euro cover, but there’s a band, so understandable.
http://youtu.be/_Tp5IxfOfs8
The band is so good, heavy rock music, hint of metal, and very bluesy. Queens of the Stone Age, Clutch, and Red Fang are bands that come to mind for me. They’re from Oslo. White Trash Fast Food is a venue, a bar, and a restaurant. It also has a tattoo parlor attached to it. It has a wooden spooky look to it. From the outside, it has the Chinese lions and Chinese font as their sign, but inside has a divey and also haunted house feel.
I make sure that the others are okay with the place and I just rock out. I join the crowd and get some slight head banging going. You can’t resist with awesome rock music like this. I’m so glad that I found this band, but also that I got to see them live!
We find the boring Swedes and I make us move away from them. We eventually leave after the band is done and no one is on the dance/venue floor anymore despite them playing some fun rock music like The Strokes and QotSA.
Lizzie was supposed to get in tonight from Prague and I Facebook MSG her while we’re at White Trash to get here quick because it’s only a 10 minute walk. She doesn’t get back to me though.
We then go to this really cool dive bar that’s sort of film themed. They’re playing this Ginger Baker documentary for some reason and it transports me right back to New York. It’s just grungey, dark, simple, no frills. I grab a beer, but the others feel like going. I say that I have to finish my beer, but I quickly get told that I can bring that. Of course, it’s a bottle of beer. I can freaking walk out in public with it from the bar. It’s little realizations like that this that make the trip and make Europe awesome. However, we quickly just end the night there.

July 19, 2012
I decide to sleep in today and when I get up and out of bed by 2:00, I see on Facebook that Lizzie made it to the hostel and is downstairs. She also just got up, so I plan my day of sightseeing while I’m waiting. She eventually knocks on my door and we’re obviously excited to see each other, big hugs.
We chat about our plans and we start moving towards Alexanderplatz. I go to the money exchange, which continously has been gouging me, but I don’t know where else to go. They also charge a stupid 3.50 Euro fee, which I still have paid twice because I thought I would find a better option after exchanging money the first time.
We then take the subway down to the Turkish of town. We go there to get some food, we’re both starving. The area is hella Turkish and it feels weird because nothing has really been ethnic so far. The place is supposed to be really famous for the kofte or meatballs.
The sandwich I get is really huge and pretty decent, but nothing like the one I had Mufstafa’s. I obviously rock a Hefeweizen with my meal. Lizzie and I catch up about our cities, our lives, us both doing law school, and all that great stuff. She also tells me about her travels as she’s been everywhere, especially Budapest and Prague right before this, my favorite central European cities, or two of my favorite places on Earth.
After that, we walk around and see this hookah spot. We go in and get one. It’s so chill watching the Turkish music station that we end up staying there for almost 2 hours just chilling. I planned on going to the Jewish museum, but it’s all rainy and it’s nice to just have a relaxing day here.
We go back and stop by Galeria for a bit. It looks like a department store and we try to shortcut through it. Turns out there is this incredible supermarket in there as well. All kind of ethnic foods, a billion cold cuts, and cheese. They even have fresh food. Sushi, Asian cooked, fresh hand made pasta that I witness being sauced in a pan, an area to sit and eat, and a wine bar area. I wish we had this selection and stuff in New York. It’s like a non-Italian and more accessible Eataly. I grab an enormous fresh multi grain baguette, freshly sliced ham, German cheese, mustard, and pickles. All that for about $12. It could’ve made huge sandwiches for 3 people.
I take a quick nap and then step outside on the balcony to have myself a picnic. We plan on going to the clubs tonight. It becomes 11:00 or so and Lizzie comes up. We bought a bottle of Gordon’s, they meet my hostel mates, Sean, Marie, and Sophia.
We end up meeting the lobby and drinking for a bit before deciding to go to Kreuzberg, the Turkish, hipster, and club area of Berlin. However, it’s so big that we have to take the subway down there. The good part is that all the clubs are there, with about 5 right in that area. We should’ve been there all along.
We go to the subway and quickly realize that it’s 1AM when we’re down there and the subway is closed, stupid city. Then again, basically every city is like this, unlike NYC. Ideally, we would split a 3 Euro cab downtown, but I think people are adverse as they are cheap. Instead, we just go to Weekend, which is the big club right around the corner from the hostel.
By the way, one of the most annoying things about Berlin is how big it is. My hostel very close to the big train station, but that’s still almost a 10 minute walk. When I say “around the corner,” I do mean that, but it is also an industrial size city block. Their blocks aren’t like NYC ones. It being close is still a 5 minute walk. Getting around just soaks up time, energy, and can get annoying.
We pay a 12 Euro cover and go inside. It’s a pretty popping situation as we took an elevator up to the 12th floor of an abadoned large building and they turned the floor into a club. As I take pictures, I realize that there’s nothing wrong my camera when it looks foggy as I have my flash on. It turns out that everyone is smoking inside and there isn’t proper ventilation, so all the smoke carries to the top. It’s hot, it’s hard to breathe, but we continue dancing our asses off.
Lizzie is tired and eventually leaves. As I wait near the bathroom for the others, there are two dudes that touch my leg as they walk by. I have no clue what that means. Then again, I do notice that people are more likely to touch you when they’re trying to get by instead of just slipping by.
After some more dancing, it’s 4:30 and I give up. I split from the others and grab a hot dog. It’s weird, it’s a really white bread bun with spicy mustard and crispy onions. A fun night, finally glad that we got to hit a big club.

