First day there...

After what seemed like the shortest summer ever, I finally got myself packed and on the coach (yes, coach!) at Victoria. My first coach was possibly the best coach I've ever been on - amazing seats, no annoying armrests (linking back to Strasbourg and Prague) and just altogether lush! Plus I managed to get a double seat to myself, and those who have travelled by coach with me before know just how much I need that extra seat - being short is useful when you can sleep over the two seat with ease! However, the young kids soon arrived... As a trained coach user, I still managed a few hours sleep, waking up when we reached the tunnel (much to my surprise as I was under the impression we were taking the ferry!), but not quite managing to sleep again afterwards (mainly thanks to the REALLY loud French woman sitting behind me on her phone for a ridiculous amount of time late at night!). Having arrived in Brussels I got off and searched for my next coach for a while, finally realising that I had to find the Eurolines office and swap my boarding pass for another one and then wait. The wait seemed to get longer and longer, until 23.00 had definitely passed and our coach hadn't been called yet... But eventually our number came up and we all moved towards the coach.

This coach, however, different vastly from the first. The coach driver made us each pay €1.50 to put our luggage underneath (despite our tickets saying that our two pieces of luggage were included in the price), and every single seat on the coach was taken. The man behind me was ridiculously tall, making it impossible for me to recline my seat, and also therefore to sleep comfortably. I ended up in the most awkward position, sleeping bent over with my head resting on the armrest, resulting in a crazy neckache!

We eventually arrived in Berlin at 09.45, and I dragged my suitcase to the nearest metro station, waiting at the top of the escalator along with another girl for the people to stop coming up so we could go down. When it became inevitable that the stream of people coming up was not going to stop, the other girl (much more gracefully than I, I must say) carried her suitcase down the stairs, with me slowly dragging mine down behind her. I soon discovered that this girl, Sara is also on her Erasmus year, at the Freie Universitaet, and is from Belgium. We got confused by the U-Bahn together (the lines have changed...), and agreed to meet up that evening.

After dumping my suitcase in the youth hostel, I moved on to Alexanderplatz to meet Irena, Alex and Francesca, who kindly brought my laptop to Berlin for me on their short break here. After wandering round for a while, we went for lunch in an Italian restaurant, where neither Irena or I seemed able to finish our food (quite a feat for the restaurant, I can tell you that!). I left them after lunch to return to my youth hostel, booking into my mixed dorm of 8. Shortly after this I went to view a room in a 2 person WG, where the other girl is also a musician, and is about to start studying cello at the Hochschule. Sara, the other girl, was unfortunately not there, but her mum showed me round the flat (which is nice, but possibly more than I can afford) and then took me to the nearest S-Bahnhof.

Having taken the S-Bahn to Alexanderplatz, I walked to Humboldt-Universitaet, to ask a few questions in the office. The lady was very nice, but unfortunately couldn't tell me whether or not I would be able to attend the Sprachkurs (the real reason I arrived in Berlin so early). She gave me a number to call, which I did so accordingly, and the woman on the other end was unfortunately less able to help, telling me that the Sprachkurs has been fully booked for ages now, and there was no way I could possibly take part in it.

Returning to the youth hostel somewhat less chirpy than I had left, I eventually took my (much needed!) shower, before checking how my other WG-applications were going. One of the WGs I was due to visit that evening turned out to have already been rented out, so I turned up to the other, still somewhat hopeful. After the long walk in the rain (having, of course, accidentally left my umbrella in the youth hostel!) I finally found this WG at the top of a block of apartments. Whilst this WG was much cheaper than the first I visited, it was very much a smoking WG, something which I'm not overly sure I could stick with for a whole year...

I walked back to Alexanderplatz, where I met Sara and two Belgian friends she met in her youth hostel, and we went to find something to eat. Overall, whilst I have at least met a few people, it has definitely enlightened me as to the complexity which comes with life in Berlin and WGs.... So, today I continue my search...

Bis bald!