Eine Reise nach Berlin

This is the commentary that I kept on my trip to Berlin. Regular text is what I wrote at the time. Italics are added later.

7:05 Hit snooze button for the second time, got some breakfast

8:17 Left dorm. Walked to Banhoff (train station)

8:58 I’m on the correct train. It took about 35 minutes to walk there. It takes less than 10 minutes to Bike there. On the way there were signs advertising a “BoS” “Black on Sunday” party at the local disko

9:07 And we’re off. Göttingen is the first/last stop on this line so everyone got off the train. This included some football fans that started chanting as soon as they got off.

For whatever reason the train feels like a rainforest. I’m sweating bullets. I’m listening to a podcast of PTI. Technology is a little out of control.

(the view from my seat on the first train)

9:43 I successfully switched trains at Kreiensen. This one is much smaller, only 2 cars. I Saw more soccer fans. Werden Bremen must be playing somewhere today. Also it turns out what I thought was my receipt is actually my ticket. And what I thought was my ticket is just a plan for what trains I should take. I used my student ID for the first train (Goettingen Students can travel for free within the Lower Saxony) but now I know the drill

10:24 2^nd train switch. Apparently there is a game between Wolfsburg and Bayern München. The train is full of FC Bayern fans. I’m sitting with 3 old ladies who are very clearly not going to the game.

Everyone is drinking beer. (including this guy with the mini-keg)

I’m dubbing it train-gating. One of the 3 guys across the isle from me just pulled out a 2’ long pepperoni, cut a piece off and is eating it with bread. Another one of the guys is wearing a bottle opener as a necklace.

11:13 3^rd train switch

The 3 women I was sitting with apparently didn’t know each other. They brought me into the conversation by asking if I knew why young people dye their hair green and blue and put it up in spikes. I then had a relatively normal conversation with them. When I said that I was from Connecticut and they didn’t know where that was I said it was near New York. The woman who was from Brazil immediately asked me where I was on 9/11.

My last transfer was in Wolfsburg so this train is packed with Bayern fans going to see the game. The Braunschweig haubtbahoff had a lot of them in it. They were singing songs and drinking… a lot. (that's them)

11:35 A final note about the Brauschweig Hbf. They had pay toilets. It cost .50E to pee. And there was an attendant in there. It was unclear what he was doing, but he was standing in there.

11:59 Train switch #4

This train is supposed to have reservations, but I don’t have one. But I hope they’ll let me stay here. They not only let me stay there, I wasn’t asked for my ticket.

I managed to sit in a s

moking car. It doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, but it’s not great.

2:01 The rest of the train ride was uneventful. They never checked my ticket. They came by, but I guess it looked like I had been there for a while.

I got off the train at the Berlin Hbf. Which is huge. It’s like Grand Central except new.

I got on the correct S-Bahn and successfully got to Alexanderplatz.

This is the S-Bahn Platform

From there I was supposed to get on the U2 and go towards Pankow. But I went the other way. So now I’m waiting for the U-Bahn to come back and I will hopefully make it to my stop.

I did and here's a picture of me on the U-Bahn