Cairo -- No Pyramids...Yet

The next day, I met Ashraf -- the brother of owner of the apartment (the owner lived in Saudi Arabia).  We discussed what I wanted to do for my time in Giza, and he suggested that we start by hitting up a supermarket and restaurant.  I didn't have anything better to do, so I went along.  After the supermarket (I got some delicious random Egyptian cookies, cheeses, and bread) he dropped me off at what he claimed was the best restaurant in Giza.  He introduced me to my waiter and told the waiter to take care of me. 

I talked with the waiter and he suggested that I try the kabobs -- their signature dish.  Before entering the dining area, I was told to pick out three types of meat that I wanted in the kabobs -- there were four types of meats from which to choose.  I made my selection (I skipped the lamb because I assumed that I'd have a ton of it in Athens) and entered the dining area.  It was a fairly impressive looking place.

 
Muslim prayer chants played over the speakers, and the televisions played a loop of a prayer service.  Initially, I was the only table there, but that changed after I arrived -- there was one table with four women, and another with two men and a woman.  That table fascinated me because only one guy would order for the entire table, and each time food or drink was to be delivered to the table, the waiter paused and waited for the man to wave him over.  Very strange.   

The first dish for me was a delicious lemon broth based soup.  I took my time eating it, and savored every bite -- ah, very nice.  Then, to my surprise, the dishes just kept coming.  Next up was some bread, followed by eggplant, followed by some veggies, followed by humus, followed by another soup, followed by my actual main dish.  There was so much food, I was taking over the place setting across from me.  Holy crap!!

Everything was absolutely excellent.  This was the best food I had had since Thailand.  Truly spectacular!  By the time I finished (yes -- I ate everything!), I was bursting at the seams.  Of course, no meal would be complete without dessert.  I thought I was going to throw-up, but I didn't want to offend them by not finishing it, so I persevered. 

The bill came to a whopping $15, and I headed out after graciously thanking my waiter.  Ashraf then took me over to perfume shop where I shared amazing hot tea (the secret is in the number of sugars added to the tea -- I kept my tame with only one; some guys added 10+) with several of Ashraf's friends.  We talked for an hour or so before heading out to the Nile for a night cruise. 

Ashraf sent me off with a guy he called "The Turtle."  An unbelievably apt description. indeed.  Seriously, I don't think I've ever seen someone move so slowly.  The guy was probably 51 or so, but my god, it was like he was in slow motion (perhaps he had been to Amsterdam one too many times??).  We made it to the Nile and hobbled out of the car to talk to someone about getting a cruise for me.  About 10 minutes passed, and finally things were organized. 

I hopped aboard a sailboat (it was now about 9pm) and we departed -- just the sailor and me (hmm -- that sounded like the name of a gay porno...nope; nothing like that happened).  The sites were pretty cool -- Cairo danced on one side of the Nile, while Giza played on the other.  The two cities were dramatically different; tons of buildings and lights filled the sky on the Cairo side while the Giza side was far less dramatic and Muslim prayers poured from randomly placed speakers. 

As an aside -- in this neck of the world, visitors gotta be prepared for the random loudspeaker piping prayer services.  These speakers were everywhere, and, played eerily muffled and distorted voices.  For the mentally insane, I'm sure these voices drove them further down the rabbit hole. 

Anyway...The cruise down the Nile was calming.  We basically drifted down the river for an hour or so and cruised back and forth across it.  A couple of times the boat dipped enough that I was able to skim my hand through the water -- it was just a surreal feeling to be cruising down the freakin' Nile River! 

 
Once we got back to the shore, The Turtle and I headed back towards Giza.  We stopped on the bridge over the Nile and he motioned that this would be a good photo op location (his English was really bad).  Seven painful minutes later, he had finally exited the vehicle.  I pointed at the place to touch on the phone in order to take a picture, and, after 3-4 false starts, he was able to snap a picture that cut off my head.  Ugh! 

