I went to Berlin this past weekend and it was a super wild trip. I've been holed up in my small German town all summer focusing on my sport and hadn't made any weekend trips up until now. To me, exploring and partying in Berlin was a celebration of sorts and a bookend to a fantastic season in Germany.
This is an extremely long post. I wrote all of this up because it was a peak experience weekend for me. Staying out all night. Approaching tons of people and doing so naturally/seemlessly. To me the weekend was a social masterpiece. Highlighting how when you engage with people around you, exchanging positive energy, it can become an upward spiral that is a joyous journey for all parties involved. That's why I'm posting this to my journal here. It motivates me and maybe someone else reading it will be inspired to take more action approaching people with positive vibes.
On Thursday afternoon I drove over to my teammate's house (Br) and with the spare 20 minutes I had I drove a bit further and went into the town center by him to do at least one approach. I find a well located parking space on the street and walk over to the busier shopping streets. My sexual energy is popping. At this point I was at day #7 of noFAP/noPorn, which usually is when I really start noticing benefits. And it feels like I see more attractive girls when I'm out. Like they're drawn to my sexual energy/testosterone somehow. Magic. Or biology. Or magic.
It takes me only 1 block to see a cute girl walking towards me crossing the street. I'm undecided about the open, is she cute enough? I decide to go for it for the sake of time (had 10 minutes until I wanted to head back to Br's house). (1)
Me: Excuse me, do you speak English? (said in German)
Y: Yes a bit.
Me: Awesome, because you're beautiful and I just have to meet you.
Y: Thank you, but I'm really busy right now (Said with a conflicted look on her face, 50% enchanted by me, 50% she's in a rush)
Me: So we only have 30 seconds, or a minute, that's okay. What's you name?
Y: Y.
Me: Me. Tell her that's a pretty name and ask where it is from as I shake her hand
Y: She says it's Turkish, says she's mixed German/Turkish.
Me: So what are you actually up to right now?
Y: I'm buying something, then meeting up with a friend (my intuition told me it might be her BF)
Me: Her eyes were beautiful, light brown as the sun hit them. I say exactly that.
Y: She blushes and says she really is in a rush.
Me: I ask her if she has Instagram and say we should add each other.
Y: Pulls out phone and follows me.
Me: I tell her I play abseball and ask her what's one thing she likes to do.
Y: She says she really has to go.
We say goodbye, schon tag noch. I think she went into a cafe to buy something. Damn I should have just suggested I join her for a couple minutes from the start! CURRENT UPDATE. She accepted my follow request and replied to my initial message. She didn't reply to my reply so I've waited 3 days and sent her another message today.
After that interaction I keep walking in the direction I was going. Feeling good that I got one approach in. It had been over 3 weeks since I had done any day game.
I turned down a side street to get back to my car and saw a pretty woman smoking a cigarette (which I find extremely ugly) underneath a doorway. I go up and open with my standard English question (2). She says not much so I proceed in German. Ask her why she smokes, how long she has smoked, not really caring where the interaction goes and knowing I want to end it in a minute to go to my car. We exchange names (Gr), she's working (in uniform) and on a break. I ask her my classic, is this your dream job? I end the conversation by saying how she is beautiful, but I think smoking is ugly. I do this in half-jest though, not the beautiful part, I deliver that genuinely, but all the smoking comments are done faceitiously. Who am I to tell her to quit. She said she wanted to quit herself lol!
2 approaches in 10 minutes, both hooked. 1 IG close. Nice. Even though I messed up in the 1st one by not tagging along with Y for a couple minutes while she went to buy whatever she was planning to buy. I must push my interactions further.
I get to my car and drive back to Br's place. I park, put my bags for the weekend in his car and we head off. Our first stop is Hannover for the Kollegah concert. Bossrap. I find it hilarious that the ticket said the show started at 8pm and Kollegah literally began his set right at 8pm. That never happens in the USA, at least not for me when I've gone to rap concerts there. There is always an opening act or two that will eat up at least 2 hours of time before the main act takes the stage. It's also funny that people at this concert were not getting very into the music it seemed like. For half the songs I was jumping up and down, grooving to the beats and ghost rapping along with the lyrics. People next to me were standing motionless, with the occasional hand wave to the beat. Wtf is that? That kind of music gets me hyped and the only reason I go to a concert like that is to be even more hyped because it is live and I can feel the energy of the artist better. With so many phones out filing it, I felt like half the people there were only there to post to social media and pretend to feel cool. Lol.
