In my last week in Berlin I stayed at a friend’s apartment in Berlin (and to continue professing my love for CS, I’d like to point out that we initially met on Couchsurfing) who was gracious enough to let me live there while she was on a trip to Morocco. She's Polish and I'm Russian and we speak German, it's cute if you think about it. I was sad to see her leave as we hung out quite a lot in Berlin, going to the movies, bars, taking walks, looking for coffee with soya milk and exploring the city together. But… we’ll meet again and next time is supposedly in Istanbul some time in May! Something to look forward to.
She lives in Schöneberg in Berlin which a Kiez I haven’t really explored except for one trip to a local café and numerous visits to the friend’s house for dinner or drinks.
Although my entire time in Berlin I lived right off S Sonnenallee (there is even a movie about people from this street: Sonnenallee) and quite loved it there, my friend’s location in Schöneberg close to S Südkreuz proved to be even more convenient, as with public transportation you can be on Potsdamer Platz in 6 minutes (Sonnenallee to Potsdamer Platz is 26 minutes) and although it would take you 17 to 22 minutes to get from both to Alexanderplatz, Kreuzberg is only 30 minutes away by foot from Südkreuz, while with Sonnenallee you would need 45 minutes. All of this is normally irrelevant to me, but not since getting a taste of a decent public transportation system (although sometimes the Deutsche Bahn goes on strike) – it’s nice when you can be somewhere good within 10 minutes in such a big city.
Originally, the plan was that I would go to Lithuania and Latvia for an extended weekend of March 11-14 which would also be my last weekend in Europe during this stay. However, as the day of my departure was about to arrive, I was more and more torn about leaving Berlin for my last weekend. I'd had tickets booked for a month, I had bus tickets and a couch with a hilarious guy. And yet about 4 hours before my assumed departure (the flight was scheduled for 07.50am) I decided I should stay for a weekend (and that actually became a week) of great parties, fantastic weather, good conversations and just some feel-good time in Berlin. And regret my decision I did not.
Bernardo and myself ended up going out every night and having a great time. One of the places that I'd been dying to go to and we finally discovered together was Schwuz – a queer club with three dance floors, where even at 00.30am on Friday and Saturday nights it was a bit empty, but a mere half an hour later it turned into the best Berlin party for me. Among the three dance floors, there is always something up your valley and although I’m not a techno fan, the techno dancefloor was the perfect location to polish off the dance moves after some wild partying on the other two. Great, great place – if only a bit overpriced (for Berlin), entrance on Friday/Saturday night – 7EUR, beer starting at 2.8EUR.
Moreover, their pop music tunes are so good you will never want to stop dancing. Also, you have to see for yourself what it is like when Lady Gaga, Madonna or The Gossip comes on. It is an insanely good experience. I promise you will like it, after 3 hours of non-stop dancing I was exhausted and could barely stand and had the intention to leave the floor "right after the song ends" and then the next one came on and I just had to stay.
Meanwhile… let’s see what Schöneberg is like. I think it is quite cozy.
JFK's Ich bin ein Berliner speech took place here:
0 comments:
Post a Comment