After about 6 attempts, he finally was able to take this shot.  I was sick of waiting for him, so I said that this was good enough and we went back to the apartment.

Next post -- finally...The Pyramids!

Cairo -- First Impressions

I exited the plane around 8pm and headed to a new experience -- I had yet to see signs in Arabic.  I made my way to passport control and stood before the 53 year old mustached customs agent.  He shook his head behind the bulletproof glass enclosure in which he sat, and after reviewing my passport, he said, "Marc, do you have your VISA?"  I told him that I didn't (d'oh -- where was I supposed to get it??).  He pointed to another counter and told me to go get it and return to his line.

I paid my $15 USD and made my way back to his line.  He allowed me to step in front of everyone else, and with a grin, he said, "Thank you, Marc," stamped my passport and wished me a good trip. 

I start with this story because this typifies the people I encountered in Egypt.  Everyone I came across was ridiculously friendly.  I mean, it was to the point, that it was almost creepy.  I kept thinking that the people were trying to butter me up in order to swindle me (how I despise that I think that way now -- thanks, Bangkok ;p).

My "taxi" -- a van with curtains drawn in the backseat -- sped through Cairo towards Giza.  I've never been to the Middle East (I know, I know, Egypt is technically not the Middle East), but it was definitely surreal being an American and seeing images that looked exactly like Iran, Iraq, or Afghanistan. 

First off, the traffic was a disaster -- this was far worse than Bangkok or even Saigon.  There were lanes on the highways, but most lane marker were faded and not maintained -- for good reason.  No one used them.  Essentially, if there was space on a road, each vehicle went for it.  In fact, it didn't even matter if you were going the same direction as the cars!  It was completely insane!  Horns blared and the driver flashed his lights constantly.  Making thins worse, we flew along at about 65mph, and then would have to slam on the brakes because a camel would be galloping along on the freakin' highway!!  Driving here definitely wasn't for the meek. 

We exited the major highway and drove down side streets which exposed me to more camels, horse drawn "carriages" (these were really just flat pieces of wood on wheels with 2-4 passengers being pulled by a horse), and donkeys.

I did fear for my life at one point.  Once we exited the main highway, the streets were filled with people.  The driver had been pointing out landmarks (there are some really cool mosques), so I pulled back the van's curtains.  Well, we stopped at one point with 200-300 people in the middle of the street.  All of them peered in the van, and it sent chills down my spine as I realized that I was the only cracker in the area, and I had no idea where I was or what this group was doing.  The people clamored to see inside the van.  The van nudged through the crowd, and within 3 minutes, we were on our way again.  Weird...

We made it to Giza and the driver casually said -- "There Spinx," and, well, yes -- there it was (along with the main pyramids), on the other side of a fence.  Crazy!

We drove another 200 yards or so and pulled up to the apartment.  By this point, we were in the middle of a really crappy neighborhood.  The streets had quit being paved miles back, and random dogs, cats, camels, horses, goats, chickens, etc. lined the streets.  There were absolutely no tourists anywhere, and no touristy restaurants -- we definitely ain't in Kansas anymore. 

I grabbed my backpack and was greeted by a really friendly Egyptian who escorted me to the apartment.  He opened the steel entry door, I walked inside, and met this...

Yep -- that's a crazy Rottweiler behind a cage.  It kept moving and barking, so I couldn't get a decent pic, but I think this pic is awesome anyway (especially the eyes).

I was led upstairs, and was immediately impressed with the place.  I was staying in a large, probably 1,500 sq. ft. or so, two bedroom apartment. 

It was around 11pm, I was exhausted from not sleeping the night before and decided to pass out.            

Final Night in Berlin -- Berghain

Christian and I shared a last drink at a cool, small bar that had a distinctive and unique flair. Of course, I'd love to be able to show you a pic, but alas, this bar didn't allow pics, either (I speculated that there must be some sort of seedy shit happening in these places -- why else would they refuse pictures?). While we were talking, Christian mentioned that he had to get up early on Sunday to finish up his work project.  Ugh -- the mere thought of working weekends made me cringe. Seriously, I have no idea how I'm going to re-adjust to the "normal," make me want to stick hot coals in my ears while stabbing myself in the neck with sharpened chopsticks, work life.

