I took the train into Frankfurt to meet up with my first mitfahrgelegenheit which for all intensive purposes means ride-share. There were two other people sharing the ride as well, and it went by fairly quickly. Everyone was friendly and I got to get in some good practice speaking German since we are basically just sitting in the car together for about 7 hours.

We arrived in Berlin in an area called neukoln, and I made my way to the nearest subway to find out what region of Berlin that even was. Every subway has a massive map, so they are pretty useful for getting your bearings, even if you won’t take the train. I ducked into a little internet cafe to find out where a good hostel was located, snapped a photo of the google maps page on my camera, and set off to find BaxPax Kreuzberg.

It looked like a fairly easy walk of only a couple miles, and would have been if I didn’t overshoot my first turn by about a mile. I eventually found my way back to the general region I was supposed to be in and asked for directions. Strangely enough, almost anytime I spoke German while in Berlin, I would get a response back in English. I guess I just wreak of tourist.

At the hostel I made friends with two girls and guy from Perth, Australia. We went out for some food and drinks together, and spent much of the night hanging out on a bridge in Kreuzberg called the Admiral’s Bridge, which for some reason has a gathering of 100 or so people every day, with everyone just listening to music and drinking some beers.

The next morning I packed up to go out and see the sights of Mitte, the central neighborhood of Berlin. I waited in a massive line outside the Bundestag (German Congress) and got to walk around the big glass dome on the top of it. It had some nice views of the city, and I made friends with some English guys on the tour. Afterwards we went and checked out the Brandenburg Gate and the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is the most intensely named memorial ever.

Later on I met up with the Aussies again, and we walked around Potsdamer Platz, Hitler’s Bunker, and Checkpoint Charlie. Strangely Hitler’s Bunker is completely unmarked, and the area surrounding it is just being used as a dirt parking lot. I think maybe the Germans don’t exactly know what to do with it.

As we were walking around I was contacted by someone from couchsurfing who had seen my request on the Berlin group. Christoph Koch agreed to be my new host in Berlin for a day, and I’m glad he did. We went out to a beer garden, and took a little bus tour of the city before hitting up a vietnamese restaurant in an area called Prenzlauer Platz. We hit up a couple bars on our way out of the area, and then went back to his beautiful house on the other side of town. We shared our favorite youtube videos, and sampled some nice Whiskey to round off the night.

The next morning I set off to check out a big square called “zoo” where there seemed to be a lot happening when we had passed it in the bus before. The same was true when I visited, but the square was quickly vacated once the rain set in. I cruised accross town to meet up with another CouchSurfer who was originally from New York, but was now teaching English in Berlin. I wanted to find out more about the process of moving to Germany, and what he thought about the work as a teacher.

After that I went to meet up with Mareike, a study abroad student who stayed in the international house with me last year who currently lives in Berlin. We got some Italian food on the way back to her house and were planning on going out, but instead managed only to watch part of the movie Pretty in Pink before falling asleep.

The next morning I was off to meet my next mitfahrgelegenheit from Berlin to Cologne.