Hello there.
For those who are interested, here is a run down of my recent adventures. Having two weeks off during Christmas allowed me to plan all sorts of interesting things, mostly involving getting quite drunk. I spent Christmas with my former exchange family in Menden, which was quite nice, given that I also stayed with them during the Christmas of 98/99. It was quite fun catching up with people whom I hadn't seen in 7 years, and seeing how they had changed. Nothing quite like a once committed German punk who now studies economics and professes a new found love of cricket.
After the obligatory pre-Christmas, Christmas, and post-Christmas parties were over, I got on a train on the 30th to Berlin to meet up with Jonno and some English mates of mine, one of whom has a place in Prenzlauerberg, a very trendy part of the old East Berlin which has been redeveloped since the fall of the wall. Basically, as well as being home to a multitude of groovy bars and clubs, Berlin is also the third largest Turkish city after Istanbul and Ankara. Naturally this leads to fierce competition in the Döner Kebab market, meaning one is spoilt for choice, and can find Döners as low as 1 Euro that, due to the Berlin Döner Purity Law, still are more than fit for human consumption. Delightful. Anyway, we spent the 30th at a variety of bars, where the highlight was undoubtably a giant, cape clad South American Indian who would roll a metre-long spliff and walk around the club encouraging people to toke, before performing elaborate tai-chi style dance moves on the dance floor for hours on end. A fascinating man.
New year's Eve was also an interesting affair, as we managed to get an invite to a party in an old bookshop. Apparently the owner was shutting it down, so he decided to go out with a bang and throw a magnificent party, where we stayed until the wee hours. Our last night was the 1st, and on this evening we went to another variety of bars, with the most interesting being Dr. Pong. Now Dr Pong I believe was a world reknown American table tennis player who, at the peak of his powers and height of his career, decided to give it all away and open a ping pong bar in Berlin. It started out as just a place to have a hit, but quickly developed a reputation as a very hip place to hang out. It was quite a sight seeing 60 or so people sitting around drinking beers with many also twirling their bats waiting for their next game. A place like that probably could never make any money in Australia, but due to the incredibly cheap cost of buildings in some parts of Berlin, he can make a tidy profit. After getting about 2 hours' sleep, Jonno and I managed to find our way to the station at 9 in the morning for our train to Krakow. Krakow is a beautiful city in the south east of Poland, where the wartime population was brutally persecuted by the Nazis, with the Auschwitz camp located only 40 km outside the city. In spite of that, however, the city itself remained unscathed through the war, and is full of many very old and beautiful buildings, as well as the largest City square in Europe. It is also home to an array of bohemian bars, many located in old stone cellars deep underground.
Naturally Jonno and I took to the vibrant nighlife like proverbial ducks to water and immediately found a bar which was charging the about Aud1.20 for a half litre beer, and the same for a shot of incredibly strong polish vodka. The interesting thing was, it seemed that the bar staff were drinking more than the two of us combined, and towards the end everything got quite amusing. The next evening we met up with some swedish guys who were staying at our hostel and went on a marathon pub crawl throughout the city, with my favourite bar requiring one to walk through a deserted alley, then past a book seller, up a flight of unmarked stairs, before choosing the correct of three very non descript doors. Sort of reminded me of the Frasier episode where they want to open a restaurant that is so exclusive it has an unlisted number, no sign etc... I thought it was very amusing. Anyway, after another two nights of revelry with a group of Italians from our Hostel, which included seeing an authentic polish broken-bottle glass fight, and assorted other interesting characters, we decided that our livers and pockets could no longer take the carnage, and opted to find a way back to dortmund. Naturally this was not as simple as it seemed. We went to the station only to be told that there were no direct trains back to berlin, so we would have to change trains in the middle of the night in some weird town in the middle of western Poland. Given that was the only option, we got on the train at 8pm and arrived at 3am in said town, only to find out that our connecting train will be 40 minutes late. Naturally we didn't want to stay the whole time inside the station, for fear of missing the connection, so after 20 minutes we went up to the platform to wait. Now that would have been bad enough had it not been for the fact that it was minus 15 degrees, we were both sleep deprived and hungover, and the connecting train didn't end up coming til 4.30. So after waiting for nearly an hour in the freezing cold, we were delighted when the most decrepit, soviet era train finally arrived to give us shelter. After finally nodding off to sleep, we were then woken first by a Polish, then 30 minutes later, a rather angry German border guard who seemed to want to delay the train as long as possible at Frankfurt on the Oder. This meant that we eventually got into Berlin at 8.20 in the morning, giving us 40 minutes to find our way accross town to Alexanderplatz, where we were meeting some people who were giving us a lift back to Dortmund. We managed to find them, and got in to Dortmund at 2.30pm, thoroughly sleep deprived, seedy looking, and sick from drinking beer for breakfast for most of 10 days. Oh well, you're only young once, right?
Well, we finally did get back, and I never thought I'd be glad to experience the warmth of a sunny 4 degree day... I am now taking it very easy for a few days, and mercifully also have tuesday off, so can get two solid nights' sleep in before I have to back to school. I want to conclude this untidy ramble by wishing you all a Happy New Year, and all the best for 2006. Please feel free to fill me in with your recent adventures. All news is very much appreciated over here. Cheers.
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