Journey: Berlin
I remember reading on a motorhome forum a post saying how awkward it was when friends presumed they could stay as it was obviously too cramped and not practical….
I’m the total opposite, I absolutely love and appreciate my friends coming out to visit and share in our adventure and so on Saturday our 4 berth van was super cosy with 5 humans and 3 (not small dogs). I’m not saying it was the best nights sleep but we made it work and it was lovely waking up and sharing the day with them.
Heike and I were at the acro festival during the day doing hand to hand, pops and flows. Mark and the pups were trying not to melt in the muggy heat – they don’t cope well. And Mia and Chris arrived late morning and had a wander around Berlin before meeting up with us in the evening.
Followers of my blog might know Mia is the queen of city breaks. She plans every element, always finds quirky things to do and crams as much as possible into a fun filled weekend. The huge perk for me is I can just pop my brain in neutral and follow the plan, plus I’m laid back so can be flexible if things go a little askew.
While Heike opted for acro games, music and performance at the festival. Mark and I got the bus/tram/subway into town to meet Chris and Mia. This is the first hint at how large Berlin is. You soon realise it takes ages to get between places and accept it as part and parcel of Berlin life. Us being us also meant we missed our first bus by a minute and couldn’t run fast enough after it, and also arrived on the platform just as the tram pulled away…but nevermind there’s always another one.
True to form Mia had found a great speak easy bar called Fahimi Bar. These places are tricky to find, this one being upstairs in a old Soviet block, with graffiti and dummy padlocked door. If you do manage to find it, the poster says opens at 7pm, Google says opens at 8pm and the chalk board on the door upstairs said tonight opens at 8:30pm – so yeh it threw our schedule off plan 😂 While waiting we had a lovely iced coffee at The Coffee Brothers (no vegan option) and ate the picnic we had packed. It was a worthwhile wait – Fahimi Bar is like stepping back in time. It’s completely counter to its rougher surroundings. A delicious Strawberry Fields cocktail later and we were meant to be on our way to Monsterkabinet (a surreal robotic monster show), but realised we wouldn’t make the last show in time ☹️ A little bonus though – we saw one of the gorilla stickered traffic lights promoting Go Vegan on the green light and Stop Cheese on the red 😂
So instead it was on to Alexander Platz – basically Berlin’s version of Leicester Square, saw the TV tower and then quickly dashed away again to less touristy parts. We got the tram to Wedding which is known to be quite a nice part, with a street art trail and alternative bars. We headed over to Panke Culture which is definitely striking and alternative in a run down warehouse setting by the river. We only fancied one drink and hadn’t realised it was a gig night with paid door entry. Not being overly keen on drum and bass we decided to wander on, got a few yards, ignored the blood trail, came back on ourselves… followed some people we presumed were going to a bar and ended up in the Tango loft…at 11pm a class was about to start. Hot, sticky and with sore feet we had to concede it was just one of those nights where things don’t go to plan, and rather than tango into the new day we started the 90min journey home.
Heike and the pups were all snuggled up waiting for us. After a mad bounce about greeting everyone, and Mabel clocking pretty quickly it was her old friend Mia not a burglar, we settled down. I know I slept in odd positions, Ernest slept in four different locations, and poor Heike alternated between the driving seats and sharing the sofa bed (we cannow it now know it can fit 3 adults and 2 dogs, though an ability to sleep in contorted positions helps. At one point Heike was wedged between the panels with Mabel at her feet and Ernest sprawled pushing against her tummy – my apologies, you didn’t complain once! Next time, dogs on the driver seats and humans in proper beds. Time will tell if I can lure her back 🤞
SofaWolves 