After the concert almost everyone heads back to the entrance because apparently Kollegah will be there in a bit to sign autographs. Br and I linger by the stage a bit to avoid the mob. I open a cute girl with a big ass (kind of overweight so HB6 or 7) standing close by us who was holding a poster. Use my classic English line, sprechst du Englisch? (3) She does. I then notice a signature on the poster and say how she's waiting back here because she already got her poster sign. She replies yes with enthusiasm. She's with a friend too. I get both of their names and introduce myself. Br has hung back. The friend is really overweight and he wants no part of it lol. A guy friend of theirs comes back to them and I decide to eject and be a good friend to Br.
We walk towards the lobby and file in behind two blondes in the line to move from the main stage room into the lobby, which is packed with people. I can't remember what opener I exactly use (4), probably the Englisch one and begin to engage both of them. Ol and Ch. Both in mid 30s it looked like. Both HB7 at least despite their age. Br engages them as well, translating a bit for me and speaking to them in German. After 5 minutes, Olga mentions her husband. Oh now I remember, I opened them by asking if they knew of any good places to eat close to the concert venue. So that was the whole premise of the conversation. They didn't want to go eat anything, husband was picking them up I recall.
Br and I leave the venue. We walk past a couple dudes sitting on a bench, one of which I recognize because he was standing near us during the concert. He asks me if I have any amphetamines. I say, no all I got is tai chi energy
lol.
We head to an intersection to cross the street. I see a guy holding three bottles of coca cola and I comment about how he'll be drinking lots of cuba libres tonight. He says nah, he'll be drinking Moscow Mules. Then he mentions he's heading over to a dinner to eat mussels, shellfish. Sounds delicious, I bid him a good night.
Br and I enter a doner shop. We look at the menu up on the wall. I'm a little overwhelmed by all the options, but I see two guys sitting down and one is biting into a burrito style doner. I go up to him and ask him which number that is on the menu. He says 13 and also says I have to ask them to add white cheese to it like he does. Figures out I'm from the United States and seems really interested in talking to me more. I'm hungry and want to order though, I'm all for his order recommendation. Br and I order and recieve our food. We sit at the table next to the guy who gave me the recommendation. Br tells me the guy invited us to a bar he owns that he was heading to afterwards and that we could have a couple free drinks there. The concert ended much earlier than I expected (shortly after 10pm at that point) so I was very keen on accepting the invitation.
Br drives the 4 of us (myself plus the two doner guys Ni and Ca) over to the bar. What a classy place. Looks like a restored library they put a bar into. They had some Indian looking guy from Singapore mixing drinks behind the bar. It's 9 of us in there including Br and I. Only one girl and she seemed to be with another guy. I didn't say a single word with her even though we gave each other some strong eye contact. I was only enjoying being in the space (grooving to the latin reggaeton they had blasting). It's quite cool to have met the owner of a bar and to get invited back to it. Apparently they had finished renovating the space only a few weeks prior and were now trying to get the word out about it to as many people as possible. I knew it wasn't my 'coolness' that got us invited! The guy was hoping we could tell people about it and post stories to Instagram lol. Was definitely a unique, hip, place. Leinery Lounge. Hit it up if you're ever in Hannover.
At about 11:30pm Br and I decide to bounce and begin our journey to Berlin. Hannover was about halfway so we still had 3 hours to drive. Fortunately at night in Germany many parts of the highways don't have a speed limit. Br went forth with great haste. He definitely hit over 120mph, maybe even 140mph. We arrive shortly after 2 and park on the street near to the AirBnb I booked for Friday and Saturday nights. This night we planned to pull an all nighter out at the clubs. Our destination was Sage Club, a punk/rock club only open on Thursday nights. I figured if it was only open on Thursdays then it must be one of the places to go on a Thursday.
