last day

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it's my last day here today. i leave for dresden tomorrow. i have decided that i don't really like berlin. not that it's done anything bad to me but it's just not that pretty. it's all pretty new and is still really just one big construction site. not all that aesthetically appealing!!!! i have had a very interesting few days here though. i've decided the germans are all nuts!!! well i don't know if they always are but with this Turnfest that's going on at the moment, i've seen some interesting things. the first night i arrived, the concert was part of the turnfest as well. the next day i did the walking tour of berlin. i'm so glad i did. massive information overload but i learnt lots of things. i don't know how much i'll remember but oh well. at least i can say i've done berlin. the walking tour was supposed to go for 4 hours, but we left at 10.30, and didn't get back til 4 but we did so much. eg. berling wall, checkpoint charlie, a new memorial for the jewish people and lots and lots of other things as well. the next day it was a grey and annoyingly rainy day so we went shopping and then watched some of the crazy turnfest dancers and went to the movies. we watched the pacifier - very light and pretty funny so it was just what we needed. yesterday i watched the bad dancers in the morning, then i found a rhythmic gym competition and watched that for about 4 hours. they were so good. they must have been national level or something. it was the masters championship and they were awesome. sooooooo flexible. today i've just been walking around, savouring the last of berlin and the turnfest. i'll try and describe it for you, but i think it's impossible. you never know what's coming next!! it's just a massive display, not competition or anything, lucky for them. today, the first 2 items i watched were a group of about 15 people doing fantastic acrobatics and tumbling. the next group were 60+ year olds wearing (very) short calisthenic style dresses holding stars doing sub-junior style movements every 8 counts!! then there was a group of about 25 people of all ages in summer clothes pretty much just running around the stage. the music is very calisthenicy though. lots of moulin rouge, big spender, even last years freearm music!! there are 2 stages set up near where i'm staying and then in the parks surrounding there are other activities going on. all these people of all ages are walking around in team tracksuits. i watched some activities yesterday and was actually laughing out loud on my own. one activity was to throw a massive beach ball over a volleyball net and then run under the net and catch it as quickly as possible and then throw it again and again. someone was counting how many times they did it within a set time limit. there were about 50 other activities - none of which made any sense. but i think that's the german way. i've had fun here though. laughing at everyone else and spending the whole time wondering what on earth is going through their mind.

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Photos

berlin
kate and i eating our first pretzel in berlin!!