B-Land

Berlin, Germany

Still in Luxembourg, waiting for our train to Berlin!

At the Kohn, Germany train station

Looking through the Berlin wall from the east

Veggie market

3 carrots, 1 apple, chunk of ginger, and half an orange!

East Side Gallery

My favorite mural: Amnesty International

Olympic Stadium

Streets of Berlin

In front of the Parliament building

White long sleeve thermal. Chestnut colored corduroy pants. Mahogany colored leather shoes with elastic straps instead of shoe laces. Watch with brown leather straps and silver plate watch. Chiseled cheekbones. Slightly tan and cleanly shaved. Half-rimmed black D&G glasses. Brown hair with piercing, richly brown eyes. Reading the German newspaper and twiddling his Mont Blanc pen with his right hand. No ring on his left.

Decided against reading Time Traveler's Wife for a while and entertained the idea of having a European lover for my train ride to Berlin. Brooke and I switched trains in Cologne, Germany and found ourselves two seats for our long ride to Berlin. As I struggled get situated in my seat (clearly made for midgets), I accidentally whacked someone in the face with my boulder of a backpack. Oops. I turned around to apologize...only to see this beautiful man smiling at me and saying 'no no no problem' in a heavy German accent. Hello future father of my mixed, beautiful children. Who are you and where have you been my entire life? He looked like he was about 27, graduate student. Future lawyer, perhaps? All I knew was that I was sitting in the aisle seat and so was he. I hadn't arrived in Berlin but I knew this weekend was off to a good start.

I must sound like such a creep describing this man. But in Luxembourg, there is no need to look around because all the men have dirty, greased hair with over-sized jeans and tight graphic t-shirts...not to mention they smell like cheap cologne. Simply put—they’re not aesthetically pleasing. So when you see a man at a train station who is looking absolutely divine, it is only necessary that you take it all in, right? It's like finding a four-leafed clover... you have to pick it when you see it because you never know if you'll ever find another one.

So Brooke and I arrive in B-land. Her friend Nina drives us to her house in her silver Golf Volkswagon through the streets of Berlin. We arrive in the Turkish district where her apartment was located and I am pretty sure I have never seen so many döner (kebab) shops in my entire life. Granted, they’re around two euro and taste a thousand times better than the ones in Luxembourg but you still feel like you’re about to have a heart attack with every bite you take.

Unload our things at her apartment. Look at ourselves in the mirror and damn do I look good. No. I’m kidding. It was exactly like after my train ride to Amsterdam…a mess. But I was far too tired to care because of my busy week of exams/papers/projects that I put my tennis shoes back on and headed out to discotech-it up. So Nina had a phone call earlier in the night telling her that there was this raging party that night and her friend was hosting so of course it wasn’t even a question—we were finding ourselves some local Germs for the night.

Nina, Brooke, and I set off in a brisk walk towards the dark streets Berlin where men in blonde dreadlocks were peeing Nile rivers in the middle of the street. So bizarre. By the way, the Caucasian dreadlock population inBerlin is surprisingly high…and I find it so incredibly awkward. It’s like looking at Michael Jackson—something just isn’t right.

There is this rowdy group of young men stumbling down the street and yelling things in German and I automatically think—oh yea, this is where the party’s at. And it was. There was a huge group of people in their twenties hanging out this large brick arch that led to another alley that led to a massive labyrinth of apartments. The crowd was composed of German film school students that just wanted to have a good time. They were aggressively liberal, chain smokers, alcoholics, and insanely good looking. Everyone was dressed so different and trendy but in the oddest way. They all looked like they were wearing a compilation of what you would find in a thrift store but it was okay that they were wearing it because they were liberal film students. Oh and let me tell you—wearing a black Norht face jacket with black sweatpants, tennis shoes, pearl earrings, and a perky green scarf wasn’t the attire for fitting in. I feel like I should have showed up with my birthday suit and red patent leather boots…at least I would gain some street cred.

Besides not fitting in at all, the party turned out to be a bunch of kids yelling over each other in their Willy Wonka attire and smoking clouds of nicotine in each other’s faces. So we left and found this gorgeous bar. It was tiny and perfect after a stressful day of traveling. The walls were brick and cement and the entire bar was lit by candlelight. There was jazz music playing in the background and the crowd seemed to be locals from the ages 25-45. I ordered whatever beer was on tap and I drank my stress away. Gulp gulp gulp. Then I was suddenly between the sheets and fast asleep.

Wake up, get ready, and out the door. It’s foggy out and the leaves are all yellow and falling of the trees. The streets are so quiet and the only thing you can hear are the dogs barking in the distance. Berlin, at that moment in time, reminded me of Edgar Allen Poe and all of his depressing yet beautiful poems. I kept walking in the crisp and refreshing air thinking ‘oh I love this place! I could see myself moving here’ …and that’s when I stepped in dog shit. Then it started to rain and the puddle of man-piss from the drunk college student stumbling away (mind you, it’s around 10am) started to mix in with the shit. Who is the clumsyfuck that double dipped in the party puddle? That’d be me. I had shat all over my pants, literally. Brooke kept asking why it smelled so bad but I was just too embarrassed to tell her that I stepped in dog dumplings twice so I just casually acted as if it was the person standing next to us that smelled like ass and started up a new conversation.

Alexander plaz, Berlin Wall Museum, Parliament building, Olympic stadium,... all historical sites covered. Job accomplished.

J.