Yesterday I decided to head on over to Berlin. Everyone was saying I needed to go and I figured heck, there’s no better time than the present. I actually booked the train ticket a couple weeks ago – just before heading to Amsterdam. Since I booked it early enough, I was able to take advantage of this “Sparpreis 50” deal from die Bahn website and got the roundtrip ticket for €50. Since it’s only a 1 ½ hour train ride to Berlin, I was able to get myself a trip where I left Braunschweig at 10:00am, got into Berlin around 11:30, got on the return train at 7:37pm and was back in Braunschweig by slightly after 9:00. This gave me about 8 hours to spend in Berlin and I figured that would be plenty of time to take a tour of the city. 8 hours should have been enough, but I made the mistake of getting on the Berlin “City Circle” tour bus – a decision that I would later regret.
When I arrived in the recently built Berlin Hauptbahnhof (this means the main station), I was amazed! I mean what a station! This place was huge and it was all encased in a glass structure. You basically had the main train platforms at the top, three floors of shops below this and below the shopping levels was a U-Tram station (Berlin’s subway). And people – there were people everywhere. Although I later found out that this wasn’t just limited to the train station; apparently Berlin is the place to be on a Saturday between the hours of noon and 8:00pm as everywhere that I went had endless crowds of people.
Now that I think about it, Amsterdam was filled past the rim with people on the Saturday that I was there and even here in Braunschweig the streets get rather crowded on a typical Saturday. I’m sure there are many reasons behind this but it looks to me like Europeans just like to get out on Saturdays. The reason I bring this point up is for your benefit. I would say that if you were interested in visiting a city in Europe and basically just doing the tourist thing (going from site to site taking pictures and learning a bit about the city’s history), try not to do it on a Saturday. Way too many tourists are already doing this and it would be best to stay clear of the chaos. For Berlin I would suggest heading there on a Tuesday in the middle of winter. Something tells me that it might still be a bit crowded but you might then actually have some hope of getting things done on schedule.
So I arrive at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof at somewhere around 11:30am. This is a good thing as I actually got off the train at the Berlin, Spandau station. I quickly noticed that nobody else was getting off the train and checked my ticket. It said on my ticket that I was heading to Berlin Hbf and from looking around; this definitely didn’t look like the main Berlin station. Luckily I was able to hop back on the train before it continued on its way and ask a guy on board whether this was my stop. He informed me that the Hauptbahnhof was the next stop and I thanked him and sat back down. I came awfully close to making an already hectic day a hell of a lot more hectic…I have this T-shirt that my parents gave me that says U.S.A. Poker, Established 1776 with a graphic of an eagle ripping through a large ace. It’s a nice enough T-shirt to wear around those days where you really have no reason to dress to impress and I actually wear it on a rather regular basis as it is cycled through with the rest of my “bum day” shirts. This shirt was sitting on top of my T-shirts in my closet and I instinctively grabbed it and put it on. It didn’t even occur to me that this probably wasn’t the best shirt to be wearing to go site seeing in Berlin until well after my journey had begun. Oh well, I figured … whatever… I was wearing the T-shirt and if anybody had issues with it then that’s just their problem. I had no direct confrontations directly related to the T-shirt throughout the day; however the reader should bear in mind that this was the shirt that I was wearing throughout the rest of this story. Did it have an impact? I doubt it, but I’ll leave it up to you on whether or not you think things may have been a bit different if I had been wearing a different shirt.