Since he had to get up early, Christian planned to call it quits early. After our drinks and a quick schnapps shot (this is funny later in Athens -- but Christian was a schnapps fiend -- I talked to a bartender in Athens who was complaining about the Germans and their love of schnapps. "They always order f$cking schnapps!" he bemoaned. "They never specify which flavor -- do you know how many different types of schnapps there are! I'm sick of it!!" Ha!), we headed back to my hotel so I could turn in my sweet ride. Parting ways with the bike was immensely depressing. I rang the bell one last time and wiped a tear from my right eye. Depressing indeed ;p

As another aside -- I know everyone out there is considering purchasing a bike with a basket. Be careful with that decision -- every time I parked the damn thing, I would return later to find a basket full of garbage.  Good times.

Ok, with the bike given back to the hotel, it was sad saying farewell to Christian. In a short time, I felt like I made a pretty good friend, and I know that his presence completely altered my time in Sydney and Berlin in a very positive way. His last words of advice were that I must go to what he claimed was the best the techno club in the world. I had to catch my flight to London (to get to Cairo) early -- I was flying out around 7am, and figured that I needed to be at the airport around 5am (I did forget about the Eurozone -- if you travel within the zone, not only don't you get your passport stamped -- boo! -- but the travel is treated like domestic travel, so you don't need to allocate 2hrs for "international" travel, but I digress). So, if I hit the club, I probably wouldn't be sleeping that night.

He continued to build it up, and said that it was something I couldn't miss in Berlin. He told me that he and his friends usually go there around 8am on Sunday morning, eat breakfast there, and then stay until 5pm. These hours were completely ridiculous to me. Ha! He told me that on Saturday nights, it's one of the hardest clubs in Berlin to get into, so he was also curious to see if I could gain access. At this point, it was around 11pm.

After we said goodbye, I debated the lack of sleep I was facing, and the challenge of entering the club, but I figured I had to go for it.  I took a quick shower and caught a cab. Once I arrived at the location around midnight, I was greeted by a singular warehouse / factory in the middle of nowhere. It was pitch black outside and a line, about 60 people deep stood waiting to enter.

It took me a minute, but after gaining my bearings, I noticed that the door man was, in fact, turning away about 80% of the people (that figure comes from counting 20 people in front of me and seeing how many got in). Unlike other places that I've seen, the doorman didn't care if the entrants were male or female -- he dissed both equally as often. I sensed no real pattern to his decisions. In each case, the potential entrant was required to step from the darkness of the crowd, stood alone as a light shone directly on the wistful soul, and waited while the main doorman looked the potential entrant up and down. Sometimes the main doorman discussed the decision with the secondary door guys; sometimes he said nothing at all; sometimes he immediately eliminated the candidates. He usually didn't verbalize his decisions; instead, with a flick of his wrist he either pointed to the entrance (not often) or to the exiting side.

When granted access, the entrant typically smiled and walked in. On the flip side, those who were denied access, put their heads down like a dog who had just peed on the carpet and was waiting to be spanked with a rolled-up newspaper, and slinked off into the looming darkness. In one instance, one guy who was rejected (as was his girlfriend), approached the doorman and asked him "What the f$ck?!" in broken English. Immediately, 3 guys swarmed him and "escorted" him into the darkness. Honestly, watching this was amusing, but knowing that I was about to be subjected to it made it a bit daunting at the same time.

I stepped towards the front of the line and watched the two guys in front of me get rejected. Now, it's my turn. I took 8 steps forward and felt the light claw at me. I stood about 6 yards from the doorman. My eyes peered at him -- before me stood a guy roughly 5'10", wearing military boots, black jeans, a  black shirt and a black leather vest. He had long, flowing silver hair; hundreds of tattoos and three lip piercings as well other assorted eyebrow and ear piercings. He looked back at me and I caught his gaze peering me up and down. He smiled (which he usually did with everyone), and turned his gaze from me for a few painful seconds. Tick.tick.tick. I stood my ground confidently, ignored the light on me, and casually looked at the other the doormen. No one said a word to me. More seconds ticked. Finally, the main doorman flicked his wrist and....



