SNOW!!!!!

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Berlin. So much history, so much blood shed and what an amazing city it stands today. A city with a great art scene - you can see it’s a city with always something vibrant going on. I was lucky to stay with Nastya, a couchsurfer that had once upon a time stayed with me in Amsterdam.

I flew in rather late and took the long way getting to her house/her boyfriends house. Nonetheless I arrived – relatively unscathed at about 1am.

I spent the following day doing a rather lazy tour of Berlin around dusk. Firstly we took the S- bahn (or like an overland metro) to the Zoological Garden. I had fond memories of when me and Rubina visited the love parade here back in 2006. We walked towards the Reinstag one of the most important places in Berlin in terms of historical occurrences. It was here that Hitler was elected vice chancellor.

The next day I checked out the Deutches Historisches Museum, with history spanning from 1500 AD right through to 1994.

I found the story of Fredrick William I to be the most fascinating of all. Fredrick William I who in his early life tried to elope with his tutor, only to be found by his father and have him (the tutor) Hans Hermann von Katte, murdered by his father before his very eyes. He was the only king in Germany to receive an honorary title whilst he was still alive. Can you believe what the reason was?

Potatoes.

That’s right potatoes. Young Freddy brought some potatoes back from the Slavic region during one of his expeditions. And he basically saved thousands from hunger that winter by introducing a much needed staple.

In the evening I headed to Szechin and on the Poland. Going to Szechzin was interesting after missing the 11:30am bus having to wait 3 hours for the next bus from Berlin Oostbanhof. To top it off the Berlin s-bahn stopped working so well so I didn’t get time to check out the modern art museum like I really wanted to.

On the plus side I did get to revisit the Berlin Wall east side gallery – that which I saw in Berlin with Rubina last time – It was really nice and all repainted and before I knew it I had to get back to the bus station before I missed the next bus.

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