36 hours in Berlin, or How I managed to get around without German

All adventures have a fascinating story. My 55-hour trip from Mayenne to Berlin and back was nothing short of an adventure, especially seeing as I entered into a world that did not speak French, but did speak English. Some, not all, spoke English. For those who did not speak English, I had to rely on hand motions and the like to interpret the German. Still, it was an enjoyable experience. The entire trip was worth the roundtrip with my visit to the Berlin Philharmonic, which I have a separate section on.

My journey started at 10:30am on March 10. I took the Navette bus to Laval, where I would take my TGV train to Paris Montparnasse train station. I've gotten used to Montparnasse. Even in its busyness, I am still enjoying entering with the masses into its interior, because you are suddenly in Paris and that makes anyone feel good. To get out of Montparnasse and the 13th-14th arrondissements, I took the Car Air France bus for a whopping 11,5 euros to get to the Paris-Orly airport. While I was a little ticked off by the price of this 40 minute bus ride, I knew it would be much easier than taking two trains to the airport. Arriving at Orly, I went through security fine and ended up waiting a long time for my Easy Jet. The worst part was waiting in line to board, which I felt as though I was going to hyper-ventilate. On Easy Jet, there is no assigned seat, so everyone rushes in like a cattle herd to get in for a good seat. Fortunately for me, I was a single rider, so it made things much less complicated. There were groups that were trying to find seats together in this jam-packed flight. Nonetheless, we left on time and got to our destination on time.

As soon as we arrived at Berlin-Schoenefeld Airport or Flughafan, we went to baggage claim. I quickly looked for a big S for the S-Bahn and followed a hoard to get on the subway. Of course, here I was tired and having to navigate a complex metro system. I went up to a ticket machine and tried to order a ticket but had a lot of trouble. I knew I was taking the S-9 to Landsberger Allee (where the hostel was), but I did not know which ticket to buy. I ended up dropping 3 euros for a ticket that covered every area of Berlin just to make sure. I boarded my sub-way train and instantly heard German pronunciations of stations. Waited for about 35 minutes and arrived at my station. I took the wrong exit and wandered around trying to figure out how to get to the other side and the Generator Hostel, but I figured it out. Checked in to the hotel, grabbed a German kebab, and went to sleep... or tried. This hostel was definitely not my favorite part of the experience. Open rooms with 12-16 beds in suites, it was definitely not the best situation. But it was economical and included breakfast.

The next morning I got up, had breakfast, and took the 4 hour tour of Berlin with Sandmans Free Tour. It was long but really good. We started at the Brandenberg Tor (Gates), went around to see the Reichstag (German Parliament), saw the controversial Holocaust memorial, saw the site of where Hitler commited suicide in the Bunker, passed through the famous university in Berlin where many German intellectuals have attended, stood on the sight where the famous Nazi book-burnings were held (it's actually underground with a set of empty bookshelfs). After passing through these sections, we headed to the German tax building, which featured a propaganda mural of people living in Nazi Germany at the time of the Third Reich (totally inaccurate). From here, we went to museum island, saw the German cathedral and square where the Berlin Symphony Orchestra performs. Throughout this tour, we passed in and out of the invisible Berlin Wall and the tour guide told us the story of the Fall of the Wall, which was awesome.

After the tour, I headed to the German History Museum, which was great. I visited the 20th century exhibit, which had a lot of interesting photos and sites on Germany in the 20th century. I passed through history and had to ask in English questions about the museum, to which I got only German responses. I went straight to the German Reformation exhibit, which had materials on Martin Luther and Calvin. Very good. From there, I had to rush around to get back to the 20th century exhibit to see the Nazi propaganda, which was fascinating to look at. I felt a little bad about having to pick and choose out of this amazing museum. But I had fun, nonetheless. I exited, headed to the S-Bahn to head to the Main Station, which has an amazing glass ceiling and beautiful shopping area. I met my German friend promptly at 17h after having tasted currywurst and fries at a quick stop.

Silvia, my friend, and I went on yet another tour of the town. This time I had a local show me around. Silvia promptly gave me my ticket to the Philharmonic, which was actually a high-class honors lounge box seat with awesome acoustics. I was stoked! My dream was becoming a reality, to see the pre-eminent Berliner Philharmoniker. Amazing. Silvia and I walked around the Bundestag (German parliament building) and saw several sites again including the Brandenberg Gates, the embassy row of Berlin, and a large commercial center near the Philharmonie. We stopped at an ice cream shop, where I ordered a huge ice cream dessert with chocolate, cherry syrup, chocolate pieces in it, which I proceeded to swallow whole (as my dinner).

After saying goodbye to Sylvia, I went to the Philharmonie and took my seat after waiting. Above you will find my whole entry on the Berliner Philharmoniker. I indeed had the time of my life listening to the orchestra.

Sleeping in the hostel was pretty rough. I tried to go to sleep as I needed to get up extremely early the next morning to catch my flight. I took a Tylenol PM to get a little rest, but it didn't really help. I was awakened at 3:30am to people moving into my room, which was inconvenient and bothersome. I woke up and could hardly fall back asleep. Of course, to make it worse, one or two persons were coughing nonstop for several hours. I ended up leaving the room at 5:30am, because I couldn't stand being there any longer. Dropped off my key and then headed to the S-Bahn to take the S-41 to Schoeneweide. Here, the German attendant spoke to me in German and indicated that I had to get off. They were apparently doing construction on the tracks. I panicked a little, but saw that a sign indicated a S-Bahn correspondence with a bus. So, I took the bus with other passengers and we arrived at the Flughafen on time. I still had a couple hours to wait around after going through security. No problem. I grabbed a chocolate muffin and espresso. Took my flight to Orly. Had McDonald's. No big choice unfortunately.

Arrival at Montparnasse via shuttle bus. Grabbed a Starbucks Mocha Frap. They were having computer problems at Montparnasse so I had to wait for them to call my number and tell me which track my train would arrive at. Upon boarding my TGV, I headed to Laval. Upon arriving, I waited for a bus to get back to Mayenne. After all this, I was finally home at 7:01pm. I said a quick hello, headed up to my room to check my email, and collapsed on my bed at 9:00pm to sleep for more than 12 hours. Thus, ends my story of travel and adventure of my trip in Berlin.