The Berlin Blast

Wednesday morning. Tears were shed at the thought of packing up our tiny shit pit, leaving the view, and departing Amsterdam. However, those three things were done, and after three attempts at catching the tram (and looking complete fools as we did so), we settled ourself in at the train station, where we were mistaken for two homeless girls and offered food, before catching the crowded direct Inter City International train to Berlin. Luckily, we managed to get seats (after being turfed out of our first seats an hour into the journey by a family with a pushchair) and settled in for the last five hours of the journey through the beautiful Dutch and German countryside. Apparently no one needed to check our passports as we crossed the border, and after a relatively smooth journey, we arrived at Berlin HBF. The hostel was one I'd stayed in in a previous trip to Berlin, and so we confidently headed there (albeit with a few nerves about checking in). Check in was fine, and we practically jumped for joy when we realised that the room was not only on the ground floor, but was at least twice the size of the Amsterdam room, and came complete with a table, private bathroom, and TV. 4 stars to you Berlin hostel!

One good nights sleep later (other than the thunderstorm during the night) we awoke refreshed and spent a good hour lazing in bed and reading, before deciding that we probably should get up and explore the city we'd come to see. After dressing and consulting the city map, a route was planned and we decided to hire bikes to get around. First mistake of the trip. Berlin in the morning was a much busier city than we'd anticipated, and after struggling through the traffic and the people to Bernauer Strasse to see the Berlin Wall Memorial, we gave up with the bike idea and walked the length of the wall. After taking some pictures and spending some time looking at the artefacts, we meandered further down the street, where we came upon a photoautomat (photo booth) and stepped inside to get some €2 black and white photos, which came out better than either of us had anticipated! After grabbing a cheap baguette (wrong country, I know), we precariously navigated on the bikes back to the hostel, where we happily abandoned them in favour of walking the rest of the route we had planned.

And walk we did, back through the train station to see some of the historical sights. We walked past the Bundestag, the Reichstag, and through the Brandenburg Gate (with Emily getting an impromptu history lesson on the way), before heading down to Alexanderplatz to see the monumental tower Stalin had built during the times of the DDR. We paused on the way to grab €3 t-shirts and drinks, and saw the book burning memorial in Bebelplatz, before heading down the length of the Unter den Linden to reach our destination, where we inevitably found ourselves in Starbucks for iced tea, coffee, and free wifi! Before finding the sanctuary of Starbucks, however, we managed to walk through the background of what appeared to be a film being filmed. However, we're 99% sure the film isn't going to be PG. The two girls tied up with rope and being led through Alexanderplatz kind of gave that away. After a quick trip into Primark and what might be the worlds biggest mall (although not the one we were looking for), where makeup may have been purchased, it was off to trek to Potsdammerplatz. Potsdammerplatz found, we had a look in the Sony Centre, admired our surroundings, and set back off to the hostel, passing back through the Brandenburg Gate. On the way we stopped off to see the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a memorial I'm still not sure what to think about. Once back at the station, it was time to grab food and head home to eat it, change into our tops, and write this blog post!

It's slightly unbelievable to think that tomorrow we have to pack up this shit pit and head south to Prague, but both of us are very excited to see what this new country brings (although very nervous about the journey. We have a change!). Wish us luck, we'll see you in Prague!

(PS, if you want to see some pictures from Amsterdam, they have been uploaded to the previous post!)