Unusual trip to Berlin
Three weeks ago we said goodbye briefly to Germany. Then we did the route Wroclaw - Dresden - Leipzig and flew from Berlin airport. Now we continue from where we left off, I arrived on a business trip to Berlin! This time I have not just a business trip, but a whole musical tour! I offered Dasha to buy tickets separately, but Dasha said that she didn’t see much point in flying to winter Germany again, given that there were only a couple of weeks left before the third trip to Germany (I know, it sounds strange, but they are such promotions).
Now a little about our musical past. In the distant 2010s, we were in the famous musical group Strooks. We toured Ukraine and neighboring CIS countries. The group consisted of over a hundred people. Every year, traditionally, we had a tour in the spring of Yalta. And throughout the year to the regional centers of other cities. The feature of our group was that we did not have a single song. We came to other cities, posters were hung there, advertising our tour with an appeal to buy tickets for our concert. But it was never indicated exactly where to buy tickets and where exactly the legendary concert would take place. The maximum location was indicated. The band developed and we even released our first CD called "9 Vampires". The disc had a beautiful cover, and accordingly, not a single song was recorded on the disc itself. This is very important, because there are no songs at our concerts. The group existed and grew over the course of 7 years. Once there was even a forced rebranding. The fact is that one of our soloists torn in the hands of a poster with the name of the group and two letters "S" fell off. As a result, the group was renamed to trook. Oh, there were times! It was our first musical experience.
One of posters for upcoming tours
A few years later, I celebrated my birthday in a musical style. I signed a real agreement with everyone I planned to invite to the celebration that the signatories join the White Swing group. This was about a month before the holiday. I did not explain that it would be related to the theme of the birthday and did not explain in any way why we were signing this. The reaction was different for everyone, some quickly agreed, others needed time to think, and the contract contained clearly sectarian phrases, but in the end everyone signed, they trusted me and I can speak very convincingly) A week before my birthday, I notified all the signatories that the band is unfortunately breaking up, and on this occasion we have to play our first and last concert right on my birthday. A prerequisite was that everyone should have a musical instrument with them, on which they cannot play. It was a great holiday back then. Now you know almost everything about our musical experience! Go ahead, conquer Berlin!
We flew from cold Kyiv to the warm capital of Germany. It was 12 degrees outside and wonderful weather. It was very important to build the route in such a way that between conferences and reports we had time to get out to the city and return back on time. We lived near the center. In 12 minutes it was easy to get there - a little on foot and 3-4 metro stations.
Accordingly, if there is at least an hour of a break, you can have time to hit the road back and forth. Fortunately for myself, I was able to isolate a whole pack of such breaks. Remarkably, when my colleagues checked into the hotel and started their first foray into the city, I was already coming back to go for a walk along a different route. For the first outing, which lasted several hours, I reached the Brandenburg Gate on foot, about 3 km through the park from the hotel, and then went around the main part of the center to the museum island.
Already traditionally visited a traffic light shop) Two hours flew by faster than a moment. The conference is in 20 minutes, we need to hurry. I went down to the subway, just managed to buy and validate a day pass, when I immediately met the controller on the train.
Fuh, it's good that with a ticket) We have a friend who somehow risked riding a hare in Europe, so now it's scary to even think about it. I saw the controller for the first time in European urban transport. I really doubted their existence. The line to the hotel was not straight. At the transfer, I had two minutes before the next train. I ordered coffee. But I saw that my train was already coming. The barista told me that he would have time for everything. The train was already starting to open the doors, and the guy was just starting the machine. Everything seemed to be gone. But he had everything calculated in seconds. With one hand, he dialed the amount on the terminal, with the second hand he poured ground coffee into the pen, with another hand he frothed milk, and with the last hand he prepared a glass. What's happening? The subway doesn't close the doors either. Apparently, the machinist is in business with the barista. Vzhuh - and coffee with foam is already in my hands, and I calmly go into the car, the doors close behind me. What was it?
I understand if it were in Asia, where everything always works out and succeeds, but there is no Asian magic here! But as it turned out, instead of Asian magic, there was an Asian coronavirus right during our corporate party. We, fortunately, did not know this, we walked more calmly. Although not everyone was walking, this business trip did not go according to plan for some. One employee right after the airport was taken away by insurance with appendicitis. Later, another employee came to the same clinic. And a day later, another one got really bad. But in fact, all three cases have nothing in common and it's just some kind of crazy coincidence that happened on a business trip.
I returned to the hotel right in time for the reports. I listened to three hours of reports, you can continue the journey. There is about an hour before dinner. We continue to explore Berlin. As soon as they announced that the report was over, after 5 minutes I was already rushing to the subway. When we were in Berlin with Dasha, at the New Year's fairs, we really appreciated the courtyards in the Hackescher Markt area. Now there are no fairs, but the courtyards should not get worse from this. Yards, by the way, 1s0x47a851e0de9738eb: 0x881265738ca26495.8m2.3d52.5249426! 4d13.4008949" target="_blank">here.
