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Published: January 4th 2014
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Guten tag! First of all a Happy New Year for everyone, all the best for 2014!
I'm still behind with the blog.
From East Midlands (UK) I flew RyanAir to Berlin. I've been several times to Germany but this was my 1st time in
Berlin! The weather wasn't that great (end-November) and that wasn't very motivating. It rained and that gave me less time to actually see the city. But I was satisfied with what I've seen.
The German capital is the largest city in the country with more than 3,5 million people. I didn't find the city to be "pretty" but it's very interesting with a lot of history and has a nice atmosphere. In Berlin I met with Daniel again, the Cuban guy I met in Poland before. We hung around most of the time but he wasn't feeling very well during my last two days in Berlin. The first place I visited in Berlin was the famous Berlin Wall, built in 1961 by the Soviets to separate the communist east from the capitalist west. I went to the remains of the wall called "East Side Gallery", where the wall is completely covered by
paintings and graffiti, many of them beautiful, unique and interesting...like an art-gallery. This part of the wall is located along the Spree River, not far from the Oberbaum Bridge. Around the Berlin Wall Memorial there are also sections of the wall left, around the intersection of Acker Strasse and Bernauer Strasse. Some houses in Bernauer Strasse had one exit to the east and one to the west. Many people escaped by jumping out of the windows to the west and some died. It was a strange feeling just to think about what happened 52 years ago right there where I was standing. Ruins of the foundations of the Church of Reconciliation, which was destroyed in 1985 by the Soviets, can still be seen.
We also wandered around Potsdamer Platz and walked into the direction of the Brandenburger Tor (Brandenburg Gate). Built in the late 1700's it became "the landmark" of Berlin and it also appears on a Euro coin (the German 50 cent coin if I’m not wrong). Before arriving to the gate I walked past the Holocaust Memorial, consisting of more than 2700 concrete slabs. It looked like a cemetery. A visit to the big "New Synagogue"
(built in the 1860's) on the Oranienburger Strasse was also interesting to learn about how the building survived and about its use today for the small Jewish community currently living in Berlin. They had a small exhibition showing telegraphs that several embassies sent home to their governments about the Reichskristallnacht (Night of Broken Glass) in 1938.
Walking around the city centre I passed the "Checkpoint Charlie", which was the only place where foreigners could cross from east to west. The checkpoint is still there with a sign saying "You are leaving the American sector" on one side and "You are entering the American sector" on the other side. The area of Gendarmenmarkt is also very nice with the Deutscher Dom (German Cathedral), the Konzerthaus (Concerthouse) and the Französischer Dom (French Cathedral) all close to each other. Eastern Berlin used a particular type of pedestrian crossinglights called "Ampelmännchen" and they're still used in the former East Berlin. Very interesting! Berlin was a great city to visit and wasn't too expensive. Too bad that the weather left to be desired. But that's the nature, what can you do?
After Berlin I continued towards the west to meet my
mate Tobias, who was my roommate in Darwin, Australia back in 2007/2008 and hadn't seen him since 4,5 years. I met him at his university in Hannover, where we spent the night and had a great night out together with some of his friends. The next day we went to Braunschweig, where he lives and I spent four nights there. I met his girlfriend Anna for the first time and met his sister, dad and step-mom again in Wolfenbuttel. We didn't do anything in particular, just spoke a lot about what we've done for the last 4 years, played some table-games, had some beers etc. It was great to spent some time with them again. After Braunschweig I went to
Frankfurt am Main where I stayed just 3 nights and I met Zsolt, a Hungarian acquaintancesI met in Curaçao a few years ago through Couchsurfing. The city has about 700.000 people and also known as "Mainhattan" because of its skyline. It's the German city with the most skyscrapers. The city was heavily bombed during the Second World War and was rebuilt again. It was my second time in Frankfurt, since visiting back in 2003 on a schooltrip when I was
studying in Rotterdam. I didn't do much in Frankfurt. I visited the "Weihnachtsmarkt" (Christmas Market) and drunk some "glühwein" (warm, glow wine). I walked around a little bit as well and went again to beautiful Römerplatz and I crossed the bridge over the Main River to the south bank to take some nice pictures. I went to the top of "Main Tower" just before sunset from where I took some good pictures of the city.
My next stop was
Cologne, Germany's 4th largest city with just over 1 million people. This was my 3rd visit here and I went to meet my mate Moritz who I met in Melbourne back in 2008. Again I didn't do much in Cologne. I mostly chilled, slept a lot, relaxed, hung out with Moritz and his friends. I also got to play some volleyball at his university and also here we went to the Weihnachtsmarkt here too and has some glühwein. I met with Wim and Milena from Belgium, who I met in Nicaragua back in 2009. It was nice to see them again. We had some drinks and walked around the market a little bit, along the river and the Kölner Dom
(Cathedral). It is "the" main attraction and icon of Cologne. They started building it in the mid 1250's and construction stopped more than 200 years later. Construction started again the 1800's and was completed in 1880 according to its original plan. Moritz and his friends were playing "Quizduell" all the time, a German quiz application where you can play against each other. Although it was in German, I managed to win often enough. My German improved a lot during my stay in the country. I introduced my friend Christian and his friends to the quiz too, when I went to Oberhausen and spent a few days there. I met Christian in 2004 at an international volleyball tournament in Rotterdam. Again, in Oberhausen I didn't do too much other than just spend some time with Christian, his siblings, his friends, his wife and little son Joshua.
Germany was great and it was nice to see my friends and hang around with them again. And I had enough time to rest, relax and chill. :-)
All right that was it all for this one. Thanks!
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liliram
liliram
Keep writing!
Have not been to Berlin too. I should stay longer in Germany next visit. Hey, just followed you. Keep writing! Your blogs should keep me busy in next few days. [:)]