Germany - Week 1, Part 1

Here begins my journey in a new land, as a (somewhat) responsible adult. It's hard work, I've failed quite miserably at it over the past week, but it can only get better from here. And if it doesn't, well, shit.

Anyway it's basically been a week since I boarded the plane in Sydney. I'll try not to bore you with all the minutiae, but just remember that this blog is mainly for me. So, in my eternal words, DEAL WITH IT.

Flight and Day 1
So, let us begin with February the 29th and having to say a tear-y farewell to all my family... and Lucy. The flight itself was awful. Long and intensely boring. For most of the flight, we were also caught between a myriad of bad smells, stale urine to the front and vomit from behind. It was rather unpleasant. I had a significant amount of carry on luggage - camera bag, backpack, bum-bag and a huge, shedding leopard jacket. I've never resented an article of clothing more in my life. Poor Gabby was rather emotional most of the flight, caught between excitement and sadness at having to say good bye. Emma was absolutely petrified by the notion of flying. With every stop she adjusted well though, so it was okay in the end.

Feeling like a mass of disgust, we finally arrived in Berlin-Tegel airport.

At this point, I was basically over the idea of life. I just wanted to shower and then find any form of horizontal surface to lie on. I was picked up at the airport by Daniel, who very kindly helped me with my various belongings and we then went on a journey to his friend's apartment, wherein I could shower. It was glorious. After a while, we finally arrived in Daniel's apartment, I was deliriously tired, but I didn't want to sleep just yet, cause it was still only 2 or so in the afternoon. Daniel left to go to university, and, in a vain attempt to stay awake, I took a walk around the block. I tried to find an ATM, failed, but the walk was nice anyway. 

 Wühlischstr. - Daniel's Street.

 Denglish at it's finest.

 Friedrichstain - Graffiti and posters, everywhere. 

Self-explanatory image. 

A preschool in the area. 

Having come home from my walk. I promptly gave in to jetlag and had a nap. It too, was glorious. Even if it did mean I woke up at 2am.

Day 2 - Potsdam

I moved into my apartment in Birnenweg, Potsdam. It's a long journey from Friedrichstain to my place. It involves a 1 hour train ride on the S-Bahn (S7). Having arrived at Potsdam though, I was lucky enough to be in a country where everybody is so nice. Two gentlemen offered to help me carry my bags to the taxi rank, for which I will be forever grateful, as I am a weak and helpless child. 

I arrived about 45 minutes earlier than expected, but luckily the landlady was there and showed me to the room. Every interaction I have had with Frau. Jethon has just been a series of awkward german-fumblings, as she does not speak a single word of english. Fantastic. The apartment itself is exactly as the picture on the website, super cute. I was already exhausted by then, so just unpacked, had a shower and a little Schläfchen. 

I haven't taken any pictures yet of the apartment, but I will add some later on in the week. 

It took a while to connect to the wireless, as the landlady had written the security key down wrong. We got there in the end, at this point I was deliriously hungry, so went on a casual 30 minute stroll to the nearest shopping centre. I arrived and had no clue where to begin. I also hadn't checked amenities before I left, so my first ever shop in Germany involved buying tissues (my nose is a non-stop tap in this weather), toilet paper, rooisbos tea, frozen pizzas, orange juice, a little bread-roll, strawberries and a plastic bag to carry it all in. In Germany, supermarkets don't give you plastic bags, you have to pay for every single one you buy. I like the idea, but at the time it was rather inconvenient. I was nauseous with hunger and devoured the strawberries and bread-roll on the journey home. I also promptly remembered on my way home that my apartment has neither microwave nor oven, so frozen pizzas will cause a bit of a dilemma. It was also at this point that I realised how ridiculously isolated the apartment is, and at this point resolved to search for another permanent place to live. I felt pretty stupid that I hadn't checked beforehand exactly where the apartment was, I just made the assumption it would be close to Potsdam hbf, how very wrong I was. 

My tandem partner had agreed to meet me at my apartment at 3, however was running late and requested that I meet him at Potsdam HBF. I am very proud to say I figured out all on my lonesome how to get there. 

Kirschalle. Tram stop. 

Having finally arrived at Potsdam and met with my tandem partner, so continued my horrid week of failures. The first task was to try open a bank account. Sparkasse said that we had wait till Monday. We then tried another bank, who said the same thing. Having given up on that idea, we travelled to the Rathaus to register my address, we arrived to find it closes at midday on Fridays. It was then 4pm. In spite of all the things that went wrong, I had a good time with Erik, who is coincidentally also one of the nicest people in all the world. 

