Achtung. Sie verlassen jetzt West-Berlin.

Attention. You are now leaving West Berlin.

Berlin is without a doubt our favourite capital city so far. It’s not as pretty as some of the others but its architectural diversity, cultural dynamism & rich history is enough to have you enthralled. Made up of post World War II buildings, modern glass & steel, & everything else in-between it appears they haven’t been able to pick a style & run with it but that’s not surprising with crazy senseless history. It is so hard to believe that up until 1989 there was still a wall going through & dividing the middle of the city. We stayed in Potsdam about 1hr from Berlin and caught a tram and train into Berlin both the days we were there. On the first day we were lucky enough to arrive on their national day of independence. So in Tier Garten in front of Brandeburg Gate there was a carnival with music and food stalls. We ate sausages & drank beer with the locals all morning. After lunch we decided to get some of sights in, we went to the Reichstag (parliament house) and went up the observation dome which had fabulous views of the city. Following this we walked towards Potsdamer station & the Sony centre were only 17 years earlier this area was a baron part of the death strip & we would have been shot on sight. We saw our first bit of the wall here. There actually isn’t very much of the Berlin wall left, people in the city didn’t want to be reminded of what it represented so attempted to destroy every remaining piece. They now accept that it is a part of their history and a bid is being made to preserve the few remaining pieces. The Sony centre is an extremely modern glass & steel building with a large glass cone roof which changes colours filled with fountains, restaurants, a cinema complex & hordes of people lounged around every where with there lap tops taking advantage of the free wireless hotspot. Odds on the majority of 'em are backpacker or students. We decided to go to the movies whist there and saw World Trade Centre which was surprisingly pretty good although it would have been better without the American cheese factor. We then made our hour long journey back to our campsite. When we arrived at the last tram stop there were no taxi’s waiting so we had to make a terrifying 20min walk through the very dark bush surrounding our campsite. The next morning we made our way back into Berlin. Today we decided to go on a walking tour. It was fantastic, there was a group of about 10 (all Aussies) and we just walked around Berlin listening to our own personal guide. It would have to be the most fascinating city in the world. The tour highlights were Checkpoint Charlie, Hitler’s bunker, the Holocaust Memorial (to the Murdered Jews in Europe) and the brilliant Book Burning sq memorial. It was so hard to believe that all this world renowned history eventuated from this one city. Hitler’s bunker was so interesting, although there is nothing to see. The spot were Hitler spent his last days and committed suicide with his wife is now a car park surrounded by blocks of unattractive flats, there is a small sign showing that there were and still are bunkers under the ground but nothing to say that this is the resting spot for the most notorious dictator ever! After having our brains filled with fascinating facts to accompany the sights we had seen we decided we needed a drink so we joined a pub crawl run by the same group we did the walking tour. It was so much fun! There were about 30 people on the tour, so it was fun to have some company other than ourselves for a change. The first pub we went to was a dingy old communist bar. It was really cool, Andrew and I would have never found it, in fact all the places we went to were so different and usually where the locals hang out. After the first spot we all gathered in this small tunnel covered in graffiti, formed a circle and got jagermeister poured down our throats. We then made our way through the red light district to a cocktail bar. After a few more drinks and another round of shots in a secluded place we went to our favourite bar which was actually in a squat. It was so derelict but so cool at the same time, they had a massive beer garden decked out like a beach resort & they projected video footage onto neighbouring building… very cool. We met a couple of French Canadian guys who were so funny. They told us how they had been robbed at knife point on there first day, sounds scary but I was pissing myself when they told us purely based on there delivery. After this place we caught a train to the next destination the Matrix nightclub. Andrew and I then decided we better leave or we would miss our last train home, but unfortunately we already had. We walked with some other stranded people to another station but we were still too late, we had to wait till 5:00am for the next train. Which wasn’t to bad cause it was already 2am. In our bewildered (or drank state) we came across the largest remaining stretch of the Berlin wall. We decided with 3 hours to kill we would catch up with the others at the Matrix. It was absolutely packed and it was only a Wednesday night. We had a bit of a boogie and a laugh at the outfits. The place is massive, I don’t know how many rooms but it seemed like lots and there is a VIP area with a huge in ground pool! At around 4:30am we were well and truly ready to head back to our tent. We slept the entire trip home, only to be awoken by some local kids laughing and beat box-ing to Andrew’s snoring. We arrived back at the campsite at 6am and after a few more hours’ kip, poor Andrew jumped in the car & started making our way towards Amsterdam. Although he was tired we had to try & get a few miles in otherwise we wouldn’t make it in time to catch up with Em & Katie. We were randomly pulled over by the police & asked to produce our licence, insurance papers, first aid kit & emergency triangles, which we had all of apart from the triangles. We could clearly understand everything the police officer said to us but it obliviously wasn’t the case for him so we used that to our advantage… poor bloke. In the end he gave us a 15euro fine which we paid on the spot. We spent our first night in 5 weeks in a hotel, a dodgy hotel but still a hotel. It was Heaven.

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