Not Quite The Trip We Had Planned, Part 4: Berlin, Frankfurt, And Geneva
We had completed our tour of Auschwitz, the main reason we had decided to come to Poland in the first place and we still had one more day in Krakow before flying to Germany to spend a few more in Berlin before Anna’s conference in Switzerland.
Wednesday, May 8, 2024
We had now been in Krakow for a week and had seen a lot while there, but there was still one more place I needed to visit, however, a bite to eat was our first call of duty. We hadn’t tried zapiekanka, essentially an open-faced sandwich, usually hot ingredients on a sliced baguette and covered with hot ketchup, I guess a Polish street food take on a pizza. We didn’t actually know these things existed before we saw a massive queue out the front of Zapiekanki BarOko and any Singaporean will tell you that the best way to find good food is to go to the stall with the longest queue so without really knowing what were about to have, Anna still jumped on the end of the line. These things are huge and we don’t really eat lunch when we’re not on holiday so we grabbed a half one each, I can’t remember which ones from that menu, but we loved them, providing us plenty of fuel for the main item on the day’s itinerary, the Krakow Pinball Museum:
Great pinball and arcade machines collection reaching back till the 1930s (the oldest machine made by Pamco was produced in 1936).
Our museum is located very close to Wawel and is situated in XV century historical cellar. Spreading over 300 square meters, our museum will entertain you with dozens of various pinball and arcade games. Unlimited free play on all the machines is included in the tickets’ price – starting from almost hundred-year-old machines to the newest pinballs with an LCD screen.
I’ve always loved playing pinball and would love to have a machine of my own, however, the price, size, and upkeep are pretty large obstacles in the way, but this museum would definitely suffice. We chose the cheapest ticket option which came with one hour of free play each and I think we chose well, because after going through the many rooms, hopping from machine to machine in this underground arcade dungeon my wrists were beginning to get quite painful from playing, but there were some cool machines in there, even Anna got in on the action too.
After a bit more looking around the city, me having a random guy on the street tell me I was a “beautiful man” whilst doing so, we grabbed some pasta from a food truck and had a relatively early night, because we had an early flight in the morning, but here’s how our final afternoon in Poland looked:
Thursday, May 9, 2024
We woke up on time for our flight and surprisingly my wrists were still a bit sore from all of that pinball the previous day, but we were in Germany and in our Berlin hotel room before 11:00am. We caught up on some sleep before going for a walk around town while we waited for my old mate Sean Elleman and his girlfriend, Luci, to knock off work at their tattoo store so we could meet up like we do with him each time we’re in town.
We eventually met them in a large biergarten at around 3:30pm and that was how we spent most of the day, just hanging out and chatting until it started to cool down and we got hungry later in the evening, that’s when we moved on to an indoor bar and restaurant. We would also be visiting our friends, Amir and Reuth, who had recently moved to Berlin, however, only Amir would be able to join us later that night, but that wasn’t a problem, we would be spending most of the coming days with them both and their two girls.
Day one in Berlin:
Friday, May 10, 2024
The previous night Amir had been telling us about a medieval fair that was in the evening that sounded like a bit of fun. He had really been building it up, telling us that the people involved actually live like this full time and just travel around to fund their way of life. This wasn’t role playing at all, these people are a proper community and get right into this stuff. Also, he and Reuth have a second daughter we hadn’t met, Daniel, so we just took it easy until he was finished at work.
Amir was done at 4:00pm, a friend of his would be joining us, and it was a bit of a drive to get out to the fair and I think even he would admit it was a little underwhelming when we arrived. The entire place was full of items which all seemed to have the sole purpose of critically injuring children; besides stalls selling the usual stuff you’d expect at a place like this, such as weird costumes and jewellery and horns for drinking out of, there were others selling wooden swords for kids to hit each other with. On top of this there was a handcrafted and hand-cranked ferris wheel and other potential deathtrap rides, plus archery and axe throwing, but there was also food, beer, and mead so the six of us grabbed some food, the adults a drink or two, and watched the entertainment, first a procession of “Knights”, some of whom were in knight costumes, but just wearing sneakers, and then there was a medieval band consisting of drums, a lute, and two bagpipe players. Not really our cup of tea, but people were really getting into them and to be fair I would’ve preferred to be selected to take part in that show than what was to come later in the night.
