Very Long. And the pictures are v. large. So don't click unless you have the patience.
OK, so I'm going to do this by a series of cuts by day. I think. So basically, if you click on any of the links you'll get a longer version of that day, plus a series of pictures if I think it warrants a cut, otherwise there'll just be a picture cut. So, don't click if you have an aversion to many pictures, or you're on dial-up.
Monday
This was the travelling day. Paranoid_blonde’s parents gave us a lift so we got to Stansted wonderfully early, and so were among the first check-ins (possibly), and therefore ensured that our bags would be easy to reclaim once we got to Berlin. While we were waiting to board we mucked about the remarkably expensive internet in the boarding area, and then played rummy. I can’t remember who won, so it’s possible it wasn’t me. When we boarded we weren’t seated together - we’d expected that - but when the tunnel-y thing was taken away from the plane door I nipped across the aisle with my hand luggage and sat in the empty seat next to Rach, so we got to share the flight.
We made it to Berlin without fuss, and as predicted reclaimed our baggage very quickly, I bought a weekly transport ticket so I could run around without having to buy tickets everyday (also it was cheaper). We then jumped on a bus, and then a train, and finally a tram, and then dragged our cases up the 81 stairs to Rachel’s flat (so much fun, I recommend it!). We tidied ourselves up and Rachel unpacked. Here is a picture of her unpacking and looking silly -
It was too early for us to go and visit forgiveninasong and too early for dinner and it was raining. So we went bowling in Alexanderplatz, we played two games, and despite having seven (?!) gutter balls nearly in a row, I still managed to come within one point of Rachel. When we came out it had stopped raining and the square looked very pretty, so I took a picture -
We then jumped some more public transport, to get to Potsdamer Platz, where there is the oldest set of traffic lights in Europe, and I took a photo -
Then we wandered the closed shops where we saw some giant eggs -
After the wandering we headed out for dinner at a lovely place called Maredo. I had a delicious steak, with garlic bread and potato wedges, so very tasty *mouth waters*. Rachel had steak with mushrooms (I think, I wasn’t paying much attention to her dinner!) and once we had stuffed ourselves we wandered past a large church that had been bombed in the war, that I have two sets of photos of, which I will link to later. We then headed out to West Berlin, on an alarmingly leany train - which was scary. We were going to West Berlin so that I could (finally) meet forgiveninasong so I could give her the pressie I bought for the two of them. We were quite tired so we didn’t stay long, and headed back to Rachel’s for a quick chat with my father, and bed.
In summary, we travelled, we wandered, saw giant eggs, had a delish dinner, saw a bombed church, and I met forgiveninasong.
Tuesday
Tuesday we realised we had nothing to eat in the flat so we went for a trip to the supermarket. Where we bought lots to eat, including chips and dip (yay!) and lots of tasty stuff to drink, including a bottle of strange brown liquid that actually turned out to be very very tasty! Then Lauren came over and had the bit of dinner we’d left for her. Rachel wasn’t feeling too brilliant, so we stayed in, and watched DVDs and drank home-made Blue Lagoons.
Wednesday
Also known as sightseeing day! Lauren had to go into work to stuff some envelopes (argh!) and Rachel had to run into her Uni library for a brief while, where I got a couple of photos of the architecture. I’ll put them up in a separate post, because they don’t advance the story a whole lot. We then did our sightseeing, heading first to Berliner Dom, which I photographed -
Berliner Dom is right next to the Palast der Republik, which is in the process of being torn down - so I didn’t take a picture of it - I didn’t see the point! We then wandered past Staats Oper, Babelplatz, Britischer Botschaft, and then Brandenburger Tor - where we saw a giant Audi -
The Sony centre in Berlin has an English speaking cinema, and the girls wanted me to see Brokeback Mountain, so I agreed to see it once Lauren had finished with her work. I’m not going to review it, because there are too many reviews out there about it anyway, so I’ll just say that it wasn’t what I though it’d be, and that I still enjoyed it to a high degree. It was time for dinner then, so we went to the place where most of the girls’ relationship has been conducted (apparently), Cancun. It was a very friendly place, with tasty alcoholic drinks, and very tasty fajitas. I remember having a Frozen Margarita, and a Cosmo, and a Frozen Daiquiri (I think...). I know that the girls out did me by two drinks, a Long Island Beach Tea and something else each, but to be honest I was preoccupied with the football, and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Here is a picture of Rachel and Lauren getting drunk..er -
We then meandered back to Rachel’s flat, with the help of Smirnoff Ices, managing to be late to talk to my dad (ooops!) but not too late.
