Jeremy Mayeres: Being a tourist in Berlin for the last time

In my previous post, I talked about being in Berlin and flat-hunting. When I wasn't actively looking at flats or researching places online (which wasn't very much time), I wandered around a bit.

At Alexanderplatz, I noticed they were setting up for some gelato expo? More about this below.

Had this drink at Veganz. It's very tasty.

A very interesting pizza. Tasted good as well.

My hostel's bar. I was literally the only person there. Even the bartender wandered off.

Vattenfall plant near my hostel.

S-Bahn line was closed due to repairs. This is near Jannowitzbrücke, with the BVG offices on the right side.

The gelato thing was open, but first I needed to get some lunch

Had lunch at Momo's. Excellent vegetarian dumplings.

The "Gelato Experience" at Alexanderplatz. TV crew filming an interview.

These people were amazing and fun. Yes, they're serving beer gelato.

German beer gelato. Interesting flavors.

Apparently you can bungee jump from the hotel's roof

Several people did the jump. Looks like they dismount on the lower roof and pull up the rope to the top.

On another day, I went to the German Museum of Technology. They only had a few things in English. I didn't take many pictures because I wanted to try to see as much as I could before they closed, since I went in the afternoon.

I saw this and thought of Bioshock Infinite.

View from a balcony at the museum.

Looking towards Potsdamer Platz.

U-Bahn line going by, had this as my cover photo on Facebook for a while.

At the end of the day they have this clock with automated band playing. It runs off a long punchcard strip.

Overall it was a great week, I secured my apartment, had fun in my new city, and was ready to get my stuff in Brussels and officially move to Berlin. All I had to do was get back to Brussels, a trip I had done several times now.

This proved to be a bit more complicated than expected. I took the train from Ostbahnhof, since my hostel was closer to there than Hauptbahnhof, and the train originated at Ostbahnhof. At the station, they announced the train would be delayed by a few minutes "due to delay in preparation". The train eventually arrived about 20 minutes late. We boarded the train and waited. Several minutes went by and nothing was happening. 10 minutes went by and they said there was a technical problem and they were trying to get it fixed. Finally a conductor came by and announced the train was cancelled and we should disembark. On the platform they announced the replacement train was on another track and we should hurry there. Overall, we were an hour late. When we got to Cologne, they held up a Thalys TGV train to Brussels to pick up those of us connecting to Brussels to help reduce our delays. Unfortunately, that train is typically reservation-only, and was quite full with people already. I had to change seats a few times as people came by to claim their seat.