travel log, part 3
home stretch now!! and this is a good one, because berlin may have been my favourite stop of all.
oh man oh man oh man, where do i even start with berlin? what a city. i'd heard all kinds of reviews, from the "IT IS AMAZING AND WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" to the "worst city ever germany is horrible and berlin is ugly and boring" and i honestly had no idea which berlin to expect before i got here. but I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. it's a creative artsy hub with a not-too-dense population and incredibly dense history, aka TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY. and i came in the middle of winter, which beats in the middle of summer all day any day. I LOVED IT. it is definitely one of my top 3 european cities i've ever visited (the other 2 being venice and paris; i am a touristy tourist, and I AM NOT ASHAMED). (this is setting aside london, obv, because london has pixiebeanz in it and will therefore always be my top top european city, but these other cities do not house a pixiebeanz - mores the pity - and are my favourites on their actual merit alone.)
it also helped that my godbrother literally lives in the centre of all the action (it's a dead town at night but we were never more than 20 minutes from anywhere by train, which was perfect), and that i didn't have to pay for lodging and/or most of my meals and/or most of my transport. (to be fair, we are singaporean chinese. neither of us paid for most of our transport. this is why the honour system would never work in asia.)
aNYWAY. on to the actual fun stuff!!!
sun:
i took a 13 hour direct flight on scoot from singapore to germany on the first night of chinese new year. if i could've gone any earlier, i would've, because chinese new year is the PITS, and i hate visiting and would happily give up all the ang pow money in exchange for never having to visit distant relatives ever again, but that is another story for another time. everyone said i was crazy to take scoot, considering the time and the distance and the distinct lack of food and comfort it is typically known for, but i had a fabulous flight! i slept 9 of 13 hours, and we were only delayed by an hour. the seats were comfortable and the food was overpriced but not barf-worthy. all in all, a win!
my godbrother was waiting for me when i landed, and the system was so efficient (and the immigration officers were really nice??? both times i had to face them???? maybe the nicest immigration officers ever??? what is up berlin???) that we made it back to his apartment with my luggage in tow via public transport in less then forty minutes. i was pumped and ready to go, so we rolled out to the fleamarket at mauerpark once we dropped my bag off. it wasn't big, but it was ADORABLE, and i knew right away i was really going to like the vibe of berlin. everythinhg was SO CUTE, if it didn't cost an arm and a leg i would definitely have come home with my backpack fit to burst. as it was, we wandered around, tried some sausages, falafel, arepas, and a chocolate banana crepe, none of which were very good. (i was warned in advance about the food by several people, so that this became a recurring theme was not surprising.) we also bought my godbrother some gloves, and a two-pack of alpaca/llama socks for me!
afterwards, we stopped by a nearby cafe called bonanza cafe to get out of the cold for a little bit. they had THE BEST SEA SALT BROWNIE I HAVE EVER HAD THE JOY OF PUTTING IN MY MOUTH. IT WAS SO GOOD. JUST THINKING ABOUT IT IS EXCITING ME. nothing on this trip would come close to this slice of heaven, but a couple of things were pretty good.
there wasn't a lot to do since everything is closed on sundays in berlin, so we decided to make our way to museum island. we took a little bit of a walk once we got to the area, since it was pretty nice out, and i discovered just how little my godbrother has explored his city haha. there were so many pretty, ornate buildings randomly dotting the otherwise very sparse and stern architecture, but he didn't know what most of them were. we definitely saw the berlin cathedral, which was gorgeous, but otherwise i just wandered around wondering about all the history i wasn't learning about the city (yet).
anyway, we got to museum island, but most of the museums are art museums, which i hate, so we decided to go to pergamon and neues museum to see the historic exhibits. i thought it was going to be really exciting and interesting stuff, but reading dry history about artefacts is really not my thing. next time i'll stick to interactive museums and walking tours, tyvm. there were a couple of cool things in the museum, like the life-size models of some of the structures from babylon, and some of the tombs from egypt, but overall i was extremely unimpressed, and my godbrother even less so.
so many pretty buildings!
luckily, we saw a tiny little art flea market just outside the museums, and oh my gosh, that may have cemented my love for berlin right there. i loved it. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS WONDERFUL. the street art is so good, the stylisation is impeccable, i could've lolled around in that gloriousness all day. the grungy, gritty art scene plus the underground performing arts is just such a callback to chicago it makes me homesick. berlin is very much the european equivalent of chicago for me, and how can i not be a little bit in love with that?
my godbrother then took me to a taiwanese place called mealux for dinner, which isn't particularly good, but for some reason ended up appearing on our itinerary three times throughout my stay (as did ritter sport cafe, but that was well deserved). we had some lu rou fan, which was okay except for the terrible rice, and some spicy ji si, which was AMAZING, and then, because his (ex, though i only found that out on the trip itself) girlfriend's family was also flying in that night, we bought some rice back for them and my godbrother dropped it off at their hotel. CUE THE DUH-RAMAAAAAAAAA. (soon.)
mon:
so this was probably my favourite day of the whole trip??? though i might change my mind as i go through the rest of our itinerary. but monday was the day we went to the zoo!!!! and saw the aquarium!!!!!! which is going to make it pretty hard to beat. (would make it IMPOSSIBLE to beat, really, if it weren't for the DUH-RAMAAAAAAAA that happened later on that night. but i digress.)
so the zoo was LOVELY and the weather was so nice for it, if a little chilly, and i had the bestest time! the habitats were all gorgeous, and huge, and there were loads of animals to look at (and some i hadn't even seen before!!!!!!!!1 which is so rare!!!!!!!) even though i definitely do not think they house however many thousands of animals and species they claim to. also they were mising all the big cats, and the big cats are one of my absolute favourites, so that was a bummer, but they had BEARS!!!!! pandas and polars and (possibly) grizzlies, or black bears, which are my other favourites at zoos, and i see thos emuch more rarely now that singapore doesn't really have the latter two, so that made up for it loads. ALSO THE AQUARIUM!!!!!!!! which was AMAZING and had so many varities of frogs!!! which was fun because i found nearly all of them, but would have been made better with a "find the frog" buddy, and my godbrother left me early on to get out of the oppressive heat of the building.
