50 + 35 points
Journey to the End of the Year: Berlin 2009 by Heinz Mustermann
January 1st, 2010 3:23 PM
First time I played this game, so the question wasn't to win, but to see how far we'd get... i started with a friend of mine, who left after reaching station 2. Met two fun guys from Austria at checkpoint three and we managed to finish unseen before midnight.... so here's the journey in detail:
We went around Alex to have a look prior to leaving the safe zone. I'm too old to run like a chicken. We headed southeast, passed Rotes Rathaus and took a bus along Grunerstr. towards Potsdamer Platz. Some other runners entered the bus lateron. Left the bus before reaching Potsdamer Platz, approached Holocaust Memorial from the southeast, unseen. Saw some runners entering memorial safe zone in a hurry, arriving from north/northeast. In terms of political correctness it's not a nice thing to abuse a holocaust memorial for fun leightweight activities. Take some blame for not being able or capable to specify exact geocoordinates! So we trolled a bit here and there inmidst Stelenfeld.
Plan was to head westwards into Tiergarten next to avoid the narrow passage north along Brandenburger Tor and US embassy spy cams (lol!). Berenstr., on a straight line between start and checkpoint 1, seemed unsafe. Unluckily they put fences around eastern Tiergarten area, with plenty of policemen with dogs inside, making it look more like a FEMA camp than just nature next to the festivity mile between Brandenburger Tor and Siegessaeule. In the past they were afraid of people relieving themselves in the park -- so this time it was "security guys only restrooms" -- with a bit of "Castle Wolfenstein" "Halt, stehenbleiben!" atmosphere. Not being to much of dangerseekers we avoided the dogs and walked quite a bit to reach "Die schwangere Auster", crossing the "Festmeile". Passed Reichstag on north side, turned north towards Tacheles passing hostel Helter Skelter. Returning from Tacheles we had a drink at Heart of Gold Hostel with my friend departing.
Walked to Volkspark early enough to get my signature and continued joining two fun Austrian guys... greetings out there! Took a tram leaving from Rosenthaler Platz, going a bit too far. Passed Wasserturm on our way to checkpoint four. No agent at checkpoint four anymore. Found pencil, took picture and the "hey, look, tourists!" blaming inside ;-). Communicating beforehand until which time agents are available would have been a nice thing.
Returned to Wasserturm, met some friendly inhabitants who allowed us to take a proof picture of the inside of Wasserturm. Picked up a muggle along the way. Returned to Sennefelder Platz subway station, went to c-base via Alexanderplatz station, relatively unharmed (some morons using firecrackers inside the station). The muggle got lost as we three left S-Bahn without telling. Fun scene. Some chasers behind us in Jannowitzbruecke station obviously didn't recognize our ribbons and we made it to c-base at around 23:30 to receive some medals of honor... and so the night began!
Fun walk in the loud city, thanks for the nice idea! Happy new year everybody!
We went around Alex to have a look prior to leaving the safe zone. I'm too old to run like a chicken. We headed southeast, passed Rotes Rathaus and took a bus along Grunerstr. towards Potsdamer Platz. Some other runners entered the bus lateron. Left the bus before reaching Potsdamer Platz, approached Holocaust Memorial from the southeast, unseen. Saw some runners entering memorial safe zone in a hurry, arriving from north/northeast. In terms of political correctness it's not a nice thing to abuse a holocaust memorial for fun leightweight activities. Take some blame for not being able or capable to specify exact geocoordinates! So we trolled a bit here and there inmidst Stelenfeld.
Plan was to head westwards into Tiergarten next to avoid the narrow passage north along Brandenburger Tor and US embassy spy cams (lol!). Berenstr., on a straight line between start and checkpoint 1, seemed unsafe. Unluckily they put fences around eastern Tiergarten area, with plenty of policemen with dogs inside, making it look more like a FEMA camp than just nature next to the festivity mile between Brandenburger Tor and Siegessaeule. In the past they were afraid of people relieving themselves in the park -- so this time it was "security guys only restrooms" -- with a bit of "Castle Wolfenstein" "Halt, stehenbleiben!" atmosphere. Not being to much of dangerseekers we avoided the dogs and walked quite a bit to reach "Die schwangere Auster", crossing the "Festmeile". Passed Reichstag on north side, turned north towards Tacheles passing hostel Helter Skelter. Returning from Tacheles we had a drink at Heart of Gold Hostel with my friend departing.
Walked to Volkspark early enough to get my signature and continued joining two fun Austrian guys... greetings out there! Took a tram leaving from Rosenthaler Platz, going a bit too far. Passed Wasserturm on our way to checkpoint four. No agent at checkpoint four anymore. Found pencil, took picture and the "hey, look, tourists!" blaming inside ;-). Communicating beforehand until which time agents are available would have been a nice thing.
Returned to Wasserturm, met some friendly inhabitants who allowed us to take a proof picture of the inside of Wasserturm. Picked up a muggle along the way. Returned to Sennefelder Platz subway station, went to c-base via Alexanderplatz station, relatively unharmed (some morons using firecrackers inside the station). The muggle got lost as we three left S-Bahn without telling. Fun scene. Some chasers behind us in Jannowitzbruecke station obviously didn't recognize our ribbons and we made it to c-base at around 23:30 to receive some medals of honor... and so the night began!
Fun walk in the loud city, thanks for the nice idea! Happy new year everybody!
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posted by Heinz Mustermann on January 4th, 2010 4:49 PM
> the checkpoint closing times were listed on the manifest
Me stupid. Thx for organizing!
Great pictures. Clever way to get proof after a checkpoint has closed.
you said:
just so you know, the checkpoint closing times were listed on the manifest (had you been looking), and checkpoint updates were being broadcast via twitter.