Am still sleepy from the trip.. but gotta blog this for old time's sake..
My brother still didn't put up my old computer for fixing so have to use this uber slow laptop to blog. Nothing wrong there i suppose, unless i decide to bring out the pictures for the trip.. =D
First day: (Sept 30 / Philippine time)
Spent the hours at the internet SQ's lounge (still in the Philippines), then had a 3 hour flight to Singapore, then toured SQ's airline before retiring to the lounge and eating their buffet (yum!) then spent another 16hours on board to frankfurt (went to their lounge even at the last minute just to sit in their seats!! Confirmed that luggage is safely @ iChang, then spent another 1 1/2 hour flight to berlin.
This is when the nightmare begins... When we got to the teeny weeny airport of Berlin, majority of our luggages (6 of us, including the reporters luggage, were left in Frankfurt!) i really hate change planes.. 2 of us were wise enough and claimed 50euro each! geeesh.. the rest of us didn't know there was such a policy (we only knew when my cousin told me after reaching the hotel) (very very mad with the airline.. purposedly didn't inform us..) and hurriedly got our stuffs towards the hotel.
Hotel Konigin was located east part of Berlin, Parkstratz, pronounced as "Parkstratze" or Park Street (its situated in the suburban area) lights in the hallway only light up when you walk past it. Not a very accessible place. Taxi drivers and bus drivers alike are at a loss when going there (there are 2-3 Parkstratz in Berlin.. sigh). Armed with only a nightkit from the airline (an XL T-shirt with some toiletries) and no complementary water from the hotel (the damned hotel doesn't serve complementary stuffs.. all require payment.. what a cheapskate..) i just went straight to sleep without thinking about it.
2nd Day: (Sept 30 / German time)
Really pissed off when i found out that their outlet was the round type thing.. You see, i brought along a complete set of adapters, except that one.. so I really have to conserve my cellfone life.. None of the group brought that type of adapter either.. Was itchin to have breakfast (woke up 7am coz my body clock hasn't adjusted and my throat is really really parched.. (and to imagine i brought a luggage of water coz can't survive without water..) Had breakfast at last.. had to do with sausages, eggs, cheeze, and cold salmon.. glugged down all their milk.. (everything tastes great if you're thirsty). My cousin had a brief encounter with the waitress' "hospitality". She asked an elderly waitress to please refill the cream and was bluntly told to "leave it there". My cousin was really pissed off but just shrugged the matter off. She was later told that some German people were still racist.. (I think it applies with the older bunch. The younger bunch were more accomodating than their older counterparts..) Luggage arrived around 11am.. Luggage at last!! The rest of the day was spent doing some sightseeing.
1. the buzy (restaurants and sightseeing) Unter den Linden,
2. the parliamentary dome Reichstag - where you can see the parliament in session (but wasn't able to go in),
3. the Brandenburg Gate, where the Goddess of Victory was erected, (just found out that the wide open gate in the middle was reserved for the monarch to pass through, with the common people were allowed to pass through the other four).
4. the breathtaking Berlin Cathedral (heard it was a miniature replica of St. Peter's basilica. duno if its true). Now i read that its a "Protestant answer to Catholic Rome". Germany has a Protestant population, or so i heard.. they charge 7 euros per admission!! geesh.. but didn't go in anyways..
5. the buzy shopping center of Potsdamer Platz, (had lunch consisting of raw herring sandwich... not a bad combination..)
6. the Europa Center, where Sony Center and Mercedes Building can be found. And also it houses the largest shopping center can be found.
7. and walking a distance turns us to Weltkugelbrunnen, where the church that lasted beyond WWII can be found.
8. forgot that we also saw the TV station with a revolving restaurant..
For dinner, we went to the nearest Korean restaurant Called "Arirang" (like the channel in Home cable?) because our host was of Korean origin.. yumyum!! My first taste of sang giop chai, sou-jou (real good!), and a tall glass of beer!! hehe.. btw, Arirang stands for some tragic or sad thing.. (if my memory serves me correctly..) at least there's some Asian food in the midst of European cheeze n sausage!!
