Berlin Part I

One of the things that I've wanted to do for a long time was hitchhiking. Last weekend I finally got to do it, with my friend Heleen. I wanted to visit Berlin in my week off, because I'm going to write my bachelor thesis on the reaction of the Dutch government to the building of the Wall in 1961. I wanted to see the Wall and visit the Mauermuseum. I was short on cash though, so I wanted to go either alone (by train) or hitchhiking.

Heleen came to my place last week and I told her "I think I'm going to Berlin next week".
-"With whom?", she said.
"Alone, probably".
-"Oh, I can come with you!".
"Ok, awesome! Shall we try to hitchhike our way there?"
-"Ok, sure why not!"
And so the plans were made and we set the date on friday 17 april. We had to come back on sunday 19 april, because I had to work on monday again. Effectively we would only have one day in Berlin; short I know. I really wanted to go however, also because the hitchhiking would be part of the experience.

Thursday 16 april
I was stressing quite a bit this day. Had to work in the morning and then had only a few hours to buy the neccesary stuff like: wetties, a map of Germany, a guide (borrowed it in the library), food for the first day. In the evening I was trying to pack my bag, but I was so nervous for the hitchhiking that it took me three hours just to pack my 20 liter yellow backpack (I didn't want to bring the big one just for three days). I called Heleen and we made sure that we weren't bringing the same stuff (like shampoo and showergel) that would take up too much useless space. I decided to wear the same pants for three days and just bring clean underwear and shirts. It all fit in my backpack at last. I think I walked up and down the house for two hours, bugging my roommates with silly questions ("name some silly things you think I'll forget" they="toothbrush" me="oh crap, thanks!"). I'm such a dumbass when it comes to packing. I can forget the most silly things, this time I managed to forget a towel. That sucks balls if you sleep in a hostel that doesn't include such things. I went to bed at 11 pm, the alarm set at 6 am. I was quite nervous for the big adventure!

Friday 17 april
During the night, I woke up several times, fearing that I had slept through the alarm. I got up at 5:45 because I couldn't sleep anymore and took a shower. I was trying to eat something, but at this point it wasn't really succesful. Nervously I ran through all the things I migh forget in my head and could think of nothing more. I biked to the soccerstadium in Utrecht to meet Heleen there. At the stadium is an official hiking spot and we figured that would be the best place to start our trip. It turned out to be the perfect spot. Heleen had made signs, and the first one we used was Amersfoort (a city some 30km east from Utrecht). We both were nervous and put our thumbs up, curious how fast we would get a ride. The second car stopped. The second! It was a woman driving to work in Amersfoort. It was the first time she took hitchhikers with her, so we both had 'our first time'. We chatted a bit about hitchhiking and after the short 25 minute ride she dropped us off at a big gasstation. There we decided to go for 'active hitchhiking', which means that you go up to people to ask for a ride. This was also very succesful. Within 10 minutes we found a guy that went all the way to the German border. This guy, Gert-Jan, was very cool to talk to. During the 1,5 hour trip we never stopped chatting and we had a great time. He dropped us of at the last gasstation before the border with Germany.

This place was not so crowded so we were wondering if we could get a ride quickly. We put up our first German sign: Hannover. The first van already stopped. It was a Dutch guy, Ronald, offering us a ride to a little town before Hannover. We almost couldn't believe our luck. This guy was also very nice and again we chatted all the way. Hannover is already 2/3 of the distance to Berlin! At 11:30 we were there, only 4,5 hours on our way. If you would go by car yourself from Utrecht to Berlin it would mean a 7 hour drive. At the rate we were hitchhiking we went at the same speed.

The gasstation where Ronald dropped us off was big and crowded. We were hoping to catch a ride soon, but this time it took a little longer. We combined standing with a sign with asking. Some people wanted to take us with them, but their car was full or they were going the wrong way. We didn't mind standing for a bit though, we already felt lucky enough. After 15 minutes or so, a Dutch couple parked their car. Heleen boldly asked the woman if they were going to Berlin. "Yeah, but I have to talk with my husband about taking us with you. We kind of need our days". We were both pondering about what 'needing our days' would mean when the man passed us by and said "you can come with us. We are going to downtown Berlin". We both looked at eachother with big smiles on our faces. This was an überride! All the way from Hannover to Berlin centrum!

The couple, named Fred and Ria, had experience with hitchhiking. Fred did it when he was younger, and they took hitchhikers with them sometimes. Most of the trip I slept though, I was so tired from the short night before. If we hadn't had traffic jam (that took 1,5 hours) we could have been in Berlin at 3 pm. Now, they dropped us off at the Holocaust Memorial at 4:30 pm. We got out and thanked them happily. We were in Berlin centrum and it had cost us 0 euro... We were really euphoric and high-fived eachother.

After walking through the Holocaust Memorial we bought a map of the city and asked where hostel The Three Little Pigs was at an info-point. I found this hostel on the internet, and it looked very nice. It was also very close to Checkpoint Charlie and the Mauermuseum that I wanted to visit. After an hour of walking we found the hostel and checked in. We shared a room with three Italian guys. They were morons that didn't speak English. In general I dislike Italians, because they are noisy and don't care about it. Luckily, the first night they were out all night long. When we got up at 8 am in the morning the next day they still weren't back. We made pasta for dinner in the common kitchen, drank a very bad German pilsener and went to bed at 11 pm. I slept very good, because there were no snoring Italians in the room. How different would that be the next night!

Saturday 18 april
We got up at 8 am and ate our breakfast in the common room. We decided to rent the pink bikes from the hostel. I hate pink, but the bikes looked cool. They were actually very good, especially the saddle (the saddle on my own bike gives me pain in my butt after 15 mins <_<). I wanted to do at least the following: Visit Checkpoint Charlie and the museum there, drink coffee at Starbucks (there's only one Starbucks in NL and it's at Schiphol airport), eat at Subway (there's no Subway in Utrecht, though you can find them in other places in NL), visit some other landmarks.

We biked to Checkpoint Charlie, and I was kind of dissapointed. It was clearly a fake thing, the site as it used to be was not preserved. There were two fake guards in front of the fake house and for 1 euro you could take a picture with them. Argh. Oh well, the museum would be better, I hoped. But it really wasn't. It was kind of outdated in the sense that the museum itself wasn't modern. The collection wasn't set up in a logical way, everything was in disorder. There was too much to read and not enough to see. The guy who set up the museum, Hildebrandt, is a legend, but I found the museum really oldfashioned. They should make it more in harmony with modern times: more interaction, more kids-friendly for example. We took our time reading lots of the information, but it was just too much. We decided to leave the museum to drink a coffee at Starbucks. I really enjoyed my soya cappuchino, it always makes me happy to have a vegan option.

Now that I had visited the essential, we were looking at the map and in our guide what to do next. I saw the Philharmonie, near Potsdamer Platz and wanted to see if the Berliner Philharmoniker might be playing something interesting tonight. We biked there via the Brandeburger Tor, the Bundestag and Potsdamer Platz. The Philharmonie is an interesting building, with modern shapes. We went inside and looked at the programme. This is when I went crazy. They would be playing the Cello Concerto from Dvorak, one of my favorite pieces and on my to-see wishlist. The thought of being able to see one of the best orchestras in the world play this awesome cello concert made my heart beat superfast. I just HAD to see this!

[End of Part I, going to write the rest later]

For the pictures go to: HERE