Berlin Day 1 in Adventures in paradise

I eventually found this place. Berlin’s Underground system is easy to understand. I just had to validate my ticket like in the old days - ie. punchcard system.

I didn’t know how to get into the place and it was late at night when I arrived. Thankfully I’d arrived by 10:30pm though, as after 11pm they charge a 15 Euro late fee. But I didn’t know where to go. I saw the sign and all, then I saw the ‘entry around the side’ sign, but I still couldn’t see it. There was a gay cafe/bar open with a heap of gay-looking guys inside, so, of course, I go and lug my three bags in there looking like a typical lost tourist don’t I? LOL.
Talk about embarrassing, now that I think about it. But I was just cold and wanted to get inside. It was 1 degree outside, I hadn’t showered in two days (since I didn’t want to a Giovanni’s in Paris haha).

Thankfully a nice gay boy in the bar saw that I was lost and redirected me to where I needed to go haha. I found the steps leading up and only saw one intercom button that was labelled something like ‘Hans - gay hostel’, so I assumed that had to be it, right? I hit that button. No reply. I hit it again. Nothing.
Great.

I re-read my email from them, and realised it included instructions on what to do when I arrived. There was even a picture of the button I was meant to be pressing, which was back at the bottom of the stairs lol. So I did that, and this time there was a ringing around after pressing the button. At least that was something. But it must have rang for what felt like a minute. God-damn it.
Here I am, stuck outside on a sidewalk in Berlin at nearly 11pm.

After the second attempt of ringing that, a guy came to the door, asking ‘Deucheland or Inglish?’ - I replied English. He didn’t look too happy. I had a feeling this wasn’t the guy who I was looking for, and was probably an upset resident who I’d woken up by initially ringing the wrong bell LOL.
He asked me, “Has no-one answered?”
I replied, “No,” and he explained how someone lived across the street who should be here. As if I knew where the fuck to look for him!
Thankfully, pretty much as we were having that short conversation (or rather him getting up me for waking him), a guy turned up at the stairs and asked, ‘Are you Matthew?’, to which I replied I was.

Finally! I was inside. I could check in. He showed me around the place - the showers, the common areas, the bathroom and my room. There are two bathrooms here - one private one and another common one. There is one shower cubicle with three or maybe four shower heads.
I found out upon waking this morning that the private one’s water is quite lukewarm, which is shithouse in 1 degree temperatures outside, yet the common showers are quite hot, so I think they’ve done that to encourage more people to shower with others. I didn’t care though. There was only one other guy in there who was finishing up anyway.

I also had my entire room to myself last night, but a guy from Taiwan just checked in. I also think two others will be arriving soon, as the housekeeper was preparing all the beds.
I was fucking freezing here last night though, even with the bedcover on me. I had the clever idea of also using one of the empty bunks covers, but none were placed on the beds yet :(
I then figured out the radiator and turned it up two notches. It took a while but eventually the room warmed up a bit to be bareable enough to sleep.
A curtain hangs over the radiator, so I wasn’t sure if it would catch on fire or not LOL. I guess they wouldn’t have it there if that were a possibilty.

See, radiators are foreign to me. They are in every house over here, but they are non-existent in Australia. We just have fans and heaters and air conditioning.

The Taiwanese guy seems nice, although the accent is a little hard to understand. We’re constantly asking each other to repeat what we’ve said haha. He’s not happy that there’s no lock for our doom room. I don’t really care. There’s a lock for the lockers, although they are very thin. I had to remove bags from my luggage to squeeze it in there.

I’m only back at the hostel right now because I’m charging my devices. I stupidly left my European>Australian adapter on the fucking French train as I departed. Because it goes right in, when I took my laptop charger out, I must’ve left that in there grrr. ^smacks self in head^

So my day has pretty much been a mixture of a bit of exploring the area, and I bought a pair of gloves because my hands felt like they were going to fall off. Last night, my phone said it was 1-degree with a “feels like” of MINUS -2. Farrrrk. With my final bit of battery on my phone, I literally Googled “Where can I find an Australian adapter in Berlin” and it came up with a Yahoo blog result of a place that I’ve now forgotten the name of, so I google-mapped it (I swear to God I’d be FUCKED on this trip if it weren’t for Google Maps) and followed it to the place. The place was a huge electronic place but it still took me forever to find the damn thing. Eventually I did though and paid for it. I still can’t understand what the hell the cashier’s are saying to me. Eventhe lady at the markets where I got my gloves from was talking entirely in German to me, and all i was trying to say was, “I have big hands. Do you have glove that fits?’ and “How much?”
Thankfully, if she wanted my money, she managed to say ‘twenty’ in English. I tried on a few pairs and although the pair I got is a bit tight, they do fit snuggly and my hands are finally warm!
I can’t believe it took me all this time for Berlin to become the place where I decided I finally needed some gloves.

A guy from Italy just checked in here now, and he’s quite attractive. He introduced himself to me as ‘Marco’. I love how all their name’s end with an ‘O’.
There should be one-more check-in, since I’m in a room of 4. That’ll be the guy above me.

My phone and portable charger are taking forever to charge. They must have been really drained. So looks like I’ll be hanging out here for probably another hour or so, then I’ll grab some dinner. A lot of the bars and clubs here don’t even open until 10pm, which means they won’t be happening until about midnight, I guess. And it is the middle of the week. Just happens to be when I’m here. It’d be nice to have a few weekends to properly explore.
Laboratory (The place with the huge sex orgies in a warehouse) is only open from Thursdays, so if I were to brave that one, I found out that Thursdays are just a ‘Naked Sex Night’. It’s apparently right next to Berghain, which is the most notorious nightclub in the world.

Tom’s Bar is right across the road from the hotel. That’s the place the Kiwi guy told me I should go, because he thinks I’ll be very popular there. I guess I will find that out tonight :)

This is parked on the street outside the hostel.

There’s leather bars and fetish stores and gay cruise clubs all around here. And then right near it all is this kindergarten. Quite hilarious actually. A lot of them would walk past this parked car on their way there with the parents LOL.

Just blowing my mind how liberal countries like this and the Netherlands are.

You can make out all the leather goods in the window.

I’ve got to stop eating this shit just because my surname is on it :P

Random church. I didn’t take many pics today because I had the gloves on and couldn’t be bothered taking them off and on again etc.

Me being immature. I love that the word ‘farht’ is on a lot of the streetsigns :D

This was in a souvenoir store. Might give this card game a miss :P