DOWN TO ZOO ALL DAY ERR DAY
food-wise, the day was a complete wash, because i snacked on fruits and crackers at home, then shared a rosti burger with my godbrother from macdonalds (which should have been !!!!!!! but was just a regular chicken burger with a circular hash brown in it). and lunch was an even more tragic affair, because it turned out most of the restaurants at the zoo weren't open, so we ended up eating at the aquarium's cafe, and the lady was not super pleasant, just like the food. and dinner... well.
we headed to primark just before closing time (closing time is at 4pm, if anyone was wondering, ha ha ha ha no). i was super excited because primark!!!! i haven't been to a primark in ages! and also because i knew the ex-girlfriend, c, and her family would be having dinner with us that evening, and this was my last chance to be not with strangers for a little bit. ugh, i hate meeting new people and socialising. (why i had to do so much of it on MY VACATION is beyond me.)
shopping at primark was uneventful (and also not as fabulous as i remember it being in london) right up until i went to try on my boots. all of a sudden, my godbrother is super annoyed because c isn't answering his texts, but he knows they are, at that very minute, literally in the same primark as we are. so he's pissy she isn't answering his texts because it's fucking with our plans, and i'm worried we're going to bump into c and her fam (whom i have never met nor heard of prior to this; i barely know c as it is). turns out we DO run into them, and my godbrother goes over to say hi for a nanosecond before he comes back over to me, really upset because c is being unresponsive and we don't know what the plan is so we can't leave to grab food.
i'm done shopping at this point, so i tell him we'll go pay, and if they aren't ready by the time we're done or if c keeps ignoring his texts, we'll go back to the apartment and regroup. they end up a couple of people behind us in the line to pay, and then c comes up to me to start chatting like she hasn't been part of drama central for the past half hour. we decide we'll have dinner at a chinese restaurant they both know of, and all head back to our area together since their hotel is nearby. (which i later discover is because c is staying in the apartment with us, yay for notification!) it's not even 6 when we get back to our station, so we decide we'll take a little siesta and meet up at 7.30 for dinner. only 7.30 comes and goes and my godbrother is getting pissy again because c is ignoring his texts (again) and has only said she's coming over to the apartment to drop off some stuff. at 7.40 we decide that if she doesn't show up in 5 minutes, we'll go for dinner on our own.
only of course that's when she shows up! i mean - i don't begrudge her any of this, because they're still business partners and she is, at least to my knowledge, still paying half the rent for this apartment even though she is now living in london due to visa issues. but when she does show up, she starts unpacking luggage and doing laundry and i am BEYOND exhausted and super hungry, and it doesn't look like we'll be leaving any time soon. bear in mind her entire family is also waiting on us to eat. so a shouting match ensues between the exes, fun times for me, and finally we leave to grab dinner and it is the worst, most awkward experience ever. (for me, anyway, they both put on excellent faces for her family, who i don't think know about their break up yet.) also, the food is meh. some of it was actually pretty terrible.
still! thank god that's done with, right? ....right?
tues:
we've planned a free walking tour of berlin for tuesday morning, so we wake up bright and early to grab some breakfast at still vintage bike beforehand. just like majority of the food we've had in berlin, it's just okay. there is a LOT of avocado on the open face sandwich, but quantity does not equate to quality. or taste.
awesome vibe
thankfully, the walking tour we went on with alice afterwards was fabulous. i've done a couple of sandemann tours, and they are hit or miss depending on your guide. alice was faaaaaaab; she gave us so much insight into berlin's history without making it overwhelming, and i fell in love with the city a little bit more that day. she also reinforced the idea that the food there is terrible, lmao.
last stop on the tour!
it started to rain a little bit at the end of the tour, and my godbrother had a business meeting to attend, so we headed back to the apartment for him to get his stuff and for me to decide what to do while he was out. pro tip: DO NOT TAKE VACATIONS WITHOUT GETTING A SIM CARD. i ended up staying in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon, because i didn't trust myself to navigate the city without readily available data. and also i hadn't caught up on the untamed in a while, soooo.
anyway. after my godbrother got back, we went out to catch a comedy show. we'd decided to just grab a bite at one of the well reviewed restaurants nearby, but it was full when we got there. (another recurring theme in germany, which is weird considering berlin is a city built for 8 million and housing only 3, and also the food is not good, how are the restaurants always full?) instead, we crossed the road to the other well-reviewed place. (but this was mediterranean instead of italian/western, which made all the difference; our german compatriots don't seem like particularly adventurous eaters.) they were also full but they sat us at the bar, and the bartender was an australian chinese who'd moved to berlin a couple of years ago. he was super chatty (possibly overmuch) and very friendly, but the octopus chickpea risotto was one of the food highlights of my trip, so i can overlook it. plus, he also agreed that berlin has terrible food and then gave us a list of restaurant recommendations, unsolicited, and a free shot of... something with baileys in it. that was actually pretty tasty? and i chugged it like you're supposed to? and i didn't get sick? it was GREAT. i hope i never have to do it again.
directly afterwards, we went to the comedy club across the road. it was the last tuesday of the month, which meant 2 comedians with 30 minute sets. the first dude was pretty green, but he had some promising material and also i cut them all some slack because english is not any of their first (or even second, in some cases) language, so. it was overall a pretty lovely night, and i had so much fun with the second comedian (a lady) which never happens! because lady comedians are usually not my jam, and she faux-flirted with my godbrother all night with apologetic asides to me (which, whatever, they always think we're a couple when we travel together, i'm used to it), so it was all in all pretty hilarious. AND CHEAP. it was donations based, so we paid 5 euro each for almost 2 hours of entertainment. sounds like another city i used to live in.
so the night seemed to be coming to a lovely close, only when we got back to the apartment, i realised that c was still there. (she'd come back from the business meeting with my godbrother in the afternoon) and she was getting ready to turn in for the night. which, i mean, fine, whatever, but a little warning would have been nice? i had no idea what was supposed to happen, so i assumed i was taking the couch (as the guest) and curled up there to sleep. only my godbrother apparently had the same idea, and c came to wake me a few times to get me to move to the bed, but it was awkward and i was unprepared, so my godbrother and i slept on opposite ends of the couch, while c slept in the huge bed all alone. what a night.
wed:
up and ache-y the next morning, i was ready to get out of the house and start our day with a trip to the ritter sport cafe. we were heading to potsdam because my godbrother had a life coach meeting with some lady at her house there, and i was curious about how real germans live, lmao. unfortunately, i wasn't told that our morning at ritter sport would be with c's family, and that they were also tagging along to potsdam with us (but going to do their own sightseeing once there). evidently, my godbrother didn't know either, until c sprang it on us the morning off. he was piiiiiiiiissed, and kept talking about how inconsiderate she was being - her family is there for two weeks, and i have half of that time, my plans should take precedence, why isn't c taking into consideration that our timetable may not be as flexible etc etc - which meant it fell to me to defend c and her terrible imposition on MY HOLIDAY. why do couples do this.
anyway, it was fine, because the ritter sport cafe lets you CUSTOM MAKE CHOCOLATE BARS. WHO CAN BE UPSET ABOUT THAT, HONESTLY???? the fondue was also amazing, but the fruits they served it with were all wrong. i do not want anything but apples and bananas if i can't have strawberries, guys, okay, oranges and melons just do not work as well. afterwards, i made up my mind i would come back, because i had a bunch more custom chocolate i wanted to make, but i didn't want to hold our group up, so we tottered off to the train station. it was v. awkward, since c wasn't coming with, and we didn't speak at all on the train ride there. fun!!
thankfully we split up to go our separate ways as soon as we got to the station and my godbrother and i sat down to enjoy some local sausages, which were delightful!! potsdam was a lot closer to my idea of stereotypical germany - fatty pork patties and sausages in hard rolls and large old white men drinking beer in the middle of the afternoon. a++++ stuff. we shared a table with an old man and at the end i smiled and said, "danke!" before we left, and he looked so surprised i thought i might have given him a coronary. IT'S OKAY TO SMILE ONCE IN A WHILE, GERMANS. AND TO BE NICE. IT WON'T DETRACT FROM YOUR COLD AND UNAPPROACHABLE VIBE, I PROMISE.