July 20, 2012
Despite drinking the night before, I get a sick, sick night of sleep. I wake up feeling great and Lizzie and I get some Vietnamese food. It’s in this area right near us that has loads of boutiques and really cool cafes and restaurants, I’m surprised I haven’t been here yet.
However, despite the sleep, still need my power nap and then go off for some shopping. I grab a few postcards, see that there is a pub crawl starting, which I should’ve done here. Depending on the city, hostel people, study abroad people, and mostly English speakers meet up at this “pub crawls” run by companies. You pay them a certain amount, they give you some drinks, and you follow the group around to the bars they’ve picked out. The one in Paris was decent and it’s a great way to meet people if you’re in a city by yourself.
I then go back to White Trash Fast Food to get a shirt of theirs. They don’t have the one I want nor X-Small, but I still get a Small one with some vomitting animal on it. I’ve wanted to buy a shirt from my trip, but most of them say a city on them and they just look ugly and touristy. At least this has a lot of style and it’s like Aaron’s Otto’s Shrunken head shirt.
I get back and want to do laundry. However, it’s Friday, people are pregaming and the two elevators are being absolutely overloaded. People are going up and down and they take forever. The worst is that I’m on the 10th floor. I finally get my laundry in, but then it’s 10:30 after hours of running up and down. The dryers are being used and I leave tomorrow. I should have planned this better. I can’t dry my clothes, so I put them out in the balcony in hopes that they will dry.
At night, Lizzie does her own thing and I want to take it easy because I have to wake up at 6:30 to catch my flight. Shawn, Sophie, Marie, and I walk around for a bit with a beer on the streets. We quickly get back by 1:00. I tell them that I probably won’t see them in the morning so I say my Goodbyes and we add each other on Facebook. However, my clothes are still a bit damp, so I go downstairs to get some writing done in the lobby.
I get back by 2:00 and after some quick folding and rolling up of my clothes, my suitcase is basically all packed after 10-15 minutes. This boss can pack fast. I then grab a few hours of sleep before my flight.

