TRAVEL DIARY

A weblog regularly updated by Jodi Rose.

Monday, July 31, 2006

10:12 PM
Posted by jodi rose

ten hours and another world away. very well preserved turkish gentleman offered me a smoke from his hookah outside the internet cafe, after I smiled when his burning ash went flying. I declined politely, am already on the edge of sleep and sanity. well, its not so bad, just feel jetlagged from the train. had a lovely compartment with group of young hungarian boys who looked very rocknroll, and had an unusual amount of luggage each. when I asked them why - almost as much as me - they confessed to doing hungarian dancing, with the black boots and vest and puffy white shirt and are on their way to perform in a small town outside berlin. they ended up partying in the corridor with an endless supply of 2l plastic bottles of home made red wine, and portable speakers taped to the bathroom pipes - highway to hell was playing when I walked past. the other occupant was a strapping young man who grew up in sydney, originally from slovakia and now playing soccer professionally in the czech national league. had an enjoyable afternoon watching the czech countryside flick past, especially after prague the trainline ran along the river, steep hills and wooden huts galore.
Fell in love with hauptbahnhof, those bullet lifts between all the platforms are spectacular, everything well laid out and easy to find, evne the luggage storage. traipsed over to zoo palast and picked up the keys for the apartment from roland, then found an above average thai curry at the station and wound my way over to friedrichshain, up the 5 flights of stairs - my fingers are still swollen from suitcases - relaxed on the lush pink cord lounge and then back out to get acqauinted with my new environment.
loving it, smoky decadent bars on every corner, red one across the street from me and the gun man bar with heavy metal in case I miss the green pub. people smile and chat to me randomly on the street - even soccer boy commented on how much people stare suspiciously in slovakia, it really is that noticeable - and the heavenly feeling of blending in somewhat. beautiful old east berlin apartments, highly graffitied although I think that is from a bygone era, definitely feels more trendy than edgy now, still plenty of grit though. have to drag myself back upstairs to collapse, more exploring tomorrow.