Day Four - Münster to Berlin

Day four started slowly as I chose to take a break from the past two early mornings. When we finally did wake up and get organized, we helped our host Thore edit some English writing he was working on for school, and then headed into the Münster market.

The market that we went to was really quite full of life, busy with people buying fresh produce. Thore explained to us that the markets in the area are set to specific day of the week and each city in the area had a different day. Alex and I did not need anything at the market, but Thore bought some cheese. The way that you order cheese in that market was interesting to say the least! Instead of picking the cheese and the weight you wanted, Thore just asked for 5€ worth, and received a bag full of all sorts of cheeses (photo forthcoming will show just how much that is). For 5€ I would say that he must have got almost a kilogram of various cheeses. I was really impressed. Moving on we went off to find a T-shirt store so that I could buy a local specific shirt, the Leesenritter.

Leesenritter, translated literally to 'night rider' is a Münster specific term. The Munster definition comes from the root of Leesen, which translates roughly to 'piece of crap bicycle.' I'm sure that all of us who have been to university are familiar with the Leesen. Highly rusted frame, creaking pedals, a number of gears which you can't quite shift to and brakes that are all but non existent. Anyways, the term Leesenritter is a way of making the Leesen cool again, and celebrating the nature of student owned bicycles. How could I not buy a Leesenritter shirt?

Wearing my new shirt, Thore walked us to the train station and we said our goodbyes. We would be meeting him again in Nuremburg so it was more of a 'see you in a week' than a long goodbye. Alex and I found our local train to Rhiene station where we changed to an InterCity train to Berlin (200km/h), arriving at 6pm. Our hotel was a bit out if the city (only 40 euro a night, split between the two of us!), so we took the S-Bahn tram system out to the burbs and walked to our hotel.

The hotel was rated as a three star but I would say that it was grasping at two. The room was clean though and the shower worked reasonably well, so I was a happy enough camper. After changing my bags around to make a light day pack, I went to the lobby of the hotel and tried to use the internet. It turned out to cost 20 euro an hour! That, and the computer worked with a flimsy plastic credit card reader that plugged into the computer via a USB connection.... yeah right. Alex met me downstairs shortly thereafter and we took the S-Bahn back into the city to explore Berlin.

Exiting Alexander-Platz station, there was a bit of a street festival already underway. In the square adjacent to the station there were lots of stalls selling beer and curywurst, and even a politically charged freestyle-rap / beat-boxing demonstration going on. I bought some currywurst from a seller (2 euro, I think) which got doused in Ketchup. From there we walked away from the festival and continued along the streets until we found another gathering of people- however this one was crawling with police.

Approaching the mass of people that had assembled in the square, we were wondering whether it was a demonstration or a riot. It turned out to be a huge anti anti war demonstration complete with live band, and plenty of drunk hippies. There were tons of people and almost as many police officers. it was pretty crazy in that place and we didn't stay for too long. I really liked going through it though and witnessing the drunken fury that the protest had become.... so many people were there just to drink and party, and the rest was there to see the band play. It made it seem like the anti-war agenda was an afterthought.

The rest of the evening was spent walking around and looking at the various monuments that were lit up for the night. In Berlin, there was a pretty happening night life, but saving our energy for the next day Alex and I headed back to the S-Bahn to grab a tram and catch some shut-eye. Before we did get some sleep though we stopped in at a Donner shack underneath the highway and grabbed a greasy (seriously greasy) chicken and fries with a few Becks to wash it down.

We finished our first day in Berlin, eager to get up and see explore more of the city in daylight.