July 21, 2012
For some reason, I thought that I would go back to the same airport, big Tegel. Instead this is a 50 minute flight, so I planned on going to the wrong one. Not only that, I printed out the flight time before they emailed me that they randomly just pushed the flight to 20 minutes earlier. I’m pretty sure this is despite the fact that I chose a later flight and paid a bit more so I wouldn’t have to wake up too too early. That’s what you get with budget flights.
I eventually figure out how to get to Schonenfeld airport, which is barely an airport by its size. The train there is a huge one and gets me there in 30 minutes. The flight is 20 minutes late anyway, so I make my flight with more than enough time.
I get into Cologne and I’m starving, but I decide to catch up on sleep for 2-3 hours instead. I planned on going out and walking around, but I give up on that get some shit down. I plan where I’m going and what I’m seeing for the next few days. I reserve a pub crawl spot here. I Yelp and whatnot to find that there’s a decent burger place near by and have that for dinner. I quickly realize that this is a beautiful city, it feels like Brooklyn at times.
However, it still has a lively, busy city feel that’s European, but not sprawled out like Berlin. It’s great because I’m in a more hipster, nightlife area and the shopping area, and the Cologne Cathedral are only about a 20 minute walk away. The city just isn’t that huge. It’s really great being able to not have to wait and pay for the subway, but also that everything is so accessible.
After dinner, I get ready and quickly walk to where the crawl is supposed to meet up. I get lost on the way, but still make it there with time to spare. We have a French dude, two Bavarians, two tall big dudes in their 30s that are pretty bro-ey (one is a tech sales guy and the other a social studies teacher), Nadine (a law student from Florida that is also studying abroad, though in Cologne for 8 weeks, and extending her trip), and the guides.
For 15 Euro, at every fountain we see, we stop and they give us a shot of liquor, but fruity German ones. This means 5-6 by the end. They also give us shots at every bar we go to, 4 bars. The first place is just a empty place, but we chat and stuff. We move onto another, which is dancier and slowly gets more crowded. We’re drinking “Kolsch,” which is very Cologne. It’s basically .2L of beer, which is almost half a pint, so it’s a small, small glass. Then again, it’s 1.50-180 Euro for each, which comes out to about $4 for an American pint, without tip. Remember, no tipping in Europe when you drink.
It’s an interesting idea, but a bit annoying I could imagine if you want to drink and have to just keep ordering these little shots of beer over and over. The place is basically a bar/lounge, with a small dancing area. We meet some Americans and this guy fucking stabs me with a cigarette, I don’t see anything, so I just forgive up and move on.
We then go across the street to this pub. I’m feeling really drunk now, so I slow down and stop. Nadine is too, so we’re drinking pals now. We swap law school stories, chat about our travels, swap Facebooks, etc.
We end up recruiting the few Americans with us and we stop by a middle part of the nightlife area, it’s more clubs and stuff than where I’m staying.
Nadine and one of the bros start making out and they continue that for the night. It’s a bit gross, since he can do better, being a tall built guy. Whatever, good for whoever. We then go to this really cool divey underground place. It’s called “Arty Farty Gallery” as half the bar is actually an art gallery.
We then move onto the last place, which is a packed lounge with a dancing area in the back. I’m walking with our guide, Rob, and “Night Darwin” gets turned on. I walk ahead of everyone, despite not knowing where I’m going, doing a head count, and making sure that everyone is following right and moving along. I chat with Rob about his job and I’m always “that guy” when I’m hanging out with friends.
One of the Bavarians does something wrong and is really drunk and gets into a verbal fight with a bartender. He then tries to apologize again, instead of just getting out of the way and not bothering the guy again. I try to defuse things, but he gets kicked out and I help him instead of the bouncer coming after him. He’s drunk as a skunk and the Air Force that stabbed me with a cigarettes seems alright. 30 seconds later, he’s vomitting all over the ground, next thing I know, I turn around and he’s laying on the ground. People have to carry him like a wounded soldier.
People are slowly splitting and I hang with the other bro, the one that isn’t busy hooking up. We walk into a few places, check them out, and then go outside and meet these two older Germans. He’s chatting up the blonde and I find out about the other woman, who is a lawyer in her 30s. She’s not really attractive, but I’m just chatting and stuff. We eventually walk into this place and there’s a 6 Euro cover. Don’t ask me why I paid it, I go in and it’s not really full. There are a few dancers, but it’s a club and there’s a bit of dancing going on.
Instead of the woman (Maren) having some fun and dancing, she actually goes out of her way to avoid me. Lady, your friend is hooking up with the bro over there. Don’t act like we just didn’t chat for 20 minutes. I don’t even want to hook up with your ugly butt, just dance and have some fucking fun. I awkwardly dance myself for a song or two instead of the more awkward thing to do of simply splitting really quickly. I then leave and it’s 5AM. I’m feeling really steamy and annoyed, but that’s the drunk me thinking.
I didn’t even want to get anywhere with that lawyer bitch woman, but the idea of rejection just gets your drunk mind really wired, defensive, and stupidly angry. Hm, how great alcohol is eh?
I get back and chat with Jon. I tell him about Aaron’s trip and I find out that it’s probably too expensive to extend my trip. Aaron booked to meet me in Amsterdam on the 25th, I leave the 31st. He’s doing Europe until August 12th. I want to stay, but we’ll see. It might not be worth it.
I also notice that my cigarette burn has swollen up with pus. I accidentally burst it, but then soap and wash it. In the next few days, it looks pretty gross and I’m assuming I’ll have a decent size scar from this. It’s towards the underside of my forearm, so at least it’s not super obvious. Lizzie was telling me that I should get a tattoo as that’s what she does when she travels, I guess I now have this as the mark of my travels. We’ll see how it heals up.

