Level 5, stage 2.
Apr. 13th, 2002 11:33 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
unbibiumI arrived in Berlin around noon Friday. It was a two hour train ride to Berlin. My hostel is a little out of the way, so I dropped off my stuff and decided to go to town, find an Internet cafe to check in, and make my plans for the rest of the weekend.
It took me a while to search the train station for something useful, but there was a Eurail help station that had the exact brochures I needed: an EasyEverything pamphlet and, oh, Berlin Walks! And, it looked like one was meeting right outside the train station in... five minutes!
It was a perfect INtro to Berlin tour with lots of medieval and 19th-century sites, lots of Third Reich sites, and lots of Berlin Wall sites, the opposing Sony and Chrysler mega-complexes that are across the street from each other, and ending at Checkpoint Charlie. And plenty of breaks for coffee, etc. The tour didn´t finish until 6:30. I thought perhaps after giving the Checkpoint Charlie museum a quick once-over, I would find the EasyEverything, drop everyone a quick line and head back home.
It was THEN that I got lost.... I planned to find the EasyE by 8, zip on and off and be at the hostel at 9 to do laundry before the room closes at 10. Which I must do, because all the clean clothes I had were a single pair of underwear.
I should not have been in such a hurry, because they have the SLOWEST LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT EVER. The guy warned me the wash took 3 hours. I tried to ask him, "is that 2 for washing, 1 for drying?" He couldn´t say, but I thought, well, of course it is. Every washing machine I have encountered in my lifetime took a maximum of 45 minutes, so even if this one is a little show. But, no. 3 hours to wash.
I just couldn´t stay up that late so I waited until the morning to dry everything. I am pretty sure I don´t smell like mildew, thoughö perhaps the wash ended five minutes before I woke up.
So this morning I´m going to spend a little time at EasyE making up for lost time.... grab lunch somewhere and see either the zoo or another walking tour.
I think I might try the McDonald´s. I don´t even eat there at home, but every American is programmed to eat there at least once every three months, upon which time we are reminded why we haven´t been there for three months.
It took me a while to search the train station for something useful, but there was a Eurail help station that had the exact brochures I needed: an EasyEverything pamphlet and, oh, Berlin Walks! And, it looked like one was meeting right outside the train station in... five minutes!
It was a perfect INtro to Berlin tour with lots of medieval and 19th-century sites, lots of Third Reich sites, and lots of Berlin Wall sites, the opposing Sony and Chrysler mega-complexes that are across the street from each other, and ending at Checkpoint Charlie. And plenty of breaks for coffee, etc. The tour didn´t finish until 6:30. I thought perhaps after giving the Checkpoint Charlie museum a quick once-over, I would find the EasyEverything, drop everyone a quick line and head back home.
It was THEN that I got lost.... I planned to find the EasyE by 8, zip on and off and be at the hostel at 9 to do laundry before the room closes at 10. Which I must do, because all the clean clothes I had were a single pair of underwear.
I should not have been in such a hurry, because they have the SLOWEST LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT EVER. The guy warned me the wash took 3 hours. I tried to ask him, "is that 2 for washing, 1 for drying?" He couldn´t say, but I thought, well, of course it is. Every washing machine I have encountered in my lifetime took a maximum of 45 minutes, so even if this one is a little show. But, no. 3 hours to wash.
I just couldn´t stay up that late so I waited until the morning to dry everything. I am pretty sure I don´t smell like mildew, thoughö perhaps the wash ended five minutes before I woke up.
So this morning I´m going to spend a little time at EasyE making up for lost time.... grab lunch somewhere and see either the zoo or another walking tour.
I think I might try the McDonald´s. I don´t even eat there at home, but every American is programmed to eat there at least once every three months, upon which time we are reminded why we haven´t been there for three months.
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no subject
Date: 2002-04-13 09:13 am (UTC)Very cool.
"they have the SLOWEST LAUNDRY EQUIPMENT EVER."
There are often places you can leave a bag of laundry and pick it up clean the next day. Yes, it costs more than self-serve but sometimes not that much more, and what with the time/money equasion, it can sometimes be worth it.
Have you encountered any combo laundrymats/internet access places? There may be an untapped market out there...
no subject
Date: 2002-04-13 09:25 pm (UTC)Surf the 'net while you do your laundry!
I know I do, but I have a machine at home, and the compooter room shares a wall with the laundry room. This is nice, as I know when the wash/dry cycle is done.
Re:
Date: 2002-04-14 07:38 am (UTC)But it would be perfect for European tourists like me to combine the services.
Indeed, I am paying only slightly less for the three-hour washing machine from hell than I did in Paris for the ladies who washed them and dried them and even folded them for me.