Rambling journeys

Ullo ullo ullo, what’s all this then?

I survived my Ausflug to London, and did not end up spending NYE floating in the Thames, clutching a bottle of vodka. In fact, the whole trip was rather sedate and terribly polite.  Londoners are a total breath of fresh air, compared to Berliners!

I bought the absolute cheapest tickets that I could find, which meant that I spent more time on public transport getting to and from airports than I did in the air itself.  Furthermore, my flight to London was delayed by an hour.  I love Ryanair.

Regardless, I’ve been back for a couple of weeks, now.  This means, of course, that the whole trip there seems like some sort of distant dream.

London is a great city.  I could certainly see myself living there. I probably even stand a greater chance of employment there than here in Berlin.  In fact, I registered with a recruitment agency that specialises in finding jobs for librarians while I was there. Wish me luck!

What did I do? What did I see? Lots of things! Museums! Architecture! A big black box where someone warned me before I smacked into a wall! There’s some photos over in the Photos section. I’m feeling a little too lazy to make this post a properly enjoyable one.

So move along, nothing to see here.

PS many thanks to my awesome hostess Lisa, who put up with me for a week.

Goodness, it’s been over four months since I updated! So much for blogging about my journeys…

To be fair, I haven’t really done much travelling. My focus was on finding work, and now I’ve found some! I’m doing translation and customer support for a computer games company in Berlin. The pay isn’t much, but it’s enough to keep me off the streets.

Travel is on the cards, however! On the 27th of December, I’ll be flying out to London. I’ll be returning on the 3rd of January. I’ve never been to London, so I’m quite excited about it. Maybe I’ll decide I like it better than Berlin and move there

I’m also quite curious about where I’m going to spend NYE… Maybe floating face down in the Thames, clutching a bottle of vodka?

Coming from Perth, there are two things that are immediately noticeable about the way people live here in Berlin.  Bicycles and canine companions are far more visible.  Every single major road will have either a bike path, or a shared bus/bike lane.  Dogs are also allowed in shopping centres, restaurants and on public transport.  In Perth, only assistance dogs are afforded the same priveliges.

Unfortunately, I have observed that the popularity of dogs and bikes leads to some tensions.  Let me tell you some stories…

The most common type of bicycle in Berlin is a city bike.  They have big, padded seats with springs, fat tyres and frames that remind me of exercise bikes more than a “real” bike.  They’re built for short-distance trips to the shops or to friend’s houses.  The problem, though, is that they are incredibly slow.  I’ve never seen anybody ride one faster than 10km/hour.

On my recent trip back from Potsdam, I was riding along one of the narrow bike paths along a major road.  These paths have very little room to manoeuvre.  I was cruising along at between 20-30km/hour.  My heart rate was up and I was thoroughly enjoying the sweatiness.  Suddenly, there was a middle-aged woman on a city bike in front of me, riding in the very middle of the lane.

She either didn’t notice me or didn’t care, as she made no effort to give me any space to overtake.  When it was safe, I nipped onto the adjacent footpath and quickly passed her.  I didn’t think any more of it.  What really got me was what she did next…

I came up to a red light.  Bicycle lanes have their own traffic lights, and the white line at which you have to stop is generally about 2 or 3 metres away from the intersection.  The delightful lady that I had previously passed rode off the cycle path, onto the footpath and forced her way through the pedestrians until she was at the kerb of the intersecting road.  When she had a green light, she crossed the road, went back onto the cycle path and was in front of me again.  Of course, I had to overtake her again.  Unfortunately, this happened several times.

Her behaviour irritated me a little.  I suppose that you, dear reader, will have some sort of opinion based on what sort of cyclist you are.  Needless to say, I felt that she was extremely rude, inconveniencing cyclists and pedestrians alike.

Now, my dog story.  I wasn’t personally involved in this one, but it’s certainly a good example of how Berlin’s variety of people and lifestyle sometimes don’t mesh very well.

I was sitting in Alexanderplatz, waiting for a friend.  She was running late, so I enjoyed the chance sit down and watch the people go by.   I was approached by no fewer than two beggars, but that’s a topic for a later post.

There were many people sitting around me, including a reasonably well-dressed white woman with a large white dog on a lead.  I’m afraid I couldn’t identify the breed.

Suddenly, her dog started barking – I looked up and noticed three bohemian looking gentlemen, complete with dreadlocks, numerous piercings and well-loved clothing walking by.  Accompanying them was another large dog, a brown one of also unknown species.