After a cab ride we get to the club. The cab drops us off right before the intersection where the club is. We are caddy corner to the club so we have to cross two streets. We cross the one and on the other side are two pretty blonde girls. I open with the English line (5). One girl doesn't even reply back in German, she's speaking Polish or Russian. I think she understands what I'm saying to her in English so she's tooling me. Her friend is a few meters away tapping away writing on her phone. I go up to her while Br engages the Pole and I say how it looks like she's doing something really important. She says that's right and after a moment proceeds to take her and her friend accross the street and they try to enter the U-bahn station even though it is closed. I think they were leaving the club and heading somewhere else. Didn't really give me the time of day. I guess I could have been a bit more dominant and a bit less reactive when the girl tooled me by not speaking English or German.
At the other corner is the club entrance. Outside of it are a person begging for money and a couple groups. I go up to the group with the cutest girl in it (6)(like 6 people in the group) and ask them how the club is right now. We chat a bit about the club. Br is skeptical of it, not really his scene based on the dress of the people outside of it. I'm all for it, doesn't seem like a place I've ever been before so I want to check it out. Some eye contact with the cute girl in the group and maybe an indirect comment or two. Was pretty evident they were leaving and going to their respective homes, not up for something more and I wanted to check out the club so I ejected and wished them a restful rest of the night.
In the club, Br and I enter the 2nd main dancing area and I almost immediately make eye contact with a semi-cute girl. Was dancing in a closed circle with 4 or 5 other people and I wanted to get my bearings with Br before doing any approaches so I didn't approach her. First approach, if you can call it that, within the club was a girl giving me her friend's snapback hat. I put it on my head and then the girl whose hat it was comes up all flirty to me, dancing (7). She teases me for a few seconds and then quickly snatches the hat off my head. Well I walked right into that one. Goodness I should've been more of a challenge, teasing her with the hat. She was dancing with the same guy the entire night so it seemed her and her friend were there with their boyfriends who were stuck to their sides the entire time (3+ hours in the club).
This club was really cool. I highly recommend checking out Sage club if you're ever in Berlin. Particularly if you like rock music and pictures of Jesus orgies on the walls lol. In the big dance area there were probably 50 people when I first arrived at the club shortly after 3am. There was also another area with two rooms, couches to sit on, and at the end of it the coat check. On top of that there was a room with a swimming pool, but that was closed for the evening. Very unique layout and use of space in there. I liked it. The first 15-20 minutes Br and I spent our time around the dance area. My next approach of the night was going up to this mid-30s looking goth lady (8) who seemed to be somewhat enjoying the music all by herself. I offer her my hand while making strong eye contact, she shakes her head to decline it. This was funny because over the next 2.5+ hours, and after dancing with other girls, I came back to her three more time and offered her my hand. Both times no again, but each time a bigger smile on her face lol. It became an inside joke between us.
After checking our jackets at like 3:30am, Br and I are walking back to the dance area through the two room area and I feel a girl’s eyes on me from behind. I turn my head and lock eyes with a girl, give her a bit of a smile, and she completely lights up. I turn back and take another step, then realize I HAVE to approach this girl who gave me one of the strongest approach invitations of all time. I open her (Ce)(9) and her friend (An) standing next to her. Solid HB7 with some curves. Very exotic looking, pale skin, jet black hair, all black clothing. Later found out her eyes were bright blue, though I couldn't tell given the lighting in the club. Br stands off to the side a bit. He jumps into the set after a couple minutes and actually wings me really well. He is not aware of the PUA/seduction/success with women world, but is okay with women himself. Decent guy to have out with you at a club. He engages An even though she is not very pretty. Ce is giving me huge IOIs, touching me, telling me I'm the hottest guy she has ever seen lol. After 5 minutes I move her to a sofa across the room, just her and I, though we can still see Br and An across from us. Somewhat isolated her I guess?
Ce and I talk for what feels like 10 minutes. Trying to deep dive. I feel like we are in no way compatible relationship-wise. I think she feels this too. We're very attracted to each other though. I start going in for a kiss and she leans in, but I pull back because I remember her friend is right across from us and maybe we'll get judged for this (even though Berlin is a city of very little judgement!!!). She shit tests me saying I just like her because I'm horny. I don't think I did a good job with this, reacted with something like denying it and trying to find something meaningful I could tell her I like about her besides her looks. I think this hurt the frame of us being lovers who felt a burning passion to be with each other that night regardless of longer term compatibility. She hears some song in the dance area, immediately makes eye contact with An and jumps up and goes with her to the dance floor.
