abba has invaded berlin!

I went to berlin this weekend, and like most young visitors I'm sure, have delusions of grandeur about one day living there, in a squatter artist colony, sufficing off doner kebab and cheap *delicious* beer.  It could happen...

The immediate difference I could see from even the train ride to berlin was the organization, which is present because of the bureaucracy, while in poland somehow this didn't translate. 

THE THIRD REICH

I went with my french friend Marine, an American girl Danielle, and a Mexican, Avelino.  It was a good size for this trip, and thank god Marine happens to have a built in GPS system in her brain or navigating the city would have been hell and a half, it is SO HUGE, and there's just so much to do, I'd like to go back but don't know it it's possible, the train ticket was about 50 euros. :0

We met up with Nick Nader on the first night, after getting off at the wrong train station, sitting for an hour and a half waiting, wasting minutes on my phone, scarfing my first doner kebab, and watching my first drunken german punk rocker fight. The hostel seemed nice, but we all couldn't help but be irked by the fact that a 50 something German man was sharing a room with us.... which is fine in theory, until Marine and I came back up the room to lock our stuff and he was in his tighty whities, insistent on

 speaking to us as such.... creeper.

That evening we visited Nick's favorite gay bars, I wasn't planning on drinking too much that night, but upon entrance to the dance floor and a 60 year old les bumpin up on me I decided I needed a few more drinks.  There was a performance of every Abba song you can imagine, including the entire Mamma Mia medley, which would not leave my head 

for the reast of the weekend.  Not to mention that Mamma Mia posters were virtually everywhere for the musical, just opening in Berlin.  Again, it's hard for me to get over this 10-20 year lull in pop culture.

Somehow we woke up early to take a 3.5 hour walking tour of Berlin, which turned out to be really amazing, a ton to learn, a ton to see, years of WWII history classes coming into tangible existence essentially.  I also had my first german brockwurst, it was pretty yummy, look how damn excited I am... exactly.  Holocaust memorial, burning of the books memorial, hitlers resting spot (now a parking lot), the berlin wall ofcourse, social propaganda, the works!

That evening we went off the tourist trail to a hole in the wall pub that was holding a ska show for this band called :the offenders: "Italian style meets british 2 tone"  We got lost, I chipped my left front tooth in the pit, it was a jolly good time!  The next day we went to the german film museum and kissed Berlin goodbye.  I will go back though, I have to go back.