The brown dog looked at the white dog, sniffed the air and made a couple of steps towards it.  The bohemian gentlemen just ignored the barking dog and kept walking.  The brown dog decided to follow their lead, ignoring the white dog.  It was a perfectly happy and harmless encounter, until the well-dressed lady started yelling at the bohemian gentlemen, telling them to keep their dog on a lead.  The gentlemen yelled back and the whole thing degenerate into an argument at 4km/hour.

I found the whole situation quite amusing, really.  The brown dog was incredibly well behaved and obedient, and certainly didn’t need to be on a lead.  If anybody needed any kind of lead or muzzle, it was the owner of the white dog.

Right!  That’s enough storytelling for today.  Not many pictures either, I’m sorry.  Next week I’m flying to visit my grandmother in the Rhineland.  There are bound to be many pictures of the breathtakingly beautiful scenery.

Forgive me, readers, for I have sinned.  It has been over two weeks since my last post.

The past two weeks have been reasonably eventful.  Some of the stuff I’ve gotten up to:

• Offered a job as a walking tour guide
• Commenced training as walking tour guide
• Stopped training because I realised the job was utter shit
• Showed a friend around Berlin
• Incremented my age (in years) by one
• Invited to an interview in Vienna

The biggest benefit of doing the training to become a tour guide is that I went on a few tours and visited a few parts of Berlin I probably wouldn’t have, normally.  These include the Sachsenhausen concentration/work camp.

Sachsenhausen was not specifically a death camp,  although many thousands of people still died there.  It was initially set up to be a prison for political prisoners, and a way to encourage German Jews to leave the country.  It was also the site of experimentation into efficient methods of killing.  Most of the dead, though, were Soviet soldiers (The USSR never signed the Geneva Convention, so Soviet POWs were not treated humanely by Nazi Germany).

A quick visit from an old friend resulted in a whirlwind tour of Berlin’s Greatest Hits including the Brandenberg Gate, a Bugatti Veyron, the Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Schloß Charlottenburg and some other places I can’t remember.

We also attempted some urban exploration.  We hopped over a wall surrounding an old 19th century building called the Eierhäuschen.  We spent about an hour trying to find a way into the main building, but only managed to enter some cellars that didn’t lead up to the rest of the house.

We wanted to visit the Spreepark – an old East Berlin amusement park that closed down a few years ago.  Unfortunately, our visit was short-lived as we spotted some other people and didn’t want to find out whether they were legitimately there, or just exploring like us.

On Saturday I celebrated my 28th birthday (my 2nd birthday in Germany – the first was my 18th) with my family.  It was a fantastic evening; one cousin gave me a bottle of vodka which we managed to empty over the course of the night.  My other cousins gave me a bottle of Cointreau, which will not be wasted in a similar manner.

This morning I was, once again, woken up by a call from a potential employer in Vienna – they had already called last week to make sure I was really interested in the job.  I managed to score an interview, so I’ll be visiting Vienna on the 11th very quickly.  A lovely Kiwi couple I met here will also be in Vienna that day, so we’ll wander around the city after the interview is finished.

I’ve also planned a trip to visit my grandmother in the Rheinland.  It’s a supremely beautiful part of Germany – there’ll be plenty of photos.

I decided on the weekend that I would take my bike out and do what I bought it for – some mountain biking.  However, I stumbled upon a path that led me to Potsdam, City of Kings and Emperors!

My day started relatively lazy, and it took a lot of motivation to put on my cycling clothes and go somewhere.  I had previously decided that I’d go to the Grunewald and see what the tracks there were like.  I figured they couldn’t be as bad as the MTB track that I cut my teeth on – the one that gave me scars.

I kitted up my trusty steed and, being lazy, hopped on the S-Bahn to get to the Grunewald.  It would involve about twenty minutes of travel and two changeovers to other trains.

I got to Westkreuz train station without many problems, only to discover that the train line I wanted to take wasn’t running at all!  A friendly driver recommended I catch his train to the Messe Süd station, as that wasn’t much farther from Grunewald than the Grunewald station itself.

My iPhone led me the way along towards the Grunewald, and I stumbled across this:

One of the famed cycle roads of Berlin!  No cars or pedestrians allowed, only cyclists!  I was intrigued and wanted to know where it headed, so I decided to follow it.  Sure enough, I eventually came across a sign.

My uncle’s girlfriend had already recommended I visit Potsdam, because it’s very pretty.  Less than 10km away?  Child’s play!  I had only already cycled 10km already, so another wouldn’t hurt.