In summary, we went to lots of places with German names (amazingly!), and then watched the football and got drunk...
Thursday
The first thing that happened was Rachel had to go to a lecture, so Lauren and I watched Eddie Izzard until it was time to go and meet her, and then followed Rachel's eventually wrong directions to get to Uni. The girls were still feeling a little worse for wear because of the alcohol from the night before, and I wasn't feeling exactly sparkly myself so we went and got my ridiculously long and shaggy hair cut by a lovely lady who wanted to give me a fringe (NO!). So now I have lovely un-split-ended hair with a pretty side parting, which you all should already have seen in the other entry, so I won’t put it up again. We went to show it off at the Hard Rock Cafe where we had some gorgeous food and Electric Iced Teas and the American bar tender ID-ed us, and then decided he didn’t actually need to see the ID because we were so fast about getting it out. Then we decided we were up to shopping so we went to a giant C&A and looked for clothes for Rachel, and we found her a skirt, and a shirt, which she’s happy with, so it was a good day! After all that we were pretty tired, so we went home for dinner and a movie - Elektra (my choice!) and then went to bed.
So, In summary, we got my hair cut, had a drink, and went shopping to spend Rachel's money!
Friday
Rachel was feeling awful again, so we basically did absolutely nothing, except we realised we needed bread and milk, so sicky ran out to the shops, because I didn't know where they were and Lauren didn't have a transport ticket. After dinner Lauren had to head back to hers because she had work on Saturday, which was sad, but it wasn't the last time we saw her...
Saturday
We went to KaDeWe which is like German Harrods, and visited Cover (Rachel's favourite place for DVDs and CDs), and went to Hugendubel and bought me Sleepy Hollow. We saw the bombed church again and visited the oldest U-bahn station.
We had some time left over, and therefore went to the Irish Bar, and were served by the only old guy there who's name was Fergus. There were some cute bar tenders, but they were seconded to the *other* end of the bar. We then went to visit Lauren, with donuts -
Sunday
Nothing is open on Sundays, so we went to the East Side Gallery, where I took loads of pics, which can be found right here. There are seven of those that aren't mine, but they are labelled, imaginatively enough, not mine. We then visited Lauren, and were insulted by some random German child who heard us talking English!
Monday
We went to find out what the mysterious package Rachel had been notified about, and it turned out to be (in her words) Rachel's sexay textbooks. Then we went and did the wrong photocopying, and browsed in a different Hugendubel. We went to see Checkpoint Charlie - which was... fairly dull actually. I get that it's an important historical thing, but it's in the middle of a road, and it has flowers on it.
As you can see from this picture. I thought it was kinda strange to have something like that, and just have it sitting there. Anyway, we went home after that and watched the Bone Collector, which was kinda gross, and yet had Angelina Jolie in it, which is always a bonus. Then we played cards, and headed for bed.
Tuesday
I came home - it was very sad, and you know what happened when I got to Britain because I told you on Tuesday! Although I forgot to mention that I obviously look like a terrorist or something because when I got to the bag x-ray machine my little shoulder bag with the camera, hairbrush and various female items (make-up ++) got sent through... three times. And before the third time the nice German lady took everything out and plonked it in a box, just so they could in fact be sure that my hairbrush wasn't going to explode... or something.
All of the rest of the photographs are in my photobucket account, in fact there are two folders, one of mine and one of other peoples. Anyway, mine are right here, and the other photos are here.