I can't remember when exactly in the order of things we went to the University, but we went to the university. It is beautiful. It's very symmetrical, and very close to Sanssouci. I don't want to talk too much about it, as I'll do a post dedicated to the university later. 

Next step was to go to blau.de to buy a prepaid sim card. I hadn't unlocked my phone yet, so I had to wait till I could use it. Then we got pizza at this little place in Potsdam HBF, and two big slices, together, cost 4,50 Euro. SO CHEAP. 

After that had to buy a towel and bed linen, which cost a lot of money and was very depressing to hand over. But whatever, that's life. I have also discovered that Kaufland, is basically the Target/Kmart of Germany. 

After that I finally went home, watched a few episodes of Once upon a Time, which is amazing just by the by, and finally went to sleep.

Day 3 - Berlin (again) 

Most of my time here has been spent going back and forth between Potsdam and Berlin. Anyway, the morning of the 3rd. March was incredibly frustrating. The internet just would not work in the apartment and I had already resolved to try look for another place. Daniel offered his room to me for a week, as he was leaving on the Monday to Lyon for a week. An offer I gladly accepted, as it meant I would not only have real internet, it also situated me much closer to a lot of the suburbs in which I wanted to live. 

I had spoken earlier that morning to the landlady, telling her the internet didn't work, and she soon came by again to tell me the man was coming on the Monday to try and fix it. I then informed her, in my horrid german, that I was staying for a week in Berlin and she looked really devastated. I tried to explain that I needed to find a permanent place to live in Berlin and that the apartment was too far away. I just felt so bad, she looked so sad that I was already leaving after only having just arrived. 

I packed a bag for a week and headed off once more to Berlin. I rode the tram to Potsdam without a ticket and felt like such a rebel, but upon arriving bought a monthly travel pass for students. Good bye dear 68 euro, it was lovely while it lasted. 

I then, through some kind of magic, made it all by myself to Daniel's university. I think I should give my dad lots of extra hugs for giving me the good-with-directions genes. Stayed at the university for a bit, spent most of the time trying to figure out how in the hell to use a German keyboard. The Y and the Z buttons are switched around and none of the punctuation is where it should be. It was a rather horrid state of affairs trying to type on that thing.

Anyway, facebooked for a bit, went to lunch, then got the key from Daniel and went back to the apartment on my own. With a minor detour, I made it to the apartment... and proceeded to spend thirty minutes trying to unlock the apartment door. That's right, thirty minutes. I also might add I was not the one to open it in the end, I had to ask a neighbour from upstairs to open it for me. It was one of the most embarrassing moments of my entire life.

So yes, that's a horrible time in my life I'd like to forget. I'd also realised at this point that I'd forgotten my German sim back in Potsdam. Fantastic. 

Anyway, fast forward a few hours and I went out with Daniel to a work thing he had to do. Basically he had been asked by a band, Fine Daze, to film them performing at a club. It was amazing, in Friedrichstain, walking to the station, there's this kind of empty space between the S-Bahn and U-Bahn where a single DJ had set up equipment and was playing music, to a lone few people. Anyway, we arrived at the place, and it was absolutely packed - packed with people 30 years old and over. Anyway, we found seats somewhere to squish ourselves into, and the show went on till about midnight. The music was surprisingly good, they were much older, maybe in their 50s or more and they covered classic 80s/90s rock songs. There were three singers and they harmonised well, and it was actually just very endearing to watch how into the performance they were. So, all in all, I actually had a nice time, in spite of my jetlag again rearing its ugly head. 

Anyway, after a slight detour and use of puppy dog eyes to a gas station attendant, I fulfilled my craving of getting an ice cream. It too, was glorious. We finally arrived back in Friedrichstain, to find that the empty kind of alcove had become this...

After having dropped off the equipment and resolving to stay up later than ever I had before, we went to meet Daniel's friend's girlfriend at a small French bar in the area. The door opened to a haze of smoke that burnt the eyes and nostrils. I find it quite disarming how many young people here seem to smoke, and yet the entire country is obsessed with "bio-essen" and such. It just seems completely contradictory to me, but anyway. I also find it strange that every person I've met so far, shakes your hand upon meeting them, but also just as a general farewell gesture. It just seems so formal to me, but it seems to be quite normal here. Anyway, so we met them and chatted, I'm casually trying to stay conscious in all this, as well as trying to understand what they're all talking about. Only semi-successfully, but whatever.

Going to sleep that night (morning?) at 3:30am, was, you guessed it, fucking glorious.

End part 1. TBC