I went to Berlin two weeks ago (yes, I know, Im totally neglecting this blog). Its the ideal destination for a short (in the case 4-day) getaway, as I have friends there I can stay with and hang out with, there's always new things to discover, and it's easy to reach from Antwerp. Or so I thought.

I waited for the bus for over three fucking hours and it never showed up. Initially I wasn't worried, as it's always about half an hour late in Antwerp and still gets to Berlin on time. There were five other people who were going to Berlin, and one guy who was waiting for someone to arrive from Paris. He said the bus had left Paris 1,5 hour late, so I thought that sucked but the bus would get there eventually. At least it was warm and not raining, 'cause there isn't a shelter there or anything, it's just a bus stop.

And then the girl from Paris showed up and said she'd been kicked off the bus in Brussels and it was going straight to Berlin without stopping in Antwerp! So I took a taxi home and set my alarm for a bit before 9 am when the Eurolines office opens. The others just waited there all night so they allready knew about it when I called. I don't know what went wrong exactly - a miscommunication, an irresponsible driver, bad organisation in Paris? but I doubt the staff at the Antwerp office are to blame. They booked us on the bus the next night (which, thankfully, did show up) an told us to write a comlaint within 30 days. Still have to do that. I've used Eurolines many times before and other than a 3-hour delay once, this was my first bad experience, but it really shattered my faith in the company. Has anyone else ever had something like this happen?

The worst thing, besides waiting three hours for nothing, was of course my trip was now 25% shorter.

I hadn't slept much for two nights, so the first day in Berlin I walked around like a total zombie. The weather didn't help, it was one of those unbearable heatwaves where you get totally exhausted from half an hour outside. But then, as I was on my way from the Warschauer Strasse U/S-Bahn station to the Oberbaumbrücke (the bridge that connects Friedrichshain in the former east with Kreuzberg in the former west), where it was Brückenfest that day, it finally started raining. I felt refreshed right away, and happy. Not much of the Fest was left by the time I got there (more due to the wind thant the rain really) and most people looked for shelter, but I happily walked through the rain until I was soaked through.

That night we went to a crazy party in a private appartment in Prenzlauer Berg. One could barely move there were so many people there, and there even was free beer for everyone, and good eighties new wave. And then there was the most chaotic concert ever. The bandmembers were constantly arguing what they were gonna play and how, and even when they were playing I wasn't always quite sure they were all playing the same song. Great fun, in other words. But I did pity the neighbours.

Sunday I went to Köpenick in the far south-east of the city. It used to be a seperate town and is actually older than Berlin. The Altstadt survived WWII almost undamaged. It's very attractive, much more so than Spandau. Besides the Altstadt I also took a quick look at the Müggelsee, the eastern equivalent of the Wannsee I guess.

After that I met up with Mimi and we cycled to Oststrand ("east beach"), an artificial beach behind the East Side Gallery, so this used to be no man's land inside the Wall. Bizarre, when you think about it.

Even more bizarre, there is an open air pool floating on the Spree, between Treptower Park and the Oberbaumbrücke. I promise I'll post pictures later. But if you're going to Berlin this summer, check it out, even if you don't like swimming, you just have to see it.