At first, I could not find the entrance for a long time, somehow last time it was much easier. But the intensified search for the entrance did me good. As a result, I opened another courtyard that does not connect with the neighboring ones. Everything here is rastaman style, just a culture shock.
This is an informal piece of Berlin. So, you need to urgently share your discovery with colleagues. Speaking of colleagues, dinner is coming soon. 40 minutes in the courtyards flew by quite unnoticed. Did I just go into them? Okay, let's go back. Well with a travel card, you can drive back and forth. For a sincere and delicious dinner, colleagues decided to join my expedition in Berlin. Rather, only Dima was ready to join. And Masha and Zhenya needed another 20 minutes. Well then, we start, and you join in the city.
Actually, there were always people who wanted to join my express sorties, but the main problem is "only I need another 20 minutes", and with this scenario, an hour express sortie will not work. Yes, and my eternal enemy is "expectation", with which I constantly struggle. But it's even more about planning. I always took things at conferences and meals in which it would be possible to immediately continue the journey, since I had previously determined all potential windows in conferences. We have now begun to explore the museum island and surrounding areas.
On the way, Bogdan joined us, and eventually Masha and Zhenya. The search for Masha in the city was a very confusing and difficult task. Neither the Internet nor Google coordinates could cope here. But the main thing - we all found! When we had already walked around everything that was possible in the central part of the city, I decided that it was time to take everyone to that rastaman courtyard. But where exactly we are going, I did not say. Decided to intrigue. When I was here for the first time, I saw a sign at the entrance to the basement that the monster show would be in half an hour. Now there was no sign, and I decided that we would just find out what kind of monster was there.
We went down to a very strange basement, there were signs of anarchy on the walls. The staff looked at me suspiciously. I myself did not know where the basement led, but I did not show it. As a result, we reached a large metal door with a button. I explained that the only way to find out what was behind the door was to call. There was a tense silence. I pressed the button... It turned out to be a switch and the lights went out in the whole basement. I am very easily frightened, and when I am frightened, I scream uncontrollably. From my cry, everyone began to run away from the dark basement in horror. Run out! They started giggling at me. I proudly decided to lead everyone on.
Next was a rastaman pub. But when I approached, someone from the pub threw a burning firework on the ground. When I screamed a second time, everyone just started laughing. Even though they were clearly scared. I think that all the members of our expedition remembered this courtyard for a long time. Then I led everyone along the more light courtyards for a walk. I traveled on the first day to glory.
The second day started in the morning with another series of conferences. Although no, it started with the sun outside the window and a delicious breakfast. That's what I love in expensive hotels - it's breakfast, especially when it's not at my expense) I consider a chic breakfast one in which you physically don’t have the strength to try everything, and there must be fried bacon! After starting the day like this, you can listen to what the speakers are talking about.
Reports continued for several hours, then another hour window fell out. The day was sunny, next to the hotel there was an excellent river, I decided at this hour to surrender to the natural beauty rather than the center. There were beautiful courtyards, bridges, and even a bicycle that was completely covered in shells. It was a local landmark that was once taken out of the water.
After lunch, according to the schedule, reports were supposed to continue, but as it turned out, the most pleasant part was waiting for us here. When the doors to the conference hall opened, a musical group stood in the center, loudly playing hits, the whole hall was equipped with musical instruments.
At the entrance, each employee pulled a card on which a tool was drawn that would need to be mastered for the performance. Are we going to play now instead of listening to reports? Here it is, my musical youth was not in vain! No wonder there were all those tours! Now I even master my first instrument! What do we have here? There are drums on the card. Oh yeah! We were divided into groups: drums, bass guitars, electric guitars, another kind of drums and soloists. Each group went with their tutor to master the instrument. We learned the rules of playing three different songs. Then the orchestra, consisting of employees in the amount of 150 people, arranged a real concert. The atmosphere was indescribable. I have always been interested in what a musician feels during a performance.
And here I am already in the role of a musician. I played the other two songs on electric guitar. The guitar turned out to be much more complicated than the drum. But from playing the drum, perhaps, there was a maximum return. Teaching electric guitar was complicated by the fact that I had to understand new English terms for me. But I tried so hard that even the string broke. It was not just a performance, but a real fantasy, also in the form of a surprise! And it doesn't matter who you are in the office - a top manager or an ordinary programmer, here we are all musicians and play the best concert in the world shoulder to shoulder.
Our themed musical year had a spectacular end. I've never had a company like this before. Dasha and her mother received almost live broadcast from the concert. So the concert had not only an international composition - more than 15 countries - but also was broadcast to other countries. Once again, I feel boundless gratitude to the organizers of our business trips. After the concert, charged with positive energy, the guys and I were already rushing to continue exploring the city.