anyway, afterwards we wandered around the old dutch quarters because we had no idea what to do, and we're not really castle people (well, i am if someone can tell me the history about it, but i don't really like looking at artefacts and old buildings without context). it was really cute and really quaint, if not particularly special, and because we weren't that familiar with the land, we got a little bit lost on our way to birgit's house.
cobblestone streets make everything better
which turned out to be LOVELY, even though we joked (kind of joked?) the whole way there about how hard it was to find, and how we wouldn't eat or drink anything she gave us (WHICH I DIDN'T, VIGILENCE IS KEY) just in case it was poisoned, or we were meeting secret neo-nazis with a hard on for asian torture. IDK, OKAY, DONUT JUDGE ME, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS WALKING INTO. luckily all our fears were unfounded, and birgit and her partner were LOVELY. they were so animated, if a little old and kooky, and so reminded me of a cross between madam trelwaney and the high school musical drama teacher. it was fab. i had almost no idea what the meeting was about, or what my godbrother's business was about, prior to the meeting, and i still had a blast. and walked out with so much more insight on the older generation's view of germany and business.
it was pretty late by the time we left - well, i say late but i really mean dark - and birgit had recommended that we walk through the sanssouci (?) castle to cut back into town and try out a persian restaurant for dinner. we did that, but the castle was SO DARK and it was SO SPOOKY, we were using our phones to light our path and our path was lined by trees on both sides, and the wind was howling, and i legitimately thought i was going to pass out every time the rustling got particularly bad. at one point i was convinced my godbrother was going to take a photo and someone else was going to appear in it. WHY AM I LIKE THIS.
IT WAS NOT LIT UP AT ALL THE CAMERA IS LYING
anyway, the unfortunate thing is that the persian restaurant, when we got there, was full. well, they say full, but they were just fully reserved, there were definitely still tables available. and they don't ask you if you want to wait, they just say 'no, we're full, bye'. it's such a bizarre way of running a restaurant, but hey. the italian restaurant birgit had recommended as a back up was the same, so we wound up taking the train back to berlin and trying one of the restaurants on the chef's list from the night before.
it was a three kitchen concept - cyprus, chinese, and peruvian - and none of it was particularly good, although i will say that the chinese noodles were a++++ authentic. and the lady, when she came to collect our plates, asked if we were from malaysia! turns out her husband's dad is from malaysia, but they're both from china, which is probably why the noodles were so good. then she mentioned that her husband was looking into making hokkien mee and chicken rice because of how terrible the german food is, and i just elbowed my godbrother like THIS COULD BE AMAZING FOR YOU, BRO!!!!
he bought a bowl of noodles back to the apartment for c, because she was staying one more night, but she wanted to get pizza, so we did that as well. the pizza wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, so. a small win is still a win! and i slept on the bed that night because honestly, i felt pretty entitled to the comfort at that point.
thurs:
we didn't see c and her family again after thursday morning, because they all left to go to other parts of europe (mostly because of c's visa situation not permitting her to remain in germany for much longer) so this was a good day! we started it off with the sachsenhauser tour, and had to get up at the ass crack of dawn to make it. the weather was terrible today, definitely too cold for pictures, so that was worlds of not fun, and our guide seemed determined to stop in the harshest places possible to tell us about the camps history, possibly to show us how hard it had been for the prisoners at the time.
it was... idk. i have mixed feelings about the tour because i was expecting to get emotional, but there wasn't enough time to do that, and our guide's style was not conducive towards emotional reactions, even though she was telling very emotional stories. it was really weird. with alice's tour, i was teary eyed just hearing about the families reuniting at the berlin wall, and here, despite the interesting nuggets of information we got (like about the counterfeiting operation) there was very little feeling behind any of it. and it was freezing - and if you know me, you know i don't say that lightly - so that did not help the situation. half the time i was thinking about when the story would be over so we could get out of the cold.
anyway, probably because of the weather, less than half of our tour group showed up, so it was just the 3 of us with our guide, amy. i hate awkward small talk, so once we returned to the train station, i dragged my godbrother off to grab a bratwurst and bid amy farewell. we made it back to the train before it departed, but we didn't try to look for amy again. we were much happier chilling on our own.
we made good time back to berlin, so we wound up at neun markthalle to try the meat platter my godbrother had been raving about since day one. it was just okay, but the salad that came with it was a+++ there were a ton of other things to eat there as well, so i got some cheese, a slice of (bad) pizza, a savoury crepe (that was crunchy but somehow still not satisfying), and a cannoli (which i only took a bite of). overall, it wasn't particularly good, but it did fill us up so we could go explore the rest of the neighbourhood with full bellies.
i really wanted to check out the east side gallery, because the little of the berlin wall we'd seen had been so underwhelming, and i just knew the street art scene would be something i'd be into, so off we went! the building by the river were really lovely, even if the gallery itself turned out to be a little bit disappointing. the gallery was next to a mall, which was next to the mercedes benz arena, which is how i realised ICE HOCKEY IS A THING IN GERMANY. we bought tickets for the game the next night (which - I'M SO GLAD I WAS ABLE TO SEE A GAME), 19 euros for the nosebleed seats, which was not terrible, and then we did a spot of shopping at the mall.
my godbrother got a new card holder, and i got new boots! since my old pair were falling apart and letting water in when it rained D: afterwards, we went home to rest for a little bit, and i caught up with more of the untamed, and more of xiao zhan, until we finally decided it was time to go for dinner at a german restaurant nearby.
my godbrother kept telling me that it wasn't going to be good, but it wound up being possibly the best sausage i had the entire trip! it was a blood sausage and liver sausage combination though, and i bought a side of gherkins to go with it, and oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD. the texture was more minced meat than sausage, but even that i didn't mind. this and the octopus risotto were maybe the best things i ate in berlin (BROWNIE NOTWITHSTANDING).
fri:
so initially the plan had been to spend just a couple of days in berlin, and spend the rest of the time visiting other german cities. up to thursday, i thought we could maybe squeeze in a 1.5 day trip to hamburg over the weekend, but with the booking of the ice hockey tickets, that plan went out the window. and i was SO PLEASED ABOUT IT. honestly, 5-6 days in berlin is a good amount of time, i think, especially if you're not always on the go, or if you're doing all the planning on very little wifi and can't always get where you want to go in the most efficient amount of time.
so friday morning saw us going to get my godbrother a beanie and some clothes from the expensive mall beside his apartment. all the clothes were on like a 50% discount, though, and with my tax refund, it was even cheaper, so that was great. i would've gotten some clothes for my dad then, except he's terrible about responding to my messages and so i didn't get his sizing until it was too late.
