My life took a U-turn this weekend! As I have mentioned more than once, my life in Germany is normally quite sleepy, definitely un-studenty and to be honest, all quite grown up! This weekend, however, I most definitely reverted to being a typical 20 year old...
A group of us from Edinburgh, and also a few from Altenberg training weekend, all decided to meet up this weekend to celebrate one of the girl's birthdays in Berlin. This quite nicely coincided with the 20th anniversary of the day of German unity, which meant that the city was jam-packed with people wanting to celebrate! My main sightseeing day was Saturday, and Sam, Bronagh and I went exploring the typical Sehenswürdigkeiten of Berlin. We visited a remaining bit of the Berlin Wall, Reichstag, Brandenberg Tör...all the things that make up Germany's history. I love Berlin. As you walk round, you can feel all the events that have happened, the things you learn in the classroom more or less come to life around you. To think I am older than unified Germany is quite strange...
One of my favorite things about Berlin is are the Ampelmänner, and the endless memorabilia you can my in relation to them. Earrings, keyrings, tea towels, pasta-you name it, they sell it. To those non-Germans in my life, the Ampelmänner are the traffic light men, or figures, that you see when your crossing the road...only, when you are in former East Germany, they look like this...
There a bit of Ostalgie, or Eastern nostalgia, being one of the few things to have survived the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the transformation of Eastern Germany into Western culture. Berlin's souvenir shops thrive off these Ampelmänner, but I love that the traffic lights have stayed despite Westernisation. It reminds me that divided Germany wasn't just a story, and that the signs of this split are still present as you walk around. It has only been 21 years since the fall of the Wall, and although the country is all very much Westernised, it is interesting to see that there are still some differences. My friend Sam, for instance, lives about as East as you can get before falling into the Czech Republic, and his town "Chemnitz" still has an air of Communism, it's focal point being a statue of Karl Marx. In fact, up until 1990, the town was called 'Karl-Marx Stadt'. To me, it is so interesting to see that although Germany is entirely unified, the two former 'countries' can at times be entirely different, and to visit places where communism isn't entirely forgotten is all quite strange.
Moving on from traffic light men, where our daytimes were filled with sightseeing, our two evenings spent in Berlin were both quite crazy. On Saturday evening, we had dinner by Brandenberg Gate, which was suprisingly cheap despite the brilliant location. We followed this with plenty of Glühwein whilst partially watching the bands that were playing to celebrate this anniversary of German Unity. We then went to a bar, which later on also became almost like a club, and drank, talked and danced until 7am...me and Sam had to check out of our youth hostel at 10am, which meant the 9am rise was not at all pretty, whatsoever. We somehow survived the morning, somewhat inebriated, and I managed to catch my very lengthy train home.
Our Youth Hostel was brilliant, and in fact, if you are planning to visit Berlin in the near future, I cannot recommend 'Wombats' nearly enough. It is all very clean, breakfast is cheap, and it has a small cheap bar on the top floor. To add to this, there is a patio on the top floor, attatched to the bar, which over looks Berlin. The view is astounding, as you can see in the picture to the right, and it was a perfect place for a glass of red wine before heading out into Berlin for the evening. I've stayed in a Wombats Hostel in Munich before as well, and although it was entirely lacking in a bar with such a great view, it was equally clean, and its' services of a high standard. The best thing about this hostel was that it was so central, very close to Alexanderplatz, which meant that our time and money wasn't consumed by travel.
So there we are! My first trip away at a weekend since being in Germany. I fly to Scotland, and then home, this weekend for Autumn Holidays, and then I have my trip down to see Ailsa and Janni in the South of Germany. I truly cannot wait to be home, I'm not homesick, but I do miss everyone, and I am very much excited for a proper Sunday Roast with my family =) Sometimes, British food is just the best!
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