The cycle path was heaven to ride on.  Of course, many roadies overtook me, but I was still cruising along at around 30km/h (on an MTB, with knobbly tyres).  Unfortunately, the path didn’t not go ALL the way to Potsdam, and I eventually had to share roads with cars and paths with pedestrians.

I passed the Wannsee on the way and tried to master the art of taking a photo of one’s self.  I was somewhat successful, but you shan’t see the countless terrible photos I took.  Thankfully, a kind tourist was kind enough to take a photo of me when I stopped just after the bridge into Potsdam itself.

I wandered around Potsdam, occasionally checking a map on my iPhone, and discovered that there was a large park not far from my location.  I meandered along, trying to find it, and came across Sanssouci Park, locationof Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great of Prussia.

The only problem was that I wasn’t allowed to enter the gardens themselves because I had a bike with me.  I wasn’t even allowed to wheel it along!  I wasn’t going to let my bike out of my sight, so instead I decided to find some lunch.

Once again, with my trusty iPhone, I located some nearby restaurants and one immediately caught my eye, Café KieselStein.  They claimed to be organic, vegetarian and smoke-free.

After a hearty lunch of red lentil soup with chestnuts, spinach and potato bake with feta, an organic wheat beer, espresso and a piece of chocolate truffle torte, I felt re-energised and revitalised and ready to tackle the ride home!

Turning, once again, to my trusty iPhone, I calculated a route that would take me home along the shortest route possible.

Berlin has cycle ways along every major road, so I simply assumed that this path would get me home without many issues.  Thankfully, I was right (even though I accidentally rode the wrong way for a few kilometres).  Unfortunately, I did not have the presence of mind to take any photos on the way home…

As it is, I got home, eventually, and hopped straight under the shower.

The result of the day?  A pleasant, unplanned trip and 53km of cycling.

After a rather slow start, and a very enjoyable weekend with my friend (not my sister) Tamara, I’ve really started applying for jobs in earnest.  I’ve been doing this from the comfort of my home office:

The Airport Express I brought is a boon, as I can leech my uncle’s wireless from every room in this rather large house.  Incidentally, my new camera arrived, which is why I’m able to show you these lovely photographs.

I’ve applied for a wide variety of positions, including:

• English language trainer (already been rejected)
• Librarian
• Library technician (sort of)
• Library assistant
• Tour guide (and pub crawl guide)
• Customer service representative
• Web analyst

All of these jobs, other than the Customer service assistant, are located in Berlin itself.  The three library jobs are the sum total of library jobs for which I’m actually qualified.  There’s a couple more, but I would need either a degree in agriculture, be able to speak some eastern European languages or have years of experience leading a team of people.

The Customer service representative position is with an international games company, and is situated in either France or Ireland.  I was going to wait a little while before applying for it, but I’m starting to go stir crazy.  Can’t go out without money, can’t get money without a job.

Wish me luck!

I was going to write a post about the awesome weekend I just had. Unfortunately, I’ve misplaced my camera and I feel that updating without photos wouldn’t do it justice. Instead, I’m going to write a little about what I’ve been doing to settle in.

The day after I arrived, I went to the Bürgeramt (Residents’ Office) in Steglitz because I wanted to get a real German passport (my current one is only valid for a year). I still had the photos from when I applied for the temporary passport, so I took them along.

The Bürgeramt is a little like CentreLink, but offers many more services. I took a number, sat down and proceeded to be annoyed that I didn’t bring a book for the next hour.

When my number was called, I sat down with a nice lady and asked her for a new passport. She was a little confused when she couldn’t find me in the system, and we determined that’s because I hadn’t registered as a resident in Berlin, yet. So register I did, and we organised a few different things for me:

1. Real passport.   This is going to take about four weeks to organise.  I’ll have to go and pick it up when I get back from my first Tour d’Europe.
2. Personalausweis (ID card).  In Germany, every resident needs to carry either an ID card or a passport.  I’ll also be able to use this to travel throughout EU countries, rather than having to take a passport with me.
3. Lohnsteuerkarte (Income tax card). When I (finally) get some gainful employment, I need to hand over the Lohnsteuerkarte, upon which they will record some details.  I get it back at the end of the tax year (which is the same as the calendar year in Germany).  Not sure whether I need to do a tax return, I’ll find out in six months!

They also told me that if I want a German driver’s license, I’ll need to get my Australian license switched over within six months.  After that I’ll have to go through the same rigmarole that new drivers have to.

