Day 4: Ich bin ein Berliner........Amsterdam to Berlin

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Today was another bus day and we were leaving Amsterdam for Berlin, Germany. I got up, ate and went down to board the bus at 8am. We left minus 2 people- poor Stacey and Amanda who ended up sleeping in. It was contiki's policy that we had to leave on time and if anyone did not meet the bus on time, they would have to make their own way to the next destination, so the poor girls would have to get there themslves unfortunatley. We set off and Nemo introduced us to our Morning/Day song- "Don't stop me now" by Queen. For the record I hated this song at first.
It was around 700km's to Berlin so most of the trip was basically about chilling out on the bus, listening to music (Steph was nice enough to let me borrow her ipod, seeing mine broke the day before I left for Europe). Nemo made us get up one by one and introduce ourselves to the rest of the group, with our name, where we were from, what we do etc. We stopped at a German service station for lunch, which was good becuase I was pretty hungry. None of the menu was in English so it was like point to what you want and hope for the best. Luckily they had edible looking bagguettes in the window so I got a cheese and tomato one and it was yummy. A few of the boys ordered bratwurst and they gave them this massive sausage on a really small bun, so it was quite funny to watch them eat it. It was also our first experience with the ultra technologically advanced toilets (which you had to pay for of course), and which took a while to figure out how to use...well flush.

We got to Berlin around 5pm. We made a stop in which looked like the middle of a street becuase of driver's hours. It was 30 minutes long and Steph, Simon, Hadi and I managed to find an internet cafe to check our emails, facebook etc. This was our first experience with the shitty European keyboards. They are nothing like they are at home becuase all the keys are mixed up and in different places. It took forever to find the @ sign. On the way to the hotel we made a stop at the Berlin Wall. It was the last remaining part of the wall and we had time to take a few pictures. I even drew on the wall, which seemed pretty cool I guess. They apparently re-paint it every so often anyway.

We then arrived at our hotel- The Park Plaza, which was a pretty decent hotel. Steph and I went up to our room and got ready for dinner in the hotel resturant. Dinner icnluded lots of Germanic foods like sourkraut..anyway it was pretty nice. We all then headed nextdoor to the hostel called The Generator, which is a pretty funky hostel. They had a really cool bar there so we all went in for a drink. I discovered the dirnking age in Europe is 16 although they can only drink beer and wine till they are 18 and then they can drink spirits too, so the bar was full of kids that looked about 14. For me, this was only going to be a quite night so I got a beer, but after Paul the busdriver ordered himself and Nemo "the strongest shit in the house", I think I got persuaded to go a little harder. They had these sour apple shots for 1 euro each so I started buying rounds for myself, Steph, Simon and Beau. I ended up buying about 15 of these. Then Steph started buying Jagerbombs, and Beau started buying absinthe shots (but I doubt these were the "real"absinth becuase they went down pretty well (or maybe I was just too drunk to notice the potent burning sensation of absinthe going down my throat).
It got to be a pretty messy night. Nemo got absolutley hammered and we ended up having to take him to the bathroom becuase he practically could not walk. Paul got pretty crazy drunk also and ended up trying to kiss me, falling down and taking me with him, with me ending up bumping my head on the metal steps and having a huge lump for nearly the rest of the tour.
The rest of the night was pretty much non-existant in my memory. I just could not remember how the night went on if I tried. I have a blurry memory of Beau getting behind the bar and bartending and then having a tee-shirt with a pumpkin on. Pretty much after that, I have no idea. Yes this was my drunkest night of the trip. To save my own dignity and others involved, I shall not disclose what ese went on that night (not that I remember, from what I got told)

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