http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Europe , Germany , District of Berlin , Berlin en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:21:13 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 18:21:13 +0000 Once Upon A Time In Berlin Regrets I've had a few....Since my first trip to Berlin in 1992 I'd always regretted not visiting the Pinguin Club. It featured very heavily in the Dave Rimmer book 'Once Upon a time in the East'. Instead I spent the nights there drinking in the ripoff bars on the 'KuDam' or playing Scramble in the Hostel bar trying in vain to get off with female Backpac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-463569.html Day 11 Occasionally time is irrelevant. Sure I was scheduled to check out of the hotel by 11AM but I was going to juice my stay for all it was worth. 800hellip900hellip930hellipmy eyes were open but I did not dare to wake up the rest of me. Covered by twelve inches of fluffy comfort I just laid back and basked in the glory of my opulence. Usually when one stays in hostels in E http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-459435.html Day 10ldquoAchtungrdquoldquoYOU vill get up and you vill get up NOWrdquoldquoAchtung Achtungrdquo Ahhhellipthe melodic sounds of a German alarm clock. Like a good Kraut I obediently opened my eyes to the bellow of a hoarse campground kommander at 7AM but like a good Canuck I defied Colonel Klink's orders turned over and continued to sleep off my hangover. Ten minutes lat http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-459432.html Day 9 Like a good German I arose from my sleep at 730 AM bid lsquoauf weidersehenrsquo to the noisy bastards swiftly scarfed down my morning Muslix and coffee and headed off to the train station. I hit the train station and locked up my luggage for a few hours before my departure. For some reason I had to get out of there. I just didnrsquot get the right vibes. Sure it is beaut http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-459430.html Berlin is poor but sexyKlaus Wowereit Governing Mayor in a press interview 2003 The best introduction you can use for Berlin version 21st century. In July 2008 I was going for my second time in Berlin. My first was in 2006 with my old time fella Amine and that was the best 5 days of the trip.This time I would spend 9 days in Berlin in a trip that I planned with my parents. I would meet t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-458645.html Berlin might me funny but there are better ones http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-456971.html Well as most of you know this past weekend was the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Prior to my excursion to Berlin I didn't know much about the wall besides the basicswe're talking bare minimum basics. I would describe this trip as short and intense. It was a lot of information to process and experience. My traveling buddy and I went to the Jewish History Museum that was really http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-452893.html yzanother busz busz daz. and cold. brrr reallz frostz this morning and onlz about 5 degrees this afternoon. had mz coat and sweater and hat and mitts on. wish i had brought mz long underwear reallzwent to bed around 1030 last night after figuring out how to get to potsdam. however stupid roommates... 2 of them came in around 1230 and were messing around about a half hour. then around 3 the oth http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-449979.html Happz Halloweeny and z are switched. ugh.Anzwazs didnt bother with an entrz last night just a boring travel daz. other than almost missing the train. haha it was leaving from the zuid south station instead of the main station and i didnt exactlz research how to go about getting there beforehand. sillz me. but i made it with time to stop to grab a bacon and egg sandwich and some pringles for http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-449737.html Arriving in Berlin late we were met with caos At City Stay Mitte they had only booked one of us in... they were fully booked... mmmm not a happy Jen... We had booked a double as we had been staying in a dorm in Amsterdam and needed some TLC hehe... They couldnt find our booking and the language barrier was soooooo bad we left Making our way to Generator a famous hostel with plenty of bed http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-449687.html Test http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-448624.html Yay time for a reasonable trip We took a week out for Andrew's 30th and headed to Berlin then across by train to Prague. We flew out of Gatwick on the 3rd and made our way into Berlin via train from the airport not the easiest one we have done as couldn't find anyone who spoke English at the station had trouble making sense of the timetables and discovered that the service we were on was also http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-445804.html Shems After coffee and cake at a strange bakery in a passage joining two rival supermarkets we headed into the centre. Travel was frustrating due to SBahn still being out of order so everything took an age. We walked around the centre for a bit and had a fastfood risotto. It both amuses and delights me that risotto can be considered a fastfood. Italian cookbooks describe the dish in ty http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-445258.html Shems I have remembered what cities are good for getting stuff done. We did a lot of this today. Boring as it may be I have been dying for a new pair of walking shoes and jeans and we needed two new fullyfunctioning daybags. Thank you to my aunts for my generous birthday gifts some of which which I used to get these new things. We also popped into STA travel to enquire about the roundth http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-445256.html ChrisThere were no more beds in our current hostel so we had to hunt for a new one. Rather than lug all our bags with us we left them at the Hauptbahnhof and went out exploring. I have always wanted to visit Berlin so there were plenty of places we wanted to see. We managed to fit in a heck of a lot. The ReichstagBundestag Checkpoint Charlie and the remains of the wall. We then walked along th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-445249.html ShemsHelle left us to sleepin this morning. Its surprising how much Michael and Helle's has started to feel like home We still needed to work out where to go next Italy would be good but the weather looks bad and the are having lots of storms. This weather is forecast to sweep across the Adriatic making us less keen on Bosnia and Croatia too. We spent the morning with two laptops on furiousl http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-445246.html As I mentioned in another post I went on the most excellent free tour of Berlin. FREE Sure the guide plugged some of the other payforem tours the company offers but it was at a minimum. So for nearly 4 hours we walked all over the center most touristy parts of the city. I will say more as I post the pictures because right now all I can think about is the snow I'm watching fall as I sit her http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-444901.html After leaving Belgium I pushed on into Germany for the first time which I must admit I was really looking forward to. What with Oktoberfest just around the corner and the imminent arrival of the JJ's all the way from Australia ps. thatrsquos my little sister Jules and her boyfriend Jono who is also my best mate for those of you who don't know.. and yes thatrsquos a whole other story for anoth http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-444498.html This morning I was supposed to do my last long run. I was excited for it just to get it over with. Coming into Berlin I thought Irsquod have plenty of time for this. And Irsquod be well rested since I expected nice easy touring days. I was way off base. I had too much to do yet and had shot my legs with all the walking. So no chance for today. Postponed until Wednesday when I get to Vienna.In http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-444419.html This morning was the first time Irsquove had a chance to do all the tour book stuff that I found interesting. It would be a long day of it since itrsquos my only day here to do it.I started out by walking down to Alexanderplatz. There I saw the world clock a 3D cylindrical clock that shows the approximate time in each time zone around the world and the outside of the Fernsehturm TV tower. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-444378.html