Br and I make eye contact and shrug our shoulders. We wait a few minutes and go into the dance area. I don't immediately go towards Ce and An, who are now with a guy (St, just a friend). When Br and I do make it to them, An immediately recieves Br and they dance together a bit, but Ce seems cold to me. A song passes and I'm just grooving to the music. A couple songs later something flips in Ce and she's in my arms again swooning. I guess maybe this was a bigger shit test because I failed one shortly before she suddenly headed to the dancefloor?
Now the 5 of us are a bit of a group. Doesn't look like I'll be able to isolate Ce again, though she does seem into me. We talk, we dance, they decide to leave at like 4:30am. She lives with her mom and I don't have a place to stay for the night. Doesn't look like there will be an after party anywhere lol. We exchange numbers.
At this point the club crowd has thinned. Still solid music playing, but not many girls there worth approaching and the few that are seemed to be deep in sets. I haven't been out at night very often over the past couple of years (1 time a month at max) and it shows in these settings. I can snipe lone girls or pairs decently enough, but I don't have the courage to barge into group mixed sets and steal the show. I was also completely sober in the club, which may have impacted my ballsyness too.
I was supposed to be the wingman for Br on this night, but he does not like the vibes of anyone really in the club. Kind of narrow minded guy. I wish he had wanted to approach people because we could have fed off each other. Instead it was me having to build up my own courage to approach once Ce, An, and St left. An opportunity appeared in the 2 room area when I saw a beautiful girl sitting by herself. Pounced. Turned out she was from New York (10), but was married and her husband came back from the bathroom a couple minutes later. Seemed like a cool guy and casually whisked her away from me and back to the dancefloor.
The dancefloor was thinning out, but two cute blonde girls were still grooving. They had a couple other guys around them, dunno if they were a group of 6 (3 guys, 3 girls) or who knew who. Kind of hard to do reconnosance like that on the dancefloor lol. The two blonde girls definitely seemed to be dancing more on their own though. I offer my hand to one of them as I'm dancing, intending to give her a spin. (That is my only dancefloor game hahaha, I am so out of touch with this side of game since graduating college in 2015). She shakes her head, declines, and I stay unreactive continuing to enjoy my own dance moves.
Br and I were going in and out of the dance area depending on if we liked the song that was playing. Bad song, back to a couch in the lounge area. Good song, back to dancing the night away. Now it is almost 6am and we're sitting on a couch, Br is actually in the bathroom. One of the blonde girls from the dancefloor, not the one who turned me down, heads over to the coat check. After a few minutes she walks back the way she came, now facing me as I'm laying down. We make eye contact and I get up and stop her in her tracks with my opener (11). It hooks and we chat for a couple minutes. Her friend who turned me down appears and wonders what is taking her so long with the coats. Doesn't seem too happy to see her with me lol. Maria who I opened and Martina who decline me on the dancefloor. Mar is staying over at Mart's house and is already sleeping on a sofa there. No extra beds for me
. I think I tried to # or Instagram close, though I'm not sure. Can't quite remember how our farewell played out 100%, though I do remember she gave me a nice hug.
Br and I leave the club 10 minutes after they do. I guess I should have asked them if they'd be willing to wait for me to get my coat and we could head out of the club together, maybe grab some food. I don't. So much room for improvement with night game. I am impressed with how far I've come with sober game and how social I can be. I'll be sticking to day game for the forseeable future though. Br and I walk towards the city center and find a cafe where he can use the restroom. I order a coffee, knowing I plan to stay up until we check into our AirBnb at 2pm. While ordering I notice a woman next to me and say out loud how I wasn't hungry until I came in here and saw all the delicious food. She smiles at me. Older in her late 30s and not attractive so I didn't bother pushing it further.
