So, I'll begin where I left off. Techalase. It is a building that was in the former eastern (soviet) part of Berlin and it was abandoned after the wall came down. So eventually groups of artists and musicians claimed it to be theirs and its remained that way ever since. I went to it several different nights and it seemed to be completely different every time I went. Some doors would be open certain nights and not others. Sometimes there was different music and dance floors and such on every different floor and sometimes only one floor had a DJ type deal. The top floor which was the 5th I believe, had an open window side which you could see over a lot of the skyline. Its hard to say which floor in part because in Germany the floor system is different. What we would call the first floor is called the Erdgeschoss which means ground floor. So what we call the second floor is the first floor in Germany. So outside the building there was a big beach bar thing where there was sand on the ground and adjacent from the bar was a stage that would have different bands playing. But back to inside. There are tons of rooms in which there are different types of artists, every different kind of art one could imagine. Sculpture, collage, drawing painting, abstract, impressionistic, anything you could imagine and more so art that could only be seen in this building. The stairwells were filled with graffiti and people playing different instruments. I can't get even close to describing how cool this place was. I went there just about every night we were in Berlin. Unfortunately it wasn't really the type of place one could take a camera so I'll have to be satisfied with my memories of it. The first night we went there we stayed mostly on the floors with music so I had to go back to see all the unique artwork. It's honestly one of the most interesting and unique places I've been in my entire life. I could go on forever trying to explain it but its just ineffable. So on to the next subject.
We went to a smaller German town one night to visit the friends of two of the people we're with because they threw a birthday party for one of the girls that is on the trip. We ate some dinner and then we played an interesting German card game called Werwölfe where each person plays a role, for example there were 3 werewolves some villagers, a fortune teller, a witch, a hunter...etc. The werewolves would be able to chose a person to kill and the game ended when all the villagers were dead or when the wolves had been killed.
Again, a difficult thing for me to describe in writing. It's been an ongoing joke though about the Willigers (villagers) and darth wader. For some reason when Germans are taught English they teach them that in English a v is pronounced as a w. Just yesterday there was a commercial on the tv for an English learning program where a kid came on the screen and said ´Learning English is Wery easy`. So when one of the guys at the party was speaking English he was always say willagers and darth wader and the willage people, which we all found really funny.
So another interesting story would be about my sunglasses. I have a pair of sunglasses that has colored lenses in a sporty kind of frame, sunglasses that would be totally normal in the US. Within the first 48 hours in Germany it was pointed out to me several times and easy to see that they made me stick out like a sore thumb.
So a little about the hostel. It was called the heart of gold hostel and was themed after the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy so there were a lot of 60's/70's type decor and such. We stayed all together in a room with bunk beds and there were floor shared shower and toilet rooms. My favorite part was that in the lobby there was a bar that served Berliner pilsner from the tap, along with other bottled German beers. Outside there was a medium sized courtyard with tables and sun umbrellas. Techalase was only a 3 minute walk away so that was nice as well. The S-bahn (trolley) was also pretty close along with the Hauptbahnhof (the main train station), so traveling around was pretty easy (at least without my heavy bags). I took lots of pictures everywhere we went taking over 1000 in a few short days. Berlin was just an amazing city and im sure one would have to stay there for years to experience all it has to offer. From Berlin we also went on a short trip to Potsdam, which is where I'll begin my next blog.
Until then,
Kyle
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