Chapter 4: Day 4, 5 and 6 in Berlin.

As you may have read, day 4 was not a great day for me. I was feeling lonely and bored and tired of this so-called "Best City on Earth". After spending nearly four hours here in the net cafe I went back home and read my book (American Gods by Neil Gaiman). After some mental coaxing, I decided to call Alternative Berlin and ask about their 666 Anti-Pubcrawl, "Call back at 8ish to see if it's running." So I did. It wasn't. So I spent the rest of the night reading my book until 9, when I went to bed.

Day 5: I awoke at 8 and ddecided to call the family back home as it would be sunday night there. We spoke about the trip so far and what I was doing later and then we hung up. I decided to take a shower and then head out for breakfast and the Alternative Berlin tour at 9:30am. Despite having to meet at 11am at Alexanderplatz for the tour, I got there at 10am and got a breakfast bagel, donut and hot chocolate from one of the abundent Dunkin' Donuts there, when Crowded House began playing on the radio after some Christmas carols.
I left there after I finished and went to loiter outside the Starbucks coffee where we were meeting, "We're in no way affiliated with them, ok?!" I said ok. Soon enough one of the guys, Rudy, arrived and sat down at a table, holding up the Alternative Berlin leaflet. I sat down next to him and we began talking about the tour, about Berlin and about where we were from. He was Scottish. Eddie arrived soon after, an Australian from Melbourne - the main organizer of Alternative Berlin - and began regailing us with stories of how Neue Berlin was stealing their stuff and suing them and "raping us for fuck's sake!" Turns out this other company is running a tour with the same colour scheme and name and charging 12 Euros for the tour that only goes 3 hours and looks at squatters and some graffiti art they know nothing about, compared to the REAL Alternative Berlin which is free, runs for the whole day and takes you to crazy stores and markets, to see the best Street Art in Berlin (of which Eddie knows a LOT about) and to do...other things - I'll explain in a moment. Soon enough, Brad, an Aussie from Brisbane, Niam from Ireland and her friend, whose name I didn't catch, arrived and the tour was ready to go with just us four, "I like smaller tours," said Eddie, "you can do more and move more and it's just better."
Now, because it was Sunday, most of Germany kind of just shuts down, so we couldn't go to the Heavy Metal Bakery, the Absynthe Store or the second hand clothes warehouse where you buy clothes by the Kilo, but we did hit some amazing markets by day and night light, and went into some squat houses, abandoned buildings and graveyards to see some amazing street art. We also travelled across the city (in the very efficient German transit system) to an old, decrepid train station, left as delapidated as it was since the war. It was a transport and supply train station bombed by the Soviets. Next to which, was a skate park built by the street artists themselves.
Soon, it was time for lunch and we went to a New Zealand cafe where we had burgers and beer in steins, and were joined by a crazy Parisian who never wears socks (it was 3°C and he was wearing fucking THONGS!), had dreadlocks, prepared a few joints for the walk in front of us and was called simply, Frenchie. He joined us until the end of the tour.
Eddie brought us around town to see where the new Alternative Berlin headquarters would be and took us to a retro store where nothing in their was created past 1980. Pretty soon, though, it was time for the grand finale - we had a choice between seeing the 50 faces, an intense piece of street art, or climbing the West Side of the Berlin Wall. Which do you think we picked?
By cover of nightfall we passed behind the beach bars and onto the soft, small Berlin beach where, in the summer, it is a raving beach party, to a huge open bit of field, "Now, 20 years ago, if you were seen or caught here, you'd be killed immediately," Eddie explained, "they had landmines, trip wires and guards aimed to kill."
"...landmines?" I asked, tentatively looking where I was stepping, although knowing I wouldn't step on one, I still had a strange flutter in my chest whenever I put my foot down.
"Well, most trip wires that'd throw ball bearings at ya." He said.
"...claymores? These guys used CLAYMORE MINES?!" I said.
"Shit...once you're up against those, you better just call it quits." Brad said, and I nodded. Eddie brought us to the graffitied back side of the Berlin wall. We were in West Germany, "Now, what we're about to do is pure Fight Club shit, you don't talk about it," Eddie said, "Jordan, help me with this." and he gestured to an old gate on the ground. I got on the other side of it and together we lifted it against the wall, "Whose first?" He said and smiled. Niam took it and went first up the wall and marvelled at looking over the other side, "Wow..." she said.
"Yeah," said Eddie, "20 years ago people couldn't do this."
"This just something that doesn't happen...that you don't do..." Brad said, beaming. Soon, I climbed to the top and it was just...something else. I was on top of history. I looked over the wall at the other side of Berlin and felt strange. It was beautiful even though it was just the same city, but from behind a wall. I got down and helped Eddie take the gate down, "Now," he said, "we came IN through the beach. Now, we escape back to East Germany, under that gate." He said, pointing to the locked gate, and dropped his bags and went under. We all looked at each other, shrugged and proceeded to weezle under the gate, escaping back to East Germany.
"And that brings us to the end of the tour," Eddie said, "and I hope you had fun!" And we had. He thanked me later more personally, saying it was great to have someone who made it a mission to do Alternative Berlin and that they would've run the tour if it was just me. I smiled and thanked him. On the train back, I was getting off earlier than everyone else and so I shook hands with everyone. As I shook Eddie's hand, I slipped him a 10 Euro bill and he looked at me, "Thanks." and smiled. I got off the train and headed back to Kurfürstenstraße and back to the hostel, talking to Anna on the phone.
I went back to the 1 Euro mini-pizza place I had eaten at my first night in Germany for dinner. It felt appropriate to eat the same meal to leave as I did to arrive. I went back home and slept a good sleep, alone in the room, having prepared my bags and finished my book.

Day 6: Well, today I leave Germany and head off to the great land of France, to the City of Lights, Paris! (For those Da Vinciites reading this, imagine I said Paris in Aringarosa's voice). I sit in the net cafe, whittling away some time before I taxi off to the Shoeoenfeld Airport and off to my next destination. After the tour last night, I understand why people love Berlin. Time to sign off, and when we next meet, I will be in France. Au revoir, guten tag!