My first mission upon arriving in Berlin was to find where I could buy a ticket for one of these Berlin bus tours that I had read about online. There were apparently several to choose from varying on locations visited and other items like whether or not you could leave the bus at various stops and such. I had no idea which bus tour to look for but did want to get the tour where you were free to explore the various areas that the bus stopped at. I found the tourist information shop and went in to see if I could buy a ticket on one of these bus tours. Sure enough, the guy working there told me I could either get the 2 hour bus tour where I just sat on the bus or, for a little more money, I could get the all day “City Circle” tour where I was free to get off the bus at any stop I wanted and stay there for as long as I wanted. Since I had 8 hours to spend, I went with the “City Circle” tour and paid my €20 for the ticket. I was then told that I could catch the bus from the other end of the train station and that was all the details I was given on exactly where to catch the bus. I figured this probably wasn’t an issue and that there were probably signs outside that clearly show where to go. I wasn’t worried…
I started heading through the train station to the other side and stopped off at a Burger King for some food. After eating, I continued on to the exit and walked outside hoping to see some sort of indication as to where I was supposed to catch the “City Circle” bus but there were absolutely no signs pertaining to this. What was out there was a large stage and concert style seating as if a show was going to be starting sometime soon and a bunch of tents that appeared to be some kind of African festival - nothing that even looked like a bus stop nearby. Oh well, it had to be here somewhere, so I started walking out toward where I was seeing a few buses passing by and kept my eyes pealed for the “City Circle” emblem that I was told to make sure the bus had before boarding. 
I must have been walking around aimlessly, taking pictures of random things that looked interesting for at least an hour before I finally saw a “City Circle” bus. Not only was there a bus, but there were actually two “City Circle” busses traveling one right after the other. The only problem was that I was now rather far from where the bus stop (completely unmarked, mind you…) actually was and needed to backtrack a bit towards the Hauptbahnhof. This I did and I waited at the location I saw the other buses stop for the next bus to show up.I finally got on a bus around 1:00pm. This was a bit later than I had expected but I still had 6 ½ hours or so before I needed to get back for my train ride home. Let’s see, 6 ½ hours and this tour had something like 15 stops on it. I was figuring that I could jump off at pretty much every stop, explore around for about 15 minutes and still make it back to the drop off point to catch the next bus. You see, the way the “City Circle” bus tour is set up is that there is supposed to be a bus stopping at each of the 15 stops every 15 minutes. I say “supposed to be” because in reality (at least on a Saturday afternoon) this is definitely not the case. Unfortunately, I was unaware of this at the time and was actually still planning on getting off the bus at each stop for at least a look-see.
My plan quickly changed when I got off at the first stop – actually the 14th stop as the tour didn’t even start from the Hauptbahnhof but started across town somewhere else and I was just sold a ticket to get on the tour already in progress at stop #13. I was never told any of this; I just kind of figured it out on my own. Another thing that I quickly figured out at this first stop was that there was no way in hell that I was going to be able to get off the bus at each stop for any length of time if I even dreamed of making my train ride home that evening. The worst part about it was that this first stop was just some open market thing – not at all interesting to me. Definitely more of a woman’s paradise – you could walk around and spend money on a bunch of crap that you really didn’t need and then be forced to take these articles with you on the rest of the bus tour. I suppose that’s probably why this was stop #14 on the tour as there was only one more stop before you would complete the tour – unless, of course, you bought your ticket at stop #13 like I did…
What made the fact apparent that I was not going to be able to be getting off the bus much was that I was stuck at this silly market for somewhere between 45 minutes and an hour. Not because I was gleefully walking through the market and buying things I just couldn’t live without. No, this I was not doing. I was basically standing at the bus stop waiting for a “City Circle” bus to get my ass on to the next stop. As I was waiting I noticed that the group of people apparently waiting for the same bus around me was steadily growing. Finally, a “City Circle” bus shows up but the damn thing is already filled to capacity. Nobody on this bus departs and the bus just leaves the stop without picking up any of the horde that is now waiting. I begin to wonder if I’m ever going to be able to leave this market but in time a bus finally shows up that actually has enough room to pick us up – barely. 
I didn’t care that the bus was crowded, I was just happy enough to be on my way again and I really needed to start doing some planning. I took out the map of the bus route and basically started trying to figure out the fewest stops I could do and still see as much as I was hoping to. I think the next stop I got off the bus on was stop #5 – the Banhof Potsdamer Platz. I walked around a bit taking pictures (you can see these at my Yahoo Photos page) and trying to find a bathroom.
