This single blog entry for Germany will be in two separate visits, the first was Mannheim, Heidelberg, Berlin and Sachsenhausen Camp from April 20-27 and the second at Munich May 12-15
I was leaving Lyon, France and my wonderful host, Aurelien, to a new country - Deutschland! I wanted to be in Berlin on the 23rd, so I had three days to spend. I recalled a reply from a post I made on CouchSurfing from a guy named Dirk.
He was interested in meeting and hosting a Deaf person. Dirk was hearing and never met a Deaf person before, and he was curious to see how a Deaf American was able to travel across Europe on his own. I was more than happy to educate Dirk on that particular topic!
So I arrived at his hometown of Mannheim, Germany. Mannheim isn't a big town, but it isn't small too. At first sight, I felt that Mannheim was different because there were more modern buildings. Dirk explained that most of the area was destroyed in WWII, and had to be rebuilt. That made much sense now, and I could see the difference between the areas that was ravaged, and those that survived through the war.
The day was spent with Dirk showing me around his hometown. We saw the famous Water Tower, the fountain next to it and the typical plaza/churches. Walking around made us hungry, so I asked if there was any good German place to eat. The response I got was unexpected.
Dirk didn't really like to eat German food, even though he's from Germany! Usually he ate Asian food (He recently went on a trip to Asia) and other foreign food, but I was in the mood to try some of the famous German wursts, so I forced him to find a German place to eat, and he laughed at the typical American tourist wanting German Wursts. He was such a good sport and we eventually found a good place to eat, and man, the curryworst was delicious!
The next day, we took a day trip to nearby Heidelberg, which was well-known for its old town and castle. The town was lovely, and I enjoyed walking through it and going to the other side of the river up the hill to the Philosophenweg aka "Philosopher's Walk" because many of the city's professors, philosophers and such liked to stroll trough the path and it offered a great view of the city.
I also found two books from a public bookshelf, they were: "Me Talk Pretty One Day" by David Sedaris and "Then We Came To The End" by Joshua Ferris. Both good reads.
I thought the highlight of Heidelberg was the studentenkarzer (Student Jail) which was the coolest thing I saw on this trip! It was a prison for students of Heidelberg University if they got caught being drunk in the streets, knocking off a cop's hat or some kind of hooligan misdemeanor behavior. They were taken to the prison and remained there from 24 hours to 4 weeks depending on the incident.
For the first two days, the students are only able to have bread and water. What made this student jail special is that the students were able to have their friends visit them, and bring beer or food from outside. They were also able to move around freely in the jail visiting other fellow student prisoners after the third day. They were also required to go to class which was located at the same building as the prison was.
There were several rooms, and each had names like Solitude, Palais Royale and King's Throne. It was really cool looking through that, and history says that it was a honor and kind of an "informal requirement" to experience a stint of student prison once, so students who were close to graduation and who never went through prison would intentionally get themselves in trouble by insulting an uniformed cop!
That evening, Dirk took me to a CouchSurfing Gathering, and it was my first one so I did not know what to expect. It was a cool and calm time at a local restaurant, people met, chatted and had a good time. I came away with a thick stack of written conversations on paper.
The next day I said good-bye to Dirk and made my way on train to Berlin!
Upon my arrival, I met up with Antonia, another CS host. Antonia was hearing, but she could sign, so it was nice to use sign language again. When I met Antonia at the train station, she had a friend with her. It was Iris, who hosted me at Amsterdam! It was nice seeing her again, and we went out to dinner together at a delicious Sushi place with happy hour sushi prices!
The sushi place was near the Deaf Club in Berlin where there was a "Welcome Party"
A Welcome Party for what? Well, the main reason I went to Berlin was because of the Frontrunners 6 Turquoise Party where 500 Deaf people were coming from all over the world!
The welcome party was well... a welcome party where there only was 150 people. It was fun meeting a lot of new people and using International Sign. Good thing I had plenty of practice before the party. I was so fluent, people actually thought I was from Germany, Ireland, UK or even Denmark! They were shocked to see that I actually was an American :)
The party lasted until six in the morning, and I found my way back to bed, but I only had until noon, because there was a signing tour around Berlin with other Deaf visitors, so I didn't want to miss that.
The tour was cool, and I saw Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, Tacheles and learned some history of the city. It was delightful, but everyone's mind was on the big Turquoise party that evening! We got ready, the party was at 21:00, and ready to begin!
