Well I got to Berlin on Wednesday afternoon with the team from work. When we arrived it was a gorgeous day, as in not too hot not too cold, just perfect for jeans and a t-shirt with lots of sun. We had a bit of an interesting time trying to get a cab, which is odd for an airport, but once we got one we were on our way! We went straight to the hotel which was right beside the University campus where we were having the event and so that was really convenient, but it was literally in the very outskirts of Berlin which is huge and sprawling, not too unlike some of the cities at home - except there is amazing public transportation of course. So anyhow, for basically those 2 days we didn't do or see anything because we were just too busy working. After the event finished we went out in search of a bar in the center, and couldn't find the one we were looking for but took up a recommendation from some guy in the street and ended up at some bar called White Trash Fast Food - which I swear is an old chinese restaurant that they converted to this really eclectic strange tacky bar just adding everything wierd and kitch to the decor. However, they had live music and it was packed which is always a good sign, so we stayed and had a good time for a few hours.
This morning I checked out of the hotel, started to figure out how to get to the place I am staying now, which is a room I booked through my new favorite website - which is great because I get a whole massive room to myself and pay less than a hostel, where I would be sharing with probably 10 other people. This makes it much easier to continue working on my thesis in the evenings, because it gets dark quite early and actually the streets are very dark at night, Barcelona is lit up so intensely that everywhere after seems dark. So anyhow, I made it here and the 2 German boys are both very nice, gave me some sight seeing tips and then went back to work. So I dropped my stuff and decided to head off walking around to check it out. I thought I was going to walk to the portion of the wall which is still pretty intact but at some point I just started heading the other direction and then ended up at Alexanderplatz, which is sort of the main square that they have. When I got home I saw that it was over a 5km walk from where I'm staying but on the map it doesn't seem that far. Anyhow, the neighbourhood I'm in is really nice, lots of great little cafes and restaurants and its a very very green city with lots of parks and great trees so it was a lovely walk. I had an amazing lunch consisting of potato and sausage (hot dog) soup, everything bagel and chai latte. They drink a lot of chai here which is great because I love it and it's really cheap! So I'm going to be having lots of chai and bagels, getting my fill before I have to go back.
Tomorrow I'm going to have to make a plan because there is a lot to see and it's as you can imagine quite divided by east and west so you have a plan kind of laid out and make the most of it. One thing I can't get over though is the amount of construction -it appears to be a city that's really booming with cranes everywhere, road construction, new buildings etc etc. and the prices are not much higher in comparison with Barcelona. So far I have to say that it has far exceeded my expectations of Germany! I hope tomorrow will be just as good.
No comments:
Post a Comment