The sun starts to rise and we make our way towards the Brandenburger Tor. Shortly after passing the Concert hall, I see a blonde girl walking towards us half a block away from back where we came. As she gets closer I notice she has a very curvy figure. I'm like, I don't care what her face looks like, I have to meet her. She turns at the intersection we just crossed so I end up walking/jogging to catch up with her. It takes me a block to do so and I think my approach may have triggered a little apprehension because she was walking fast and I couldn’t quite anticpate where she was going as she approached another intersection + trouble pacing her. I do catch up (12). Drop my English line. Then say how she's beautiful. Looks to be in early to mid 30s, pretty face, 10/10 body. HB9. I reached her right at the door of her work though
She says she has to start her day. I'm not quick witted enough to ask if she has a lunch break or something and maybe we could meet up then and she could show me a cool cafe or take me to a nice plaza. Damn that could have worked!
We exchange names, she is Sa and I wish her a nice day, reemphasizing her beauty. I wish I could have some more genuine and unique compliments pop into my head on the spot. This was the kind of woman that people fight wars over (especially back when she was in her 20s) and cross oceans for and paint masterpieces for and develop themselves to their highest potential for. Writing this right now stirs up those feelings of longing. For the feminine essence to complement my masculine being. An aphrodite on the streets of Berlin. I'm here on this site to learn how to bed this kind of woman, to learn how to ravish this woman, and make her mine.
I part with Br at the Brandenburger Tor. I have a doctor's appointment (chest x-ray for my visa to New Zealand) I'm going to walk to and he is going to head back to his car to get some sleep. I walk down the Juni 17 street to the Siegessäule, which was a really beautiful walk at 9am in the morning. A police van was slowly driving on the shoulder right in line with me for a good chunk of the walk. I don't know whether they were checking up on me or with other groups of young adults that came out of the park periodically. Strange. At the Siegessäule circle (großer stern) I'm waiting for the light to change and notice a pretty girl on a bike on the other side of the street. She doesn't look curvy and I've never approached a girl on a bike before and I freeze up as she passed me despite us making eye contact and her giving me a smile. That was a missed opportunity for sure.
I continue on my way to the doctor's office. I pass a lot of police vans outside of a set of buildings with a lot of Nordic flags around (now I know this to be the Nordic countries' embassies lol). There was a protest going on about Norway's CO2 emissions and how they lie about it or something. I ask a guy who looked like an undercover cop about why there were so many cops. He mentions how this particular org has been known to get a bit violent in the past. We make small talk about how it'd be nice if protests could stay peaceful and then it'd be less work for police officers. He agreed. I asked if he knew where the Fridays for Future protest was going on that day in the city. He didn't know, thought there were multiple spots probably. I wish him the best and an uneventful day and keep walking to the doctor's office.
I cross a street and see a big Steinway & Sons sign atop a store. I know I have about 2 hours before my appointment so I think to myself, 'hell yes I want to play some piano!'. As I cross the street I notice a woman with a sky blue peacoat who exited the apartment building right next the store. She and I cross the street at the same time about 30 feet from each other, going opposite directions. I call out to her (13), getting her attention, walk closer and ask if she speaks English. She doesn't speak much and mentions how she isn't German either. Turns out she's Polish. She seems to be in a rush so I ask if I can walk with her for a couple minutes. She's heading to an appointment where she'll become a legal German resident. She reaches the intersection before all the police vehicles and I decide the interaction isn't going anywhere special so I eject and head back to the piano shop.
Wow you get such interesting windows into peoples' lives when you take the initiative to approach and start a conversation. Really this whole day since the first approach before leaving for Hannover has been one huge social experiment. More approaches than the past couple of months combined. Lots of fun shedding social inhibition and simply waving out an olive branch to connect with people
There are a couple people outside of the Steinway & Sons store (best pianos in the world maybe?) and I engage them to ask about playing one of the pianos for a few minutes. A man in his late 20s it looked like looks at me with a condescening look, like he's screening me, seeing if I'm someone they want to let into their store. I know at this point my eyes are kind of bloodshot from having contacts in for about 24 hours straight plus not sleeping. I look a little crazy probably lol. Doesn't help my approaches with women either. The guy tells me I can rent the practice room for 10 euros an hour, but that they don't open for another 30 minutes. I'm like cool, maybe I'll come back after my doctor's appointment.
