I was feeling a mix of pure awesomeness and misery.
I returned to Berlin on Thursday evening, dropped off in Potsdam, where I took the S-Bahn into the city. It was damp but warm, not exactly pleasant.
Saskia was in town, so we had to meet up! She was out with Stephanie at our Thursday evening spot, Supanova. There was Jojo also. We caught up and chatted amongst the couchsurfing crowd. I was also looking forward to meeting up with Topi, Aaro, and their friends from Finland who were in Berlin for a few days too. I told them to meet us, and they did just as we were walking back to the S-Bahn station.
We circled around on the S-Bahn toward the Ostkreuz, where the train stopped for the night. We had to walk to Warschauer Straße, where we did karaoke for the evening while gulping down beers. It was cramped and uncomfortably hot inside, but fun nonetheless. The girls said bye and I ended up having more Jäger or something back at the Finnish guys' place (which was right by Görlitzer Bahnhof in Kreuzberg by the way). It was half past 6 when I returned home. The early morning commuters were already out as I stumbled home.
It was Friday, and sleeping through the rest of the morning, I awoke in the early afternoon with a strong craving for pho. So I arranged to meet up with Saskia at Alexanderplatz. We then walked to a Vietnamese restaurant that looked good online. The food was good, and really hit the spot, as we sat outside and enjoyed the lack of rain.
There was the Berlin beer festival going on, so we headed over to that to check it out. It stretched on for about a mile, and it was full of many different types of beer and stereotypically German foods (wurst).
We had a nice large beer, though in retrospect, I should have gotten a small glass and tried the many different kinds of beer available. Who cares? The drunk middle-aged Germans dancing in the street certainly didn't.
We met Felix as he got off work, I parted ways with Saskia and headed home. We then got ready for our Friday night out. "Gotta get down on Friday." So it was off to Kreuzberg again!
Felix and I met Topi and the gang at a döner place. Chris (the German) was already passing out from exhaustion so he headed home. Saskia joined us too. Milchbar and then Trinkteufel (as had been recommended to me in Sweden). The atmosphere was very grungy and underground, but in a way that was both very authentic but very safe. The people there had nothing to prove, they just were who they were and only asked that you be the same.
Felix left us after that, and we all then went over to the once-legendary techno club Tresor. It was already maybe 1 or 2am, but the party was still starting. There were 3 different levels to the club, but the music was intense.
Drinks weren't so expensive (for being a nightclub)... but then again, this is Berlin. Saskia stayed around for a while, but soon left. But, the night did not end there. No, it did not at all. Suffice it to say that I was not the only one so fucked up. But the music simply was too good.
It was truly a night to remember, it was easy to stay there all night. And so I did, all night and into the morning. But it wasn't as bad as you might imagine: We were enjoying ourselves, sure, but also making sure to stay well-hydrated, etc. We sat around in a small park around 8am trying to calm down. I can only speculate on what the other guys were feeling at this point. I was still feeling the euphoria from the night. I didn't return to Felix's. I stayed at the Finnish apartment and just tried to sleep for a few hours.
The morning would turn into a day of groans and an incredible hangover. Tired, instead my mind raced and I was feeling a mix of pure awesomeness and misery.
In the mid-afternoon, we all stumbled out into the day. The weather was the nicest it had ever been in Berlin this summer: Warm and brilliantly sunny. Unfortunately none of us could really enjoy it. We had a brunch at a canal-side cafe.
I swore that I would just detox for the rest of the day. But, haha! That just means I'll do it all over again. And I did. After finally getting some rest at Felix's, I went out again, and although I was assured it would be a quieter night, I should have known better. We went out again into the night. But before we had left, I turned down having shots and beers, instead I'd just have the rest of the space cake I still had with me from Amsterdam.
Somehow along the way we decided to go to the Ostbahnhof to withdraw some cash; there were a few very drunk German guys at the Geldautomat who couldn't even get it to work. One of them pretended to fight us. I found it funny; Topi was slightly freaked out. We then went to another cash machine through the Bahnhof. After what seemed like a long time, we returned to YAAM, the reggae club, and entered.
I made a pretty rookie mistake of underestimating how long it'd take for the cake's effects to hit, and the strength of anything from Amsterdam. So it was a few hours later, at YAAM, that I declared, "I'm not feeling too good" just before keeling over into a flower pot and upchucking the contents of my stomach. I then zombied around to reggae music for the rest of the night, trying to fight the feeling that everyone was looking at me.
Yet, somehow, we were responsible enough to get ourselves back to their apartment at a decent hour (and by that I mean before the sun came up).
Steph and Saskia were in Poland for some big free music festival. They were gone for just one night and would return on Sunday.
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