then we went back to the ritter sport cafe to a) get more customised chocolates, and b) have that fondue WITH STRAWBERRIES, because we bought a punnet from the grocery store. BEST DECISION EVER, LEGIT. it was SO GOOD. this might have been my favourite meal we had in berlin overall. afterwards, i should've been chocolate-d out, but as we wandered around town towards the topography of terror, i kept stopping to look at all the chocolate stores, and wound up stopping in a belgium one. it looked super fancy, but i was just there to pick up a couple of bars, which i did without any fanfare. but then the man behind the counter insisted on giving me samples anyway! and i was like, oh it's okay, i don't really like dark chocolate. and he was like 'oh i have milk too!' and i was like 'no, honestly, that's fine, i have my braces on as well so i can't eat anything right now', and he was like 'oh don't even worry about it, take this and save it for later' and he just picked up one of the wrapped milk chocolates and gave it to me!!! even though i'd already bought my chocolate! MY BUSINESS IS GUARANTEED, SIR, YOU DO NOT NEED TO SELL ME ON MORE. (the chocolate was VERY good though, i would definitely get it again if i could.)
with that little detour made, we went over to the topography of terror, aka the headquarters of the ss during the war. this was my favourite museum that we saw, and was possibly my favouritest thing we did in berlin. it was definitely the most impactful? it was horrifying but really emotional and really hard to even read about, never mind look at, and the section on the jews in amsterdam was just -- idk. it was hard. we spent maybe 2 hours there, and i had a hard time shaking it off afterwards. and it was free, because no one should be deprived of this knowledge because of economic status. i mean, how great is that? germany isn't perfect, but it is one of the few places i've been to that so objectively acknowledges the horrors that have been committed by their own people, and aims to preserve it and educate others about it so the same thing doesn't happen again. it's amazing. it's a lot.
standing where the berlin wall would've been between us, in a city determined to remember
my godbrother wanted to get some food, so we went back to mealux (again) so he could convince me that the terrible rice we had the first night was a fluke. and it was, only it wasn't mind-blowingly good or anything. but i could see why he goes there so often. it's comfort food like nothing else. he also found out that they do off the menu dishes for dinner if you know what to ask for, so i was pretty sure at that point that my last meal in berlin would be back at mealux, lmfao.
i dsragged him away from mealux to visit the turkish market in kreuzberg. we got there just in time to see the sunset, and it was stunning. the most gorgeous night of my trip, for sure. the market itself was a lot bigger than i was anticipating, but most of the stalls had closed by then, so that was a bit of a disappointment. the food was pretty terrible (apart from the borzek???) that was weirdly delicious despite being stone cold, but the market itself was fun to look around! and the fruit was SO CHEAP. we bought two more punnets of strawberries to eat the next day (because of course we were going back to ritter sport again, now that we had the magic formula!
once we were done at the market, we took a slow walk to the mercedes benz arena. it took me a while to buy any hockey apparel once i let myself fangirl the blackhawks, and even then i never bought a jersey because hi, money is important, but my godbrother dove right in, and had his heart set on a jersey before we even went into the game. the dude behind the counter asked us if we wanted a particular number, and i was like, 'i don't even know which numbers play on your team.' lmao.
the rink was INSANE. they set up a giant inflatable bear head (for the berliner ice bears) for the players to run out of onto the ice when they were introduced. there were indoor fireworks and a huge fireshow and SO MUCH fanfare introducing the team. they didn't even mention the opponents team, and there was no introduction of any of their players, they walked onto the ice after the ice bears were announced and the game just started, right there and then. i didn't even know what to think. i've seen crazy fans and been a biased, obnoxious fan myself but this was NEXT LEVEL.
they scored early into the first period, but it was so clear from the get-go that they are not a great team. neither of the teams were great, but it was kind of tragic how not great they were. also the fans were SO OBNOXIOUS, they jeered every time the other team came close to their net (which was A LOT) and sang and cheered their own team non-stop, and booed when the other team scored goals (which thankfully they did becausetalk about insufferable), and in the end the straubing tigers won amidst the non-stop jeering of the home crowd. yeesh. the ten tiger fans around me were thrilled, and so was i.
my godbrother got his jersey at the end of the game, and he's going back today (sunday) to watch the next game and also test out his jersey hahahahah. that's dedication to fashion.
empty nets and hockey jerseys, oh my!
after the game, i decided we should go to the restaurant alice had recommended during our tour, called katz orange. it was supposed to close at 1am, but we reached at just about 11.15 and had ten minutes to put in our order. they promptly forgot one of the 3 things we got, but the food was pretty meh, so i wasn't too upset. the location was lovely, though, if too warm on the inside, but there was a gigantic courtyard with lots of greenery and adorable furniture and friendly staff, and i enjoyed the evening a lot. we got shushed after we left the restaurant and sat in the courtyard chatting, but it was so nice that i didn't even get mad. and i hate getting shushed, so that's how lovely it was.
sat:
the last day of my trip!!!! we kicked it off with a late start to our final stop at the ritter sport cafe. it wasn't as good as it was the day before, but i also ordered the praline mousse cake, and oh my god, that cake dipped in the chocolate fondue was E.VE.RY.THING. possibly better than the strawberries in the fondue, though it feels blasphemous even typing that.
please sir may i have some more?
after the cafe, we went back to the expensive mall so i could get clothes for my dad, and then we stopped at the local supermarket to get more chips and gummy bears and chocolate wafers for me to bring home (mostly as gifts, sadly).
we didn't really have much planned for the rest of the day, but i thought the museum of magic sounded like fun, so off we went! and it WAS fun. apart from the terrible magic show, which showcased a magician clearly meant for four-year-old's birthday parties and nothing more, i had a blast. they showcased a bunch of religious artefacts, witch hunt torture devices, occult-y things, tarot card readings and brain puzzles that we had to solve. we also got to ask a pendulum yes and no questions, and that was pretty neat. and there were huge, handled bowls full of water that would vibrate if you rubbed wet hands over the handles just right. it supposedly showed how "in balance" you were, so i was a little bit in balance, and my godbrother very much so, lmao. we spent two hours there, and i could've stayed longer, only my godbrother isn't really the type for brainy puzzles. alas.
we took the train to mealux for our final meal of the trip, and ordered a kao yu. it was VERY tasty, but also very bony and hard to eat, so idk how much i can say i enjoyed it. i wouldn't eat it again unless they could do it with fish fillets, and even then it's not necessarily what i'd call an essential stop. if i lived there, though, i would be there a lot. they even had cheese foam bubble tea, which was DELICIOUS. not as good as the one in chengdu, but good enough! i was starving before mealux, though, so i stopped at mcdonalds beforehand to try their apple pie (eh) and their weird fries. it looked like a cross between a flattened wedge and a criss-cut fry, but the seasoning was delicious and the sour cream and chives sauce they served it with was also a++
once we were done with our meal, we headed home, where i packed my suitcase and got my hands on a copy of schindlers list. why would i do that, you might ask, on my last night in berlin, when i had to be up at the ass crack of dawn the next morning to get to the airport? i honestly do not know. the movie was great, but i should've gone for sleep instead. oh well, hindsight and all that! it was an amazing trip overall and nothing can take that away from me.
