Poom’s Travel Bug…er, Blog!

“Did you use the address in my notes for your map of the Alexandra Hotel Pension?” asked Jesse.

“Nope, I Googled it and took the first result that came up,” I replied.

“Uh oh. That’s not good. Hotel Alexandra and Alexandra Hotel Pension are two different places on different sides of the city owned by the same people. There are even two websites,” pointed out Jesse.

“Oh. Crap.”

As it turned out, my travel karma held up and I had printed the correct map, much to our relief. We had been carrying around our giant packs and took the most backwards way humanly possible to get to our initial destination (we took half an hour’s worth of trains and walked a metric shitload for a route that should have taken about 12 minutes if we hadn’t been clueless).

We arrived in Berlin assuming our first day there would be taken at a leisurely pace. That idea promptly went down the tubes after we wandered around Wednesday night taking in a variety of sights, including the Sony Centre at Potsdamer Platz, Brandenburg Tor, the Reichstag and the Hauptbahnhof, not wrapping up our night photography and general awe of Berlin until after midnight. Not a long haul by any stretch, but a bit more than we had intended. Our “how hard could it be?” logic and wandering around has led to me tightening my belt to the last notch after less than a week, much to my shock. I might need to go belt shopping again before this trip is over.

The next day was more of the same hectic pace, starting with the locations above in reverse (and drenched in sunlight), and adding the Memorial to the Murdered Jews, a fascinating arrangement of giant blocks, the meaning of which is left for the visitor to discover. Jesse’s rather unexpected obsession with Dunkin’ Donuts continued before we took a U-Bahn to Checkpoint Charlie. The place that triggered my interest in WW2, the photo exhibit fencing in the two lots immediately across from the checkpoint was still there and the lot still unexpectedly unoccupied. We visited the Museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which provided a great deal of insight and made it abundantly clear just how despised the Mauer was. I also find it amazing how much history tends to repeat itself; you would think those in charge would be well-grounded in history, but you’d be dead wrong most of the time. I may have expressed this thought in a previous travel blog entry, but it still rings true today.

Our final-ish destination for the day was Prenz’l Burg on the recommendation of our trusty Rick Steves’ guide. Rick managed to procure an “utter fail” from Jesse as we hopped off the tram. Spit out in the middle of an avenue completely devoid of personality aside from a massive amount of grafitti and some rundown buildings, we couldn’t figure WTF Rick as referring to when he said it was an up-and-coming, lively area. Fortunately a short walk around the neighborhood gradually revealed what he was referring to. What started as a rather rough district transformed into a nice residential area lined with trees and many, many sidewalk cafes and drinking establishments. Rick pointed out that the “ruffians” from a previous time in the area’s history have become responsible parents resulting in the drastic changes, which was very apparent from walking around and people watching. I left it to Jesse to pick our restaurant for dinner, and he chose…Indian?! Um, okay. It was quite a tasty meal though, including Jesse’s strange green beer concoction and obnoxious accordian band at the end aside.

I’m now writing this blog entry at a laundromat surrounded by mostly English-speaking people trying to figure out how the washers and dryers work. Thankfully Jesse managed to get everything working and we’re now working on getting our clothes dry.

I was going to end this entry with our laundry escapades, but it turns out that we just had the best. Greek. Food. EVER. Jesse and I were both being indecisive when I suggested the little Greek restaurant about a block and a half from our hotel would be a nice change of pace from the currywurst overdose I’ve been enjoying. A very cozy atmosphere, an owner who gave me an extra piece of lamb mignon because he thought the two wonderfully cooked pieces on my plate would be too small (darn Americans), and two shots of Ouzo on the house made for a very happy Poom and Jesse indeed.

Next stop is Dresden on Saturday, preceded by lunch at the Greek place again.