After leaving the Bürgeramt, I went to open a bank account at the local Sparkasse (one of the German banks).  Opening an account was quick and easy.  I spoke to a lady that had an uncanny resemblance with Maggie Gyllenhal.  About fifteen minutes later, I had an account and she gave me all the details I needed to transfer money from Australia (which is where most of my money still is).  Unfortunately, I still have to wait for my key card, so in the mean time I’ve been living off cash and credit card.

Speaking of which, credit cards aren’t nearly as widely accepted in Germany as in Australia.  I was caught out when I wanted to settle the bill at a restaurant and didn’t have enough cash on me.  EFTPOS (or EC) is much more common, but only for transactions above a certain value.

Needless to say, I can’t get a German credit card until I have a job.  Sparkasse offers one that will make travel within Europe a lot easier for me.

So after I had that all sorted out, I’ve started applying for work!  I’ve applied for two, so far.  One as an English language trainer at Inlingua (I’ve already been knocked back) and another as a librarian for the Zentral- und Landesbibliothek (Central and State Library) Berlin.  The librarian job looks to be rather awesome, because it involves a fair bit of tech.  It’s also quite well paid, so I’m concerned that I’m not qualified for it.

Regardless, I’m flying out in four days for Vienna.  I’ll have a camera by then, even if I have to buy a new one.

I’ve been very lazy since arriving in Berlin.  In an effort to pull my thumb out, I shall regale you with tales of my flights.

After going to the movies on Wednesday, I raced to the airport to dump my luggage in time.  I had already checked in, but I hate being late to anything.  Unfortunately, the resulting stress resulted in an unfortunate tension headache.

Thankfully, my checked baggage scraped in at 20.4kg, and my hand luggage was only 5kg!  Perhaps I threw out too much stuff when packing…  Oh well, not to worry.  I have some money to replace the things I disposed of.

The flight from Perth to Singapore was uneventful, if a little turbulent  I sat next to a nice girl, Cara, from the Albany area, who was visiting her boyfriend in Copenhagen for two months.

The meals, as always with Singapore, were delicious.  Delicious vegetarian curry accompanied by a bit of tipple.

After landing in Singapore, the first thing I did was look for a massage.  I found one in the transit hotel, although they could only fit me in for 15 minutes when I was quite prepared to fork out for an hour to combat my tension headache.

While I waited for my turn, I tried connecting to the Internet to while away the time and found that I couldn’t!  I was thoroughly disappointed.

As it was, a 15 minute massage was quite enough!  “Uh oh,” I thought as the masseuse climbed up on the table “it’s getting serious!”.  There was no happy ending, however.  I’m sure the little, middle-aged Chinese lady would have either slapped me or called the police, had I suggested it.  The last thing I want is to be arrested in Singapore.

I ended up getting an Internet connection outside my departure gate, and managed to check in for my flight from Frankfurt to Berlin.  Hooray!  This gave me a little more breathing space in the one and a half hours I had to clear customs, pick up my baggage, get to the other terminal, drop off my baggage and board the flight.

The flight from Singapore to Frankfurt itself was also rather uneventful.  More delicious food, six hours of interrupted sleep and a terrible movie with the Rock made it pass relatively quickly.

Upon landing in Frankfurt and getting through customs with far less fuss than I was expecting, given I was entering Germany for the first time on a German passport, and a temporary one, at that!  Baggage claim took forever, unfortunately.

As I raced from one terminal to another, I noticed that another passenger was mirroring my steps.  I struck up a conversation with her and discovered that she was visiting relatives in Berlin for a couple of weeks.  We checked in and proceeded to a cafe for a breather.

I discovered that Manja runs a massage centre in Sydney, but I was too polite to ask for a massage in the middle of the terminal.  We exchanged phone numbers and will hopefully be catching up for coffee later this week.

The flight from Frankfurt to Berlin was incredibly short – less than an hour.  I’ve spent more time getting from one place to another in Perth in public transport!  It was just enough time to take off, get a free snack and land.

Then, I was finally in Berlin!  I’ll blag about my first few days later…

The Great Old One oversaw my slavish packing and will spare me, for the time being.

Everything fits into my bag easily!  This is a slight concern…  Perhaps I threw out too many things and should have kept some more to bring with me..?

Regardless, in 16 hours time I will be on my way to Singapore.  Between now and then, I still need to get a full night’s sleep and watch the new Transformers movie.  Should be easy, eh?

It’s not very long until I leave. I’ve already moved out of my house to my mother’s house and I’m beginning to plan exactly what’s going into each bag.

I’ve also finally been able to get the domain for the blog up and running, so http://www.matthiasliffers.com/ is go!

48 hours and 55 minutes from now, I’ll be taxiing down a runway…