ALSO!!! in one more piece of excellent news, i finally got my ahpc application approved!!!!! i can now OFFICIALLY call myself a speech therapist, and use ALL MY LETTERS, which also means I CAN GET NAME CARDS. this is all very exciting!!!! :D :D :D january was such a swell month, coronavirus aside. now i just need the rest of the year to fall in line.
oh man oh man oh man, where do i even start with berlin? what a city. i'd heard all kinds of reviews, from the "IT IS AMAZING AND WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE" to the "worst city ever germany is horrible and berlin is ugly and boring" and i honestly had no idea which berlin to expect before i got here. but I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN. it's a creative artsy hub with a not-too-dense population and incredibly dense history, aka TOTALLY UP MY ALLEY. and i came in the middle of winter, which beats in the middle of summer all day any day. I LOVED IT. it is definitely one of my top 3 european cities i've ever visited (the other 2 being venice and paris; i am a touristy tourist, and I AM NOT ASHAMED). (this is setting aside london, obv, because london has pixiebeanz in it and will therefore always be my top top european city, but these other cities do not house a pixiebeanz - mores the pity - and are my favourites on their actual merit alone.)
it also helped that my godbrother literally lives in the centre of all the action (it's a dead town at night but we were never more than 20 minutes from anywhere by train, which was perfect), and that i didn't have to pay for lodging and/or most of my meals and/or most of my transport. (to be fair, we are singaporean chinese. neither of us paid for most of our transport. this is why the honour system would never work in asia.)
aNYWAY. on to the actual fun stuff!!!
sun:
i took a 13 hour direct flight on scoot from singapore to germany on the first night of chinese new year. if i could've gone any earlier, i would've, because chinese new year is the PITS, and i hate visiting and would happily give up all the ang pow money in exchange for never having to visit distant relatives ever again, but that is another story for another time. everyone said i was crazy to take scoot, considering the time and the distance and the distinct lack of food and comfort it is typically known for, but i had a fabulous flight! i slept 9 of 13 hours, and we were only delayed by an hour. the seats were comfortable and the food was overpriced but not barf-worthy. all in all, a win!
my godbrother was waiting for me when i landed, and the system was so efficient (and the immigration officers were really nice??? both times i had to face them???? maybe the nicest immigration officers ever??? what is up berlin???) that we made it back to his apartment with my luggage in tow via public transport in less then forty minutes. i was pumped and ready to go, so we rolled out to the fleamarket at mauerpark once we dropped my bag off. it wasn't big, but it was ADORABLE, and i knew right away i was really going to like the vibe of berlin. everythinhg was SO CUTE, if it didn't cost an arm and a leg i would definitely have come home with my backpack fit to burst. as it was, we wandered around, tried some sausages, falafel, arepas, and a chocolate banana crepe, none of which were very good. (i was warned in advance about the food by several people, so that this became a recurring theme was not surprising.) we also bought my godbrother some gloves, and a two-pack of alpaca/llama socks for me!
afterwards, we stopped by a nearby cafe called bonanza cafe to get out of the cold for a little bit. they had THE BEST SEA SALT BROWNIE I HAVE EVER HAD THE JOY OF PUTTING IN MY MOUTH. IT WAS SO GOOD. JUST THINKING ABOUT IT IS EXCITING ME. nothing on this trip would come close to this slice of heaven, but a couple of things were pretty good.
there wasn't a lot to do since everything is closed on sundays in berlin, so we decided to make our way to museum island. we took a little bit of a walk once we got to the area, since it was pretty nice out, and i discovered just how little my godbrother has explored his city haha. there were so many pretty, ornate buildings randomly dotting the otherwise very sparse and stern architecture, but he didn't know what most of them were. we definitely saw the berlin cathedral, which was gorgeous, but otherwise i just wandered around wondering about all the history i wasn't learning about the city (yet).
anyway, we got to museum island, but most of the museums are art museums, which i hate, so we decided to go to pergamon and neues museum to see the historic exhibits. i thought it was going to be really exciting and interesting stuff, but reading dry history about artefacts is really not my thing. next time i'll stick to interactive museums and walking tours, tyvm. there were a couple of cool things in the museum, like the life-size models of some of the structures from babylon, and some of the tombs from egypt, but overall i was extremely unimpressed, and my godbrother even less so.
so many pretty buildings!
luckily, we saw a tiny little art flea market just outside the museums, and oh my gosh, that may have cemented my love for berlin right there. i loved it. EVERYTHING ABOUT IT WAS WONDERFUL. the street art is so good, the stylisation is impeccable, i could've lolled around in that gloriousness all day. the grungy, gritty art scene plus the underground performing arts is just such a callback to chicago it makes me homesick. berlin is very much the european equivalent of chicago for me, and how can i not be a little bit in love with that?
my godbrother then took me to a taiwanese place called mealux for dinner, which isn't particularly good, but for some reason ended up appearing on our itinerary three times throughout my stay (as did ritter sport cafe, but that was well deserved). we had some lu rou fan, which was okay except for the terrible rice, and some spicy ji si, which was AMAZING, and then, because his (ex, though i only found that out on the trip itself) girlfriend's family was also flying in that night, we bought some rice back for them and my godbrother dropped it off at their hotel. CUE THE DUH-RAMAAAAAAAAA. (soon.)
mon:
so this was probably my favourite day of the whole trip??? though i might change my mind as i go through the rest of our itinerary. but monday was the day we went to the zoo!!!! and saw the aquarium!!!!!! which is going to make it pretty hard to beat. (would make it IMPOSSIBLE to beat, really, if it weren't for the DUH-RAMAAAAAAAA that happened later on that night. but i digress.)
so the zoo was LOVELY and the weather was so nice for it, if a little chilly, and i had the bestest time! the habitats were all gorgeous, and huge, and there were loads of animals to look at (and some i hadn't even seen before!!!!!!!!1 which is so rare!!!!!!!) even though i definitely do not think they house however many thousands of animals and species they claim to. also they were mising all the big cats, and the big cats are one of my absolute favourites, so that was a bummer, but they had BEARS!!!!! pandas and polars and (possibly) grizzlies, or black bears, which are my other favourites at zoos, and i see thos emuch more rarely now that singapore doesn't really have the latter two, so that made up for it loads. ALSO THE AQUARIUM!!!!!!!! which was AMAZING and had so many varities of frogs!!! which was fun because i found nearly all of them, but would have been made better with a "find the frog" buddy, and my godbrother left me early on to get out of the oppressive heat of the building.
