They say the early bird gets the worm and this is certainly true when it comes to nabbing those cheap flights, hence why we were up at 3.30am for a 6.30am flight out of London Luton (the equivalent of Auckland airport in distance away from Hamilton!). Unfortunately I seemed to be racing at a mile a minute and as a result, I didn’t get to sleep at all the night before, but managed to snooze for the 90 minute flight duration. Mouth open and all – luckily my beloved Gemma Kay was sitting beside me And wasn’t going to judge. Brad, on the other hand, had distanced himself entirely by sitting next to Kalem on the other side of the plane.
After a successful flight and navigation from the airport to our hostel, we thought we’d tempt fate by heading out into the freezing cold temperatures to explore. Brad and I had already been to Berlin and as a result we were pleased with how easily we were able to navigate our way around – in no time at all we came to Brandenburg Gate just in time to start a free walking tour. The last day we did this tour we absolutely loved it and this time was no exception – once again it blew our minds, cementing Berlin as one of the most interesting places of historical significance ever. There’s so much to see and do that it would be impossible to get bored!
After a freezing three hours we made our way to a local German restaurant for a much needed sausage and beer, followed by a planned quick lie down at the hostel. Nek minute, three hours later, we woke up with a jolt at 9pm. None of us were hungry but we decided to head out anyway for a bite to eat, making our way to a delicious little café we remembered from last time for a spot of cake, before calling it a night. We slept solidly waking the next day at 9am to find two more people added to our weekend party – two of Kalem’s friends had arrived overnight and we were all so exhausted that we slept right through their arrival.
The next morning we had decided to join the alternative city tour, which gives an inside eye into Berlin’s street art scene. Brad and Cara had done it last time, while I opted to visit Sachenhausen Concentration camp, and it came highly recommended. We all slowly meandered our way to the tour start point, getting lost in all Berlin has to offer on the way. The tour was really interesting and showed a completely different side to Berlin. I didn’t enjoy it as much as the regular tour, but it was interesting all the same. The best part for me came at the end, when we ended up at the Eastside Gallery – a remaining section of the Berlin wall which is completely covered in amazing artwork.
Cold, hungry and tired, we made our way back to our hostel to pow-wow about our plans for the evening. Berlin is famous worldwide for its party scene and everyone was keen to check out what was on offer. Kalem’s friends has heard about this weird experiential style bar called Labyrinth, which came highly recommended. It sounded a little odd so naturally the only thing for a control freak like me to do was give it a wee Google. As soon as I read the description I wished I hadn’t: ‘fall down a rabbit hole into a journey of self-discovery…. Not for the frigid etc’. With no idea what the hell was going to happen, but with all sorts of creepy visions going on inside my head, we made our way out into the dark beyond of East-Berlin until we came to a wee sh*t-hole of a place and were ushered inside. We were met with a crew who looked like they were straight out of the Hills Have Eyes, but not to be called a party pooper we each parted with 10 euros and waited for god knows what to happen. As we stressed each other out coming up with all sorts of ungodly scenarios (or to be more accurate, as everyone stressed me out), I was just about ready to throw in the towel when they called for the first volunteer. Brad threw himself forward first and was blind-folded then lead away from us all, followed bit by bit by us all. I was fourth and had no idea what to expect. I must have looked like I was going to cry as one of the creepos started patting my head, soothing me that all would be okay. I was lead into a small room the size of a coffin where, after an inordinate amount of time, I realised I was supposed to push open and climb out. Without going into too much detail (because I don’t want to ruin it for anyone planning on heading there, as much as you wouldn’t believe me if I told you anyway) the entire experience was like something out of Alice and Wonderland with claustrophobic spaces, maze like dead ends, giant rubber female anatomy parts you have to climb through etc… I made it out alive, only just – I almost had a heart attack as someone at the very end reached their hand out through a tiny hole and grabbed my ankle. Once I was out I scampered my way back to the room, where we all de-briefed each other on what happened, without going into too much detail as a pale-faced Gemma had yet to enter. It was only when Brad eventually made it out that we realised that he was the creep hiding in wait, reaching out and grabbing us all – sicko!
After having experienced such weirdness, we made our way back to the hostel unsure of whether we had dreamt the last three hours or not. Our hostel had an awesome rooftop bar so we all had a few drinks(which Brad managed to turn into quite a few freebies by utilising his basketball skills to throw coins into a bucket), before the crew decided to head out to further experience the clubs. Gems and I opted to stay at home – a good decision we realised as everyone was back half an hour later and a few euros down, after an expensive taxi ride shuffling them between clubs as everyone turned them away on account of not being able to speak German! A tad racist we all thought, particularly as any German would have been welcomed into a bar in NZ with welcome arms. No love lost though as we all had a great night regardless.
The next morning we were up and off to a massive vintage, second-hand market in Berlin’s suburbs, where we spent an amazing three hours exploring stalls as far as the eye could see. We picked up some great buys, including a whole bunch of vintage slides for Gemma to use for arts and crafts, as well as some vintage sunnies for Brad.
With much regret we then made our way to the airport to catch a plane back to London. Once again, the time in Berlin simply flew – a lifetime would not be enough in this super city!
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