The Wake

My night out on the town with my Japanese and Polish friends was a smash. We hit the Karaoke bar with full force. Everything from The Rolling Stones to Madonna was performed with mild and expressionless enthusiasm, with the rest of the patrons laughing drunkenly all the while. Karaoke is a very communal experience. It’s a great look into Japanese culture, as its serves as their primary source of recreation, according to my doctor friend.

After the bar closed, we went down to a Shisha Bar (or Hookah bar in the states) and ordered up some Strawberry flavored product. Along with that, we ordered 4 cherry and banana juices. Delicious enough on their own, they became even tastier upon Radek suggesting I empty the rest of our large carton of screwdriver into the each glass, forming an orange/cherry/banana juice and vodka hybrid. I call it The Berlin Experience, and I highly recommend trying it.

The bar was filled with mostly Turks according to Lukosh and Radek. They spoke in hushed voices, “In case any of them speak English,” he explained. They were wholly distrustful of all the other customers there.

We parted ways around 3.30am, and exchanged emails, “Incase I ever make it out to Poland,” and I told them to consider visiting the United States. They found this notion comical.

The Japanese doctor and I woke up early the next morning for breakfast. We sat down at a table with an old Australian man . His name was Aurthur. He was an avid traveler. He’d been just about everywhere, “Everywhere but China and Antarctica” he explained. He hailed from Sydney, and had been to the United States thirteen times, his first in 1971. After breakfast, we parted ways. I bumped into him again later, and asked if he’d be interested in hitting up a free tour of Berlin with me. He was, and so we reconvened later on at the Brandenburg Gate. The tour was beyond fascinating. Our lively tour guide, an American no less, relayed the complex and controversial histories of WWII and the Berlin Wall. We hit numerous landmarks along the way. My favorite stop was Humboldt College, where Lenin had attended University, and Einstein had taught. They had a book sale going on outside, and I purchased a few centuries’ old books for cheap.

After the tour, Aurthur and I headed back towards the hostel. He was great to have on the tour, because he talked to literally everyone else in the group, so we made several friends. We walked back with the tour guide, a 28 year old American from Maine. He’d been a successful advertising exec in NYC for 5 years, but he left it behind to pursue painting and photography in Berlin, giving daily tours to keep financially afloat.

Aurthur and I then hit up a pastry and coffee joint spot near Potsdamer Platz. I meant to stay for only an hour, as I had a train to catch, but we ended up chatting for over 3 hours, well hyped on caffeine by the end of it. He taught me a great deal about Australia I hadn’t known. He informed me of how voting is compulsory in Australia. I found this most impressive. He also told me about how Australia switched all their road signs to the metric system, across the entire country, on just one day. The U.S. could learn a lot from these guys. I also learned how their former Prime Minister had held office for 12 years before their current one. His approval rating was always low just before elections, but he twice found a means to scare voters into reelecting him. The first time, he’d used to fear of Muslim immigrants following the rape and murder of an Australian girl in a park by a few Muslim men. It all sounded very similar to GW using 9/11 and the threat of “organized” terrorism to get us into Iraq, pass the Patriot Act, and get himself reelected. We discussed these maters al length. He was an Obama supporter, as am I. He told me about his time in US during the race riots, and about his brother’s work with MLK. Aurthur was a cancer survivor; he’d had a tumor removed from the front of his brain just 4 years ago. I learned a great deal from him, and he told me to visit whenever.