Ich bin ein Berliner

This past weekend, Hannah and I went on our first out-of-England trip, Berlin, Germany. We found a bus that went from a bus stop right near the mall in Hatfield, directly to Luton, the airport we would fly out of. Downside: The bus left at 10pm on Friday and our flight did not leave until Saturday at 6:45 am. Therefore, Hannah and I (Jannah, is what we refer to ourselves now to save time) spent the next 8 hours wandering the airport, playing Rummy and Crazy 8's, reading ridiculous British Tabloids, people watching, and eating hummus. We probably slept for 30 minutes.

On our way through security Ievidently posed some sort of security risk when the button on my pants set off their alarm, so I got frisked for the first time, lucky me. We boarded the plane and
within the first 10 minutes after take-off, Jannah was zonked out for the remainder of
the ride.


Upon arrival, we got our passports stamped and made our way through the gate and met up with my cousin, Jesse who has been living in Germany for the past 6 years. He served as a great tour guide and I am completely positive that we would have gotten very lost without him.



He took us around to all of the great sights in Berlin: The Church of St. Nicholas, the oldest church in Berlin, St. Thomas Church, the biggest one, the famous TV tower, the Holocaust Monument, the Berlin Wall, and many others. It was an amazing day out!




From there, we went to check into the Sunflower Hostel which had a wonderful location near the train station and a cafe that probably served the best falafel I've ever had (the only falafel I've ever had.) Later that night, Jannah met up with Jesse and his buddy Steve. Steve took us to this hole-in-the-wall place that honestly looked like a hallway out of an old warehouse. There were posters, grafitti, and tons of twinkle lights. There were different rooms off each side of the hallway with guys playing some live music and a couple bars. It was definitely a culture shock, but a couple Wodka Schnapps and Biers later, I was loving it! (I happened to pick up on a couple German words, very culturally stimulating)



Sunday, there was a giant Flea Market going on about a 5 minute walk from our hostel. We met up with Jesse and headed out that way. They had EVERYTHING! It was so great, there were scarves, hats, jewelry, art, clothes, junk, antiques, junk, and lots of things that my mom would've not been able to live without that I would have had to talk her out of buying. I got a very pretty ring that I haven't taken off since I bought it! After showing us around the market, Jesse had to get back home, we were sad to see him go.
Hannah and I then went to the grocery store to get some stuff to make sandwiches, I have never been so confused while grocery shopping. The only thing that I was certain of was the "Wodka" which I had become very familiar with the night before. Eventually, we found bread and jelly but spent about 15 minutes trying to decide as to what jar might have peanut butter inside. We finally picked one out, and naturally, we made the wrong choice and got stuck eating Honey-butter-mush-bleh and jelly sandwiches for a couple days.

On our way back to the Hostel, we decided that this would be a good day to just stay in and take it easy. Hannah and I went down to the lobby and were playing some cards when the group of people at the table over asked if we wanted to "join in a proper card game?" We thought that sounded really fun, so we joined them! MISTAKE. 1) Their "proper" game was Circle of Death 2) They were drinking Jaeger 3) They were Irish. I think they invented drinking. Well the rest of the night Hannah and I spent trying to decipher what they were talking about half the time and the other half trying to disguise our lack of drinking abilities. We had so much fun, they were all hilarious.

On Monday, Jannah woke up, had another Jelly and Bleh sandwich and decided to go explore some other parts of Berlin we hadn't seen. We saw so many old shops and cafes and a lot of great old architecture. I also stumbled upon, quite possibly, the greatest ice cream shop ever, coffee and chocolate, I was speechless, literally.

Later that evening we met up with our newly made Irish friends, and once again, we assumed the title of "the Americans" for the rest of the night. We all signed up for a pub-crawl that was being put on for all of the guests in the hostel: Only €10, 3 German pubs, 4 free shots, 1 dance club, and 1 free beer. (I think it sounds best to the tune of "12 Days of Christmas") Well the night was a success gallivanting around Germany with the Irish + 2.
Unfortunately, Our pub-crawl guide proved to be a total jerk who enjoyed not giving our table our drinks which we paid for and leaving half our group at the previous pubs. Therefore, Irish Mitch thought it only fair to squirt soap all over her back without her knowing. We all concurred.

Well since the clubs didn't close until about 7am. Most of our group made it back to the hostel and hung out in the lobby listened to music and watched the sun rise. It was a great way to end/kick off our last night/day in Berlin.

3 hours of sleep, a jelly and honey-gross sandwich later, Hannah and I were headed for the airport to catch our flight.

Going through airport security was, again, a real treat! Hannah got drilled on all of the information on her passport. "Wherk were yough born?" "Whenk is yourgh birthkday?"
I then, had the privilege of being frisked...again, while Hannah's bag got rummaged through while they talked German and pointed at us. Good times!

When we finally boarded the plane, I was getting situated in my seat when over the plane loud-speaker the announcement blared: "Will a 'Jane Keehn' please make herself known?"

My first thoughts:

"They really must not like me, I better not have been selected to do that damn strip search..."

and

"It's not my birthday..."

Turns out I just dropped my insurance card in the terminal. Whew.

We arrived back in London around 11:00 pm tired and ready to catch the 11:30 bus back home. But that would just be too easy, of course on a Tuesday night the next bus after 10:30pm would not leave until 2:55 am. We just decided to pass out on the floor of the airport until 2:30 am, and that's just what we did. We caught the night bus and were back in Hatfield by 4:30 am and completely exhausted.

It was such a fun trip! So glad we went, and we will probably get to see our Irish friends in 2 weeks when we head to Dublin for St. Patrick's Day!

The upcoming week will also be great fun, my mom and sister are coming to visit for the week and my friends, Gabe and Melissa!

Keehn Girls + London = Epic Weekend.

Can't Wait!!

cheers!

Janie