BootsnAll Travel Network



Josh’s European Adventure: Day 22 – Berlin, Germany

Sadly this was my last full day in Berlin and in Europe for that matter.  My trip has come to an end.  Even though the total trip will be 23-24 days in total, it sure felt like a lot longer.  I reckon that is the result of the amount of places I saw, the things I did, people I met for the first time and met again (reunion).  Overall I think it was a great trip.  One that I won’t forget for a long time.  I made new friends, solidified friendships I made before and just had a great time.

After all that Linda and I had seen and done in Berlin and coupled with the fact that the weather did not look very favorable, we weren’t sure what to do on last full day together in Berlin.  We eventually decided on trying to go in a building equal to the White House in Washington, DC.  This building also housed the Parliament during session.  Linda was shocked at how few people were waiting on line and normally she said the line was easy a few hundred people maybe more long to enter without a reservation.  This time we waited maybe 5 minutes to go in and through security similar to an airport.  Linda had never been inside this building and was very excited to do so as she is very into politics and like I have mentioned before, contemporary history.

The building was really cool and Linda taught me about the different parties and their history once inside.  We also got the chance to walk around and up this glass dome.  Too bad the weather was so bad because the views would have been fantastic and free!

From this building whose name I cannot even attempt to spell or name, we decided that since the weather was so crappy and that we had done so much that we would walk to Potsdamer Platz and see another movie.  This time we chose Revolutionary Road starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet.  This was their first movie together since the very successful Titanic (how did he not win for that movie?  How has he never won an academy award are you kidding me?)  Anyway after the movie I could see how Kate Winslet won a Golden Globe award for the movie, and since I have been away for several weeks I am not sure if Leo won for it, but I think this movie will be nominated for Picture of the Year for sure.  It was a fantastic tale of how suburban life in the 50’s wasn’t all about the house, the job, the kids and the wife, that it was about more, and this story could easily apply to the present times.  Both were great.

After the movie we headed back to the hostel and relaxed until about 715PM when Linda decided to take me to this Vietnamese Restaurant she read about in the book her father gave her on Berlin which speaks of the best Bars and Restaurants in Berlin.  I was happy with that choice as I enjoy Vietnamese food.  The journey to the restaurant would take a little while as Linda was not completely sure where it was and it was slightly complicated since the Metro (or above ground Tram system) split the road in half and different streets were on different sides.  Eventually though Linda in her typical lucky fashion guessed right a few times and we ended up at the place called Sian.

I ended up ordering a Vietnamese Noodle Bowl with meat and great spices, one which I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was washed down by a nice cold Tiger Beer.  Tiger Beer is made in Singapore and is easily one of my favorite top 5 beers Internationally.  If I had to rank 5 beers I love the most it would probably be:  Singha (Thailand), Tiger Beer (Singapore), Staropramen (Czech Republic), Magic Hat #9 (USA), and Pilsner Urquell (Czech Republic).  I definitely love other beers but these come to mind first.

After the delicious meal, Linda and I finally  headed to her favorite street in Berlin called Simon – Dach Strasse.  This is a long street located on the East Side of Berlin.  It houses many very interesting bars and restaurants, some of which are very clearly remnants of East Germany during the time of the Soviet Occupation.  The first bar we went too definitely had that feel.  In fact not only did the bar house old equipment from that time it also had drinks like “Apri Cola” (instead of Coca Cola) and other things.  Oh one more thing about this place.  It was very weird.  When I ordered the two drinks for Linda and I they told us that there was a 1 Euro deposit on each glass and charged me 2 Euros total and handed me two tokens which we would return along with the glasses to get our two Euros back.  Linda had never heard of this and neither had I.  I mean I could understand if they had really cool glasses maybe from the time of East Germany or something, but no, they were simple, tall glasses with no writing on them.  Nonetheless, it was a cool place and after a while we moved on to our second bar of the night where would we spend our remaining time.

This bar was called Palm Spring and it was really cool.  The floor was covered in sand like a beach, with cheap, very strong, very tall drinks.  The rest of the night Linda and I just chatted and reminisced on our trip together which started over two weeks ago in Amsterdam.

The way home would take us a little longer than expected as the U Bahn stopped at 1AM which Linda was not aware of.  Luckily there was a tram that would take us fairly close to our hotel.  Before going home for the night, we stopped at a Doner place and got some chicken doner in a wrap.  It was damn good, especially the garlic sauce that the guy threw on it.  This was even better than the doner I had in London with Harriet.

Finally it was time to go to sleep.  I had only a few hours left to sleep as the alarm was set for 615AM.  This would give me plenty of time to pack up the remaining few items left in the room, say goodbye to Linda and take the taxi to the airport.



Tags:

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *