Getting off the plane at Shoenberg airport it is drizzly and cold so immediately I feel at home. After pottering about aimlessly for 15minutes or so I decide to keep it simple and follow the symbols for the train. It takes me to the heart of Berlin and 5 minutes from my hostel, though it takes me 10 because I take a a few wrong turns!
The hostel is warm and the staff are really friendly. In the evening I head out with a few people to a recommended bar a few hundred yards away from the hostel which turns out to be a warehouse and bizarre art gallery. I later find out this is the Tacheles , a famous hippy squat - art institution which emerged from the Free Art Movement in the early 1990s.
Inside the stairwells are covered in graffiti and the 5th floor bar itself looks like it was designed for a Kraftwork video. Across the square a giant screen is projected onto the building showing animation and art videos. It all seems a bit surreal!
Museums and monuments
Berlin has lots! I decide to head east towards the Volkspark Friedrichshain to see the various communist monuments including the Marx and Engels Forum, the Spanish Civil War monument and the graveyard for those killed in the 1848 uprising. The Forum is large and somewhat barren but it is amusing to see how many people come and have their picture taken sitting on his lap!
The 1848 graveyard is tucked away in the corner of the park and doesn´t seem to be visited by many people. The statué of the Red Sailor is almost buried amongst the overgrowing bushes.
Standing in the pathways of the Holocaust memorial square is an unique experience. Whilst it has a somber feel it is also in a strange way very peaceful. The sounds of the city are dimmed, and the plinths rising above you are not quite straight vertical but seem to lean gently and all the time you can see a way towards the outside. I´m not sure if this is what is intended but it is certainly a place where you can reflect.
Hostel People
It probably goes without saying that whilst travelling you expect to meet some unusual folk. But sitting in the Helter Skelter hostel with a mid-30s, well-dressed Swedish man of Ukranian-Jewish origin, listening to him tell me about his work as middleman oil-trader and explaining the real global politik going on in the Middle East was a surprise!
A leaving party...
On Saturday, the hostel staff are buzzing about preparing a party for Jorgi, a colleague who is leaving after one year of working there. Naturally all of the hostel guests are invited to join the fun. Drinks, cocktails, dancing, pass 10 hours and it is morning, butthe party only moves itself into one corner to allow for guests to take their breakfast, which seems like a good cue to go to sleep. 3 hours later I´m regretting not being a little more disciplined as it is noon and my train to Prague leaves in 40 minutes!! I make it with 2 minutes to spare and sitting on the train, still in the clothes I had on the night before, wondering if I left anything important behind, I´m able to fall asleep for a while at least...
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