During the week long break, I traveled to Germany and to Poland. At 5am, I was loading my suitcase into a taxi that would take me to the Hauptbahnhof. If you are traveling before 6am, you probably won’t be able to find a bus to take you the station in time, but fear not! Because the taxi rides are relatively inexpensive (at least from Franz. Viertel) and the fifteen minutes of sleep you get in that car ride is truly refreshing, especially when you go to sleep at 11pm the night before, not that I did…
At the Hauptbahnhof, I went to the bakery and stood forlornly outside the glass barrier that indicated a closed state. I thought about sobbing, but at the clock struck 5.15am, the glass was removed, retracting into the walls, and I was able to order a brezel and a chocolate milk. For chocolate milk, I recommend Landliebe Milch, as it is pretty close to American chocolate milk. You may ask, but what is the difference? For a chocolate milk connoisseur like myself, the difference is obvious. German chocolate milk has a sour taste compared to American chocolate milk and it is strangely never refrigerated when you buy it in stores which at first was strange, then terrifying, and then was normalized as I slowly stopped caring, thinking people must not be dying because of this or Kaufland surely would change its practice. Do not buy the Kaufland milk. It tastes horrible.
Having procured milk and a brezel, I boarded the train and passed out for about eight hours, waking up to the loud noise of Berlin’s train station. I highly recommend the Bahncard25 and will continue bringing it up for the rest of this blog because it is awesome. My ticket to and from Berlin was about 85 Euro. My friend's ticket cost 139 Euro. It also helps to plan ahead, because the tickets are a lot cheaper. We planned this trip at the end of April, so it was a little late. For trips to Italy, you have to plan MONTHS before hand, because the trains our all booked two weeks or earlier before spring break, as I learned when we attempted initially to plan a trip to Italy for break.
We took a short subway ride to the Friedrichstrasse Station and began the hunt for our hostel. Unlike Hostel Elf, which I stayed at while in Prague, there was no scavenger hunt for hostel signs. We did manage to go the wrong way, but some friendly Germans in Vodaphone helped us.
Our hostel was called BaxPax Hostel and I must say, I have mixed feelings about it so I shall discuss the pros and cons:
Pros:
Location: It was right off of Friedrichstrasse and close to two or three main subway stations, so transportation was easily accessible, especially the stop for the Brandenburger Tor, which is one stop away or a short twenty-five minute walk, which though sounds long, is through a cool part of Berlin, so you’ll get to see cool stores like the Ampelmann Store or the various souvenir stores, also the Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, a necessity for anyone who has a sudden craving for American coffee and stale donuts.
Atmosphere: The staff was really friendly, the hostel felt more like a hotel with the connected restaurant, outside lounge area, rooftop terrace, and billiards room. There were also free maps which is awesome. We also got a free drink card during check-in. Thus did I get a free coke that was chugged in the sunlight, on the lounge, in the 70 degree weather that beat down upon me mercilessly, turning my white, pale skin a nice red, as if my shoulders and back were blushing at the sun’s attention.
Rooms: The rooms were spacious and clean and the beds were comfy. The lockers were large and could hold two people’s worth of luggage (A suitcase and two backpacks...at Baxpax!).
Cons:
Check-In: Check-in took almost an hour because they were changing shifts. It would have been ok, but we booked a time to check-in, so it wasn’t like they didn’t know we were coming. However, the staff were friendly and managed to alter our booking so we didn’t have to pay for a person who was coming a few night later, an option that wasn’t available when we booked. (For most hostels, you have to book the entire stay based on the greatest number of people. We had five people staying in the hostel the first two nights, with another friend joining later for the last two, thus we had to book a room for 6 people online in order to all be together).
Key-Cards: Our key cards stopped working every five minutes. This is not an exaggeration. There is a key-card lock on the dorm room door and on the bathroom. One would leave the room, put the key-card in the bathroom lock, have it work, shower, return to the dorm’s door, put in the key, and find it deactivated through some sort of black, dark magic. We had to have it re-activated multiple times throughout the day, which at 1am is most annoying. It also seemed to be a problem throughout the hostel and the other Baxpax Hostels in Berlin (there are three, we stayed in the Downtown one, which after having talked to a friend who stayed in the Kreuzberg one, is far less sketchy of the two in terms of location).
Overall, I would stay there again, as it wasn’t that expensive, though there were a few inconveniences.
