Hens weekend in Berlin

So last weekend, it was finally time to descend onto the secret location for B's Hens Weekend.

I hadn't organised a group weekend like this before and it was nerve wracking bringing the whole thing together. But as B rightfully said to me, "just you wait until you organise a wedding!" - eek. We chose Berlin as B hadn't been there before and it was a party town - perfect for the Hens weekend. We also had a few German speakers in the group, which made it even better.

Only B, Stef and I flew in on the Friday night and so we decided to hit the fabulous Solar bar after a quick change of clothes. Before I go on, I must mention the fabulous hotel we stayed in, Mercure near Checkpoint Charlie. Each of our triple rooms were ginormous (like small appartments) and we were right in the heart of town for a very reasonable price. And to top it all off, the toiletries weren't the usual hotel crap - they were very cute! :D

Soooooo verrrrrrrry cuuuuuuute!

So back to Solar bar..... it was hard to find but worth it. The bar was on the top of a tallish building in the middle of Berlin (near Potsdamer Platz) and the way to the top is via a glass elevator. The bar provided amazing views of the Berlin nightscape and we enjoyed this with some yummy cocktails. We even managed to get to the swing seat in the end and then we slowly nudged away the amorous couple who kept violently swinging the seat. Blerg!

Saturday morning provided a light hangover and a spot of sightseeing. Stef (our German friend) took B and I around the main historical sights of Berlin and provided an in-depth and personal commentary on Berlin now and then.

Brandenburg Tor (gate)

The line that marks the former Berlin wall

The sombre Holocaust memorial

Is this the exact spot of Hitler's bunker???? One guidebook thinks so. The rest of the area is a massive carpark

Berliner Dom - very impressive church.

Then it came to the nighttime activities. We started off with some pink champagne and a game of Naughty & Nice, consisting of a list of very personal questions that B had to get right in order to get some 'nice' presents.... if she got a question wrong, she got a 'naughty' gift. Tee hee hee

"I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll finally open the champagne bottle!". My naughty gift to B was candy nipple tassels :p

Then we went to Spindler & Klatt restaurant for dinner & drinks. The restaurant was on the bank of the river and we needed taxis to find it. It seemed like a converted container terminal; the walls were now draped with white cloth and on one side of the room there was a DJ spinning some choons. Very fabulous.

The bridesmaid and the bride - pre any puking and messiness.

The restaurant becomes a club after dinner and as luck would have it, it was Bollywood night! It was pretty darn cool to see sooooo many people all dressed up in Bollywood gear... not just the Indian folk there, the Germans too! Then we went to the famous Felix club (part of Hotel Adlon) but unfortunately by then, B had a skinful and was swaying worryingly. We managed to get her in without any fuss but that's when the trouble started. Let me be succinct: LOTS OF PUKE. Say no more, say no more.

Taken from S' pix - B is sloshed!

After a long while, we managed to get her back to the hotel where she fell into an alcohol coma and the girls decided to declare B's love for M by drawing on her with my eyeliner (yes, photographic evidence is available). All the while, B was comatose.....

The next day was of course rather painful for B, she spent the day wandering around with us in a daze and wearing sunglasses the whole time.

B's hangover brekkie - look at the massive beans!

We did a bit more sightseeing, and I managed to get to see the blue Gates of Ishtar (Babylon) and Nefertiti's bust at the museums Pergamon and Altes respectively. Yay!!!

Very excited to see Nefertiti!

Other Berlin silliness......

That cute traffic guy - Ampelmann. He even had a shop!

Jagermeister tram... a shot of the drink was nearly my undoing but I soon stopped the alcohol.

After we got back to normality, B secretly sent me a bunch of my favourite flowers to work - tulips!!! :)

Purrdyyy

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Listening to: Let Go by Paul van Dyk