Day 7 - Exploration and a Quest to Make Friends

I set off fairly late in the day, the only real plans I had were for the evening. I’ve been using the website reddit.com more and more recently. Before now I had always used it for the Secret Santa, which is a gift giving section of reddit, where you send strangers gifts and you receive one yourself. My boyfriend is a massive fan of reddit, but I never really got into it. I did however find a page called berlin social club, and on it there were posts about a regular weekly meet up in the city for people wanting to make friends and meet fellow redditors. How perfect! That was at 9pm though, so I set off into the city by myself for the afternoon first.

My Aunt recommended another British shop that her friend had told her about and gave me an address. It was in Neukolln, which wasn’t far from where I was heading, so I went there first. I came out of the S-Bahn station and walked to the street it was supposedly on. It was very very long! And a little bit dodgey, but OK I thought, it’s daylight, I’m sure it’ll be fine. I walked and walked and walked feeling more and more awkward. After walking nearly the whole way down the street, and way past where Google maps said the shop was, I gave up and walked back again, already feeling a little tired.

Next I went to another place my Aunt suggested, which was a shopping street called Bergmannstr. It was a nice area, I didn’t buy anything, the shops weren’t realy my style; all hippy and a little unusual. I had my packed lunch in front of some sort of church (apologies for my lack of knowledge on religion and what the building actually was).

After this I made my way to where the meeting would be that evening; I figured it was a good idea to check the area and location out before dark, so I knew where I was going later. I got off at the right station and walked all the way down to the bar. I reached the right street and started to walk along it, trying to keep an eye out for the bar. Once again I walked nearly the whole way along a massive street and didn’t find it! This was more important than finding the shop, it was going to be my main chance at making friends. I turned and walked back along, being more careful to check every building. Typically, ended up being one of the first I walked past! It had the gratings down so I couldn’t see inside, but at least I knew where it was.

I headed home and bought some very cheap wine; €2.99! I was amazed. I had a few drinks, made my bolognaise, then got ready to go out.

I have to admit, it took some convincing. It got to ten to 9 and I was still sat on my bed just thinking shit, I can’t do this. I would have to find the right people, make conversation, seem interesting and likable and the whole thing was really stressing me out. Eventually I forced myself to leave the house.

I got there by about half 9 and stood outside the bar for aaaages. I was trying to prepare myself, to plan out what I would do once I was inside. I would buy a drink and then look for the person I had been talking to on reddit already. If that failed I would ask the barman. Right, sorted. So I went in.

At the bar I made a terrible attempt to order a drink, falling back on the standard vodka and coke. Luckily the barman spoke English and was a redditor himself and he asked if that’s why I was here. Relieved I said “yes!” and he said everyone from reddit gets a shot, and poured me a strange bright green shot. I had no idea what it was but drank it quickly and followed it with some of my actual drink. It turned out two Redditors, here by known as Redditor D and Redditor F, were already there an stood right next to me! They said hello and asked me some questions, I think they could tell I was nervous and I was very grateful that they made the effort to make conversation making it easier on me. We sat down and chatted. The bar was really nice, nothing like the bars in the UK. There was no dancing or terrible music, no sleazy boys getting off with girls in basically no clothing. Everyone was seated having their own conversations. A black and white film played through a projector onto the stone wall. There was just a really nice atmosphere. All bars in Berlin appear to be smoking bars, something very different to the UK. It wasn’t too bad though, once I got used to it.

Two more redditors turned up, Redditor S (who I had spoken to before) and Redditor A. So in the end it was me and four boys, which was fine by me, I’m much more comfortable with boys; I share their interests (well, a lot of them anyway), and I feel less paranoid that they are judging me or that they might be bitchy.

The reddit night was really good, and I was so glad I went. I am quite proud of myself for doing it too, moving to Berlin, even for just a month or so, was a massive step for me, it’s already really tested my coping abilities, my bravery and my confidence, and going to this meet up was one of the defining moments. I’ve made some friends already from it, and that’s so reassuring.

I went home, told my boyfriend all about it (he’s so supportive about the whole thing, I’m very lucky), and went to bed.