Time was passing and bathrooms are hard to come by in Berlin. I honestly don’t know if that last statement is true or not (the part about the bathrooms…) but I sure had a hell of a time finding any… In fact, I decided to just hold it for a bit and get back on the tour. The next stop was the Judisches Museum and I was planning on stopping there. I was sure they’d have a bathroom. I hopped on the next bus and rode on to stop #6. I then got off the bus and walked across the street and into the Judisches Museum, Berlin. I had already been to the Judisches Museum in Braunschweig, but the one in Berlin is much larger. 
Another difference between to two museums was that the one in Berlin was secure. There were actually guards (well, police, I think) on constant duty around the exterior of the museum and anybody entering the museum had to go through a metal detector much like getting on an airplane. I’m not exactly sure why all the security is necessary at a museum, but I suppose there are probably groups out there that wouldn’t mind seeing this museum go away. Heck, there are still people out there that claim that the holocaust never really happened and museums such as this make it very difficult for these people to convince others. Politics aside, I was going to see this museum, so I headed in.
I put my belongings (cell phone, lighter, umbrella and camera) in a tray to get x-rayed and stepped through the metal detector – setting it off, of course. It was my cigarette case and I quickly showed it to the guards standing there. I got wanded, opened my cigarette case to show them everything was cool, grabbed my stuff from the x-ray tray and headed over to the counter to pay admission. It was €5 to get in and they asked if I wanted to also see the special exhibit (the Freudian exhibit) and I said, “Sure.” I paid my €7.50 and headed in. 
It looked to me like going to the right was for the exit and gift shop, so I walked on to the left. This hallway headed out into a courtyard of some kind and there was a guy standing there. I asked him how to get into the museum and he said to go back the way I came, check my umbrella at the coat check and continue down the stairs. This I did and when I finally got to the bottom of the stairs I finally saw a sign for the WC (bathrooms). It had an arrow next to it pointing up the stairs I had just walked down so I turned around and walked back up and found the bathroom. I walked back to the stairs and headed back down to the museum.
The layout of this place was a bit confusing as, down there is the basement, it looked like there were only two hallways of exhibits. One was called the “Axis of Holocaust” and the other was called the “Axis of Exile”. I walked down both hallways and noticed that the “Axis of Holocaust” ended at the “Holocaust Tower” and the “Axis of Exile” ended at the “Garden of Exile”. You can see the photos of these on my Yahoo photos page although there really isn’t much to see (especially in the “Holocaust Tower”). It’s more of an artistic representation based on your senses and art is what art is. To be honest, I wasn’t really that impressed with either…
After walking around these halls for a bit I finally found the entrance to the actual museum. It was up a couple flights of stairs and the Freudian exhibit was also up these stairs at the halfway point. I started to realize that I was spending way too much time here and needed to get a move on if I was going to be able to see much else this day, so I quickly checked out the rest of the museum and headed back out to where the bus had dropped me off earlier. It was somewhere around 3:30 when I began my wait for the bus and noticed that there was another guy standing there at 4:15 looking at the map of the “City Circle” bus path. 