DOWN TO ZOO ALL DAY ERR DAY
food-wise, the day was a complete wash, because i snacked on fruits and crackers at home, then shared a rosti burger with my godbrother from macdonalds (which should have been !!!!!!! but was just a regular chicken burger with a circular hash brown in it). and lunch was an even more tragic affair, because it turned out most of the restaurants at the zoo weren't open, so we ended up eating at the aquarium's cafe, and the lady was not super pleasant, just like the food. and dinner... well.
we headed to primark just before closing time (closing time is at 4pm, if anyone was wondering, ha ha ha ha no). i was super excited because primark!!!! i haven't been to a primark in ages! and also because i knew the ex-girlfriend, c, and her family would be having dinner with us that evening, and this was my last chance to be not with strangers for a little bit. ugh, i hate meeting new people and socialising. (why i had to do so much of it on MY VACATION is beyond me.)
shopping at primark was uneventful (and also not as fabulous as i remember it being in london) right up until i went to try on my boots. all of a sudden, my godbrother is super annoyed because c isn't answering his texts, but he knows they are, at that very minute, literally in the same primark as we are. so he's pissy she isn't answering his texts because it's fucking with our plans, and i'm worried we're going to bump into c and her fam (whom i have never met nor heard of prior to this; i barely know c as it is). turns out we DO run into them, and my godbrother goes over to say hi for a nanosecond before he comes back over to me, really upset because c is being unresponsive and we don't know what the plan is so we can't leave to grab food.
i'm done shopping at this point, so i tell him we'll go pay, and if they aren't ready by the time we're done or if c keeps ignoring his texts, we'll go back to the apartment and regroup. they end up a couple of people behind us in the line to pay, and then c comes up to me to start chatting like she hasn't been part of drama central for the past half hour. we decide we'll have dinner at a chinese restaurant they both know of, and all head back to our area together since their hotel is nearby. (which i later discover is because c is staying in the apartment with us, yay for notification!) it's not even 6 when we get back to our station, so we decide we'll take a little siesta and meet up at 7.30 for dinner. only 7.30 comes and goes and my godbrother is getting pissy again because c is ignoring his texts (again) and has only said she's coming over to the apartment to drop off some stuff. at 7.40 we decide that if she doesn't show up in 5 minutes, we'll go for dinner on our own.
only of course that's when she shows up! i mean - i don't begrudge her any of this, because they're still business partners and she is, at least to my knowledge, still paying half the rent for this apartment even though she is now living in london due to visa issues. but when she does show up, she starts unpacking luggage and doing laundry and i am BEYOND exhausted and super hungry, and it doesn't look like we'll be leaving any time soon. bear in mind her entire family is also waiting on us to eat. so a shouting match ensues between the exes, fun times for me, and finally we leave to grab dinner and it is the worst, most awkward experience ever. (for me, anyway, they both put on excellent faces for her family, who i don't think know about their break up yet.) also, the food is meh. some of it was actually pretty terrible.
still! thank god that's done with, right? ....right?
tues:
we've planned a free walking tour of berlin for tuesday morning, so we wake up bright and early to grab some breakfast at still vintage bike beforehand. just like majority of the food we've had in berlin, it's just okay. there is a LOT of avocado on the open face sandwich, but quantity does not equate to quality. or taste.
awesome vibe
thankfully, the walking tour we went on with alice afterwards was fabulous. i've done a couple of sandemann tours, and they are hit or miss depending on your guide. alice was faaaaaaab; she gave us so much insight into berlin's history without making it overwhelming, and i fell in love with the city a little bit more that day. she also reinforced the idea that the food there is terrible, lmao.
last stop on the tour!
it started to rain a little bit at the end of the tour, and my godbrother had a business meeting to attend, so we headed back to the apartment for him to get his stuff and for me to decide what to do while he was out. pro tip: DO NOT TAKE VACATIONS WITHOUT GETTING A SIM CARD. i ended up staying in the apartment for the rest of the afternoon, because i didn't trust myself to navigate the city without readily available data. and also i hadn't caught up on the untamed in a while, soooo.
anyway. after my godbrother got back, we went out to catch a comedy show. we'd decided to just grab a bite at one of the well reviewed restaurants nearby, but it was full when we got there. (another recurring theme in germany, which is weird considering berlin is a city built for 8 million and housing only 3, and also the food is not good, how are the restaurants always full?) instead, we crossed the road to the other well-reviewed place. (but this was mediterranean instead of italian/western, which made all the difference; our german compatriots don't seem like particularly adventurous eaters.) they were also full but they sat us at the bar, and the bartender was an australian chinese who'd moved to berlin a couple of years ago. he was super chatty (possibly overmuch) and very friendly, but the octopus chickpea risotto was one of the food highlights of my trip, so i can overlook it. plus, he also agreed that berlin has terrible food and then gave us a list of restaurant recommendations, unsolicited, and a free shot of... something with baileys in it. that was actually pretty tasty? and i chugged it like you're supposed to? and i didn't get sick? it was GREAT. i hope i never have to do it again.
directly afterwards, we went to the comedy club across the road. it was the last tuesday of the month, which meant 2 comedians with 30 minute sets. the first dude was pretty green, but he had some promising material and also i cut them all some slack because english is not any of their first (or even second, in some cases) language, so. it was overall a pretty lovely night, and i had so much fun with the second comedian (a lady) which never happens! because lady comedians are usually not my jam, and she faux-flirted with my godbrother all night with apologetic asides to me (which, whatever, they always think we're a couple when we travel together, i'm used to it), so it was all in all pretty hilarious. AND CHEAP. it was donations based, so we paid 5 euro each for almost 2 hours of entertainment. sounds like another city i used to live in.
so the night seemed to be coming to a lovely close, only when we got back to the apartment, i realised that c was still there. (she'd come back from the business meeting with my godbrother in the afternoon) and she was getting ready to turn in for the night. which, i mean, fine, whatever, but a little warning would have been nice? i had no idea what was supposed to happen, so i assumed i was taking the couch (as the guest) and curled up there to sleep. only my godbrother apparently had the same idea, and c came to wake me a few times to get me to move to the bed, but it was awkward and i was unprepared, so my godbrother and i slept on opposite ends of the couch, while c slept in the huge bed all alone. what a night.
wed:
up and ache-y the next morning, i was ready to get out of the house and start our day with a trip to the ritter sport cafe. we were heading to potsdam because my godbrother had a life coach meeting with some lady at her house there, and i was curious about how real germans live, lmao. unfortunately, i wasn't told that our morning at ritter sport would be with c's family, and that they were also tagging along to potsdam with us (but going to do their own sightseeing once there). evidently, my godbrother didn't know either, until c sprang it on us the morning off. he was piiiiiiiiissed, and kept talking about how inconsiderate she was being - her family is there for two weeks, and i have half of that time, my plans should take precedence, why isn't c taking into consideration that our timetable may not be as flexible etc etc - which meant it fell to me to defend c and her terrible imposition on MY HOLIDAY. why do couples do this.
anyway, it was fine, because the ritter sport cafe lets you CUSTOM MAKE CHOCOLATE BARS. WHO CAN BE UPSET ABOUT THAT, HONESTLY???? the fondue was also amazing, but the fruits they served it with were all wrong. i do not want anything but apples and bananas if i can't have strawberries, guys, okay, oranges and melons just do not work as well. afterwards, i made up my mind i would come back, because i had a bunch more custom chocolate i wanted to make, but i didn't want to hold our group up, so we tottered off to the train station. it was v. awkward, since c wasn't coming with, and we didn't speak at all on the train ride there. fun!!
thankfully we split up to go our separate ways as soon as we got to the station and my godbrother and i sat down to enjoy some local sausages, which were delightful!! potsdam was a lot closer to my idea of stereotypical germany - fatty pork patties and sausages in hard rolls and large old white men drinking beer in the middle of the afternoon. a++++ stuff. we shared a table with an old man and at the end i smiled and said, "danke!" before we left, and he looked so surprised i thought i might have given him a coronary. IT'S OKAY TO SMILE ONCE IN A WHILE, GERMANS. AND TO BE NICE. IT WON'T DETRACT FROM YOUR COLD AND UNAPPROACHABLE VIBE, I PROMISE.
