History, nightlife and mean Russians (berlin)

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Ok, so picking up where I left off, Malmo was nice though it took us a while to find a spot to camp and our spot didn't compare to any of our previous beautiful locations. It was about 30-40mins walk to get back to the station in the morning, so we really felt the packs on our backs!



The train strike in Sweden was still going on (naturally it finished the day after we did the route!) so it was a bus over to Copenhagen then a train to hamburg (of course this train had to stop and get extremely overcrowded due to another train breaking down and us taking on its passengers) and finally onto the train to berlin.



Due to the delays on the trains we arrived in the middle of the night and found it difficult to find our hostel (that's right, we've finished camping!!). We stayed in green hostel which supposedly had a 24h reception, but of course no-one answered the door to us. A man from the kebab shop next door who spoke no English ushered us into his shop and after a fractured conversation with help from a customer or two he got onto the phone. Soon enough someone came down and let us into the hostel.



Just to make things that little bit more interesting they hadn't received our reservation for a 3 person room, had no idea who we where and the man at reception didn't speak English. Luckily after a chat on the phone to his boss who did speak some English we had managed to get some beds in a dorm room. And after a couple of shots of 80% rum we where fast asleep!



The following day we switched to a new hostel (a and o hostel) where we shared a room with a couple of Norwegian guys who we got on well with.



We watched England vs Italy in a beach bar in the centre of Berlin and cheered like mad when we equalised. We can't say the Germans had the same response and when Italy scored the winner noise erupted around us. For the rest of the trip several Germans enjoyed laughing at England's results, though a few where sympathetic.



Having been to berlin before I wasn't desperate to see any of the tourist spots but did want to go up into the dome above the reichstag. But because my travelling buddies hadn't been before we decided to see what we could. We went to the Brandenburg gate, ate lunch by the Berlin Wall, checked out check point Charlie, and finally got to go up to the dome! The audio guide was really interesting, explaining all about the city, parliament and the history of Berlin. I'd recommend anyone who is in berlin go and do this. And it's free!



Currywurst was on the agenda having liked it so much in hamburg earlier in the trip and we seemed to find it everywhere. And that's not all you can find everywhere, there's beer available in just about every shop in the city, whether it's a corner shop, kebab shop, pizza place, bar, cafe, ice cream shop. You name it, they have alcohol for sale. We found a really nice beer that only cost 80 cents which became a bit of a trip favourite.



We also spent quite a lot of time at a kebab shop round the corner from our hostel. It was more like a restaurant than a normal kebab shop and had a big screen tv to watch the World Cup on. The man who ran it was very friendly and we could sit and drink our own drinks watching the games. Though of course we could buy cheap beer straight from him.



We sat and watched two little birds whilst we were at this shop. One seemed to have broken his wing and was unable to fly, hobbling along shaking its wings about while the other bird found food and fed it. We where sitting saying how sweet it was when a hawk swooped out of the sky and grabbed the disabled bird in its talons. A horrible screech followed and then the little bird and the hawk where gone! The other bird seemed lost and confused but didn't hang around long after the hawk had taken his friend.



Then it was time to check out the night life. We had heard berlin has a reputation for turning non-Berliners away at the door and that seemed to be very true from our conversations with other travellers. Luckily for us a friend back in the uk had phoned ahead and got us onto the guest list of an exclusive little club.



It looked like a large house and when we approached the bouncers they sarcastically said "your on the guest list?", but they checked the list and there we where at the top of the VIP list. Looking a little confused they let us pass (though the Americans behind us where not so lucky and became two of many people not to be let in).



It was unlike any club we have been to in the uk. It was VERY liberal and seemed like anything goes in berlin, and by anything I mean anything! There was a campfire in the garden left to the ravers to tend and a big pond both of which you'd never see in the uk. Back home the toilets is where all the naughty stuff happens but here it seemed to flow out across the dance floors, down little corridors, into the garden. As I said, very liberal!



We had an amazing time and met all sorts of fascinating people. This is the point where we all fell in love with berlin.



We lost track of time while in there and ended up leaving at about 10 in the morning, getting back to our hostel just in time for checkout. We decided to use one of our 3 spare days staying another night and luckily the hostel still had beds.



We had a lazy day of recovering from partying and walked round the local area.



Then finally it was time to leave. We packed up our stuff and head to the central station. We had figured out the sleeper train we wanted to take from berlin to Warsaw to change trains to go to krakow but the woman behind the ticket desk said there was a technical problem and we would have to get our reservation from the conductor on the train.



No problem we thought. We hung around until 9 pm, double checking with a worker on the platform that we where definitely getting the right train. And then the train arrived. It was like something left over from soviet Russia. The train was packed with people hanging off of beds, glum faces staring out of the windows. It looked very worn down.



We needed to get our reservation and we also had to make sure it definitely stopped at Warsaw as the thought of arriving in Moscow with no visa didn't appeal to us.



We walked over to the first conductor who got off the train (the train staff where all Russian) and he appeared to be willing to help us, that is until he asked to see our passports. He looked at them, turning them over in his hand, "English" I said, seeing he was trying to figure out where we where from. At this point he gave our passports back, gave us a dirty look and turned his back on us. (We later saw him take a brown parcel from a man who didn't board the train in what appeared to be a very dodgy transaction).



Ok, that didn't work, so we tried to ask the next conductor at the following carriage. Once again the moment I said we where English he waved me away angrily and had no interest in talking to me. The third conductor just stared blankly through us as if we didn't exist, not bothering to even reply when we spoke to her.



So the Russians had stopped us leaving berlin. Though we can't say we are the first people in berlin to be kept there by the Russians!



We had no choice but to use a second of our three spare days staying in berlin. We head back to our hostel which unfortunately was booked up, but they found us some beds in another hostel in a more central location which we finally found in the middle of the night.



The beds had not been cleaned, they where covered in hair and the corridor was filled with loads of teenagers on a school trip making noise all night. Not our most comfortable nights sleep it has to be said.



Then eventually two days later than planned we boarded our train for Poland this morning. (We chose a train stopping in Poland and not one continuing on to Russia this time!). We've got a decent compartment on the train but no wifi and no plug sockets which would have been handy.



Well I'm off to sleep as this train still has several hours to go, berlin was great and we've had some really interesting experiences! More to come from Poland we hope!

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Photos

Top of the reichstag dome

Inside the reichstag dome

Sunset view from the reichstag roof

The dome

Sunset dome

Another view from the roof!

Hilarious sign for beer