Remember how I was saying there was this guy who told me that Berlin is dangerous, how you can get lost here? I didn’t really put much stock in it as applying to me because I wasn’t even sure I liked Berlin. The nightclubs I was going to, the parts of the city I was experiencing, the historical monuments and museums I had no interest in. Except one.
Determined to see it before I went to Prague today, I had breakfast at the hostel and headed over just after it opened. And yay! Very cool. Took an insane amount of pictures, reveled in the history of the artifacts I was surrounded by, learned all kinds of things I never knew before. Such as, they took their name from the pseudonym that Paul McCartney used to use when checking into hotels Paul Ramon.
Talking heads toured with and opened for them!
Along with the pope, the ayatollah and Darth Vader, Johnny Ramone will be there at the end of the world. It’s amazing what I’ve learned!
Now there might be some out there who wonder at my taste in history. For me, this kind of stuff is much more pertinent than some dudes who decided that people should fight each other for no other reason than money or race or over a girl…whatever. Get over yourselves. Or giant buildings where small groups of dudes make decisions that affect people they’ll never see and don’t care about. Or ornate churches where corrupt priests demand that the public renounce earthly pleasures while adorning themselves in gold and jewelry. Or monuments to remember people who survived chaotic scenarios out of sheer luck, while their friends were blown to bits around them.
All of these things are celebrated as being important, but seriously, is anything as important as music?
Music is constant and universal and passion and life. So nyah. 
Also, I was speaking with a very cool woman who was working there and we spoke of Berlin, I told her that I hadn’t really found anything here that came close to a scene I enjoyed particularly, tho I was sure it existed, I just hadn’t looked in the right places. She asked me where I had been and when I told her, she laughed and said, show me your map. Then proceeded to mark all of the places I should have been visiting. I had already told her I was to leave today, but perhaps I would come back sometime. Which surprised me, because right up until then, I hadn’t even considered that I would ever come back to Berlin. She asked what time my train left. I said, there’s no train, I’m hitchhiking to Prague. So she gave me a look and said, so why do you have to leave today?
Haha, still in Berlin. I had planned to come back to the hostel, book one more night and head out to see the places she pointed out right away. As it turns out, as soon as I sat down on the bed, I fell asleep. Good thing I didn’t leave for Prague after all! I think a week in Berlin is catching up with me. And when I woke up 2 hours later, there has been a most tumultuous electrical storm raging outside! Another good reason not to leave right away. Although I imagine that if I took a train to the south end of the city, I might pass out of the storm. But it’s a beautiful thing. It’s been very hot and stifling here lately, cottonwood pollen everywhere you go, floating into your beer, your eyes, your nose. It’s as though, now that I’ve discovered these places in Berlin that are more my cup of tea, the city feels a little calmer, the weather less intense, even while it’s slightly more exciting. And so I shall wander out into the rain to find them, and see if Berlin and I can find a happy medium. As well as that awesome falafel place she told me about.
Tomorrow, Prague.
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