…We stopped over in Munster and I took Sam to the military store near the train station and bought some absinth; a little bottle of ‘Satan Absinth’. Tasty. Besides, as it quickly became apparent from the younger crowds on the train, that you were allowed to drink on the train So we continued training… Our train car was kinda stuffy, and of course than cars aren’t exactly all that comfortable, but hey, I’ve got a train-pass, and it’s quickly becoming worth it’s cost…
Finally around 9ish, we got into Berlin. We took the U-Bhan (the Berlin subway/metro-rail) to the area our hostel/hotel was in, and lugged our shit to our hotel. The hotel itself was kind of nice, just a step up from backpacker hostel; the room was smallish, but it had a little couch, TV and a private bathroom/shower. It cost about 18euro a night each, but it was nice enough to be worth it. Worn out, we just sat in, watched some fucked up German TV, including a wildlife Jeopardy-style game-show complete with animals, and some German dubbed CSI, whereby I was entertaining Samantha by filling in with an English voice-over containing entirely inappropriate subject matter (surprisingly and hilariously, it worked [I mean, who doesn’t want to hear Grissholm talk about fisting?])…
On Friday we hit up the main sights in town. Kaiser Wilhelm’s Gedachtniskiche (The Kaisers Church), which was awesome, as most of it hadn’t been repaired after the war, and so it stood with big chunks missing from all over. I must say though, at first I wasn’t too impressed with Berlin… Most of it looked like a big Robson street. With a very “Big North American City” feel; very wide streets, tall square glass covered buildings, however, once we explored the old Russian side, things changed a bit..
We saw the Berlin Wall, well, one of the portions left standing… Cool, but it seemed kind of out of context on a really sunny day surrounded by tourists… Still though, it was neat, and Kind of smaller than I expected. We also saw the monument to Terror (fun!), and Checkpoint Charlie, which in itself was very touristy, but there was a lot of neat soviet memorabilia crap for sale on the streets around it… Next we U-Bhan’d over to the TV tower, and had a beer in the big central park nearby…
On Saturday, we discovered the cultural fair going on in one of the parks near where the fetish fair was taking place. It was amazing… Packed with people, there was awesome food and booze for sale everywhere, all kind of crazy crap for sale, and even a few hookah tents set up around… Oh, not to mention the Absintherie. Score! Anyhoo, we wandered around the fair for a while, got some bratwurst that was cooked on a huge hanging grill over a massive brazier (you gotta watch the video!), and some mixed absinth drinks… and beer… Afterwards, we checked out the fetish fair, which was pretty good, but alas, as I’m kinda broke, it was just like going somewhere where you want to spend money, but cant… oh well…
After that, we headed back to the hotel and got ready for the private couples only play party that ran in conjunction with the fetish ball on Sun night. The Play party was held in an SM residence (Residenz Avalon) converted from an old Polish Gun factory, on the bank of the river, way out in the industrial area of Rathaus Spandau, Berlin. As Sam and I walked along the dead-end road it was on we were approached by two guys who said “nein,” and we were like, “really?” (totally thinking we missed the entry time), and he continues, “nein. Shuttle.” And it dawns on Sam that she forgot to mention that there was a shuttle service. Anyhoo, we got in the shuttle van and it took us through a labyrinth of industrial buildings and alleys until we got to the subtle entrance for the residence. I can’t even begin to describe this place. Not only do words fail me, but I have a feeling my mother might be reading this, so I’ll keep it tame. But I cant help to mention that it had every kind of theme room you can imagine, from old schoolroom, to confessional, to dungeon, to fully equipped medical room. If you want to know more, just ask me ;) In any case, we got home around 4:30am, and hit the hay hard.
On Sunday we hit the fetish fair again for a little while, then headed back to the big cultural fair…
…We wandered through the fair some more, ate some of the awesome eats, and sat and smoked some sheesha in one of the hookah tents. Once evening hit, we went back to the Hotel and got ready for the fetish Ball. Sam put in her dread-falls, and did me up with some blue and brown dreadlocks off my hawk, and once again in my kilt and my spikey harness we U-Bhan’d out to Club Matrix for the Ball, which was also stellar.
5 huge rooms, each with own bar and type of music, and a descent sized patio, despite the fact you can smoke anywhere inside. So we drank, and smoked, and danced, and drank, and danced, and smoked until we could no longer… Once fully tuckered out, we headed out around 4:30ish, and got back to the hotel around 5:30am with it getting light out already, and accompanied by bird-song.
On Monday we went back to the cultural far, then decided to check out the more bohemian and alternative side of town, nearer to where the fetish fair was, and closer to the Frankfurter Allee area. That side of town, deep into the old Russian side, was waay more to my tastes than the newer areas, and was full of alternative shops like, ‘The Flaming Squeegee’ and such.
Tuesday was much the same, we checked out of our hotel, stowed out crap at the train station lockers, then kicked around the alternative area of town, before heading back to the central park, to see the Reichstaag (German Parliament), and the holocaust memorial. Oh, and I have to mention the pipe I saw at a shop in Frankfurter Alee… It’s a Lord of the Rings, German release replica pipe (well two actually, both Aragorn, and Gandalf’s). Perhaps the single most beautiful smoking implements I have ever seen. In fact, they were so awesome, I might even train back to Berlin to buy one. Yes, they cost a LOT, but I’ve never seen their equal.
Anyway, we wound up catching the 12:30am train out, which was delayed almost an hour. And I was kind of worried as it was a night train (reservation compulsory), and I had no reservation (luckily I found out I could buy one on the train). While waiting, we ran into a random guy from Toronto, the first random Canadian I’ve met here yet. Anyhoo, it was a long train ride back, but late Wednesday morning, we made it home to the Netherlands.
Stay tuned for more exciting stories on such chilling topics as “Hanging out in Enschede” and “Adventuring in the ghetto but beautiful Czek Republic”…
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