Berlin

I don’t know how to write about my trip to Berlin. It was fucking awesome. Pardon my French but seriously. It was. I’ve sat down and tried to write a detailed report on the weekend and I just couldn’t do it. Let me see if I can sum it up. I went on a road trip with three of my really close friends here in Munich and we drove five hours to Berlin where we met up with some other friends – people that we knew from Munich or our past and separate lives – Laura and Alison – and we spent the weekend clubbing, wandering the wild and vibrant streets of Berlin from 11 pm until 5:30 or 7 in the morning, drinking Berliner Pils (and Augustiner Helles, too!), and touring incredible German history sites. We took a four hour walking tour in the merciless east German heat and I stood beside the Berlin wall. The bunker where Hitler killed himself is now covered by a parking lot. I saw the hotel where Michael Jackson hung his tiny baby out of a window. Checkpoint Charlie is really overrated. The Berlin Cathedral looks ancient but it really isn’t that old. Communism was crazy. The sun was out the entire weekend and it was glorious. Karaoke is much more fun to watch when you’re in an outdoor stadium with three hundred other people. Flea markets sell super cheap friendship bracelets and a shitload of vinyl records. I went to the most fabulous party found myself surrounded by gay boys and never felt happier or more wonderful. Berlin helped me embrace my inner fag hag and brought me a whole gaggle of new gay boyfriends. I find that I can never have enough. I ate bratwurst from men that walked around and wore sausage grills over their shoulders. Have grill, will travel. I didn’t go to bed before 3:30 am on any night of the entire weekend. I ate the best cheeseburger I’ve ever tasted… twice. I didn’t have proper Berlin currywurst. Damn. I bonded with my skinny love. I loved Berlin. I absolutely loved it.

Yours truly at Brandenburg Tor
(I prefer the one in Munich, to be honest.)

Ich Bin Ein Berliner! (No, Seriously… I Am! Okay… Maybe Not)

Well, ladies and gents, I am off to Berlin today! I am so excited because I would have been devastated if I had missed a tripped to Berlin while I was here. It’s one of the places that I really, really wanted to see while I was here in Germany. Fortunately, I have really good friends and so this trip to Berlin has been really easy to plan. My good friend Anne, who is one of my few German friends in Germany, comes from the Berlin area and so she’s providing the car for an epic road trip. Fio and Nuno will join us on our 5 or so hour adventure up north and we will meet our respective parties once we get into the city. My close friend Alison, who I met while working at Camp Cayuga in 2007, is living in Berlin right now and so Nuno, Anne, and I will be staying with her there. Our friend Laura, who once lived here in Munich with us, is going to school in Berlin now so Fio will be staying with her there and we will see her, too. It’s going to be a weekend of sight seeing, beer drinking, and club dancing and I am so excited. I haven’t been on a proper vacation since Rome and I’m looking forward to getting away for a few days! Especially since my time in Munich is dwindling down to mere days. Only 19 of them left!

JFK in Berlin

He just said, therefore, I am a donut!
Since a “Berliner” is a German donut. Ha.
Silly Americans.

(And as you can already tell, I have given up on the 30 Days of Germany challenge, in which I post a German something or other every day until I leave. I should have known that I couldn’t commit to that. I never finished memes like that and I’m fairly certain that I have commitment issues, anyway. So… on to the next half-assed challenged, eh? Haha.)