Thursday 31st of December 2009 – Berlin Day Five – New Year’s Eve
New Year’s Eve!!! After very late (or early) night, we slept in. I got J out of bed at 11, in time for breakfast, thankfully it doesn’t finish until 12. We ate – I had a bit of a hangover – and we slept until 4… Looks like we finally got to party in Berlin last night…
We got up, showered, and went for a meal at Alexanderplatz, some Italian restaurant. I had potato soup with sausage (frankfurter to you and me), then some strange tagliatelle a la carbonara, but with beef instead. Unable to face any alcohol, I had red bull to wake me up. Can’t do late nights very well, never been very good at it. We didn’t even drink that much. We were hoping to be able to eat at the TV tower, as we tried every single day this week, but the visibility was always poor. Tonight the visibility was ok, but it was closed.
Once again, non stop snow. Which is not a common thing for this time of year in Berlin, so an extraordinary New Year’s Eve with snow, perhaps to celebrate the fall of the Berlin wall. The Berlin wall fell when I first arrived in London, so I have strong memories of that time. Big change for me, big change for Berlin.
After eating we got train to Friedrichstrasse, and walked to Branderburg Gate, where we intended to stay until midnight. We got through the gates at around 7… There was slush everywhere, and on the sidewalk there was a lot of snow. And it was snowing. We got some mulled wine to warm up, but as soon as that hit my stomach it felt a bit odd. Then a bit later I drank some cherry beer, and that went down even worse, so I stopped drinking. We were walking around for a couple of hours, but it was very cold. We got inside a few bar/tents, I bought myself a hat, and a little guitar for my son. We walked down Straße des 17. Juni to Siegessäule, at this point I was feeling very queasy, and burpy and had a very bad headache.
But managed to take some photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plasmatika/sets/72157623122831512/
We headed home by public transport, which wasn’t much fun… When we got the final tram at Alexanderplatz, I had to jump off one stop earlier, to projectile vomit my dinner all over the snow… It looked red and like blood… But it wasn’t blood, just the wine. I felt better after that, we got home by 11:30. We watched NYE on TV, and were glad to have left because the whole thing was very Eurotrash, Right Said Fred were one of the main acts and not the worst by far (and they were bad).
The whole of Straße des 17. Juni was like a big market, selling hats, drinks, food… And of course, fireworks everywhere, by everyone. I kinda liked that! Added a touch of danger to the night, and it wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the Eiffel Tower. When I spent NYE there, well, that was a lot scarier and wilder, Berlin seemed tame in comparison. We were fast asleep by one, except I had to get up twice to be very unpleasantly sick. But enough of that…
All Berlin Photos: https://www.flickr.com/photos/plasmatika/sets/72157622997941877