21 Hours in Berlin, Germany part 1 - Karneval der Kulturen (Carnival of Cultures)

yeah, yeah, i know what yer thinking! :P

Berlin is amazing. That's what comes to my mind when I think of something to write about this awesome city. I don't know, maybe because it's my first layover in Europe or maybe just because of the people. I mean, everywhere you look, you see beautiful people and I must say, they are also very fashionable.







I only had 21 hours to explore Berlin so I decided to check TimeOut.com on what to do - found out that there'll be a street festival/party on that day and i was ecstatic! Somehow, I'll have the chance to experience how a street festival goes in Germany...






The Carnival of Cultures street festival is held every year in the district called Kreuzberg. After the festival, there's a street party at Blucherstrauss where people will be eating, drinking, dancing and playing games 'til dawn :P



From TimeOut (http://www.timeout.com/berlin/features/298/festivals-events-in-berlin):

Karneval der Kulturen

Where: Kreuzberg
When: 4 days in May/June
Tel & website: 6097 7022/www.karneval-berlin.de
Inspired by the Notting Hill Carnival and intended as a celebration of Berlin's ethnic and cultural diversity, the long and popular weekend (always Pentecost) centres on a 'multi-kulti' parade involving dozens of floats, hundreds of musicians and thousands of spectators. The route changes every year: see the website.

We arrived at the hotel around 8 or 9pm but it was still a bit bright outside - I was surprised! LOL
We weren't able to see the street festival since it was held during the day,.however, the street party was awesome that night!

From the hotel, we took the subway to the district of Kreuzberg. We bought the ticket in the hotel reception which costed us 2.20 euros.

we took the train from Rohrdam station to Mehringdam. we were also very lucky that the train operates 24 hours so it was easy and cheap going there and getting back to the hotel.

streets of Berlin at night.

people of all ages enjoying the street party - almost everyone were wearing leather jackets - i loved it! some were sporting face paintings which they probably got from the street festival earlier.

there were many stalls for food, clothing, etc from different parts of the world. I wanted to have pork BBQ but there was a long queue (rhyming??!) so I got German hotdogs instead.. 

MY FAVORITE PHOTO:

german sausages! i asked the lady for the best and she gave me Schinkenwurst - personally, i didn't like it.. wasn't even able to finish it. but, i still ♥ this photo! :P

more subway photos! LOL! i just love Berlin's subway!

We had so much fun!!! there were lots of people in the streets drinking, dancing, playing music and drums, groups chilling on the pavement, and some were just walking around with friends while having a bottle of beer. I had Schinkenwurst (a type of german sausage) on a bun and mojito (which i regret, i should've had that BBQ and a nice bottle of german beer!).  nevertheless, it was still a cool experience. :)

a funny/weird experience when we were on our way back home in the subway:

one good looking guy wearing sunglasses: "hey hot chickas!" (obviously he was drunk)

me: hey... (looking at my friend who was also looking at me like she wanted to ask me if we want to run away from this good looking guy)

"you ladies going home?"

"yep"

"where?"

"uhhhmmmm... secret?"

"do you have a Chanel bandana??"

"umm.. no?"

"you're out of the scene then!"

me: ???

WEIRD. good looking, but weird.

Anyway, I still have more Berlin photos and experiences to share 'coz we went sightseeing the next day! :)
I will make a new entry for that since this one is so long already! :)