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Published: August 4th 2008
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The Berlin wall
his is one of the largest remaining sections of the wall and is known as the east side gallery. If you here a report that the man who is not yet the US president, but many think he might be - if people will vote for him. And then if people do vote for him he has to get enough votes and then avoid being eaten by wild animals long enough to make it to the innauguration. Is coming your way run, run as fast as you can and then hide, hide as best you can. Cause in his wake there will be numerous cases of Obamamania striking and people everywhere will lose thier minds.
For some unkown reason Barack Obama decided to follow us to Berlin, unfortunately Barack Obama with all his power and influence couldn't get himself a room in the hostel we stayed in and the kiwi owner said they were booked out for the rest of the week. So poor Barrack had to stay at a hotel in the centre of town.
At first when we arrived in Berlin we were unaware of Obamas stay there, but when we went to visit the Brandenburg gate we noticed a ridiculously high police presence and a lot of American flags around a hotel in the square. We
thought this was rather exciting we decided to go and stand outside the hotel with everyone else and see what the hell was going on. People seemed to be under some unfounded pretence that he will be showing up shortly, however we soon found out that no one had any idea when he was coming back and they were just standing outside in the faint hope that he may return at some point of the day. So after standing around for 30 minutes we continued on with our day.
We decided that perhaps we should spend our time in Berlin seeing sites rather than waiting around for US president hopefuls. So that is what we did. Berlin is an interesting city, it is an old city with a vast history yet it feels young and exciting, I suppose because the current city of Berlin was only formed 18 years ago.
The difference between East and West is the thing that strikes you most about Berlin, we stayed in the former eastern part of the city it is a nice area. However the architecture is very drab and the city feels grungier than when you are in the west.
Our sightseeing
in Berlin proved to be ridiculously easy when we found out that someone had come up with the idea of running free tours at which are 4 hours long and at the end of which you tip the guide however much you think they are worth. We tipped our guide but the cost of the tour was alot less than the 20 euro per person us tours running around. The tour took in all the interesting sights such as the Brandenburg gate, The Reichstag, Checkpoint charlie, The Berlin Wall, Hitlers Bunker and many other sights around the city. It was also good to hear the stories that went along with all the places in the city. Some of which are amazing.
One of our favourites was when Berlin was nearly the starting place of world war 3 because one of the American Generals wanted to go to the Opera in Soviet East Berlin. He was stopped illegally and then he decided it was a good idea to call in some tanks to make a point. The Soviets did likewise and the world was nearly destroyed, because a guy wanted to see someone sing in Italian.
While you walk around Berlin
The Brandenburg gate.
This sits at the Paris square in Berlin. The statue at the top is called Victory. you are never really sure which part you are in as the wall ran all over the city and in no particular order. The easiest way to tell is by looking at the little men when you cross the road. In the west you have the normal run of the mill green stickman. However in the east you have a determined fellow striding purposefully to work for the great communist dream, known as the apple man. Needless to say we thought the appleman was quite cool.
Obama mania reached fever pitch on the second day we were in Berlin as the man who isn't the US president yet was making a speech in the centre of Berlin. Unfortunately we to had succumbed to Obama mania and when we found out he was going to be speaking in about 15 minutes and it was only a 10 minute walk to where he was speaking we headed down to have a look. Obama mania was out of control as over 100,000 people lined the tiergarden from the Brandenburg gate to the victory monument to listen to what he had to say. His speech was very interesting and he made several comments
that won him the support of the crowd. It was a pretty cool experience to be standing in one of the most influential cities of our time listening to someone who could be the worlds most powerful man soon a fact I dont think was lost on anyone there.
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