Das weisswein bitte....

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Hey everyone

Thought it was about time I sent through another update. Have just got back from a fantastic weekend away with Olivia in Berlin - wow it was amazing! Such an awesome place that's for sure. We did a walking tour on the Saturday and saw all the main highlights like the Brandenburg Gate, the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his baby out of the window (you say that's a highlight? hehe), the Reichstag, Holocaust Memorial, Hitler's bunker where he shot himself, the Berlin Wall (well pieces of it), checkpoint Charlie and many other influential buildings, memorials and museums. There is so much history there and our guide, who was an Aussie, was great. I learnt a lot about the history of Berlin and what happened on the historical day when the Berlin Wall came down, and it was interesting to hear how both sides of East & West are now living as one. It's a very arty and trendy city with a mixture of old and new and my word the people are so friendly. If you looked slightly lost people were offering their help left, right and centre - which in a way was helpful, but sometimes you just want to have the experience of feeling lost and then figuring how to get yourself back on track - but only ask for help when you really need it! But anyway, it snowed...and when I say it snowed....it snowed big fat chunky snowflakes - and lots of it! It had snowed earlier on in the morning of our tour and that was fine for the first 2 mins but after that it was just annoying, but thankfully it eased up. We did a pub crawl later that night with about 160 people and went to some interesting places. We met two Kiwi boys, one from Wgtn and one from "Horowhenua" aka Levin. They were a good laugh and god their accents were funny.....such a strong kiwi accent. I'm just dreading that when I come home you are all going to sound like that! haha...or worse yet you guys will start accusing me of having a British accent...actually I know I do have a twang and I'm trying hard to stop it! But we ended up spending the night with a three guys (one from Aussie, UK and America)...who I swear are all gay...which isn't uncommon in Berlin considering it's the gay capital of the world! But they were awesome and really made our night such a good one.

Sunday we were really hungover so we did a bit of a wander around town and then spent two hours in Starbucks so we could get out of the cold...oh and we also managed to get a spot of shopping in too. Then it was back on the plane to London where I got a grilling at Customs, was worried they weren't going to let me in....but they did thank god! So that was a very very very brief synopsis of my trip to Berlin with the wonderful Olivia!

Apart from that I'm just trying to organise my last lot of weekends here before I head home plus New Years, which is proving to be a mission!. God it's like 7 weeks away and I'll be in the sunshine and back with you all! Can't wait!

Hmmm not sure there is much else to tell. Just keeping busy at work and my social calendar is getting very full for December already with Xmas lunches, parties, catch up drinks etc which is worrying for my bank balance and waistline! But hey, guess you have to enjoy it while it lasts!

Anyway guys, just wanted to touch base to make sure you guys hadn't forgotten about me!

Big hugs
xoxoxox

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Photos

Brandenburg Gate
The main gate in Berlin

The hotel....
that Michael Jackson hung his baby out of

Hitler's Bunker
Underneath this carpark is the bunker where Hitler shot himself and his wife. There is just a small sign about it as they don't want to make it a congregation point for Neo-Nazi's

The Berlin Wall
Amazing that they need a wall for the wall..... This is the longest stretch of wall that is left today

Part of the wall
Sections that have been saved because of the artwork - some were amazing.

Where the wall use to be
This brick work runs throughout the city to show where the wall use to stand.

Checkpoint Charlie
This is the checkpoint you had to go through to cross between East and West

Burning of the Books memorial
Unfortunately you can't really see it but this is a two storey memorial under the ground of bookshelves that would hold 20,000 books. The amount that were burnt in the Piaza in a protest during Communism times.

Traffic Go Man in West Berlin
Notice his hat!!?? In East Berlin he's the normal Go man. That's how you can tell which part of the city you are in.

The Dom
Looks old but it isn't.....built in the late 1800's, the stone absorbed all the coal pollution which makes it all black.

Olivia and the museum
Look at her prancing about....

Our pub crawl buddies
Philippe (Aus), Tom (UK but Berlin resident) and David (USA) - a right mighty cultural bunch!

whoopsy- daisy
think i'm have too much to...drink...hiccup

Berlin Bear
The bear is the symbol of Berlin and outside many shops you would find him dressed up...this was outside a rental car place....