We walked past rows of tents where people from the fair were staying and drove back, Reuth dropped their older daughter, Alex, off with their helper, and then it was time for the next event of the evening; a drag performance. These types of shows are always a bit of fun, especially if you have a seat a little further from the stage, but ours were almost front row and centre which made me a little nervous, given my past history of forced audience participation at similar events. It was hosted by MC vanderWal who threw wads of his own personalised money into the crowd as he sung. The other performances were really good too, but before long we were up to a trans performer who was doing their best to freak out the crowd and then the dreaded moment came; the performer looked into the crowd, locked eyes with me, and summoned me onto the stage. They took off my hat and first it was just me kneeling down with them on my back, whipping me with metre-long armpit hair, but then they turned around grabbed my head and rammed it into their groin, so I just went with it, motorboating their crotch to the delight of the audience and rapturous amusement of my friends. Amir owed me some drinks after that one.
Some photos and videos of two starkly different forms of entertainment and performances on a Friday evening:
Saturday, May 11, 2024
The beginning of our final full day in town was a far simpler affair compared to the events of the previous night, no extreme closeups of the nether regions of strangers, just Anna and myself meandering around the Mitte borough of Berlin until our friends were free, taking in the sights and sounds. Among these sights was a street clock with a revolving triangular sign, one panel with a lingerie advertisement that stated in large letters, “Do your boobs a favour”, and another with an ad for DildoKing.
Eventually Amir and Reuth arrived, this time with both of their daughters in tow so Anna was excited to meet the newest member of the family, Daniel. We hung around under an awning that seemed like a circus tent sans walls with a couple of drinks, but when you’ve got a couple young with young daughters it’s hard to stay out late.
Saturday thus far:
Once the family had left Anna and I grabbed some dinner and then it was time for our nighttime entertainment. When we had seen Sean and Luci on Thursday he had mentioned that one of his bands was playing on Saturday night and he gave us the address if we could make it. Well, it was Saturday night and we were free so it was time to find the venue. When we arrived in the cab, however, we thought that we must’ve had the wrong address, because we seemed to be in some sort of industrial area. We wandered around a bit and saw people walking into what appeared to be a derelict building so we followed them and it turned out that that was KØPI, the venue. This place reminded me a little of when I saw another friend’s band play years ago at a venue called Skunkhell in Seoul, South Korea, but on this occasion it was an old abandoned theatre that had been haphazardly converted into a live music venue. The exterior was decrepit and crumbling, graffitied and with a large head taken from some sculpture attached to the wall. We paid and got our hand stamps at the door and once inside KØPI looked like most punk spots with the walls, pillars, and sound desk plastered in stickers and a relatively low stage at the front, but it was the layout that was a little odd. The main band room was normal and there was a bar at the back, however, to get to it you had to walk through the disgusting men’s toilet, one which was exactly what you would expect in a venue such as this. I wandered through and bought a couple of beers from an old-school punk guy with facial tattoos and a fluorescent green mohawk that evolved into long, gnatty dreadlocks at the rear and before long the show started.
Both bands that played weren’t bad and it was a fun night, however, the security weren’t worried too much about what was happening on the floor except for people taking pictures, as KØPI has a strict “no photos” policy. To be fair I actually kind of like that as it makes people get into the music more, as opposed to just holding a phone in the air, but I still managed to sneak a couple of cheeky ones of the show, as well as more of the venue, inside and out, before a bouncer came over and screamed at me:
Sunday, May 12, 2024
We would be taking a train to Frankfurt to spend the night before flying out to Geneva, Switzerland the following day where Anna’s conference was being hosted, but we still had plenty of time before we needed to be at the station and on a Sunday that can only mean one thing; a flea market, plus a last minute goodbye to Amir and Reuth before we left. Unfortunately the flea market wasn’t much, but it was great seeing them and their family one more time, but before long the moment we dreaded was upon us.