...pointed to the entrance. I didn't crack a smile, but I floated into the club.

Inside was the largest club I've ever seen. The place was massive and due to the door policy was somewhat empty (initially), but everyone I came across was very attractive and ran the gamut from super emo to gay to "normal." The main dance floor looked like (and to be the size of) an airport hanger, and was lined with speakers and crazy blue lights. Industrial and really hard techno boomed from the speakers.  Welcome to Berghain.

Flanking each side of the main dancefloor were several nooks where bars and smoking rooms lied. I seriously got lost for the first hour or so. I found a secondary bar area and had several drinks while enjoying the overall vibe. The bartenders were actually really friendly and attentive -- I had no problem getting a new drink as soon as my current one was low. As the night wore on, the club progressively got more crowded until I estimated that there were 1-2k people. It was insane. I spent some time watching the happenings from a staircase that was suspended over the dance floor (very cool) and met several random people. More time passed, and I could no longer resist the dancefloor, which was now completely packed. 

Unfortunately, time moved really fast at this place, and pretty soon it was 4am, and I was facing the daunting task of heading back to the hotel, grabbing my bag, and getting to the airport. I didn't want to, but I left the club (and was greeted with a HUGE line outside -- it was at least 4 times what I encountered when I first arrived -- and this was at 4am ;p), found a cab, and headed off towards the airport.

Goodbye, Berlin :( There's no doubt in my mind that I will see you again :)

Berlin...by Bike??

That ~ hour and a half of sleep was the best of my life ;p

Thus far, not using a phone really hadn't presented any major problems.  On this day, though, it would've been nice.  Christian and I skyped for a bit and he said that he was knocking out some additional work and wouldn't be available until 2pm.  He suggested that I rent a bike as that would be the best way to see Berlin quickly.  I thought about going back to sleep, but I knew that if I did, I wouldn't get back up for several hours, so instead, I did more wandering (including purchasing some cool stuff) and rented this sweet ride from my hotel.

Oh yeah, that's right...Not only was this bike bright orange, but it also featured a front basket, a bell, and count 'em -- three bicycle locks -- clearly this hot rod was a prime theft target!  It's best if you read the next few passages while listening to this.

I met Christian, and after he finished laughing at my bike, we were off.  We started by heading down this main street in East Berlin. 

As we rode down this street, we stopped at an intersection.  To our right, a girl stood holding a box and wearing a crown.  She was accompanied by a couple of friends.  She came up to us and apparently asked us for money (she only spoke in German).  She also held a homemade wheel made from a plastic plate.  I looked closer and saw that there was a spinning needle affixed to the middle of the plate.  I turned to Christian and he said that this was a bachelorette party, and that the girl was raising money for her wedding. 

There were two options for donating money -- one was to pay one Euro and take a piece of candy from the box she was holding.  The second was to pay two Euros and spin the wheel.  With Christian egging me on, and figuring that this was some sort of German tradition, I gave her two Euros.  She smiled and presented the plate to me.  I spun the plate and the needled pointed to "MUND."  Her smile grew really big, Christian laughed and said, "No way!" and she asked me if I was sure.  I didn't really know what the hell was happening, but I laughed, nodded, and a few seconds later, I realized what was going on. 

So, as it turns out, the two Euros option was for a kiss from her.  The spinning wheel plate thingy was divided into several different sections corresponding to where she would kiss -- there was one for the hand, cheek, wrist, and MUND -- mouth.  Yet again, the delicious randomness -- on a random day in April, I stood in the middle of Berlin, kissing a random, soon-to-be-married girl while a friend I met a month earlier in Sydney cheered me on.  WTF??!!