anyway, afterwards we wandered around the old dutch quarters because we had no idea what to do, and we're not really castle people (well, i am if someone can tell me the history about it, but i don't really like looking at artefacts and old buildings without context). it was really cute and really quaint, if not particularly special, and because we weren't that familiar with the land, we got a little bit lost on our way to birgit's house.
cobblestone streets make everything better
which turned out to be LOVELY, even though we joked (kind of joked?) the whole way there about how hard it was to find, and how we wouldn't eat or drink anything she gave us (WHICH I DIDN'T, VIGILENCE IS KEY) just in case it was poisoned, or we were meeting secret neo-nazis with a hard on for asian torture. IDK, OKAY, DONUT JUDGE ME, I HAD NO IDEA WHAT I WAS WALKING INTO. luckily all our fears were unfounded, and birgit and her partner were LOVELY. they were so animated, if a little old and kooky, and so reminded me of a cross between madam trelwaney and the high school musical drama teacher. it was fab. i had almost no idea what the meeting was about, or what my godbrother's business was about, prior to the meeting, and i still had a blast. and walked out with so much more insight on the older generation's view of germany and business.
it was pretty late by the time we left - well, i say late but i really mean dark - and birgit had recommended that we walk through the sanssouci (?) castle to cut back into town and try out a persian restaurant for dinner. we did that, but the castle was SO DARK and it was SO SPOOKY, we were using our phones to light our path and our path was lined by trees on both sides, and the wind was howling, and i legitimately thought i was going to pass out every time the rustling got particularly bad. at one point i was convinced my godbrother was going to take a photo and someone else was going to appear in it. WHY AM I LIKE THIS.
IT WAS NOT LIT UP AT ALL THE CAMERA IS LYING
anyway, the unfortunate thing is that the persian restaurant, when we got there, was full. well, they say full, but they were just fully reserved, there were definitely still tables available. and they don't ask you if you want to wait, they just say 'no, we're full, bye'. it's such a bizarre way of running a restaurant, but hey. the italian restaurant birgit had recommended as a back up was the same, so we wound up taking the train back to berlin and trying one of the restaurants on the chef's list from the night before.
it was a three kitchen concept - cyprus, chinese, and peruvian - and none of it was particularly good, although i will say that the chinese noodles were a++++ authentic. and the lady, when she came to collect our plates, asked if we were from malaysia! turns out her husband's dad is from malaysia, but they're both from china, which is probably why the noodles were so good. then she mentioned that her husband was looking into making hokkien mee and chicken rice because of how terrible the german food is, and i just elbowed my godbrother like THIS COULD BE AMAZING FOR YOU, BRO!!!!
he bought a bowl of noodles back to the apartment for c, because she was staying one more night, but she wanted to get pizza, so we did that as well. the pizza wasn't great, but it wasn't terrible, so. a small win is still a win! and i slept on the bed that night because honestly, i felt pretty entitled to the comfort at that point.
thurs:
we didn't see c and her family again after thursday morning, because they all left to go to other parts of europe (mostly because of c's visa situation not permitting her to remain in germany for much longer) so this was a good day! we started it off with the sachsenhauser tour, and had to get up at the ass crack of dawn to make it. the weather was terrible today, definitely too cold for pictures, so that was worlds of not fun, and our guide seemed determined to stop in the harshest places possible to tell us about the camps history, possibly to show us how hard it had been for the prisoners at the time.
it was... idk. i have mixed feelings about the tour because i was expecting to get emotional, but there wasn't enough time to do that, and our guide's style was not conducive towards emotional reactions, even though she was telling very emotional stories. it was really weird. with alice's tour, i was teary eyed just hearing about the families reuniting at the berlin wall, and here, despite the interesting nuggets of information we got (like about the counterfeiting operation) there was very little feeling behind any of it. and it was freezing - and if you know me, you know i don't say that lightly - so that did not help the situation. half the time i was thinking about when the story would be over so we could get out of the cold.
anyway, probably because of the weather, less than half of our tour group showed up, so it was just the 3 of us with our guide, amy. i hate awkward small talk, so once we returned to the train station, i dragged my godbrother off to grab a bratwurst and bid amy farewell. we made it back to the train before it departed, but we didn't try to look for amy again. we were much happier chilling on our own.
we made good time back to berlin, so we wound up at neun markthalle to try the meat platter my godbrother had been raving about since day one. it was just okay, but the salad that came with it was a+++ there were a ton of other things to eat there as well, so i got some cheese, a slice of (bad) pizza, a savoury crepe (that was crunchy but somehow still not satisfying), and a cannoli (which i only took a bite of). overall, it wasn't particularly good, but it did fill us up so we could go explore the rest of the neighbourhood with full bellies.
i really wanted to check out the east side gallery, because the little of the berlin wall we'd seen had been so underwhelming, and i just knew the street art scene would be something i'd be into, so off we went! the building by the river were really lovely, even if the gallery itself turned out to be a little bit disappointing. the gallery was next to a mall, which was next to the mercedes benz arena, which is how i realised ICE HOCKEY IS A THING IN GERMANY. we bought tickets for the game the next night (which - I'M SO GLAD I WAS ABLE TO SEE A GAME), 19 euros for the nosebleed seats, which was not terrible, and then we did a spot of shopping at the mall.
my godbrother got a new card holder, and i got new boots! since my old pair were falling apart and letting water in when it rained D: afterwards, we went home to rest for a little bit, and i caught up with more of the untamed, and more of xiao zhan, until we finally decided it was time to go for dinner at a german restaurant nearby.
my godbrother kept telling me that it wasn't going to be good, but it wound up being possibly the best sausage i had the entire trip! it was a blood sausage and liver sausage combination though, and i bought a side of gherkins to go with it, and oh my gosh, it was SO GOOD. the texture was more minced meat than sausage, but even that i didn't mind. this and the octopus risotto were maybe the best things i ate in berlin (BROWNIE NOTWITHSTANDING).
fri:
so initially the plan had been to spend just a couple of days in berlin, and spend the rest of the time visiting other german cities. up to thursday, i thought we could maybe squeeze in a 1.5 day trip to hamburg over the weekend, but with the booking of the ice hockey tickets, that plan went out the window. and i was SO PLEASED ABOUT IT. honestly, 5-6 days in berlin is a good amount of time, i think, especially if you're not always on the go, or if you're doing all the planning on very little wifi and can't always get where you want to go in the most efficient amount of time.
so friday morning saw us going to get my godbrother a beanie and some clothes from the expensive mall beside his apartment. all the clothes were on like a 50% discount, though, and with my tax refund, it was even cheaper, so that was great. i would've gotten some clothes for my dad then, except he's terrible about responding to my messages and so i didn't get his sizing until it was too late.