All in all, Berlin was lots of fun, I loved meeting Lauren and seeing where Rachel works and lives. Although I did learn one thing about the Germans, if you leave a piece of wall blank for a long enough period of time, someone will paint on it.
Monday
This was the travelling day. Paranoid_blonde’s parents gave us a lift so we got to Stansted wonderfully early, and so were among the first check-ins (possibly), and therefore ensured that our bags would be easy to reclaim once we got to Berlin. While we were waiting to board we mucked about the remarkably expensive internet in the boarding area, and then played rummy. I can’t remember who won, so it’s possible it wasn’t me. When we boarded we weren’t seated together - we’d expected that - but when the tunnel-y thing was taken away from the plane door I nipped across the aisle with my hand luggage and sat in the empty seat next to Rach, so we got to share the flight.
We made it to Berlin without fuss, and as predicted reclaimed our baggage very quickly, I bought a weekly transport ticket so I could run around without having to buy tickets everyday (also it was cheaper). We then jumped on a bus, and then a train, and finally a tram, and then dragged our cases up the 81 stairs to Rachel’s flat (so much fun, I recommend it!). We tidied ourselves up and Rachel unpacked. Here is a picture of her unpacking and looking silly -
It was too early for us to go and visit forgiveninasong and too early for dinner and it was raining. So we went bowling in Alexanderplatz, we played two games, and despite having seven (?!) gutter balls nearly in a row, I still managed to come within one point of Rachel. When we came out it had stopped raining and the square looked very pretty, so I took a picture -
We then jumped some more public transport, to get to Potsdamer Platz, where there is the oldest set of traffic lights in Europe, and I took a photo -
Then we wandered the closed shops where we saw some giant eggs -
After the wandering we headed out for dinner at a lovely place called Maredo. I had a delicious steak, with garlic bread and potato wedges, so very tasty *mouth waters*. Rachel had steak with mushrooms (I think, I wasn’t paying much attention to her dinner!) and once we had stuffed ourselves we wandered past a large church that had been bombed in the war, that I have two sets of photos of, which I will link to later. We then headed out to West Berlin, on an alarmingly leany train - which was scary. We were going to West Berlin so that I could (finally) meet forgiveninasong so I could give her the pressie I bought for the two of them. We were quite tired so we didn’t stay long, and headed back to Rachel’s for a quick chat with my father, and bed.
In summary, we travelled, we wandered, saw giant eggs, had a delish dinner, saw a bombed church, and I met forgiveninasong.
Tuesday
Tuesday we realised we had nothing to eat in the flat so we went for a trip to the supermarket. Where we bought lots to eat, including chips and dip (yay!) and lots of tasty stuff to drink, including a bottle of strange brown liquid that actually turned out to be very very tasty! Then Lauren came over and had the bit of dinner we’d left for her. Rachel wasn’t feeling too brilliant, so we stayed in, and watched DVDs and drank home-made Blue Lagoons.
Wednesday
Also known as sightseeing day! Lauren had to go into work to stuff some envelopes (argh!) and Rachel had to run into her Uni library for a brief while, where I got a couple of photos of the architecture. I’ll put them up in a separate post, because they don’t advance the story a whole lot. We then did our sightseeing, heading first to Berliner Dom, which I photographed -
Berliner Dom is right next to the Palast der Republik, which is in the process of being torn down - so I didn’t take a picture of it - I didn’t see the point! We then wandered past Staats Oper, Babelplatz, Britischer Botschaft, and then Brandenburger Tor - where we saw a giant Audi -
The Sony centre in Berlin has an English speaking cinema, and the girls wanted me to see Brokeback Mountain, so I agreed to see it once Lauren had finished with her work. I’m not going to review it, because there are too many reviews out there about it anyway, so I’ll just say that it wasn’t what I though it’d be, and that I still enjoyed it to a high degree. It was time for dinner then, so we went to the place where most of the girls’ relationship has been conducted (apparently), Cancun. It was a very friendly place, with tasty alcoholic drinks, and very tasty fajitas. I remember having a Frozen Margarita, and a Cosmo, and a Frozen Daiquiri (I think...). I know that the girls out did me by two drinks, a Long Island Beach Tea and something else each, but to be honest I was preoccupied with the football, and wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. Here is a picture of Rachel and Lauren getting drunk..er -
We then meandered back to Rachel’s flat, with the help of Smirnoff Ices, managing to be late to talk to my dad (ooops!) but not too late.