[Another satisfied customer.  Note how Christian (the far right) opted for the candy.  hehe!]      

As we rode off, I asked Christian if that was a common German tradition.  He laughed, and said, "Hell no!  I've never seen that before!"  Ha!

We continued to a bridge where I was able to catch some nice pics of the city.  The river in this pic is the river which divided East from West Berlin (Spree River, maybe?).

We then made our way to the Berlin Wall.  Contrary to what I thought, large tracts of the wall are still intact.  Famously (though, again, I didn't know this), the wall has been adorned with art.  Some of the artwork was really amazing. 

Around this point, Christian told me some crazy stories of growing up in East Berlin (he was a year older than me -- 35) and how schools and grocery stores were crappy and falling apart.  He said that once the wall came down, almost overnight, he could see the money starting to flow into the East.  He was thrilled with the idea of a unified Germany, though he said some really old, old school types, still wished East Berlin and East Germany existed. 

Of course, the path to the other side of the wall was no longer blocked by guards willing to shoot and kill those trying to escape (not only would they have had to get over the wall, they'd have to swim the river, too).  Instead, on the other side, a quiet park stood.  Very surreal.

We continued our trip to Christian's tennis club where a tournament took place.  It was a nice, relaxing event (we had a couple of beers), and I played fetch with an uber hyper dog while watching the laid back matches. 

We then made our way to the west side -- Kreuzberg.  This was the first and only "touristy" place that I experienced in Berlin.  Not surprisingly, since it was on the west, it felt significantly more developed and cosmopolitan than further east.  We rode around a bit, including going through a park where tons of anarchists relaxed, before we stopped at a cafe for a drink.

 
From there, it was off to another bar in the neighborhood.  As it turned out, this bar was next to the club where I had been the previous night.  Ha!  The area looked quite a bit different in the daytime.  hehe

[Yes, that's a car made of grass or moss or something.  Weird.  Following this street to the right and behind another couple of buildings, will bring you to the club's entrance.]

By this point, our stomachs growled at us, so we headed to an amazing German food restaurant.  When we arrived, there was a wait, which seemed to perplex the hostess -- it was as if she had no idea how to deal with the situation where all the tables were full (we were the first and only people on the wait list).  After waiting a few minutes, we were seated and Christian convinced me to order this plate, which upon first glace looked fairly disgusting to me, but turned out to be one of the most delicious meals I ate on the trip -- vegans beware!

Next up was Checkpoint Charlie -- one of the only "legal" ways to pass through East and West Berlin during the Cold War.  I found it interesting that the signs indicated when the traveler was moving from the "American" side to the other side. 

We continued past Checkpoint Charlie and headed towards one of the main symbols of the reunification, the Brandenburg Gate.  Along the way, I took some pics of things I found interesting. 

It's hard to see in the dark, but this is the Jewish monument. It was a cool place -- in the foreground, there was a labyrinth of stone blocks. At first blush, it looked like the blocks were aligned at the same height, but upon closer inspection, the blocks are of varying height and sizes. It was crazy. Apparently, this was somewhat controversial at the time because it was designed by an American.

Here's the gate -- it was spectacular.  Unfortunately, there was a lot of construction in the area.  Boo.

Nearby, other cool buildings like the Parliament building stood.  My phone's camera struggles a little in the dark, so some of these aren't the greatest. 

And...Finally, here's the German equivalent of the White House.  I gotta say, I dig the modern architecture a lot more than what is used for the White House.  This place was really, really amazing to me.  Umm, yes, I would like to live here, please.

We finished the tour by going to a bar for a last drink together.  More about that in the next post...

One Night in Berlin

Christian let me know that he was running late and suggested that I go ahead and grab something to eat -- so I did; I was staying in Rosenthaler Platz and there were tons of food options in the area.

After eating, I met him at a train station located in the middle of a bustling square, Hackescher Market. Things were just as cool as with us as they were in Sydney -- it was like we had known each other for years. I was hoping to meet his girlfriend that night (they'd been dating for 10 years & lived together), but she was out with the girls. No biggie -- he mentioned that one of his friends was having a birthday party and he'd like to meet up with his friend for at least a little bit.

