up a tower, down a tower, into Poland. back out of poland

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Berlin is one of my favourite cities and coming back was great. We headed to alexanderplatz and played a game of where's Wally looking for the friends we'd come to meet. Eventually they were spotted, hugs all round and we headed to the tower. The TV tower in Berlin is well worth the thirteen Euros and I couldn't wait to cup. Deadly a big fight and some technical difficulties (fight not ours,apparently some homeless dudes had been forced to the ground and dragged out or something) meant we had to wait to get a ticket. This meant beer. This was clearly a great shame.

We found an outside bar on Alexanderplatz and settled in for schnitzel, cider, beer and golden foods and it was good. Interesting approach to service but unbelievably we got what we ordered. Three drinks later and we decided to head to the tower. To go up the tower, you buy your thirteen euro ticket and come back at your allotted time which does help with queuing. We spent our waiting time in the shop admiring the hand towel for 24 euro and the pasta for five pounds a bag. Yes, the most expensive gift shop ever. The TV tower perfume is potent to say the least. Our time arrived so we headed through the metal detectors,Ash clearly attracts being subject to extra checks at every opportunity, setting off the metal detector twice. The lift is rapid and now has a see through roof. The view from the top is marvellous and although they've changed how you book to go in the restaurant - you now have to book at least a day in advance to go up to the revolving restaurant with the twinkly lights in the ceiling - the bar in the main deck does fantastic cocktails. Watching the supermoon come up with a Cosmo and good company up the top of a tower in Berlin was pretty awesome.

The hunt for a photo booth came next. In Berlin there are about ten booths which take photos and age them so they look old fashioned and sepia. According to Matt's map there was one about half a mile away. We found the general area but failed to find the booth so found a bar, the Louisiana kid, instead. Having found a pretty cool area there was not a lack of choice. As expected we found the one which attracted the mad Irish guy who wanted to rant, oh and ask if there was work for him in London. 'ERM yes, I'll just ring my London agent and find out drunken Irish man,'. Great. He went away and yes, came back. He did disappear eventually moaning about have had all his money stolen.

The night ended with a trip on the u Hahn and we made it back to the hotel for much needed sleep.

Tuesday was lunch and Poland day. Two other friends were in Berlin before joining us again at the weekend for the Highfield's festival so we made our way back to Alexanderplatz to meet them for wurst and a coke. After another game of where's Wally,this time seeing two people who looked like them and actually heading towards them first, we found Alex, Rebecca, sausage and chips and made the most of the lack of people in the seats after the rain.

Leaving them to find cocktails and learn about the war, we headed back to the van, were bemused by the parking ticket on the van (I'll deal with that at home!) And headed to Poland. Two hours later we got to Poland. Twenty minutes after that we turned round and ten minutes later we headed back out of Poland. I'm sure Poland is a lovely country with beautiful cities and a long history. Sadly when one of your main roads in feels like you're driving on a recently ploughed concrete field and your radio shakes out of its housing, you really don't want to continue to find out. Even worse the road signs teased us saying bumpy roads for eight km then when that ended there would be another one ...then another one. Damn you Poland just tell me how long is actually left of driving at twenty mph fearing for the safety of my fillings.



Maybe if I'd been in the car. Or maybe if Albania hadn't happened. Or maybe if we HAD to go to Poland I wouldn't have had a teeny tiny melt down. As it was we found an exit, turned round and headed back, ironically on a beautifully paved flat road. A quick internet search and I found us a hotel in Dresden, back in the safety of Germany with its lovely flat roads with no weeds growing out of them. Finally about half seven we rocked up in Dresden on a the night they'd discovered an unexploded five hundred pound American bomb. Whoop whoop!

Things I learnt

1. There are drunk Irish men who 'came for work and had all their money stolen twenty years ago' in every town everywhere

2. Cocktails up a tower are good

3. Polish motorways are not good. Not good at all. And the road signs lie.

4. Kartofelkopf is potatohead in German

5. German drivers are still full on crazy mental

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