Prague isn’t next-door to Berlin, though it is a lot closer than Luxembourg. After a night in a fairly shitty hotel on an island in the Vltava I took another cheap bus the following afternoon and arrived just after sunset. I’d only been able to find one hostel with a bed free, and getting to it turned out to be more of a chore than I’d imagined. After two bus rides out of town, a brief search for the correct road and a five minute walk looking for number 56 I found that the last house was number 54 and the only thing past it this path (though at 11pm it was almost unlit and a lot less pleasant looking):

Another five minutes down the path in the dark and I found the hostel, got in contact with Amanda and Miriam, had a quick shower and headed out for the East. We met at a u-bahn station another couple of hours later. They were staying with some arty fashion people they’d found on craigslist. The one who came along with us was a 21-year-old french hairstylist. He looked a bit like a younger Timmy Mallett.

Actually he seemed pretty cool – he seems to be doing well for himself and works on the hair of a lot of cool Berlin types like Peaches. The night before Miriam had been hanging out with her. That night we walked to the front of a queue of at least 200 people and just strolled in. How it should be. The club was supposed to be mixed but turned out to be very gay indeed. Downstairs there was even a “dark room” which I didn’t really feel like checking out. Decent place though, and a good time had by all, etc. The two hours it took me to get back to the hostel were not particularly fun, though.
The next day we were all hungover. Most of the day I spent with Amanda, lounging around in cafes and then going on what turned out to be a futile mission to find Heidi, involving a tour of Berlin’s more well know train stations.

Eventually Heidi turned up at the flat, so we went there, took her to the cafe, and soon it was dark again. There was something else on and I could’ve gone out again that night but as I was leaving at 6.15 the next morning (and still not feeling great) I thought it better to give it up and try to get a little sleep – about three hours in the end.
Though I didn’t do a lot while I was there a trip to Berlin never seems like wasted time. Amanda and Miriam loved it so much that they are thinking seriously of moving there next year, and I can’t say I blame them. It just really does seem like the place to be – the clubs, the food, the people, the culture, the history, the prices; everything about it seems to be just ‘how things should be’. I’m sorry to say it, but Prague just looks a bit provincial and parochial in comparison.