We walked a few blocks and caught a tram to another part of the city. Christian felt the need to get his friend a last-minute gift, so (in typical guy fashion), we stopped at a convenience store located a few yards from the destination bar. His "gift" turned out to be some random, off-brand bottle of vodka. He shook his head as he bought it, and described how embarrassing this was for him.

We made our way to the bar, which was a very relaxed, and smallish place that felt more like a coffee shop / wine bar than anything else, and I met the gang.  There were 12 people including the birthday boy -- an interesting guy named Chris, a furniture designer.  Quick aside -- far and away, the Germans speak the best English of anyone that I've encountered in Europe (that includes the Brits) -- so hanging with a group of Germans was no problem.

Much to Christian's dismay, Chris's other friends brought "real" gifts, so Christian's vodka bottle looked a little sad. Most of the people were from East Berlin (including Christian -- which I didn't know until that point), but one of the West Berliners, after seeing Christian's sad bottle, made a joke about East Berliners, which had everyone laughing. Ha!

Similar to what I've experienced in other places, the group instantly embraced me, and wanted to learn as much about me and the States as possible. In some respects, I felt sort of like an animal from a zoo -- they were initially very curious about me as they verbally poked and prodded me. Eventually, we were all joking and having a good time. Shots appeared and instantly disappeared; more drinks were downed; and then, sometime around 3am-ish, most of the people decide to leave. Christian and I agreed to meet around noon the next day to do a tour of Berlin.

In the States, that would be the end of the story...

Not here ;)

While everyone was preparing to leave, this guy (I can't remember his name, it started with a "W" and was something similar to "Woden" but that wasn't quite it) and I talked about going out. "Woden" mentioned that one of his friends was to play a DJ set at a club at 4am, and I decided to join. Prior to hitting the club, Woden wanted to make a pit stop at Alexanderplatz in order to grab a couple of party favors. Oddly enough, we stood out in the open in the middle of a giant square, while Woden and his contact conducted their business. The square was brightly lit -- in stark contrast to the pitch black sky.

We grabbed another cab and arrived at the area with the club. The scene was surreal -- we were in the midst of several old factories. The area looked somewhat like the broken down warehouse area in the final scenes of Robocop. The club was hidden behind several factories and a barbed-wire fence, and had a really non-descript entrance. To me, this seemed like the prototypical German experience -- everything had a very "industrial" feel to it. We paid a nomial entrance fee and entered a crazy underground techno club.

For some reason, the vast majority of bars in Berlin don't allow pictures (even the fairly small ones), so you'll just have to imagine the scene. The club was completely dark with the exception of throbbing red lights. Exposed brick and pipes lined the two story building.  The music exploded throughout the entire place.  There was one dance floor that looked to be cut into the side of stone wall. This room was dramatically darker; illuminated by the DJ table that was tucked away in a corner, and a few random colored lights sprinkled additional light into the room. Around 100 people were on the dance floor, but I'd guess that another 200 could've fit on the floor (and did a few hours later).

Upstairs, the second floor used exclusively see-through steel walkways, which added to the industrial feel. In one area, several old steel mechanical generators lined the middle of the room. The generators had been modified to allow for cubbie holes where a couple could chill.

As Woden was showing me around (there were about 200 people in the place initially), I felt a hand grab my left cheek (butt; not face).  After the grab, a guy and a girl passed by me.  I yelled out to them and the girl turned, shook her head and pointed to the guy standing next to her.  I approached the girl, a 5'2" blonde haired Italian wearing a short skirt, tights, and black rimmed glasses nearly the size of her entire head. She immediately started laughing and said that she didn't do it -- it was her boyfriend. I turned to the guy, a crazy skinny 6'1" blonde haired Brit with half his head shaved and the other half almost in a pompadour poof, and he smiled and introduced himself to me.