then we went back to the ritter sport cafe to a) get more customised chocolates, and b) have that fondue WITH STRAWBERRIES, because we bought a punnet from the grocery store. BEST DECISION EVER, LEGIT. it was SO GOOD. this might have been my favourite meal we had in berlin overall. afterwards, i should've been chocolate-d out, but as we wandered around town towards the topography of terror, i kept stopping to look at all the chocolate stores, and wound up stopping in a belgium one. it looked super fancy, but i was just there to pick up a couple of bars, which i did without any fanfare. but then the man behind the counter insisted on giving me samples anyway! and i was like, oh it's okay, i don't really like dark chocolate. and he was like 'oh i have milk too!' and i was like 'no, honestly, that's fine, i have my braces on as well so i can't eat anything right now', and he was like 'oh don't even worry about it, take this and save it for later' and he just picked up one of the wrapped milk chocolates and gave it to me!!! even though i'd already bought my chocolate! MY BUSINESS IS GUARANTEED, SIR, YOU DO NOT NEED TO SELL ME ON MORE. (the chocolate was VERY good though, i would definitely get it again if i could.)
with that little detour made, we went over to the topography of terror, aka the headquarters of the ss during the war. this was my favourite museum that we saw, and was possibly my favouritest thing we did in berlin. it was definitely the most impactful? it was horrifying but really emotional and really hard to even read about, never mind look at, and the section on the jews in amsterdam was just -- idk. it was hard. we spent maybe 2 hours there, and i had a hard time shaking it off afterwards. and it was free, because no one should be deprived of this knowledge because of economic status. i mean, how great is that? germany isn't perfect, but it is one of the few places i've been to that so objectively acknowledges the horrors that have been committed by their own people, and aims to preserve it and educate others about it so the same thing doesn't happen again. it's amazing. it's a lot.
standing where the berlin wall would've been between us, in a city determined to remember
my godbrother wanted to get some food, so we went back to mealux (again) so he could convince me that the terrible rice we had the first night was a fluke. and it was, only it wasn't mind-blowingly good or anything. but i could see why he goes there so often. it's comfort food like nothing else. he also found out that they do off the menu dishes for dinner if you know what to ask for, so i was pretty sure at that point that my last meal in berlin would be back at mealux, lmfao.
i dsragged him away from mealux to visit the turkish market in kreuzberg. we got there just in time to see the sunset, and it was stunning. the most gorgeous night of my trip, for sure. the market itself was a lot bigger than i was anticipating, but most of the stalls had closed by then, so that was a bit of a disappointment. the food was pretty terrible (apart from the borzek???) that was weirdly delicious despite being stone cold, but the market itself was fun to look around! and the fruit was SO CHEAP. we bought two more punnets of strawberries to eat the next day (because of course we were going back to ritter sport again, now that we had the magic formula!
once we were done at the market, we took a slow walk to the mercedes benz arena. it took me a while to buy any hockey apparel once i let myself fangirl the blackhawks, and even then i never bought a jersey because hi, money is important, but my godbrother dove right in, and had his heart set on a jersey before we even went into the game. the dude behind the counter asked us if we wanted a particular number, and i was like, 'i don't even know which numbers play on your team.' lmao.
the rink was INSANE. they set up a giant inflatable bear head (for the berliner ice bears) for the players to run out of onto the ice when they were introduced. there were indoor fireworks and a huge fireshow and SO MUCH fanfare introducing the team. they didn't even mention the opponents team, and there was no introduction of any of their players, they walked onto the ice after the ice bears were announced and the game just started, right there and then. i didn't even know what to think. i've seen crazy fans and been a biased, obnoxious fan myself but this was NEXT LEVEL.
they scored early into the first period, but it was so clear from the get-go that they are not a great team. neither of the teams were great, but it was kind of tragic how not great they were. also the fans were SO OBNOXIOUS, they jeered every time the other team came close to their net (which was A LOT) and sang and cheered their own team non-stop, and booed when the other team scored goals (which thankfully they did becausetalk about insufferable), and in the end the straubing tigers won amidst the non-stop jeering of the home crowd. yeesh. the ten tiger fans around me were thrilled, and so was i.
my godbrother got his jersey at the end of the game, and he's going back today (sunday) to watch the next game and also test out his jersey hahahahah. that's dedication to fashion.
empty nets and hockey jerseys, oh my!
after the game, i decided we should go to the restaurant alice had recommended during our tour, called katz orange. it was supposed to close at 1am, but we reached at just about 11.15 and had ten minutes to put in our order. they promptly forgot one of the 3 things we got, but the food was pretty meh, so i wasn't too upset. the location was lovely, though, if too warm on the inside, but there was a gigantic courtyard with lots of greenery and adorable furniture and friendly staff, and i enjoyed the evening a lot. we got shushed after we left the restaurant and sat in the courtyard chatting, but it was so nice that i didn't even get mad. and i hate getting shushed, so that's how lovely it was.
sat:
the last day of my trip!!!! we kicked it off with a late start to our final stop at the ritter sport cafe. it wasn't as good as it was the day before, but i also ordered the praline mousse cake, and oh my god, that cake dipped in the chocolate fondue was E.VE.RY.THING. possibly better than the strawberries in the fondue, though it feels blasphemous even typing that.
please sir may i have some more?
after the cafe, we went back to the expensive mall so i could get clothes for my dad, and then we stopped at the local supermarket to get more chips and gummy bears and chocolate wafers for me to bring home (mostly as gifts, sadly).
we didn't really have much planned for the rest of the day, but i thought the museum of magic sounded like fun, so off we went! and it WAS fun. apart from the terrible magic show, which showcased a magician clearly meant for four-year-old's birthday parties and nothing more, i had a blast. they showcased a bunch of religious artefacts, witch hunt torture devices, occult-y things, tarot card readings and brain puzzles that we had to solve. we also got to ask a pendulum yes and no questions, and that was pretty neat. and there were huge, handled bowls full of water that would vibrate if you rubbed wet hands over the handles just right. it supposedly showed how "in balance" you were, so i was a little bit in balance, and my godbrother very much so, lmao. we spent two hours there, and i could've stayed longer, only my godbrother isn't really the type for brainy puzzles. alas.
we took the train to mealux for our final meal of the trip, and ordered a kao yu. it was VERY tasty, but also very bony and hard to eat, so idk how much i can say i enjoyed it. i wouldn't eat it again unless they could do it with fish fillets, and even then it's not necessarily what i'd call an essential stop. if i lived there, though, i would be there a lot. they even had cheese foam bubble tea, which was DELICIOUS. not as good as the one in chengdu, but good enough! i was starving before mealux, though, so i stopped at mcdonalds beforehand to try their apple pie (eh) and their weird fries. it looked like a cross between a flattened wedge and a criss-cut fry, but the seasoning was delicious and the sour cream and chives sauce they served it with was also a++
once we were done with our meal, we headed home, where i packed my suitcase and got my hands on a copy of schindlers list. why would i do that, you might ask, on my last night in berlin, when i had to be up at the ass crack of dawn the next morning to get to the airport? i honestly do not know. the movie was great, but i should've gone for sleep instead. oh well, hindsight and all that! it was an amazing trip overall and nothing can take that away from me.
ALSO!!! in one more piece of excellent news, i finally got my ahpc application approved!!!!! i can now OFFICIALLY call myself a speech therapist, and use ALL MY LETTERS, which also means I CAN GET NAME CARDS. this is all very exciting!!!! :D :D :D january was such a swell month, coronavirus aside. now i just need the rest of the year to fall in line.