Berlin, Ich liebe dich.

So, not a greatly routine start to the blog, but wow, what a week so far.

The flight went particularly smooth, with the only apparent negative being no upgrade. James must have asked every attendant and employee of the airline though so it's not to say we didn't at least try.
*James: that said; the in flight entertainment system was fantastic, I didn't want to get off the aeroplane because I was still watching a movie.

Within seconds of entering the hostel at Berlin, James had already managed to meet half the guests. This is when 'it' started. Once learning the German phrase 'das ist gut, ja!', it became customary for James to say it...every...single...time. This was not limited to friends, nor guests of the hostel but just about anyone in public – trains, bars, the street – it was 'all gut, ja', never failing to gain a confused and a slightly bewildered laughter.
*James: that's true. As well as attempting to speak Czech in Prague would always make them laugh. I found sparking up conversations was a great way to practise new German phrases with either Joel or the local correcting the pronunciations.

Anyway, whilst we had initially decided that we would simply sleep off the jetlag with an early night – that plan was short lived as within about 30mins of checking into the hostel we were at the rooftop bar with friends we had just made from the US, Brazil and some pokey town called Adel...aide. * shudder * (this friendship didn't last long, juuuust kidding!)
*James: These new friendships turned out to be really valuable as for a start we learnt about the great free tour running the next day plus gained some good company.

James waking up to Berlin

Berliner Dom and Museum Island

Pergamon Museum

A bright and new day in Berlin and a beautiful sunny one at that. We head off on an organised free tour of the city with some introduction to the main sites and history of the city. This left us on Museum Island, where we decided to go to the Pergamon Museum, which I had been looking forward to for some time. It certainly did not dissapoint! The main attractions; the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Alter were amazing to see first-hand and just blew me away. There was also an additional exhibition open at the time which was a huge 360degree panoramic digital render of ancient Pergamon.
*James: we went on the tour with Rachael, MC and Dan, friends we'd made at the hostel. Dan later joined us the museum.

Gendarmenmarkt

Me in front of the Pergamon Altar!

Babylon Gate of Ishtar

On Thursday we visited something close to my architectural-heart; the Neue Museum – designed by Mies van der Rohe. Not only was the building beautiful but the exhibits housed inside were fascinating and all interesting – all with a tendency to focus on the impact of the National Socialist regime and WWII on art and then it's progress and various eras running to contemporary times.
*James: Our new friend Sarah from France accompanied us this day.

With a decent amount of artistic enlightenment under our belt, we ventured into the Gendarnmenmarkt Christmas Market, which I had been looking forward to (and probably raving about to friends in advance). It did not disappoint – it was just beautiful and traditionally amazing on so many levels! Just look at the photos. Gluhwein and Bratwust of course were consumed as well as a shokolade banane and a large quantity of delicious sugary sweets.
*James: The market was great with all the stalls offering something new and interesting. Joel was pretty keen on me trying some mulled wine which kept you toasty warm.

Gendarmenarkt Christmas Market at night

Christmas Market stalls

Later that night we had a typical Berlin moment – going out with some friends we had made at the hostel; ending up at a very random club hosted in a strange abandoned utility building in an equally strange area of Berlin, Kreuzberg.
*James: before we went out our friend MC invited us out to dinner with her and several others to a Mexican restaurant before we headed to their new hostel for pre-drinks (or for me a 2 hour nap)

Friday was NYE...eve so we slept in late to build up our resistance and then had a more relaxed day of exploring a couple of other areas of the city. We first visited the Reichstag to climb up the glass dome. Even though I had visited this before it was still fantastic and the view was amazing. After this we looked around Potsdamer Platz for a while; with the festive markets still around featuring plenty of good food (in addition to a huge snow slide which James demanded to be able to ride on – he got his way!)

At the top with the Reichstag Dome - very cold!!

After this we visited the Topographie des Terror; a museum which documents the cruel impact the National Socialist regime had on Berlin, Germany and the world as a whole. 

Topographie des Terror - built on the grounds of the SS hq

That evening we hit the hay early and I actually managed to sleep for 12 hours; something I would come to value in the coming day and night....and day.
*James: well, at least Joel was the smart one here. I decided to go on an alternative pub crawl which took me to places as varied as a goth pub; the group I talked too were great insisting I drink plenty of beer and a pub (ping pong king) where everyone plays as they drink!

With NYE came many many fireworks and they started early; people chucking them on the ground and letting them off into the sky from around midday. James and I split up today, each wanting to do different things. I ventured off on an 'alternative city' tour which focused on the development of the underground and street art scene of Berlin post-1990/falling of the wall (we also discussed the following gentrification that has occurred and has commercialised or destroyed much of it already; some would argue they are the same thing), Either way this was a very interesting insight and took us to some intriguing areas of Berlin I hadn't yet discovered.
*James: While Joel was exploring I checked out the Berliner Dom an immensely large Cathedral near central Berlin. Access too the upper balconies then roof lead to very spectacular views indeed.

So, NYE in Berlin was....insane. It will go down as easily one of the most ridiculously intense and genuinely awesome nights of my life. Without really any plan of what to do; myself, James and the rest of our room at the hostel (Mark and Mark from the US, Erika from Italy and Natsuko from Japan) ventured off to the Brandenburg Gate where 2 million or so other people planned to welcome in the new year. We had been warned we would not be able to move and would not enjoy it but I could not disagree any more. We managed to find a great spot with some space close to the gate and with a beer in hand and a variety of sweets waited for the countdown listening to live music and dancing along.

The fireworks were brilliant and the moment was just very surreal standing amongst so many other people having such a great time.

Following this we went back to our hostel bar to meet up with some other friends. The bar was in a very messy state, people on tables, ridiculous music blaring and generally just sh*t everywhere – fantastic really! Also, it continued to pain me when I compared the drink prices to back home; all cocktails here were 3.50euro which works out to be just under $5. Needless to say I exploited this luxury.

Not content with the night so far, we pressed on, heading to a bar in Alexanderplatz. This is generally where it gets pretty hazy for me. A massive dance floor, very solid tunes and similarly priced drinks (perhaps the real killer) extended our time there to the early hours of the morning.
*James: Thankfully we'd bought the last 2 tickets several hours prior which meant we were mercifully able to skip the large queue!!!

Crawling into bed around 6am, I might even have been able to keep going were it not for having to rouse about 9am. This key factor did not make for a pleasant day once I woke up...