2nd August: Berlin I

We arrived in Berlin after a quick 90 minute flight from gay Paris. Steve was there waiting for us and after our hellos, we sat down to have a cuppa and a catch up. Steve is an old friend from Sydney, and we worked out we’ve known each other for just over twenty years now. He moved over to Germany about seven years ago after doing the old “met-a-girl-and-fell-in-love” thing. They now have a gorgeous little girl who loves our fairies, and so we love her too!

We jumped in his van, and took a drive out onto the Autobahn – can’t go to Germany without trying out that 160(odd)km per hour ride! It is just so well organized. Three to four lanes, and everyone seems to move out of everyone else’s way. All very polite. The forests we passed were lovely as well – all regenerated as it seems to be a country well versed in recycling and environmental friendliness.

Steve had booked us into a pension in the old GDR section of Berlin (the east) and once we got all settled in, we went in search of some food. A Vietnamese restaurant down the road sufficed, and it was a little strange having Steve translate a Vietnamese food menu from German into English. We walked down to the local Lidl (Aldi) and got some water and a few other little things, and marveled over the price of non-luxury essentials. Well, the 1 litre bottle of water was only 0.27 euro (so, maybe 0.35AUD). And, like most of Europe, alcohol was available in the supermarket, well, its available at the corner store and the news agency as well!

Next thing we knew, it was happy hour (YAY) and the little Italian restaurant had $5.00euro cocktails. Very multicultural is Berlin; Vietnamese, Italian, Mexican, Thai, Turkish and German restaurants all around each other. The Italian place did good cocktails though, I must admit. We left there for a German place up the road, and, surprise, it was Schnitzel-tag (Schnitzel night). We each ordered a schnitzel with sides of veges and fried potatoes, oh, and another cocktail! The schnitzels were huge, almost the size of two of my hands, and they were very, very yummy. It’s mushroom time in Germany, and so we had mushroom sauce with the schnitzels. I will add here how totally impressed with my German the waiter was. Well, impressed with my attempt at least.

We made our way back to the hotel, and sat down to a photo exchange over a few glasses of red – a good first night in Germany I would say!