This time we covered the Berlin Wall and its surrounding areas. I will say this: after the Chinese wall, the Berlin one looks much simpler. But in the vicinity they found a courtyard in which there is a large decorated house and many unusual installations, it seems to be a former squat, although it may not have been a former one, I never found out.
On one of the streets, we smelled the smell of grass, which led us to another rastaman settlement. And opposite the wall itself, we found a real fair. Everything was laid out, covered and made of Christmas trees, just a small spruce street. There were also large-scale festivities around it. That's what I like about Berlin, I'm here for the second time and both times the city pleasantly surprises and pleases. While we were preparing to cross the road to the fair, police cars rushed along the oncoming lane and the neighboring lane, the police ran out and ran to some grandmother who was not far from the fair. I sent our delegation in the opposite direction, until nothing exploded. As far as we could make out from a long distance, someone left the bag unattended. Everything worked out, and we had a great walk around the fair. But it didn’t work out for a long walk, the whole trip took place in an endless struggle with time, which once again ended and we had to return to the main corporate party.
The only negative of all these corporate parties is that you have to be in a suit at parties, which is completely contrary to my usual image. In addition, the costume also needs to be rattled from Kyiv through transfers and the airport, and then back. However, the costumes are not suitable for many, but it is very interesting to see your colleagues in such an unusual form. I changed clothes, took a photo for my mother with Dasha, and you can run to hang out.
The lights were extinguished in the hall, the laser was lit, a silhouette appeared on the stage. And the laser show began. I have never seen anything like this, a man did everything with a laser beam, he broke it and did various tricks, this laser in his hands was like a hard stick, but it's just a beam of light. It was very original and interesting. It's great that in our time there are more and more new things that can surprise.
Then they opened an unlimited bar with cocktails. There was also naturally delicious food, but cocktails... The most interesting thing is that I ordered Cuba Libre, which we constantly drink in Egyptian hotels. As soon as I tried the cocktail, I felt the smell of the salty sea in my nose. I literally fell into Egypt for a second. Then the disco began, then a German group performed, then a DJ. I noticed an interesting trend that the DJ was attracting a wider audience, and even employees and employees of respectable age were lit. In Germany they know how to relax!
Usually, at parties in the evening, they bring out some shish kebab, which no longer climbs into anyone. The Germans went further: at about one in the morning, they began to fry delicious shawarma on a spit. She was so beautiful that the employees took them to their rooms to their colleagues who left the corporate party earlier. At about two o'clock in the morning I decided to move to my room, otherwise my morning plans for a walk around Berlin might not come true. It took about a minute to walk down the street between the hotel buildings. It was warm outside, even though I was wearing a shirt. The river was illuminated by the soft light of night lamps and a riverside hotel. Of course, I was already tired during the day, but I could not miss such beauty and decided to make a small circle along the canal.
I walked for about half an hour, enchanted by the night suburbs. And it is the night walk that is now associated with this business trip. How can you sleep when the real February spring is outside? By the way, our party did not slow down, I heard it very far from the building. I slept soundly after clean air.
Another sunny morning!
Even though the alarm clock rang at eight in the morning, it was easy to wake up, because today there would be no more reports and meetings and you could completely devote yourself to the trip, the main thing was to catch the plane in the afternoon. I quickly had breakfast and went to the city parks. I chose the park that was adjacent to the Berlin Zoo.
In addition to the fact that there were a lot of interesting living creatures in the park itself, the zoo enclosures were also adjacent so that you could walk and admire the animals. Among all the enclosures, the heron clearly felt the best. She caught someone in the pond, and when she got tired, she just flew away from the zoo. It was unexpected. Behind the zoo began another one of my favorite areas of Berlin. I don’t know the name, but there is a Hard Rock Cafe and a Louis Vuitton store so expensive that I start to feel awkward more than 100 meters from the store itself. Walked just fine, the weather was good.
The forecast was for rain, but now it's sunny with little clouds. And as soon as I wrote to Dasha that we had good weather, it started to rain, and such that it lasted until the departure. But I was already 100% charged with the solar vitamin, so I put on my hood and turned on calmer music in my headphones, "One in a Canoe" just suited the weather well. Rainy weather brought hundreds of different thoughts in my head. So many ideas, so many memories, and even the main part of this story in my head was born during the rainy part of the walk. It’s good to travel around the world, only a minus - without Dasha, traveling is not so interesting.
The transfer from the hotel was scheduled three hours before departure, and the bus ride to the airport was 14 minutes. I threw a message so that they would not wait for me, I will get there myself. And slowly walked on. The most interesting thing is that the ordered transfer was late exactly as long as I arrived at the hotel. But I needed to eat. And it was clearly cheaper to go out to eat for 4 euros in the city and drive to the airport yourself than to pay for lunch at the airport. So I decided. As a result, it was another excellent business trip and no less excellent trip.
