This morning is a struggle.
Pack the bag. Get in the shower. Eat some food. Get on the train.
It all sounds so difficult.
I manage to get it all done in time to hop on the train to Berlin. It leaves at 10:56am and is due to arrive in Berlin at 5:20pm. On most trains a seat can be reserved to ensure that you have a seat. I tried to reserve a spot yesterday, but they said it wasn't necessary.
I disagree.
The train is absolute chaos and people actually do have reserved seats. If you tried to sit in a seat, someone would come along in a couple minutes and show you that they have a ticket for that seat. Eventually a elderly woman and her husband offer me a seat at their table. I take the seat and thank them in poor German.
Eventually they get off the train and a younger girl comes and sits next to me and doesn't speak English. I fall asleep for a few hours and wake up when we are stopped at a station. I look at the timetable for the train to Berlin and notice that we shouldn't be at this station.
I swear I got on the right train.
The train leaves the station and continues on. The announcements on the train's PA are no longer in multiple languages. Just German.
What is going on. Where am I going.
We continue on for miles, but only at around 30mph. More German announcements. I decide to stick it out and see what happens. Worst case would be me ending up deep in Eastern Europe and I have to find my way back. It seems doable.
After another hour passes a man working on the train comes by and hands me a card. It looks like I need to fill it out, but I have no idea what it is.
Customs? I must have left the EU. Crap. My train should have been in Berlin over an hour ago. I must not have caught a connection somewhere.
Yet another hour passes and I'm still not sure what's going on. More announcements in German. We're still moving at a glacial pace and none of the stations correspond with the route to Berlin. The girl next to me is upset and keeps making phone calls. After one of them, she turns to me and asks me where I'm going. In English.
Oh so now you speak English.
I ask her what's been going on and she tells me there was an accident on the main line. We have to go around it, but there are no high speed tracks nearby. The card I was given was to request a partial refund since we'll be more than 2hrs late to Berlin. Suddenly it all makes sense.
Danke.
After finally getting to Berlin I start walking to my hostel. When I step out of the massive train station I'm able to spot the Bundestag. It's a massive stone building with a big glass dome. I tried to reserve a spot on a free tour of the dome when I was in Amsterdam, but I was unable to. I'll have to visit the done another time. I find the Heart of Gold hostel after about a 20 minute walk and it's a nice place with a bar in the reception area.
I'll come back for a beer later.
I try and get in touch with Alex and Christian but I don't have any luck. I realize after all the traveling I'm starving so I head off to find something to eat. When I come back to the hostel from dinner I meet two girls from The States. Minnesota and Wisconsin. They tell me you can bring your own beers into the bar and there's a store that sells pints for €1,70 around the corner.
Sounds like a plan.
I walk to the store and buy two beers and return to the hostel. I sit around out back with Minnesota and Wisconsin and have one of the beers before the hostel employees tell everyone to come inside so that we don't disturb the neighbors. The girls decide to head to bed so I head off to meet new people. I join a table with a few guys at it. Two guys from Chico, California and a few Aussies. We talk about man stuff. They also highly recommend that I take the free tour tomorrow at 1pm. It meets at the Starbucks in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They hate tours and paid for a crap tour in Rome, but this one's fantastic.
"The really good ones are the ones where they work for tips. They want you to really like the tour so that you'll tip them well after."
Makes sense.
Eventually I decide to head to bed so that I can get up early and tour the city. I didn't get any sightseeing done today with that delayed train.
Pack the bag. Get in the shower. Eat some food. Get on the train.
It all sounds so difficult.
I manage to get it all done in time to hop on the train to Berlin. It leaves at 10:56am and is due to arrive in Berlin at 5:20pm. On most trains a seat can be reserved to ensure that you have a seat. I tried to reserve a spot yesterday, but they said it wasn't necessary.
I disagree.
The train is absolute chaos and people actually do have reserved seats. If you tried to sit in a seat, someone would come along in a couple minutes and show you that they have a ticket for that seat. Eventually a elderly woman and her husband offer me a seat at their table. I take the seat and thank them in poor German.
Eventually they get off the train and a younger girl comes and sits next to me and doesn't speak English. I fall asleep for a few hours and wake up when we are stopped at a station. I look at the timetable for the train to Berlin and notice that we shouldn't be at this station.
I swear I got on the right train.
The train leaves the station and continues on. The announcements on the train's PA are no longer in multiple languages. Just German.
What is going on. Where am I going.
We continue on for miles, but only at around 30mph. More German announcements. I decide to stick it out and see what happens. Worst case would be me ending up deep in Eastern Europe and I have to find my way back. It seems doable.
After another hour passes a man working on the train comes by and hands me a card. It looks like I need to fill it out, but I have no idea what it is.
Customs? I must have left the EU. Crap. My train should have been in Berlin over an hour ago. I must not have caught a connection somewhere.
Yet another hour passes and I'm still not sure what's going on. More announcements in German. We're still moving at a glacial pace and none of the stations correspond with the route to Berlin. The girl next to me is upset and keeps making phone calls. After one of them, she turns to me and asks me where I'm going. In English.
Oh so now you speak English.
I ask her what's been going on and she tells me there was an accident on the main line. We have to go around it, but there are no high speed tracks nearby. The card I was given was to request a partial refund since we'll be more than 2hrs late to Berlin. Suddenly it all makes sense.
Danke.
After finally getting to Berlin I start walking to my hostel. When I step out of the massive train station I'm able to spot the Bundestag. It's a massive stone building with a big glass dome. I tried to reserve a spot on a free tour of the dome when I was in Amsterdam, but I was unable to. I'll have to visit the done another time. I find the Heart of Gold hostel after about a 20 minute walk and it's a nice place with a bar in the reception area.
I'll come back for a beer later.
I try and get in touch with Alex and Christian but I don't have any luck. I realize after all the traveling I'm starving so I head off to find something to eat. When I come back to the hostel from dinner I meet two girls from The States. Minnesota and Wisconsin. They tell me you can bring your own beers into the bar and there's a store that sells pints for €1,70 around the corner.
Sounds like a plan.
I walk to the store and buy two beers and return to the hostel. I sit around out back with Minnesota and Wisconsin and have one of the beers before the hostel employees tell everyone to come inside so that we don't disturb the neighbors. The girls decide to head to bed so I head off to meet new people. I join a table with a few guys at it. Two guys from Chico, California and a few Aussies. We talk about man stuff. They also highly recommend that I take the free tour tomorrow at 1pm. It meets at the Starbucks in front of the Brandenburg Gate. They hate tours and paid for a crap tour in Rome, but this one's fantastic.
"The really good ones are the ones where they work for tips. They want you to really like the tour so that you'll tip them well after."
Makes sense.
Eventually I decide to head to bed so that I can get up early and tour the city. I didn't get any sightseeing done today with that delayed train.
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