I make it to the appointment and chat up the receptionists, lots of strong eye contact and playfulness with my words. She returns the flirty vibe. There's room for me to get seen early. In the waiting room for the x-ray there is an absolute beauty (thin body though) with a person who seems to be her Mom. She came in after me and there was an open seat next to her that I supposed I could have moved to for opening her, but I didn't force the opportunity. When you're in full on day game mode, it's mindblowing how many opportunities there are to open attractive women. Now, some of these opportunities are probably pretty small, without much margin for error, with lots of social pressure, and on the other end of the spectrum you have girls giving you massive approach invitations and you having to be a complete idiot to miss the opportunity. I believe this waiting room opportunity fell on the more challenging side of the spectrum.
I get my x-ray and all the post-visit forms filled out. When I'm ready to leave, the beauty is gone from the waiting room. A missed opportunity for eternity. I walk back to the Steinway store. I see multiple curvy girls on my way, but they are all with a guy or with older people who seem to be their parents. More opportunities on the challenging end of the spectrum and in the moment I'm not up to the challenge. I get to the piano shop and talk to the owner in the office. He says the practice room is totally booked for the day, but that I can play the pianos in the showroom a little bit. I thank him for this and start jamming out. Man, I am so kinestetic, my hands rememeber so much even after months without playing.
Earlier that morning I messaged Ce from the Sage club:
Me @ 8:06 - I can't stop thinking about this demon girl named Ce that I met. Help me!
Ce @ 11:11 - You're so cute! The cutest human I met so far. Rosey cheeked smile emoji
Me @ 11:16 - Picture of Steinway store + Meet me here and let's play a duet + Actual location
Ce @ 11:20 - Wow you can play the piano?! Puppy eyes emoji
Me @ 11:23 - Only one way for you to find out + Winking face emoji
Ce @ 14:10 - I would love t! But I need to do some stuff for work + Streams of tears emoji
Me @ 18:06 - Streams of tears emoji
I replied so quickly because I knew if I didn't see her before 2pm and my AirBnB check-in, I wasn't going to see her for the weekend with SUN arriving at 7pm. Anyway...
I take the U Bahn to Potsdamer Platz, wanting to explore a bit and make a few more approaches. There's an interesting sculpture of 3 large people seated in Tilla-Durieux Park. There's also a mall I head into because that should be a great place to meet beautiful women! Some pretty good looking women, but no stunners like Sa from earlier. Bummer. I do see a blonde walking towards me, she’s pretty, not very curvy though, smoking, I can playfully tease her about that. I turn around after she passes me (no eye contact) and catch up for the approach (14). She hooks. We exchange names. I ask for a recommendation for a cool site to see or restaurant to eat at. I think she gives some lame typical answer. Oh well. Ines was her name. I invite her to check out a sculpture a block away with me. She declines, she was heading back to work after her lunch break.
I found a store with some postcards and was checking them out. I see a somewhat pregnant lady with a sexy leopard dress on enter the store, looking around. I'm conflicted, I've never approached a pregant lady before though she looked like she was in her early 30s, quite fit with a beautiful face. She leaves as I'm asking the cashier to translate something for me. I could’ve gotten her to translate! Another missed opportunity. I leave the store after buying a couple cards and initially am looking for the leopard dress woman. I don't find her. I see other iffy approach opportunities. The way I look at it is that the more attractive a woman is, the more challenge I'm willing to accept in the approach opportunity. I'm not going to jump through hoops for an HB6. An HB9 or 10, I will do a manned mission to Mars for. Maybe this is part of my problem with game. I'm willing to give more effort for more beautiful women instead of treating them like a regular girl. Idk, if I can properly convey the inspiration I feel when I meet someone truly feminen and radiant maybe that is the best play. Depends on whether it is done from a place of neediness or abundance.
I go back to Potsdamer Platz and again see some opportunities. None of them really excite me. I do offer to take photos for these two girls who were taking each other's photos (15) and they take me up on the offer. They're not THAT cute though so I don't push the interaction further by asking where they're from or anything. I wanted to meet an American girl I could talk up Br for. Didn't happen. I go to this Chinese/Taoist looking hut I had passed earlier, Pavillon der Einheit, and complete a round of Tai Chi by it. Definitely had quite a few people look at me as they passed. I love it
I don't make any more approaches and end up making my way to the AirBnB reservation.
