Jillian and Kyle's Excellent Adventures: Berlin!

Note: This was written the day we got into Munich, but due to technical difficulties (spotty wi-fi at our campsite), we never posted it up. So here is our much-delayed and surely anticipated account of Berlin. We will follow up with our Munich adventures soon.

Hey Friends!

Kyle and I are at our campsite in Munich for Oktoberfest. We just arrived today after an extended stay in Berlin; instead of 3 nights in Berlin, we stayed 5. So, for this blog entry, I’m going to give my account of events in Berlin and Munich so far, and then Kyle will give his. Hehehehe, such madness! I should also say that we are both on our third cup of sangria/beer, so don’t be upset if we are offensive, rambling, or over-use the word ‘super’ (probably just I would do that).

OK, Berlin was super awesome. Of all the cities up to that point, Berlin was my favorite. I spent a lot of time in high school and college learning about German and Nazi history, so it was super cool to see things I have only ever read about. The idea of the Berlin Wall has always fascinated me, and to be able to see portions of it in person was really amazing. A quick run-down of Berlin:

-Visited Checkpoint Charlie (major checkpoint along Berlin Wall).
-Saw former Third Reich Air Force headquarters, which is now the German Ministry of Ministries (no joke).
-Visited Brandenberg Gate and Paris Square—site of many infamous historic events, including Hitler’s first public address, JFK’s “Ich Bin Ein Berliner” speech, and statue of the goddess Victoria. SUCH amazing history there.
-Saw buildings with actual bullet holes from WW2—wowza!
-Saw the second largest standing section of the Berlin Wall.
-Saw Holocaust Memorial.
-Saw memorial to all the victims of tyranny, which houses the dead bodies of a Nazi solider and a Jewish man killed in a death camp, side-by-side.
-Went on a Berlin pub crawl. Made friends with two cool ladies from California, who we are meeting here in Munich.
-Spent a day at Sachsenhausen, the first ever concentration camp about 45 minutes outside of Berlin. It served as the ‘model camp’ for the rest of the death/concentration camps. Of course, totally fascinating and depressing.
-Ate at the famous “The Bird” burger place. Don’t know how to describe my meal, beyond super duper great, even without a burger bun! The fact that we were starving and slightly hungover might have helped.
-Stayed in very cool hostel near city center that offered cheap drinks and very cheap accomodations. We got our own room!
-Switched to a very secluded, eco-friendly hostel in the middle of a forest for our last two nights. Great way to recharge before Munich.

Now, in Munich, we are having a great time. We flew in from Berlin this afternoon and made our way to our campsite (the only accomodation left by the time we booked our stay!). While not at all near the center of Munich, we are really happy with this place so far. We get a tent, two sleeping bags, and two sleeping pads. The campsite also provides daily shuttles to and from Oktoberfest (where I’ll be smuggling in my own vodka since I can’t drink the beer, so don’t worry about me). We will also get hot breakfasts and dinners, included in the cost. And, perhaps the best part of staying here is the unlimited beer and sangria all day. It’s camping like we’re used to! With very nice weather, there’s not much more we could ask for!

Ok, here’s a final bit from me until Mr. Heacock has his turn. We’ve decided that Munich will be the finaly leg of our journey. We’ve booked a flight to return to Sheffield on Sunday the 26th. We’ve had such a fantastic time traveling, but I think it’s both wearing on us a bit. Kyle had a bit of a sore throat for our last two days in Berlin, and we’re both getting a bit tired of living out of our backpacks in crappy hostels. We’ve decided to make small, single destination trips to include Rotterdam to see Tuan, Berlin to do a few more things, Salzburg to chill for a weekend, and then one large trip to Rome (I WILL go to Rome before going back to the US). And, if finances allow, we’re going to do some more travels further east, but we’ll just have to see about that.

We miss everyone a lot, but we’re having a great time! We still like each other quite a bit, so I’d say we’re good travel buddies. Lots of love from Munich!