For lack of a better word, we’ve learnt from experience that Frankfurt, and particularly the area surrounding the train station, is an absolute shithole. Upon arrival we were unable to exit the first door of Frankfurt station, because there was a junky facing us with his eyes closed and struggling to stand while holding two syringes in his hand in front of him. We opted for another door and and walked past a guy who was passed out on the ground with his arm over a bench while multiple people walked around, talking to themselves. We would be staying near the station as a matter of convenience so we checked into our hotel before going to a nearby restaurant for dinner. Fortunately for us our outdoor section of the restaurant was fenced off from the street, but that didn’t stop crackheads and hobos approaching us for change. We stuck around and enjoyed our oversized open kebab and took in the entertainment, which included a man working in the restaurant across the road using a leaf-blower to remove foliage from around the tables before locking up, leading to a flock of the great unwashed to descend on the area in a search for cigarette butts. One woman was so dedicated that she walked up and down the street at least three times on her treasure hunt, but no more fresh butts appeared.
It was time to call it a night so we could make our flight the following day, but here are some scenes from the afternoon:
Monday, May 13, 2024
The original purpose for us being in Europe on this trip was here, we were now traveling to Geneva, however, that would require us flying out from Frankfurt, home to one of the worst airports in Europe as well. It’s not horrible in the train station way, it’s just that it’s almost one long terminal, there’s nothing really there, it can take 20+ minutes to walk to your gate, and if they change it at the last minute there is a mad rush to find the new gate in time.
Fortunately that didn’t happen so by mid-afternoon we were in Geneva:
Geneva is the second-most populous city in Switzerland (after Zürich) and the most populous of the French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the capital of the Republic and Canton of Geneva, and a centre for international diplomacy. Geneva hosts the highest number of international organizations in the world.
The city of Geneva (Ville de Genève) had a population of 203,856 in January 2021 within its municipal territory of 16 km2 (6 sq mi), but the larger Canton of Geneva had a population of 506,343 over 246 km2 (95 sq mi). The Geneva metropolitan area as officially defined by Eurostat, including suburbs and exurbs in Vaud and the French departments of Ain and Haute-Savoie, extends over 2,292 km2 (885 sq mi) and had a population of 1,053,436 in 2021.
Because of the way we had planned the original US trip we figured we’d be spending more time in New York, plus Geneva is extremely expensive, more so when there are are conferences on, but that was the very reason we would be here for two nights.
Mohan, our upstairs neighbour from back in Singapore spends about half of his time in Geneva so after we had checked into our hotel he met us and took us on a personalised tour of the city, through the streets, past geese and goslings feeding around the lake, and out onto wharfs to take in the city from a different angle while fountains spurted out of the lake creating double rainbows, before taking us out to a surprise fondue dinner. Mohan isn’t particularly a night-owl, but that didn’t stop Anna and myself continuing on after a fine feast.
Our first day in Geneva, Switzerland:
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Anna would be speaking today so that would give me free rein to explore more of the city, but there was just one minor problem — It may be beautiful, but Geneva isn’t really a particularly lively place. I had a few shops that I wanted to look at and it didn’t take long to tick them off the list. I also didn’t know how long Anna was going to be busy, she could’ve been free at any moment so it didn’t make much sense to go to a gallery or museum, instead I just spent a drizzly afternoon wandering about in parts of the city Mohan hadn’t taken us.
My intuition was correct and Anna was finished reasonably early in the afternoon so we hung out for a bit and then it was off to dinner once more with Mohan and her Thai colleague, Warapat, and her old classmate, Kenneth.
Some shots from the final day of an exceptionally epic trip:
Our adventure that turned out to be completely different compared to the one we had spent months planning was now over. The original plan had been to go to the USA and visit friends in Seattle, fly over to Detroit and do a road trip to Chicago with another group of friends, return to Seattle for a conference, before flying out once more to New York, however, we got turned away at the airport here in Singapore when we were checking in. This setback had Anna’s planning go into hyper-mode and instead we found ourselves in Poland, staying in Warsaw and then Krakow for the purpose of touring Auschwitz, hanging out with mates in Berlin, Germany and then a predablly awful night in Frankfurt. The only thing that both the intended and the resulting trips had in common were that they both ended in Geneva, but with the exception of missing out on the chance to visit our buddies in the USA (and now being barred from entering the country without an official visa), I’m definitely happier that the latter option arose, Poland is a fantastic country and the rest of the trip was the icing on the cake! Also, a big shoutout to Mohan for his hospitality and generosity on the Swiss leg of our getaway.
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