Berlin (1)
Posted on: February 4, 2009
There’re lots of stuff to record down, just for future reference.
Starting with stupidity fee, the first and I vowed it would be the only time I spend 33sek (approx 6sgd) on printing 2 pages. No thanks to my laziness and minded absence not printing flight ticket before hand for FREE in school.
Life goes on, I boarded flygbussana headed towards Skavsta airport. One interesting note, I love traffic system in both Stockholm and Berlin, smooth and efficient highways, lots of high and big bridges and multi-layers roads (for this, a certain someone would become excited seeing these).
First time in my taking-flight life, I experienced early-arrived flightS, provided by Ryanair, which claims to be the most on time airway in Europe with 90% flights not late, but 30mins early is very significant. Maybe this is just a trick, telling your parents that you’ll be going out for 4 hours while the party is only 2 hours and you come back after 3 hours to show how good kid you are. Anyway, better early than late.
My first day in Berlin is rather mild with minimum activities, just a walk around nearby neighborhood to see the lake and a little 100-year-old bridge (could be older than that). That is a peaceful area with lots of swans and ducks, which made me very excited, if only…
A traditional British phone box in Berlin with typical Berliner vandalism.
The walking day is followed by car ride around the city. We stopped by Brandenburger Tor, symbol of a reunified Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall , though it is the mark between East and West Berlin.
A photo taken from the East view.
The nearby Reichstag is very impressive (of course since this is where the German Parliament seats), a huge structure big typical grand Europe decoration. The long queue waiting in front to go up the glass dome put me off from getting a bird view from there.
The following day is a truely tiring day, seeing me walking around Kurfürstendamm, the main boulevard in Berlin. Too bad my trip was conducted at night, hence I couldn’t take nice photos. Anyway, the main point is to see and feel.
My first ride on Berlin U-Bahn where you have to manually open the train; according to a local, this is to prevent unnecessary cold from outside when noone needed to board/alight the train.
For memory's sake 
February 5, 2009 at 7:17 am
Never, ever, pay for services in the airport. We’re students who are not supposed to be rich, so…yeah, try not to haha.
Also, 90% not late does not always mean 90% on time… now I know why people are made to check in one hour beforehand…
The nature park during winter has a certain feel, I don’t know. Looks grey and dull…somewhat relaxing.
I like the duck picture haha (or is it a swan?). Looks quite cool standing on a leg. It was posing for a photo perhaps?
Sad that vandalism was everywhere, it shows the lack of civility amongst certain Berlin folks. But, they need their “human rights” to spray on everywhere I think. Spray cans must be cheap in Berlin, should buy some for Float.
I like the big 200-year-old structure with the horse and the rider. Looks so big and pompous. Makes you feel really small and insignificant standing next to it, being so oversized and all. And the city looks nice at night, with all the glass structures, glitzy buildings…indeed a typical night view.
P.S. I wonder WHO is the one who likes those multi-stacked interchanges 😛