I approached this man and asked if he was waiting for the “City Circle” bus and he informed me that he was. I then told him that I had been standing there for 45 minutes waiting so far and he mentioned that he remembered seeing something on the map about final leaving times. Sure enough, we found on the map where it said that the “Final Departure” time at the Judisches Museum stop was 16:00. We weren’t exactly sure what this meant though as the “City Circle” map documentation is not clear at all but I was starting to think that there might be a very long walk in my future. As we were discussing the possibility that we might need to start walking over to the next stop – “Check Point Charley” – a “City Circle” bus was heading down the street towards us. Sweet! The buses hadn’t stop running yet.This bus that now pulled up and stopped in front of us looked to be already pretty darn full. Nobody got off the bus and this man and I tried to board the bus. I showed the driver my ticket and was told that the bus was full and that another would be coming by in about 10 minutes. I really didn’t know why he was saying that as we had already gotten on the bus and were standing there waiting to leave. I even tried to ask him how late the busses ran and was only told that another bus would be by in about 10 minutes. No matter how I phrased my question, this guy wasn’t telling me anything more than another bus should be arriving in about 10 minutes. After a short period of silence, the driver asked us to get off the bus. What?! Get off the bus? Whatever… So the guy that was waiting there with me and I get off the bus and it drives away. I will say this – that bus driver sure as hell didn’t want us on his bus. The question remains as to why he stopped in the first place if he wasn’t going to let us get on the bus to begin with. Oh well, whatever… I got the impression that another bus would be showing up in about 10 minutes anyway and I was just hoping that this next bus would let us on.
Sure enough, about ten minutes later another bus arrives. Luckily for us, the bus wasn’t nearly as full as the last one that just left us stranded there and we were able to get on. This was most definitely going to be the last bus I was riding that day. There are still a lot of sights in Berlin that I would like to see; but there was no way I was going to miss my train back to Braunschweig that evening due to getting stranded by the “City Circle” bus tour. 
I then rode this bus and took just random shots of buildings I thought were interesting looking until we were once again approaching stop #13 – Berlin Hauptbahnhof. This was where I was planning on making my exit and heading back to the train station. Unfortunately, the Scorpions were about to be having a concert on that stage that I mentioned earlier and the streets around this stage were now beginning to be closed to traffic. Although the bus was still able to drive directly past where I originally boarded this nightmarish tour, the bus did not stop there. Well, it did stop there for a bit and the bus driver was chatting with the people that were closing the roads; but the doors were never opened – even though I was pressing the stop button and very obviously wanting to get off. After the driver was done speaking with the other guys, the bus continued on toward the next stop. It was at this point where I quickly ran up to the front of the bus and asked the driver if he was planning on heading back to the Hauptbahnhof and he said that the streets were getting closed and that nobody would be able to pick me up from there. 
I then explained to him that I had a train to catch in a couple of hours and wanted to exit the tour there and got him to pull over and let me out. Okay, everything was cool. I still had a couple of hours before my train was scheduled to depart and the Hauptbahnhof was now easily within walking distance. I walked to the train station to get something to eat before my trip back to Braunschweig.Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention: While I was waiting for the bus over by the Judisches Museum I got a phone call. Jon (you’ll notice that I no longer say Jon and Cindy as Cindy has decided to leave the apartment that she was sharing with Jon and is now out on her own … these kids nowadays…) apparently discovered this DnB (Drums ‘n Bass, or something like that … heck, I don’t know, I’m an old man…) show that was happening in Berlin that night and he was calling to inform me that he was on a train heading toward Berlin. He said he would be arriving just after 6:00pm and that the show was supposed to start somewhere around 11:00pm that night. Unfortunately I wouldn’t be able to join him for the show as I was pretty much beat and planned on making my 7:37pm train back to Braunschweig.
When I finally made it back into the train station and headed over to this Fish and Chips joint to get some food, my phone rang again. It was Jon asking where I was and I told him. He then asked if I could front him some cash for the night and I said sure. As I was sitting there drinking my beer, Jon showed up and I loaned him €25, gave him a very brief recap of my day so far and wished him the best for the show he was going to. I was going back to Braunschweig. At 7:37pm I was on my train heading back home and boy was I glad to be heading home…Well, to anyone that’s actually reading this stuff, thanks for giving me the opportunity to share my experiences with you. I’m not really sure I can keep up with writing this much as often as I have been, but one never knows… Check back from time to time and tell your friends. This blog is open to all and it’d be cool if you could maybe drop me a comment on exactly what you think of it…
bis später,
Coriolis
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