Up all night at Hopbahnhof Station

Alright folks, this was a truly original experience. So big John decided that it would be a good idea to book one of the first flights out of Berlin on Tuesday morning at 6:30 am. That's fine, I'm cool with that. But wait... let's think about this one for a second, how the hell are we gonna get from our hostel to the airport by 5am. Shit, so...why don't we just stay overnight at the airport, it wouldn't be that bad. Turns out big John has us flying out of Tegel airport, and it also turns out that Tegel closes from 10 pm to 4am. What kinda f***in' airport closes down at night!!! Wow, was I ever choked. So...after a lot of chat, we decided that the best idea is to stay at the train station. The one near us Zoologischer Gartens...sketchy as all get out, so we decide to stay at the main station Berlin Hopbahnhof.



Skip forward to midnight, we're sitting in a deserted train terminal with our huge bags, which are surprisingly girthy by the way. We decided we'd sleep in shifts, so it was John's turn first. He falls asleep pretty quickly, I'm sitting there listening to music. You know those little mini-zambonis they use to clean floors, well there were three of those guys that kept going over the same spots right in front of us for about half an hour, these guys are grade A goombas I'm telling ya. Then the police, who are roaming around this huge station, come up and actually yell at us, mostly John and proceeds to tell us we're not allowed to sleep, I guess we look like bums or something (I haven't shaved in a while but I don't think I give off the bummish vibe). This scared the shit outta me because I had my headphones on, so I guess you didn't really have to be too stealthy to sneak up on me. So from now on, John and I are trying to sleep while keeping an eye out for angry German cops who are ready to yell. Awhile later, I fall asleep for about three minutes before the old coppers wake me up...and then proceed to walk right by some other guy who was clearly asleep. T.I.E. (This is Europe (this needs to be said with a Rhodesian accent like Leo in Blood diamond incidentally) This is what we say whenever ridiculous shit goes down on our trip.



So I'm in an exhausted daze by 3 am so I decide to get up and I start dancing in front of a store called McPaper to some Black Rebel Motorcycle Club songs (Devil's Waiting, Restless Sinner). Wow that is so random. But like I said I was in a bit of a daze by then. We get up at 4 am (get up as if we were asleep ha!). Interestingly, Berlin at 4am smells like garbage...literally garbage, gosh we gotta get the hell outta Berlin.

At the airport, I needed to take some Advil to clear me up before the flight so my ears don't get blown out on the plane. So I accidentally pull 3 Advil out of my big bag and then check it. So now I have three Advil instead of two. What do I do, I ask John if he wants one...no go. Because I'm not sure if they allow liquidgel caplets on planes my options are throw one away or...take all three. So I chose the latter. I figured I'd be fine. Well...between the Advil, the altitude, and the whole being up for 24 hours thing; I was completely zonked out on the plane. I was a mess, I could not keep my eyes open, I'd wake up long enough to wipe the drool off of my face, collect the free airplane food, then pass out again. Wow, turns out I'm a huge lightweight when it comes to Advil...ya I was pretty much hammered.

Anyways that's how I ended up in Greece...