Amy and I got the the main train station the night before New Year’s Eve just to get settled in before we had our crazy night. We had a difficult time finding our hotel, even though if we would have just kept walking we couldn’t have missed it. Once we got settled in, we rested up for our big New Year’s Eve.
We woke up the next day and thought it would be a good idea to do a little test run because we heard things got pretty hectic as the time got closer, and we wanted to see the Brandenburg gate before it was dark. When we got there it seemed strange because such a historical site was overwhelmed with lights, stages, soundchecks, and other things preparing for the night ahead. The area for the party was a mile long, so we walked the whole thing and grabbed some lunch (bratwurst, of course!) and then we got a “doughnut”, which was really just a pretzel with some chocolate on top of it.
We regrouped at the hotel because we knew we were in for a pretty intense night. We knew that it was supposedly the biggest New Year’s celebration in the world which means we would literally be one in a million at this party. We got there at about 5pm (looking back we did NOT need 7 hours!!!) and walked around, drank some gluwein (which is hot wine that tastes a lot like apple cider), and tried to battle the frigid cold. Every once in a while there were big tents where everyone congregated and danced to the very finest of German music, which is much better than Serbian music! We were dancing to lots of unknown music when all of the sudden the YMCA started. It was surprising but those germans ROCKED out to the Village People. We had a good time seeing everyone singing every word of such a random American song.
loving the gluwein!
We eventually left there and made another lap around just to check everything out and then we decided we needed to buy some champagne and battle the crowds to get to a good place by midnight. We bought two glasses of champagne, shoved it into a water bottle and set our sights on the prize: a coveted position as close as possible to the Brandenburg gate where there is the show at midnight. We slowly inched our way through the crowds and finally settled in next to some sweet germans and then eventually a group of kids from England.
(Let me take a second to explain how many people there were: for most of the night I could literally pick up my feet and almost be held up by all of the surrounding bodies that were squished so close to me. Also, moving 3 feet forward was considered making some SERIOUS headway!)
I asked Amy how to count down in German, but I don’t think that was ever necessary... Why not? Because we counted down in English because the special guest was none other than DAVID HASSELHOFF!! He sang a song, counted us down, the gave little plug for his upcoming tour before saying “The Hoff is back!!” and exiting the stage. Amy and I (as well as the British kids) thought this was the biggest joke, but the Germans seemed to be loving it! Who knew?
At midnight there was an awesome fireworks/lights show above the bridge. It was really pretty, but Amy and I decided it took away from the history of the gate. The show lasted a few minutes and then we were out of there because it would be too hard to fight the crowds if we waited around. We got back to the hotel and were SO excited to put our feet up. Day 1 of Berlin was successful!
at midnight! happy 2011!
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