The Berlin Crawl (April 25th)

Jordan and I are cheap. So even though we had the option to stay exactly where we were another night, we decided to save a few Euro and head to a cheaper, much farther away hostel.

After getting lost and walking much farther than we need to (because we walked right past the damn hostel even making a comment about the sign out front that had the name of the hostel on it) we realized that we found it.

The Pantheon, Part II.

Once checked in to our empty and six person dorm we headed out on the town to learn about the history of Berlin through the delivery of Sandeman’s New Europe Free Tour.

The weather as usual (with it not being a travel day) was cold and windy and Jordan and I are dumb, so we didn’t have the proper warm clothing on. Lucky for us our tour guides Irish accent and history tid bits made us feel cozy.

Well, to be honest this tour wasn’t that great. It was more like our guide was reciting than story telling. But he was a nice guy (and not communist) and he was a fellow actor who for some reason moved to a German speaking country (which he doesn’t speak good German) to pursue an acting career.

I wonder if not speaking the language of the audience is like being a professional actor in the Iowa (lack of) market?

No matter how you deliver it, Berlin has some chilling history. From Hitler’s bunker to Check Point Charlie to the Death Strip, Berlin has a history unlike many other places in the world.

Once our overview of Berlin history was over it was time for Jordan and I to rest up for our big night on the town as we were to utilized Sandeman’s New Europe’s non-tour offering:

A PUB CRAWL!

Jordan and I are super cool people.

Added to that, Jordan and I are no doubt very out going but with this exception: When we are surrounded by ugly, non-cool people.

Alright, so that is mean, but it is interesting that it took a hand full of keg beers before we talked to any one (and they seemingly had gotten better looking). But the fun began once the alcohol was properly infused into our systems.

We met a ton of people on this pub crawl: A dude with his Russian femme fatale, two English dudes, a married Australian (he is the one with ring on his finger in the picture) making out with not his wife (same picture) and bunch of other people from all over the world who would take to long to write down (okay so I have a little bit of a memory fog).

We were drunk. The most drunk in all the trip.

At our 5^th and final stop of the pub crawl, Jordan and I decided to head home. So Jordan head off in front of me, just a few steps behind I was, then suddenly I am outside the Club and Jordan is NO where!

So I just start drunkenly yelling his name as if he were Lassie.

Nothing (except a few awkward looks from passersby).

So I got a hot dog from a vendor close by. I sat on the curb and ate my hot dog.

No Jordan.

About 15 minutes passes and one hot dog before the pub crawl leader sees me when he peeks over the fence that holds people in the club and keeps people out (oh Berlin, when will you learn).

He asks me a few questions, I answer and he tells me to get back in the club. I hope this is where Jordan is.

And just as I past the threshold of the door, I find Jordan staring intently, not in search for me, but in the line of an amazingly hot bar dancer in a pink bikini. I stare too.

Jordan takes a few pictures.

We laugh a bit about getting lost from each other and stumble our way to the train station stopping only to get a picture with our Pub Crawl leader who was still doing his best Wilson impression from Home Improvement.

Did I say were drunk? Because we were.

We withheld the urge to pass out on the train but soon gave in to the passing out need once our heads hit our pillows in our still empty six person dorm.

Ah.