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Published: August 29th 2008
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Euro Cup Final
That night in Berlin the street were empty. This blog is late, we don’t apologise. I had a cold and we didn’t have access to a computer for a little. And I didn’t feel like writing another what with finding jobs and a place to live in London.
Anyway enough of that. For the past couple of days we have been in Berlin. It’s certainly different to Warsaw but fantastic, so big, so many people and the train system is unbelievable. Melbourne and Connex really suck.
Our Germany experience began on the 29th of June, the Euro Cup final, Germany Vs Spain. Our hostel was owned by a Kiwi and they had toasted sandwiches on their restaurant menu. It was the greatest ham cheese and pineapple sandwich we’ve had.
Stephen and I decided to find some locals and watch the game. We headed to a beach bar, basically a bar, a barbeque and a whole lot of sand surrounding everyone. Plus three massive TVs for the football. It was really strange, but everyone got really into it. Strange all that sand. Unfortunately Germany lost so the party ended on the final whistle.
The next day we started our sightseeing starting with the Holocaust memorial, which
is a grid of 2711 differently shaped concrete columns set over 19,000 square metres of rolling ground. Then we walked into the celebration for the returning German team. It was crazy people with t-shirts, face painting, music and beer. It was situated under the Brandenburg Gate. The gate was massive, but did lose something with the whole set-up. We also the massive Sony Centre, which was a former death strip and now houses Legoland Berlin, an Australian Restaurant and the Sony Centre.
From there we walked to the Topography of Terror, which documented the history and stories of Hilter and his SS. It was on the former site of the SS Offices. It was a fantastic open air exhibition; however there was no shade and it was VERY hot. From there we headed to Check Point Charlie - that was sooo crap. You could have had our passports stamped with stamps and a visa, but the guy wasn’t interested in that, just chatting up the school girls around him. We wandered down to the check point Charlie museum but for 12 Euro, we decided to pass and go have a look at the postcards instead. We made our way
Stephen and I
At the Holocaust Memorial. It was actually a fun thing to spend time in. to the Jewish Museum and paid 5 euro each and it was crap as well. All the displays were so negative. The only good thing was I learnt how to write our names in Hebrew.
The next day we went to book our hire car. We ventured into Alexander Platz and spoke with Europcar - 13:00 the next day we picked it up. We were both excited. Since that was organised we had the afternoon to play. We went to the TV tower called the Fernsehturm, which was once a mocked socialist symbol of Berlin, now it’s celebrated. We also wandered across the Museum Island, which lies in the river Spree. We went into the Berlin Dom, it was beautiful, and I think one of the most beautiful cathedrals I have ever seen. You could look down on the cathedral from the mid section. From there we walked up to the top which over looked the whole city.
From there walked back to Brandberg Gate, to see if it was better because all the football stuff would be packed down. It looked completely different. From there we went to the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gedachtniskirche or hall of worship. It remains
Stephen
All the colomns are different heights and the ground in uneven. in ruins - as the British Bombers left it on Nov 22, 1943. It now stands as an anti War memorial. Inside the broken west wing, it tells the history of the church, as well as images before and after the bombarding and also how they “restored” it to its current condition. After what was a long day we headed home, but not before we brought two CD’s for driving through Germany. Bob Marley and the Best of Dire Straits and Mark Knopfler.
That evening after dinner we headed to the East Side Gallery, the largest section of the Berlin Wall still intact. It was disappointing; the art work was nice, except that people thought that tagging the art pieces was a good idea.
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Michelle
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I really wish I'd brought that bag!!!