Woden joined the conversation, and strangely enough we were all friends within a few minutes. As a group, we took turns hitting the dance floor and then hanging out and talking.  When we talked as a group, it was essentially Woden talking to the Brit guy and the girl and I talking -- it was comical; she basically blew off her guy to hang with me. She was fairly interesting, and the topics ran the gamut of politics to music.  On the other hand, her guy was a total English douchebag. Luckily, he seemed to get along really well with Woden, so I didn't have to deal with him much.

Woden's friends played their set (honestly, it wasn't that good, and thankfully they only played about 30 minutes, thereby making room for a much better DJ), we danced, and enjoyed the night. This turned out to be an amazingly fun club. As time passed, more and more people showed up.

After several hours, the couple talked about leaving. While they were getting their jackets, Woden had momentarily disappeared and the Brit, I guess in some sort of misplaced anger, started really ragging on me. He said he didn't particularly like Americans, and, with my hair style, I was obviously trying to look like Nick Cave. I told him I had no idea who that was (and still didn't until days later when I finally did an Internet search), and he refused to believe me. He was getting more and more belligerent, and his girl repeatedly apologized for him and kept telling him to shut-up.

Finally, he relented and the girl invited me to come back to their place. She told me that her guy wouldn't give me any more crap and then she mentioned something about sex. The whole thing was getting too strange, even for my standards, so I bid them farewell, hunted down Woden and told him that I was leaving.

I exited the club, having no idea where I was, and was instantly slapped by bright, glowing sunlight. I checked my watch -- 8:32am. Luckily, I found an area with a cab, and was back in bed sometime around 9:30am.

Nothing like waking up an hour and a half later to get ready to meet Christian...hehe.

Berlin -- I Heart You

To preface the Berlin tales, I think it's worth mentioning my history with the Berlin Wall.  When I was a kid, like a lot of other kids, I was absolutely fascinated with the Cold War and watching the demise of communism playing out on the tele.  In my school career, I was only ever proud of one school project that I did (most of "my" projects were done by my parents -- Thanks Mom and Dad!!) -- a Berlin Wall project that I did in what?? Middle school, maybe?  The project included a clay Berlin Wall that snaked around a map of the divided city. 

Also, in those days, one of my prized possessions was a "piece" of the Berlin Wall that my parents gave me right after the wall's collapse.

All this is to say that once Christian offered to have me join him in Berlin for a few days, though it wasn't on my original itinerary, I jumped at the chance.  Unfortunately, I only had two nights and three days to hang before heading to Cairo, so I was determined to make the absolute most of it. 

I grabbed an EasyJet flight from Amsterdam to Berlin and was on my way...

My first thoughts of Berlin were mixed.  The train from the airport to "downtown" (Berlin is HUGE and has several neighborhoods, so I'm not sure I was really in the "downtown" area though I was staying in the middle of the city) exposed me to some crappy parts of city.  Unlike any other city in Europe that I had experienced thus far, graffiti adorned nearly every building; electrical box; or anything else that was stationary and had space to be tagged. 

However, the more I delved into the city, I realized that nestled within this "crappy" feel, a sense that the place was evolving was ridiculously apparent everywhere -- after-all, it's "only been" what? a little over 20 years since the wall came down??  So, where one block looked like crap, the next housed some sort of high end retail establishment or snazzy development.  The best way I can describe it is that it was like East Austin without the hipsters (everyone in Berlin dressed well -- even the anarchists) and significantly more history.  That's what I really liked about it -- at first blush, the city looked rough around the edges (even the weather was cold), but a style and sophistication lurked just under the surface.

                                  [I think we need to change, "TGIF" to "TFIF"!]

I arrived mid-day on Friday, and Christian was back at work for the first time since returning to Berlin from Sydney. He let me know that he had a pressing deadline, so we decided to meet up around 10pm.  Oh yeah -- screw that Vegas or NYC stuff; this is the city that never sleeps -- let's meet for dinner at 10pm and get the night started! ;p