Sweden Reunion Part 2 – 18-20 May 2007

And so it was, that the weekend after my parents had been here, Jane and Danielle popped over to see me and Berlin. Sadly, Emily did not make the trip, as she slept in and missed her flight, which everyone thinks was a bit silly of her, but Dani and Jane arrived in one piece and with relatively little confusion on Friday evening, despite the fact Dani was driving. We took a moment or several to catch/freshen up before heading out for the evening. We wanted to keep it fairly low-key, as we had a big day ahead of us on the morrow, so we started off by inducting Dani into German culture in the only place possible – the Biergarten. Here she enjoyed, in addition to our company, a large bratwurst, a pretzel and a Berliner Kindl with a strange-coloured shot in it – all very traditional and German. She was most impressed, and we happily soaked up the ambience for a while before moving on to another couple of bars in meiner Nähe then calling it an early night.

The next day I had been hoping to show Jane and Dani my wonderful U-Bahn line (I feel it is here for me personally, as it usually stops practically outside my house), but alas, it is currently undergoing work, so we caught the tram and an S-Bahn to the Brandenburger Tor, where our adventure for the day was to begin. A friend of Jane’s had recommended the New Berlin Free Walking Tour, which, being students, we couldn’t resist as a sightseeing option, so we met up with some people in red shirts and a large number of tourists to be allocated our group. Our guide for the day was a tall Arizonan chap by the name of Charlie, who was very interesting, if a little overenthusiastic at times. The tour began with a brief history lesson around the Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag, which in itself was good for me for filling in the gaps in my knowledge. We then moved on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe and the former site of Hitler’s bunker, where he finally died. Everything was colourfully recounted, and I really got a feeling of how much went on in the city and country in which I currently live, which was amazing. We then moved on to take in the largest remaining section of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie, and afterfter a short lunch break along Friedrichstraße to the Gendarmee Markt, where the Deutscher & Französischer Doms are situated. Eventually we finished up around the Berliner Dom and Museeninsel, where we were treated to a lively account of the fall of the wall. All in al it was an excellent tour, and I feel much better equipped for living here having learned all that I did along the way. I think Jane and Dani were also amazed by the amount of history which happened in the very places I live my everyday life at the moment. It was, however, a somewhat tiring experience, especially in the heat of the early summer, so we went back to mine and chilled out for a while before beginning the evening’s festivities.

When they did begin, it was at Rice Queen, a Chinese eatery around the corner from me. Cheap and splendid, was what it was, and it fuelled us nicely on to the free open-air Opera taking place near my university. We spent a while here pretending to be cultural on a budget before moving on to the night’s main event – the New Berlin Pub Crawl. Run by the same company as the tour, it took in 5 bars before we hit the Matrix club. All in all, it was a good night, though it was a little strange for me to be out with so many English speakers! Fun was had by all however, and that’s all that matters.

Due to the returning of the hire car to Bonn, Jane and Dani had to leave Sunday evening, so we spent the day thereof in a relaxing manner, wandering down to Potsdamer Platz and the Topography of Terror exhibition at the wall before a bit more chilling, packing and farewells. It was a good weekend overall, if a little short, and it was great to see Dani and Jane again. We all agreed to have a reunion in Las Vegas in a few years too, so there’s another excuse for some more travelling!