3rd Day:
Wasted half of the day waiting for the late driver. (That's even worse than Filipino time!!) We already noticed that people here are really relaxed! Had an afternoon cruise around the City.. What seemed to be boring to most of us might be a sense of enjoyment for most of the people there! And they love their sun. If people here hide and shun the sun, the people there really take in all the sun! Literally!! We saw people lazing around the grass sunbathing! (I even read in the airline magazine that people here can have an excuse from work just to take in the sun..) Maybe that's understandable coz they only had few months with the sun, pretty much like we have practically no "snow" here in the Philippines, so they relish their moments with the sun.. Other than, saw more and more architectures of Berlin.. One more fact, Berlin only has roughly 3million people.. What a shame, coz they really have lots of land there. While in the Philippines, i think we will already hit 20million already.. hehe.. talk about population explosion.. The restaurants only have 2, the most 3 waiters, and they're really efficient! They remember all our orders and can lift many glasses of tall beers!! =D One more observation, young German men and women are really good looking.. Learned that some Germans were dumb with math (they exist).. My cousin brought a battery for 4 euros, she gave him all the euro coins she had and he only got 2 euros.. Mr. Binggoy gave him 2 euros and he even rejected it!! hehe.. Later reconfirmed my hypothesis coz one of the Media group changed a hundred dollar bill for euros at the hotel reception and you know how much he gave in return? 110 euros!! whahahhahaha!! I should've changed my dollars there too!! hahaha!! =D =D Ate dinner at a local Italian restaurant where i got to taste different kinds of hard drinks.. and beer of course!! =D a sip wouldn't be bad right? =D
4th Day:
Wasted again, half of the day for the late bus driver once again (he was late for 1.5hours!) .. now people were really pissed off coz today is IFA day. Its a convention where we get to see the IFA (a lot like Glorietta magnified 7fold) Exhibits of different brands were there but the really particularly nice booth was of Samsung. Sony's display lost hands down to Samsung.. (like nothing beats the Samsung booth!) very self explanatory and they have tons of plasmas and digital stuff!! Had dinner at Ritz Carlton hotel. Dinner was a blast!! Duck liver was scrumptuous! The waiters were really bent on having a practised performance.. imagine 6 waiters having to circle your table and giving your food at the same time! They want everything to go well.. Had a live Bond show where all the men were drooling over and also the funny Cooks show where 4 cook performers enchant you with their comedic act with the beat of their knives beating upon the chopping board.. After that, we had a last day bonding with other dealers with beers and fruit juices for me n my cuz.. heheh..
5th Day:
Done with last minute shopping and explored our hotel surroundings. Gave the driver a dose of his own medicine.. purposedly went to the bus half and hour late. =D When we reached the airport, went straight to the information to claim the 50 euros. The media people tried their best to explain that it wasn't fair for the two guys to get 50 euros while we weren't informed on this matter. The lady there made lame excuses. Their excuses ranged from a) we should've claimed the night our luggages were lost (geesh.. as if we knew! if we knew, then we would have claimed it!) b) That didn't apply with domestic flights [Frankfurt to Berlin] (Hey, but its still their fault, we came from far away right?) and the lamest c) we should produce receipts of our purchases and they will reimburse that.. (yea right.. there were stores open during the night so that we could buy stuffs... very stupid). But the media people promised they would write stuffs about this.. and that's my only consolation.. i hope they bash 'em real good!! Then I went to the tax free claiming area to claim my tax refund. The girl there bitched me that i should have the item with me before i could get a refund.. i was like "Duh, if someone informed me earlier about this matter, i would have brought the item with me. The manual from the hotel didn't mention any bringing stuffs to the airline to get the tax refund!" The gurl just muttered a few more words and finally gave in.. Geeeesh... people are so crazy over there!! The last stupid experience i had was with my cousin and the Check in personnel. We were rudely cut off by some people who made "siksik" into the line and took so long to check in!! Geesh!! The economy line was faster than the Business line!! Then, the stupid german rudely greeted us: "This is the Business Section of the flight" Like, duh, don't we have eyes to read the thing above their heads? We answered him roughly: "Yea we know" and showed him our tickets. Then, my cousin explicitly told the guy to seat both of us together all throughout the flight from Berlin to Manila.. and guess what the stupid guy did.. he just sat us together the first part of the flight!! What a moron! And to think that we paid so much more to get that kind of treatment! Stupid Lufthansa.. (It's my first time to have that kind of rude treatment.... in a business class!!) I hope the media people get to write some stuffs about that airline...
Too bad our flight was delayed that i wasn't able to stay in IChang's lounge anymore.. sob sob.. Well that ends my babbly narrative.. think i'm having the fumes again after writing these stuffs..