I finally take off my contacts and sleep for 2 hours. It would have been more, but I was pissed at what I thought was a misleading listing on AirBnb. I thought there would be 2 sleeping rooms, that Sun and I would have a room to ourself. Instead, there ended up being only a common sleeping area with a single bed and a double bed. Looks like Sun and I would share a bed with Br right next to us. Gtfo. I was more angry than I had been in months lol. The last super angry moment I had like this was when for the 3rd or 4th time during a game I was pitching in I saw our asshole Italian import player on his phone, swiping on tinder. I was about to head out to start an inning, just gave him a death stare, and then proceeded to pitch one of the most ferocious innings of my life. The airbnb situation drummed up a similar level of angry, however, I'm sure my lack of sleep compounded to make matters worse than they really were hahaha.
That night we head out to meet a German ex-roomate (Ph) of mine when I was living in Buenos Aires. Now it's Sun, Br, Ph, and I. At some point in the first bar I engage with a couple sitting next to us. We head to get pizza. I ask one of the workers about the song on the speakers. We meet some of Ph's friends outside. 4 of them. We all head to another bar. Meet up with 6 other people. Such a social night. Sun tells me how she's so impressed at how I can just talk to people. I've come a long way from who I was at 18, 19, 20, 21 before game. Her giving me that compliment was so gratifying for me.
At the end of the night, Br leading us to a club that was closed because of construction and his intoxication leads me to take over the reins and guide us home. We get off the U Bahn and head to a bus stop that will take us to our AirBnb. What do you know? There is a beautiful blonde girl sitting at the stop, about to light up a cigarette (seems to be a sub-theme of this trip lol). I open her, English opener again, and inquire about the cigarette. Her name is Se (16). Br sits down 2 seats from her and he's very drunk, but I was hoping he would get his shit together to possibly go home with her at least for a little bit so Sun and I could be alone in the AirBnb together. After a couple minutes hooking her and leading her to engage Br more, Sun and I move outside of the glass busstop area and sit with each other to give Br and Se some time 1 on 1. Maybe this was a bad move? No, not if your buddy is on his game.
We get on the bus and Se sits by herself and Br doesn't even protest or suggest she sit in the open seat next to him. Smh, broooooo, come on I set that up for you on a tee lol. I re-engage Se and ask her what she's reading on her phone. Br is almost sleeping at this point. No chance.
Friday ends, or Saturday morning. We all wake up at about 12pm. Sun goes off to do her own thing. Br and I go grab coffee and head to a park where I can meditate/stretch/do tai chi a bit. Sights to see today include Checkpoint Charlie, Denkmal for the Book Burning, and Mauer Park. Br and I don't leave to see those sights until 4:30pm. This is where it got fun socially again.
I was taking a panaorama photo at Checkpoint Charlie and this dude intentionally gets in my way. Tells me Harper is cooler (apparently the Soviet and American solider photos watching the respective sides have names?). I'm like Bryce Harper? Dude is Lithuanian and is talking shit about Europe, saying how the USA is more fun. I'm like why are you even here talking to me then. He looked out of it, said how he needed to check-in to his hostel and rest up after probably noticing (took him much too long) that I was uninterested in the interaction.
I call a restaurant I looked up that might be playing the Washington Nationals playoff game later this evening. The guy I talk to says no, they won't show it, but maybe a place called Murphy's by Checkpoint Charlie will. Conveniently I am at Checkpoint Charlie! I'm literally right in the main intersection of the Checkpoint, focused on finding Murphy's and Br is telling me I'm a weird dude for not even caring I'm in Checkpoint Charlie, to which I tell him I'm on another mission. I see Murphy's and walk towards it. See a girl with a thin-ish waist and massive hips sitting down with a friend. Ohhhhhh that could have been an approach. Set up a reservation at Murphy's and they're going to put the baseball game on just for us.
At Checkpoint Charlie there are so many tourists and approachable people! Goodness it's a day game hot spot! Br doesn't want to open a woman I point out to him. Dude is just way too socially conditioned and scared of failure. Br and I continue walking towards Bebelsplatz and the Book Burning Denkmal (Rememberence Place). A group of women ride by on scooters and I play red light/green light with them because they seem hesistant to cross the street lol. A block later one of them is straggling, has to find another Lime scooter because her's broke. I chat her up a bit (17), she's not very pretty so I don't push the interaction.