July 22, 2012
Well, yesterday was a sure mistake. It reminds me that I can’t drink like I used to. Not that I was super drunk at any point, I was able to control myself, and even be in charge of the group, make sure things were okay at times, but something was up. Maybe I didn’t eat enough all day and the combination with all those sugary alcohol shots without drinking any water last night. Thinking of it, we were drinking for six and a half hours basically.
One of the worst hangovers of my life, I spend most of the day sleeping, the other few hours are watching streams online, and finally at 9:00, I get some schnitzel at this famous restaurant right near me. It’s really unsettling, even though it’s been almost 24 hours since my first drink last night. Granted, I haven’t eaten in forever and the schnitzel was a welcoming huge chunk of deep fried meat, but I still was not feeling tip top after all that time. I sit around on my computer for a bit and it’s 11-12:00 by now. I thought I would be okay in the sense that I could check out the nightlife, see what’s up, but I’m way too tired and feeling shitty. I get some early sleep in hopes that I will be able to get my sight seeing done. It really is such a fucking shame that I missed a day in Europe because of this bullshit. Just reminds me that I’m only a mortal now.
Drinking needs to be treated with moderation and a delicate touch with me these days.

July 23, 2012
I sleep in pretty hard and it’s 10:00AM before I roll out of bed. I get out of the door and walk around, checking out the beautiful area south and west of the Cathedral. I’m starving and go to this famous old school place that serves “Kolsch” and traditional German dishes. There’s a nice atmosphere outside and it’s set right next to the huge catherdral. Here’s my review though:
“Getting to order food at my first Kolsch took forever. A simple plate of food and one beer took over an hour as the service was horribly inattentive.

The front of the menu had their specials, which however were written in German. I asked the waiter, which dish he suggested and he powerfully commanded, "I'll bring you jaeger schnitzel." I kindly asked for another suggestion as I had just had that for dinner the night before. He quickly snapped, "I don't know what you want! You can order when you know," and stormed away.

It was shocking. A kind German walked over and asked in English, "Do you need help with something?" I thanked him, but said "No, thank you" out of embarrassment of what had just happened. I should have just walked away, but out of laziness and hunger, I sat there and just ordered a boring dish off of the regular menu.

After finishing, trying to get the check took at least 10 minutes. He then wrote the price on my coaster and rudely chucked it onto my empty place. It wasn't really worth it for how simple the food was. 12.50 Euro for the food and a Kolsch. An overdressed salad, one thin tube shaped meat, and some oily potatoes. I graciously paid, without a tip obviously, and walked away.

As a consolation, I did see other waiters actually doing their job correctly, but this was just a horrible experience.

Never have I been treated like a second class alien before, but there's a first time for everything. It's one thing if there is a language barrier, but the waiter spoke perfect English.

The logic baffles me. This place literally lives off of tourism. He doesn't have a job without patrons like me. It helps his job if I order a more expensive special instead of from the regular menu. Well, I hope he enjoys serving us nosy tourists for the rest of his life.”
After that annoying experience, I walked over to the love lock bridge, where there are thousands and thousands of locks on the bridge, signifying couples’ love for each other. I go into the Cathedral, which feels a bit like seen this, seen them all. The outside though is where it’s at. The architecture is just spectacular and it’s so freaking huge.
I then go to the main train station to figure out how to get to Dusseldorf so I can meet Ela and get to Amsterdam, to then also meet Aaron. There’s a useful front desk and the lady gives me a schedule, I have a question or so more, but she quickly walks away, her co-worker shoves a “Window Closed” sign in my face on the counter as I just stand there. We make eye contact and she makes it known that she’s closed. It’s freaking unbelievable how shitty some people are. Granted, America has this too, but I feel like I get it way worse in Europe.