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Berlin Travel Blogs

Background: As Europe's largest economy and most populous nation, Germany remains a key member of the continent's economic, political, and defense organizations. European power struggles immersed Germany in two devastating World Wars in the first half of the 20th century and left the country occupied by the victorious Allied powers of the US, UK, France, and the Soviet Union in 1945. With the advent of the Cold War, two German states were formed in 1949: the western Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) and the eastern German Democratic Republic (GDR). The democratic FRG embedded itself in key Western economic and security organizations, the EC, which became the EU, and NATO, while the Communist GDR was on the front line of the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact. The decline of the USSR and the end of the Cold War allowed for German unification in 1990. Since then, Germany has expended considerable funds to bring Eastern productivity and wages up to Western standards. In January 1999, Germany and 10 other EU countries introduced a common European exchange currency, the euro.

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By Bon Bon on the Go Go
August 12th 2005

Riding the rails to Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

First class all the way! Comfy seats, lots of legroom Berlin here I come. Well, sort of. I actually have to switch trains in Köln. But I will eventually end up in Berlin about 6PM tonight. Anne will not make it to Berlin before 10PM so she has given me super detailed instructions to get to her parents place by the U-Bahn. Seems pretty straight forward especially when the instructions tell you to “descend down the stairs, cross the little shopping area in the train station, and on the left hand corner go down more stairs til you get to the [View Full Entry]

By Tricia
August 10th 2005

Back to Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

As our train moved north today, the skies grew darker. What a contrast to the amazing blue skies in Provence! By the time we arrived in Berlin at the Ostbaunhof Station (East) it was pouring. We ended our journey and delivered ourselves from the elements by simply checking into the station hotel. At a counter-sit-anywhere place at the station or baun (Biergarten style)we ordered a bratwurst and local beer. Its interesting to watch the crowds in these places. Many people have dogs (like German Shepards) and are allowed to carry their beer on the trains. Hence, there are a lot of [View Full Entry]

By pabloq
August 7th 2005

Hosenbügler!

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

4 Thirsty Men
Martin, Dave, Patrick and Rick attack the Beerfest

Bye bye Prague and Hello Berlin! We got the mid morning express train to Berlin and arrived in the German capital around 3pm. Took the bus and arrived at the Odyssee hostel, the best hostel in the world IMO!! This is my 4th time at this hostel and my 4th visit to the Berlin International Beerfestival. Same dorm, same bed but always a different crowd here. We did a bit of a walking tour of Berlin taking in all the sights. Alexanderplatz, Unter Der Linen, Tiergarten, Potzdamer Platz, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpo [View Full Entry]

By Sissilia
August 6th 2005

A nice week end near Berlin with my sisters and Carsten

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Anne, Val and Carsten in front of Sans Soucis

Anne, Valerie and me went to visit Carsten in Neuruppin near Berlin. We went to Postdam and visited Sans souci castle. We enjoyed a lot this week end!!! We also met Carsten's mother and her boyfriend Willy who were so nice with us!! [View Full Entry]

By Jonte
July 31st 2005

Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Checkpoint Charlie

I arrived in Berlin last night. After a detour on the wrong train from the airport I found my way to the hostel an hour later then expected ;) Found two guys from Norway who knew this alternative place, it's a community driven café/bar/club where the alternative people gather. Artists, punk-people, homo community, just everyone "else" :) This night they had live performances by a few different Sing & Songwriters and as main artist "Kitty". Small time singer mixing the voice of Elin Sigvardsson with an electric guitarr and drums. All in all I found the place and the people to [View Full Entry]

By Elle Matt
July 30th 2005

Another moving day in Berlin.

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Concentration camp 2

Today we set out to see as many things as we could in our last day. In the morning we went to The National museum which included the Pergamon. We went to some other smaller museums dotted around the city but the most confronting part of our day was a visit to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. It really made all that Matt and I had even learnt about come to life. It was just so disturbing to think what horrible conditions the people were subjected to. At one stage I couldn't help the tears from running down my face. We had [View Full Entry]

By Elle Matt
July 29th 2005

Walking tour - superb!

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Berlin Wall

Today we went on a walking tour led by a Canadian/Berliner named Brian. It was just mind-blowing! Brian really new his stuff and had many stories to tell. I can't possibly narrow six hours down but I will mention some highlights. One thing Matt and I were blown away with was standing on the site above Hitler's bunker where he was brought above ground after he killed himself. We also saw the sight of the book burnings where there was an arty memorial underground. We walked through a controversial memorial to the Jews that consisted of different levelled cement blocks. As [View Full Entry]

By Belle
July 29th 2005

Family in Berlin

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Us at the Berlin Wall
These markers are around Berlin marking where the wall would have been. Our free and easy feet are pictured here.

We arrived safely in Berlin on Wednesday evening. Our apartment is just great. It is the main floor of a beautiful old house in a residential district of Berlin. After a good night's sleep we set off to see the city yesterday. We took in several sights and feel much more like Berliner's. Today we went to the Berlin Zoo. Unfortunately our computer has gone on the frity and we are working on how to download our pictures. We shall see how that goes but we probably won't be able to post much when we use these internet cafe's. The weather [View Full Entry]

By Elle Matt
July 28th 2005

Bus again but excited about Berlin!

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Brandenberg Gate

We awoke early to make sure we could get from the houseboat to the bus in time. Matt skilfully read the map to get us there by two trams, gotta love those things! We spent another day on the bus to arrive in Berlin at five thirty pm. We were a little upset because we had to share an eight bed dorm room (cooties!), but it turned out the rooms were immaculate and our room mates respectful! Tonight we had a cheap meal at the hostel, a snitzel and a beer and then went for a stroll to Brandenburg gate. We [View Full Entry]

By Justin and Beth
July 24th 2005

A Real Live History Lesson

Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin

Berlin, Germany July 19 - July 22 A&O Hostel On our way from Amsterdam to Germany on the train, which was supposed to be non-stop our train breaks down and they say there is no more electricity to run it! So they dump us off at a train station at the border of Germany in I still dont know what town and tell us there will be a bus to bring us to a different train station where well take a different train to Berlin! What a mess. So after waiting for about an hour we all piled into this bus [View Full Entry]

Travel Blog » Europe » Germany » District of Berlin » Berlin