The party itself was not excellent, I must admit. The only thing that made it such a fantastic time was the people with endless chatting and meeting new friends. That itself was the most amazing experience of the whole trip and I enjoyed every moment, every person and every drink!
The next two days in Berlin was dedicated to sight-seeing. Kreuzberg, a day market, Alexanderplatz, Fernsetturum, Brandenburger Tor, Reichstag Dome, Holocaust Memorial, Jewish Museum, Sony Center, Fuhrer's Bunker, Potsdam, Hackescher Markt was all seen.
Berlin sure had a lot to offer, and I enjoyed seeing the mix of history, contemporary art and stories, which made Berlin one of my favorite visits of the trip.
On my last day of Berlin, I didn't spend most of the day there. I went to nearby Sachsenhausen Memorial & Museum Camp.
Adolf Hitler built Sachsenhausen with the vision that it would become a "model camp" for other to impersonate, and it was 30 minutes north of Berlin. I walked through the camp, and goose bumps were definitely felt.
I am not going to get into the details here, but all I am going to say is that a visit to a camp is a mandatory experience if you are going to Europe. Sachsenhausen was unforgettable and what I saw will stay with me.
Later that evening, I went to a pub, and caught a football game between FC Schloke Manchester United, which Man U won easily. It was a good ending to Berlin, and the next day I made my way to another wonderful city, Prague!
I wasn't done with Germany at all, and after going through Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and Romania, I went back to Germany because I couldn't just miss Munich!
I couldn't find any host on CouchSurfing, but thanks to the help of my friend, Sigga, she was able to find a friend of hers who was willing to host me at last minute's notice! (This would NEVER happen in America) so I went to Ingolstadt which was 45 minutes north of Munich, which was no problem at all thanks to my Eurail Pass.
At Ingolstadt, I met Ilknur, who was a fantastic host, we had a great chat until 2 in the morning, and realized we better go to sleep because she had to work, and I wanted to see Munich.
In Munchen, I went through the typical plazas & churches as suggested on my Lonely Planet book. Munich was a lovely town, and I enjoyed wandering around the centre seeing Frauenkirche, Marienplatz, Carillon, Residenzplatz and Viktualienmarkt.
In the afternoon, I met another Deaf person, Inna, and we ate dinner together and had a fun chat. Inna had to get going, so I went to the famous Englischer Garden and took in the park. There I saw a cool water canal where surfers were catching a wave! It was unbelievable seeing that going on later found out that it was a "hot spot" that I accidentally stumbled upon!
On May 14th, it was the day of the Fruhlingsfest! What is Fruhlingsfest, you ask? It is known as the "Little Sister of Oktoberfest" in which it is a spring festival (Just another excuse to Munich residents to drink German beer I would assume).
It took place at the same beer garden where Oktoberfest was hosted at, but at half the size and half the tourists. It was still a fun time going there with 20 other Deaf people on a reserved table. My final thoughts? Those Germans sure can drink!
It was a good ending to my trip to Germany! But I didn't have a place to sleep because Ilknur had plans, so I asked around at the tent and luckily there was a guy, Martin who was cool with me crashing his place for the night.
So we went to Martin's place which was about 30 minutes away by metro. The next morning we shook out our cowwebs and had breakfast.
Martin was an avid windsurfer, and the next day, he was going to Tunis, Tunisia for a week with three other friends! He has been traveling all over the world windsurfing in all continents (except Antarctica) and it was so cool hearing stories of his adventures! I also shared some of my experiences taking my talents across Europe.
My next destination was at Italy and Martin let me used his computer. I got in touch with Sigga, and we tried to make plans but it was difficult due to several circumstances. When we finally made confirmations, the train from Munich to Verona, Italy (connecting to Milan, then to Santhia) was leaving in 1:30, and it was exactly 1!
I asked Martin if I could make it to the Munich HBF station, he said it was not realistic, but the train also stopped at the Munich OST at 1:41, that was more realistic so I had to run!
At the metro in his home area (Which was right next to the Bayern Munich soccer stadium) I had to wait 5 minutes for the next metro, it took 16 minutes to karlsplatz, change trains to S-Bahn and go straight to OST. I barely made it at 1:40, and caught the train to Italy! (The next train was 5 hours later so, WHEW!)
So there safely on the train, I made my way to my next destination, ITALY!!!