I stop in a sourvenour store I see and check out the postcards. I make strong eye contact with a girl in the store as I walk to the checkout line. 15 seconds later she's behind me checking out. I ask her what she's getting. A pack of mints in a container with Nixon and some Communist making out. We talk for a few minutes, Br waiting outside. She comes outside with me and I tell her about the baseball game we're going to watch later (she's from the Netherlands where the baseball is quite good and very popular relative to the rest of Europe). Her name is Marl (18). She and I exchange IGs and she heads back into the store to get back to the people she was with.
Br and I keep walking. I see a gorgeous woman in her mid to late 30s walk out of her apartment with a black lab looking dog. I say somewhat loudly 'Nice dog' in German and she turns and smiles and the dog is super friendly towards me. We walk with her a minute until she enters the post office. She is from Seattle and her name is Mal (19). I comment how she has a big dog for city life. She mentions how she lives in a big apartment with her husband. Ohhh and we were in a super nice area. That apartment must have been lit! A fun short interaction. At this point Br must have been like, 'Dude! Quit talking to people!' lol.
We arrive in Bebelplatz and I actually pass the Denkmal without noticing it. Thinking back there was a crowd of 10 or 20 people around something in the middle of the plaza, but I thought there would be a sign to designate it or something. After a couple moments of confusion, I find the Denkmal and spend some time looking down into it, empty white shelves below ground. Focusing on my breath. Appreciating where I am and the moment. I notice a blonde and a brunette girl, barely 18 maybe, goofing around and giggling. I make eye contact with the blonde one and she smiles big at me. I return my gaze to the memorial of the book burning event.
The brunette girl is quite pretty and she and I make eye contact briefly 2 times. She seems more shy than the other one. They begin talking so I can hear it, in English. I laugh out loud at them. The blonde girl calls the other one a stupid girl in a strong Eastern european accent. I say something like, what have you done to deserve that to the brunette girl (20). The blonde is 15, the brunnette is 16 and named Na. Put them in the minors until they're ready to get called up to the show
The blonde girl asks if I have an IG account. I say I do. She realizes she doesn't have an internet connection so she pulls out a pen and paper and asks me to write my account handle on it. I oblige. A few hours later I notice both of them have followed me and the blonde girl has liked all 90 of my posts. I guess I created a mini fan club lol. During my interaction with them Br was waiting off like 100 feet away (maybe I'm a jerk for keeping him waiting like this always). The parents of the girls were 100 feet away on the other side of the plaza. I wonder if the parents knew what was going down.
After visiting Mauer park, Br and I head to a burrito restaurant, Berlin Burrito Company. I'm itching for some good Latin food. I have been craving it all summer long. At an intersection I notice I'm standing next to a pretty woman in her early 30s probably who is nodding along to some song with a smile on her face. I wave at her and get her attention, motioning to my ears for her to take out an earbud. I think I ask in German about what song she's listening to, she shows me and we proceed to have a conversation (21). Br actually joins in this time and actually talks more than I do. Her name was Nata and she must have been enjoying her interaction with us because she walked more than 100 meters past her flat to keep the conversation going with us before turning around and saying farewell.
Sun meets us at the Burrito place and the night continues. I won't get into the dynamics of Sun/I at the club we went to that night with Br there with us. That conversation is for another time. For now all I can say is that it really really surprised me at how bothered I was when Br or any guy touched Sun at all, even in a friendly way. Definitely worth unpacking in detail at some point. Whether I was being needy or whether a certain amount of lion like protection is a good thing, and what’s the difference between the two?
Final note. In a crowded U bahn station heading back to Checkpoint Charlie to watch Game 2 of the NLCS between the Nationals and the Cardinals, I pull out a burlap throwing sock with a baseball inside that I have that I can attach to my arm and throw into. I was throwing a little bit in this station and Br filmed me. I was totally in my own world, blissfully enjoying what I love to do, without any concern for whether other people were watching me or judging me. That is the the full freedom state that we all strive for in our lives. Living without inhibitions. Living in flow. Living in love.
