okay, so after recording for three days straight. we all left for Berlin to celebrate new year's. paul, josh, and i bought what's called a "shönes wochenende" ticket. directly translated, it means "beautiful weekend." it's a ticket that allows up to five people travel anywhere in Germany for one day of the weekend. the catch is that one must take regional trains. slow trains in other words. it took us seven and a half hours and the trains were full. we stood for at least half of the journey.
but we arrived. tired. that evening was nothing special. just get ourselves settled at the place we were staying-the mennonite church in Berlin, and a drink at a bar. the next day, after getting a late start, we went on a free walking tour for the whole afternoon. i've never been on a tour of any city that i've visited. but i don't think that there could be one that would top this one. i'll just say that it ended in a 20 minute dramatic retelling of how the Berlin Wall came down.
after a little comfort food (Subway) four of us, heather, heidi, josh, and myself went on a pubcrawl with the same company that puts on the walking tour. four bars ending at a club. late night. lots of fun. the next day, new year's eve, some sight seeing after another late start, dinner back at the mennonite church and then to the Brandenburg Gate for celebrating. but, we didn't make it to the Brandenburg Gate really. we got sidetracked when we out from the underground. there were people everywhere. and these people everywhere were shooting fireworks off in every direction. apparently Germany outlaws fireworks for the entire year except for new year's, so as you can imagine, on this day, this city goes mad for burning chemicals that flame in all the colours of the rainbow on new year's. paul had bought some earlier that day, but we had fired these off in a park not to far from where we were staying. had we known, i'm sure we would have held off.
but even though the city was in complete chaos, we soldiered on. which is to say, we kept walking down the street amazed what was going on around us. we ended up only going as a far as this statue called Siegesäule. it's a woman looking to Paris to ward off Napoleon or something like that. this statue was behind the actual celebration, but people were celebrating there nevertheless. we just watched the fireworks-and ambulances-and tried to find some fireworks for ourselves. by far the best way i have ever celebrated new years. as we walked back late that night, the streets were covered in trash, most of being broken glass from champagne bottles. if this ever happened to a city in Canada. the government officials would be on the television in short order shaking fingers and yelling, "FOR SHAME!" plus they'd find a scape goat to arrest and spin it as some social protest by people who ride bikes. but, it will likely never happen. unless maybe if city governments in Canada outlawed fireworks except for one day of the year. i wouldn't mind.
i travelled back on the second. i took slow trains again. the cheapest way i could find. only it took ten hours this time. one of my connections didn't show up. i had to take a bus to another train station to take a train to another train station that would take me to the train station i needed to be at to make my last connection. i wouldn't have minded if i knew that it was a publicly owned company, the Deutsche Bahn that is, but now that it has been privatized and fares keep going up and up, it pissed me right off. 10 hours to travel 400km is a load of bull shit.
now here i am, safe and sound. and a little bored. an exciting last two weeks it's been and to go back to the humdrum has taken it's toll on my mental health. the last four days i've sat mixing the recordings and i've noticed that if i have nothing to get up for in the morning that is absolutely needs to be done, i can sit there and not actually do a whole lot. too much time to think is not always helpful. so in a way, i'm actually looking forward to going back to work tomorrow.
and that's all for now. except, if any of who know anything about travelling within the Balkan states, any tips, advice, or anything like that would be appreciated.
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