Jillian

Howdy Howdy,
    It’s time for another riveting installment of our European travels. I’m writing you from Munich, but we last left off in Berlin, so let’s backtrack a bit. We spent a total of 5 nights in Berlin in 2 different hostels, and had quite a good time. This may be contrary to my earlier declaration of not staying too long in the same city, but rules were made to be broken. Our first hostel was The Generator, a giant hotel-sized affair located in East Berlin. We quickly learned how to use the German public transit system, which is both efficient and intuitive. The only sticking point for me was remembering and pronouncing the destination names, though I find the German language much easier to learn (and pronounce) than Dutch. We took advantage of a “free” tour of the city, which was put on by the same company that did tours in Amsterdam. We had a great tour guide, and saw some very fascinating sights. Berlin has a very dark past due to the Hitler regime, but it was nonetheless very interesting to learn more about the city’s history from its inception, through WWII, and beyond. We happened upon what we can only guess was an anti-abortion march through the city-center, which crossed paths with an anti-fascist demonstration/mobile dance party. We ate some currywurst (gluten-free since it’s normally served without a bun!) and bratwurst, and wandered through an open-air market (very similar to the Saturday Market we have in Portland). We headed back to our hostel, then decided to go on a pub crawl that is put on by the same people as the free tours.
    The pub crawl, at least what I can remember of it, was good fun. We started out at a place that had an extensive outdoor seating/bar area, and it was also the home to the free beer we were promised when we paid for our pub crawl tickets. Needless to say, that’s where we spent our time there. I got twice the beer since Jillian would get a cup, then hand it over to me, which probably accounts for my fuzzy recollections of later in the evening. We saw The Pyrofessor, a guy with a flamethrower who juggled some fire, then moved on to the next bar. It was (I think) on the way to the next bar that we met our new friends Anne and Hilary, who are a couple of Californians that we struck up some conversation with while pub-crawling. From that point on, we started exchanging rounds of drinks, and this is the point where you’ll have to ask Jillian for details. We apparently were out till about 3am, at which point we took a cab back to our hostel and I put up a fight about brushing my teeth before bed (I’m taking Jillian’s word that that actually took place).
    The next morning, we woke up bright and early (9am) and headed out to a guided tour of Sachsenhousen, one of the first concentration camps. It was a very interesting but somber tour, and while I was glad we went, it’s not something I’d call fun. I must say that I am quite impressed with the Germans in that they don’t deny their past misdeeds, but instead put them out in the open so people remember them and don’t repeat mistakes of the past. After our tour, we headed back into town to meet up with Anne and Hilary for dinner. We successfully made our way to “The Bird”, a local restauraunt known for their hamburgers. I must say that I enjoyed the best burger and fries of my life (to date) while there. 250 grams of freshly ground beef topped with ample amounts of cheddar cheese, grilled onions, mushrooms, and bacon overflowing out of an english muffin with a giant pile of fries filling the rest of the plate. Superb. After our food comas subsided enough to walk again, we made our way back to our hostel and got some long-awaited sleep (somehow 5 hours of drunken sleep wasn’t quite cutting it) before departing for our next hostel.
    We had decided to stay in Berlin for 2 more nights, then head down a night early to Munich, so we booked 2 nights at the JetPack Eco-Lodge (best hostel name I’ve come across so far) since The Generator was booked up. We made the journey into a forest in west Berlin, and eventually found our way to the hostel. We were pleasantly surprised to find a nice quiet oasis in our mostly hectic travels within major city centers. We ate dinner at a really nice Italian restaurant, took a leisurley stroll through the forest, used quite a bit by locals walking their dogs (much to Jillian’s delight), and after getting slightly lost, made our way back to the hostel. We watched a couple of movies, then turned in for the night. The next morning, I woke up with a sore throat and some body aches, so we decided to stay in an recuperate from our travels, so that we would be healthy and robust for Oktoberfest. We left the hostel to get some food, but otherwise enjoyed the big screen TV and ample selection of movies provided by the hostel.
    We awoke early and journeyed to the Tegel airport, and eventually made our way into Munich. We had a delayed takeoff due to a “bird strike”, so they had to check the engine to make sure it wasn’t damaged. We are now in our campsite, which is put on by a company that sets up trips to popular festivals around the world. I will leave you now, as we are preparing to go to the Hofbrau Haus to drink giant beers and meet up with friends, and have no more time for blogging foolishness.