Berlin - Germany

I arrived in Berlin mid afternoon at the Schonefeld airport, knowing that i had to meet Kayne and Shaun sometime(??) in the evening...
getting my bearings  i realised i had to get myself to the other side of town, to the other airport at Tegel, during peak hour, with all my gear...this was a little daunting at the time, however after a few beers it was certainly more manageable... (i came directly from London and my flight was basically a domestic, Kayne and Shaun connecting from a Japan Airlines flight, was an international).

After much deciphering the plane arrivals (while drinking beers and using wi-fi), i narrowed Kayne's flight down to one and awaited his arrival...I had only received the Japan airlines flight number into Heathrow Airport, and not the connecting flight, i was a little worried until i saw someone carrying a name plaque 'Hunnam', = success, i was in the right place, which was good because i was unsure where i was going to sleep that night otherwise...

Kayne and Shaun had just done 4 days in Tokyo and where in Berlin for 6 nights. They had won a Sony competition, with a great short film for Sony Make.Believe

It was good to see the guys, meeting someone on the other side of the world is always rewarding. They where also traveling with Nick from Gizmodo who i met briefly.  Once we convinced the driver that there was really 4 people to be taken from the airport not 3, Kayne, Shaun, Nick and myself all piled into Merc. only just managing to get us and all of our luggage in (was a bit like playing tetris).

Swissotel

We arrived at Our destination, the Swissotel Berlin, (yes i had somewhere to sleep tonight :)... i was able to get my luggage up to the room with Kayne's and Shaun's, then went and hid in the corner reading brochures and looking touristy while the guys checked in.
Initially the concierge tried to book them into a room with a double bed (lol), then changed it to a room with 2 singles which happened to be on the top floor. = very nice

Window view, top floor of the Swissotel

Berlin was a few degrees colder than in London, and you could feel the onset of the European winter looming. Its is an amazing city, so much see and so much history, esp from the Cold War, and so many amazing buildings...

The first night Kayne and I went across the road for a few beers, and got our first Steins, and as you can see as big as Kayne's head. Unlike in Aus, you can drink a full stein and the beer still be cold at the end.
(mmm steins = 1 litre of beer.)
We soon turned to tequilas and quickly decided that we would call it a night.

The next day we went exploring, (i have found that when arriving in a country the first day is always spent finding your bearings and exploring your surrounding areas).

Kayne however was really exploring..everything.. >---------->
there where lots of photos taken, and a running theme i developed early on was taking pictures of Kayne taking pictures, because he always seemed to be taking pictures...

We decided on a walking tour where we had an excellent Scottish guide Kenny, (who has been living in Berlin for 12 years, and is an author who was getting Germany books, published in London wtf?)

- Berlin Walks -

Berlin Cathedral

Brandenburg Gate

Kenny was most informative,  and we got to see and learn about many famous sites and many historical buildings, including the Brandenburg Gate, The Berlin Wall, The Site of Hitlers Bunker, The Death Strip, Check Point Charlie and Holocaust Memorial

Site of Hitlers Bunker

More Photos

Shaun and I @ part of the Berlin Wall

Holocaust Memorial

Aldon Hotel

Another land mark we saw was the Aldon Hotel where Michael Jackson held the baby out the window, (youtube).

Part of Kayne and Shaun's winnings of the Sony Comp. was entry into the 50th IFA, a HUGE Consumer Electronics Trade Show. The event is held at the Messe Berlin, and the venue is absolutely huge. The day i went  i saw some interesting things, the most noticeable was defiantly the emerging  3D technologies.

The most memorable moment of the day however is going to the SCOOTER concert that was held that evening, it was a bit of a flash back, and was awesome!!, he was just like he sounded on his albums....we all danced up a storm that night, and got well inebriated. At one point Scooter broke down into the Bird is the Word, very memorable night!!

Kayne and Shaun went out after Scooter to the Watergate a club in the Bronx's of Berlin , i however retired to my 'mooch spot'** and passed out cold,

note: the Mooch Beard

**the mooch beard was coined during this week (i think by Shaun)...this term became widely used by Kayne and Shaun ever since its conception. i believe most photos of me in facebook now have two tags, one of me and one of my mooch beard - thanks Kayne

my Mooch Spot

We enjoyed a variety of different German cuisines, both traditional and non-traditional. Of note was the Pork Knuckle,  Crepes (with nutella), and the Currywurst (mmm currywurst especially goods)

kebab shop

the Kebabs - which where cheap and delicious, served on toasted Turkish bread. To the left is a picture of the kebab shop we frequented, the amount of meat they have cooking at one time is huge, more than double than what you would find in Aus.

Giant Tortellini

On our last night Kayne and I got amazing pasta - Giant Tortellini, stuffed with a creamy mushroom sauce, served with small Porcini mushrooms -Kayne and i got this on our last night- and it was absolutely amazing.

On the last day we went to the Berlin Tower this was built in East Germany during the cold war and at 368m tall was the second tallest building in Europe (at the time). For about 10 Euros we traveled to the viewing deck at 204m, which takes 40 seconds (and made my ears pop twice), where on a clear day you can see up to 42km. There is a bar up there where we enjoyed a Long Island Ice Tea :) This was a great way to see off Berlin.

Before closing this chapter i must make a mention of the amazing bombed out church that we could always see from where were staying -whether still in the hotel on the 10th floor, or just walking around our immediate area.
 
The night this church was bombed in the 2nd world war, over 60,000 people died, it has been left there a reminder of these people, and about how bad war is. The two buildings either side are the new church, the larger tower on the right of the photo is steeple and the smaller building on the left is the chapel. The walls of the church are made of a concrete honeycomb containing 21,292 stained glass inlays, and looks amazing (from the indside)

A big thankyou to Kayne and Shaun for allowing me and my mooch beard to mooch it up for the week, and a thanks should go out to the swissotel for never questioning why i was always in there hotel and not technically staying there :) :)


Now on to Amsterdam (where i am writing this from), I needed to kill 10 days until I am to arrive in Munich for Oktoberfest, naturally Amsterdam was a good option. It is probably a little bit of an overkill here but i am not rushing into anything and have enjoyed taking my time. It has also given me the time to get my blog up to speed, and i am now almost there.