Botanical Garden (c.1801-1899)

All of the later trains leaving Warsaw Gdanska station to Berlin were fully booked, so we had to catch the super early 6:12am train. Another early morning start! That don't impress me much. They say the early bird gets the worm, but I think we should leave the worm alone. Leave them in peace, I say.

We had to catch a Bolt car from our hotel at the crack of dawn in case there were issues and we needed to arrange other transport. The Bolt driver sped through Warsaw traffic like a madman, and would’ve run down anything in his way. He got us there with more than 20 minutes to spare. None of the shops opened until 6am, so Jason ran to get provisions like he was on Supermarket Sweeps, collecting as many treats for the journey, and getting back to the platform in time for the train departure.

We boarded our train, along with a class full of Polish students heading to Berlin, presumably for a summer school excursion. We settled into our Polish post-World War II train seats, prepared for our six hour journey through Poland and eastern Germany. Again, we were assigned seats in different rows. I think someone needs to fix their algorithm. They probably also need to fix their ticketing system; every few hours when there was a change of ticket inspector, we had to show our tickets, not once or twice but thrice. Doesn't seem too efficient!

As the train crossed the Polish-German border, German immigration inspectors boarded. We were prepared to show our passports, but it seemed they were targeting only certain people. We were left alone while anyone who may have looked like they came from a low-income, Eastern European country were asked to show passports.

We arrived in Berlin too early for check-in so we left our bags at the hotel and high tailed it to get our first fix of currywurst. It had been almost six years since we'd been to Berlin and we were craving the mildly spiced sausage. Over the next four days, we would repeatedly indulge in the Berliner tradition. It was like nothing had changed.

Berlin is known for its vibrant nightlife and that was exactly what we were here to experience again. That evening, we headed to a nightclub with the reputation for being one of the most exclusive and most difficult clubs to get in. But we had no trouble getting through the bouncer. As Roxette sang, "she's got the look .... And she goes: na na na na na na na na." Although we did have to stand in line for about 20-30 minutes while homeless men pushing a shopping trolley played bad retro music and sold beer. As we entered the club, they took our phones and placed stickers over the cameras so we couldn't take pictures and video. I'm surprised we didn't need to sign a non-disclosure confidentiality agreement.

We didn't leave the club until about 1:30am and then needed to catch the U-bahn to our hotel, along with other party-goers. One woman was so wasted she could hardly stand up and looked like she was doing a little Schuhplattler jig just to stand up. All she needed was some lederhosen.

The next day, tired and maybe with a slight hangover, we toured around Berlin. We had purchased 24-hour public transport tickets so we decided to jump on any bus to see where it would take us. It was a pick-your-own adventure until we ran out of time. We ended up at the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag before walking about 35 minutes through the Tiergarten to our Schöneberg hotel on Litzenburger strasse. We followed this up with another night out and a trip to Görlitzer park. Rinse and repeat. Remember what happens in Berlin, stays in Berlin.

During our travels revisiting some of our favourite Berlin sites, I became obsessed with the train announcements. Jason has his door fetish, mine is train announcements. It's strange how many of my memories of places and languages involve public transport announcements. I had figured out one half of the announcement, and had a fair idea what the second part translated to in English but I needed the help of Google Translate. Einsteigen bitte (Please get in), Zurückbleiben bitte (Please stay behind). Now I can’t get this catchphrase out of my head. It may have to be my new ringtone.

On our third day, we needed to do some laundry and found a laundromat nearby. We walked in and were confronted with a laundromat of people. It was filled with competitors from the Special Olympic Games, including a contingent from the Australian team. It seems we can't escape Aussies wherever we go. In incognito mode as German residents, we quickly loaded up the washing machine and headed to explore the surrounding area unrecognised.

Our final day was spent ticking off the things that we hadn't done, and also eating some more currywurst and searching for any treats that we could get our teeth into ... of course. It won't be long until we are back home, and back on our diet of dust and air to regain our pre-holiday physiques so we need to make the most of it.

Next destination: Munich.Leggi altro