Back to the point... our time in Berlin was split between two short visits - we ducked over to Poland inbetween, but more about that later. We arrived Saturday evening and, due having obtained a map before entering the city limits, we arrived at our accommodation in record time. We were staying at another Wombats - the one in Munich was good and had a sister hostel - and so knew the drill. To obtain your room key you have to hand over some form of photo ID as insurance, our ID of choice was my MET concession card. To the uninitiated this may not seem out of the ordinary but if you've seen it before you'll understand when I say it scored us 8 free drinks in the house bar.
Since it was Saturday night and we'd heard Berliners liked to partay we decided to head out. Scouring the 'suggested night spots' we settled on a funky little bar with a swimming pool. No joke. To our great disappointment the pool was nowhere to be seen and is apparently closed during winter but the club was going off anyway and we got home about 5am. Sunday we arose slightly after breakfast closed and decided to head out and check out the sights. There were several markets setup and plenty of people about, a surprising percentage of whom were wearing inline skates. The reason for which turned out to be some sort of organised endurance event (complete with crowds, collapsing skaters and inappropriately worn bike shorts).
Our tour of Berlin's sights by foot led us to the Reichstag, which you can enter for free and climb the large dome on the roof - which apparently gives good views of the city. Being a sunday arvo the queue was phenomenal and being early spring in Germany it was raining and being still slightly drunk upon departing our residence that morning we had come out in light (un-waterproof) clothing. After a not so lengthy second glance at the queue we caught the train back to our hostel.
Sunday also happened to by our 1 year anniversary so we (read: Sarah) decided we'd better do something (or else..). Something turned out to be straightening Sarah's hair for what seemed like about 3 hours while Richard had a nap. By the time both parties were awake and ready to party it was approaching dinner time. However, we had 8 free drinks at the bar to make use of and being students it would have been rude of us not to do so. 3 romantic games of pool followed (in which Sarah was very unromantically flogged) before we realised it had approached dinner time quite some time before and was fast approaching not dinner time.
We were both pretty hungry and so settled upon the first open place we happened across. This turned out to be some sort of brauhaus, which also may have been in some sort of shopping centre. Some may claim this is not the most romantic setting by I'll take this opportunity to point out that we were having dinner in a traditional German restaurant in Berlin, which ought to be worth more than a couple of flowers.
So the next morning we headed to Poland to meet up with Will (Richard's cousin) and we returned to Berlin on Tuesday. We spent a day checking out the sights we'd missed on the weekend (including the Reichstag dome and Checkpoint Charlie). The most memorable aspect to the dome was the inordinately time consuming security check on the way in. The checkpoint Charlie museum was quite good but surprisingly huge and packed full of exhibits and information. It was a mix of personal stories, genuine and mock artifacts, artwork and a detailed history of the whole affair. The museum opened in 1962 and bits and pieces had been added ever since so it was a bit confusing at some times but worth a look.
We spent one more night in Berlin before heading across Germany to Sarah's relatives.
3 comments:
Hi Bidge! Dad here. Sarah's probably off on the plane by now. Glad you caught up with Will. All we've heard from other sources is "BIG NIGHT" and he was delighted you turned up with car! Delighted you 2 were there as well!
What you're missing out on here is the final clearing out of nanna's house with A & D. You must have known something when you planned trip. BIG skip delivered. Filled it < 2 hrs. ENORMOUS skip delivered. No way we'd fill it, but just in case. .... Yes. Full.
Look after yourself on next stage.
Hope your travel connections work!
another photo-less entry!!! what??? nah good to read your journeys, i'm taking everything as 1st-hand advice as its not long before I'm heading over anyway...
richard, hope russia's all good & problem free, i'm doing the vodka train (passport still somewhere in the russian consulate getting an expensive stamp put in) & i'm a bit worried about travelling through there..
anyway enough jibber jabber.. hope to see some pics of russia before i go!
hey dude, yeh we've got a ton of photos but it's tough getting them off the camera onto a computer with a net connex - nearly every internet cafe (in africa and europe) doesn't allow you to access the box and limits progs to a net browser. the ones that are more open are clogged full of virus' and shit - you wouldn't want to put ur camera anywhere near them. i had to get the last lot of photos off my camera using firefox and the flashgot plugin...
i'm currently in moscow - got another 2 days here before i get on the train. i'll try and get as many posts and hopefully some pics up before i get back - think u leave the day before.
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