In summary, we went to lots of places with German names (amazingly!), and then watched the football and got drunk...
Thursday
The first thing that happened was Rachel had to go to a lecture, so Lauren and I watched Eddie Izzard until it was time to go and meet her, and then followed Rachel's eventually wrong directions to get to Uni. The girls were still feeling a little worse for wear because of the alcohol from the night before, and I wasn't feeling exactly sparkly myself so we went and got my ridiculously long and shaggy hair cut by a lovely lady who wanted to give me a fringe (NO!). So now I have lovely un-split-ended hair with a pretty side parting, which you all should already have seen in the other entry, so I won’t put it up again. We went to show it off at the Hard Rock Cafe where we had some gorgeous food and Electric Iced Teas and the American bar tender ID-ed us, and then decided he didn’t actually need to see the ID because we were so fast about getting it out. Then we decided we were up to shopping so we went to a giant C&A and looked for clothes for Rachel, and we found her a skirt, and a shirt, which she’s happy with, so it was a good day! After all that we were pretty tired, so we went home for dinner and a movie - Elektra (my choice!) and then went to bed.
So, In summary, we got my hair cut, had a drink, and went shopping to spend Rachel's money!
Friday
Rachel was feeling awful again, so we basically did absolutely nothing, except we realised we needed bread and milk, so sicky ran out to the shops, because I didn't know where they were and Lauren didn't have a transport ticket. After dinner Lauren had to head back to hers because she had work on Saturday, which was sad, but it wasn't the last time we saw her...
Saturday
We went to KaDeWe which is like German Harrods, and visited Cover (Rachel's favourite place for DVDs and CDs), and went to Hugendubel and bought me Sleepy Hollow. We saw the bombed church again and visited the oldest U-bahn station.
We had some time left over, and therefore went to the Irish Bar, and were served by the only old guy there who's name was Fergus. There were some cute bar tenders, but they were seconded to the *other* end of the bar. We then went to visit Lauren, with donuts -
Sunday
Nothing is open on Sundays, so we went to the East Side Gallery, where I took loads of pics, which can be found right here. There are seven of those that aren't mine, but they are labelled, imaginatively enough, not mine. We then visited Lauren, and were insulted by some random German child who heard us talking English!
Monday
We went to find out what the mysterious package Rachel had been notified about, and it turned out to be (in her words) Rachel's sexay textbooks. Then we went and did the wrong photocopying, and browsed in a different Hugendubel. We went to see Checkpoint Charlie - which was... fairly dull actually. I get that it's an important historical thing, but it's in the middle of a road, and it has flowers on it.
As you can see from this picture. I thought it was kinda strange to have something like that, and just have it sitting there. Anyway, we went home after that and watched the Bone Collector, which was kinda gross, and yet had Angelina Jolie in it, which is always a bonus. Then we played cards, and headed for bed.
Tuesday
I came home - it was very sad, and you know what happened when I got to Britain because I told you on Tuesday! Although I forgot to mention that I obviously look like a terrorist or something because when I got to the bag x-ray machine my little shoulder bag with the camera, hairbrush and various female items (make-up ++) got sent through... three times. And before the third time the nice German lady took everything out and plonked it in a box, just so they could in fact be sure that my hairbrush wasn't going to explode... or something.
All of the rest of the photographs are in my photobucket account, in fact there are two folders, one of mine and one of other peoples. Anyway, mine are right here, and the other photos are here.
All in all, Berlin was lots of fun, I loved meeting Lauren and seeing where Rachel works and lives. Although I did learn one thing about the Germans, if you leave a piece of wall blank for a long enough period of time, someone will paint on it.