I stayed up most of the night, didn't get much rest. Got up early and got breakfast. Checked out early and got going because it would take a long time to get to the airport for my flight to Berlin. Only so many trains ran that early in the morning.
Got to the train station, transferred. Almost forgot to validate my ticket. Got to the airport. Almost got off at the wrong terminal. Security wouldn't let you past with more than one bag. This caught me off guard. Who knew easyjet was stricter than TSA? Lol. I was super worried that I wouldn't be able to fit everything into the big bag my sister lent me, but thankfully it did.
The one bag thing threw a wrench in my timing and now I was running late. I had to hustle to the gate (which was the furthest gate away. Because of course it was) because it was already boarding. I get to the gate and they're still checking people in. They weren't letting anyone on yet but the good news was I didn't miss my flight.
And then they started measuring people's baggage. It had to fit in that stupid metal box thing. I knew for a fact that my big ass bag wouldn't fit in it, especially after the Frankenstein experiment I did after security gave me shit for having more than one bag. I figured they'd charge me to check my bag in. They'd even charge me extra because my bag was bigger than regulation. Thankfully the strict woman who was checking people's baggage didn't end up checking with me. I got in and everything worked out. WHEW.
I land in Berlin and it's cold and light rain. Just as I would have expected from Berlin. I dunno why I always expected Berlin to be cold with slight rain, but here we are. I probably have seem too many WW2 movies lol.
I'm jetlagged and it's affecting my decision making. It took me far longer than it should have to figure out how to get my train ticket and which trains to take to get to my hostel. I run into that PIN issue with paying for my train ticket with my credit card (wtf!) so I use my debit card. I had no choice but to eat a foreign transaction fee. Whateverrrrr. Finally make it to the hostel and the staff is great. They offer me coffee and water (I take water), give me a map, and explain the surrounding areas. Seriously great experience with the hostel staff.
I get to my hostel room that I'm sharing with 7 strangers. Such a weird experience. I feel like I'm in college again lol. I'm jetlagged and I know it's affecting my experience because my body's sore and tired. My navigating skills aren't as sharp as they typically are.
But I say fuck it. As badly as I want to, i can't just sleep now. It would ruin my sleep schedule. Plus I would wake up at like midnight and wouldn't be able to do shit. That would effectively ruin a full day's worth of being in Berlin.
So I venture off to find some German food. On the way there I figure I found rectify my credit card PIN situation, so I call my credit card company and finally figure out how to change my PIN on my credit card. I later saw that I could have done that on my banking app lol.
There's good doner (don't ask me to use the proper German letters cuz I don't know that shit and I'm too lazy to Google and copy/paste lol) and currywurst nearby. I walk in that direction and try to figure out what the move was. These random young German girls stop me and talk to me in German. They looked like johavah's witnesses. I stop them and say in English that I don't understand them. Turns out they actually we're Jehovah's witnesses. They were 20 and 19 years old from Utah and Virginia and we talked briefly about their experiences as Americans abroad. They showed me where the currywurst was and were generally nice about everything. Funny experience considering my old supervisor is Mormon. I also saw Book of Mormon on Broadway last October so it was a funny experience for me. I know Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons are different, but still.
I found a liquor store and figured I should fill my ThermoFlask. Had to make sure I didn't get water with gas in it, like I did in Milan.
With the Jehovah's witnesses' help I found the currywurst spot. There's a bank next door so I withdraw money from my credit card. Typically you never want to withdraw money from your credit card but I think my card (NFCU Visa flagship rewards) is an exception to the rule. I've lowkey been excited to see if it really is fine to withdraw money from it while overseas. If I'm wrong and I eat a fee, then fuck ittt.
I finally get to the currywurst spot and it's fucking AMAZING. Hands down one of the best experiences on this trip so far. It felt like super good drunk food. You buy the currywurst and eat it at these table stands. Felt like a genuine Berlin experience. The currywurst was so good too! It's sausage that came with fries. They put some weird seasoning (I don't think it was real curry. At the very least it wasn't spicy) as well as ketchup and mayo on top. It was fucking delicious. Super filling too. If I was with someone it definitely would have been a situation where you split one between yourselves.
I figured I was already in the direction of the East Side Gallery (longest reasoning stretch of the Berlin Wall) so I might as well check it out. It looks like it might start to rain but momma didn't raise no bitch! So I took the train over.
Sidenote: Berlin's train system is pretty dope. It runs on the honor system, is efficient, and is just so well run. Color me impressed.
I get off the train and start heading towards the East Side Gallery and of course it's raining hard now. Not terrible hard, but enough to be annoying. I wait it out in hopes that the rain will let up eventually but it never does. I decide to thug it out and go anyway. It honestly isn't that impressive lol. The art is cool but I don't think I'm much of an art guy. Or at least not a big painting guy. It was a dope experience regardless but I didn't stick around too long because of the rain.
I wanted to get to a sports bar to watch the Napoli-Juventus game but that wasn't for another couple of hours. There was a sports bar nearby but they were sitting a German Bundesliga game between two shitty teams that I didn't care about. I decided to chill at a Starbucks while I figure out what the gameplan was for the rest of the night. After a while I figured I'd call it an early night and get an early start on the next morning.
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