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Published: December 3rd 2008
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Me in the Snow
Looking so happy considering it was freakin' freezing! Let it snow, Let it snow, Let it snow!
Hey Guys and Gals,
Well my latest report is about Berlin and what a wonderful City it is!
On Friday 21st November Rachel and I left Gatwick for Berlin, our two hour flight departed at 7.40pm and when we arrived we were greeted by a very cold chill in the air! We headed to our Hotel 'Air Berlin' which was only a ten minute walk from the airport.
On Saturday morning we were up bright and early for a walking tour of the City, we had a very informative and enthusiastic Australian Tour Guide who has lived in there for two years and clearly had a real passion for the City and it's History. We visited sites such as The Brandenburg Gate, The Berlin Wall, The Reichstag (Berlin House of Government), Hitlers Bunker, Former SS Headquarters, Checkpoint Charlie, The Book Burning Memorial and that's only to name a few!
The tour was 4 and a half hours long and thoroughly enjoyable despite the freezing cold. A highlight for me was definately when it snowed so hard we had to hide behind the Brandenburg Gate to hear the
guide and get some shelter!
Afterwards we cruised the streets for a bit and then headed to Dinner before going on a Pub Crawl (organised by the same company as the tour). We'd heard good things about it and everyone that had been to Berlin said 'you have to do the tour and the pub crawl!'. We had a great night visiting 5 different bars with 160 other tourists and it just wouldn't have been right if we hadn't met some people from Wellington. It's so cool that you really can't go anywhere without seeing a fellow kiwi traveller. I don't think their names could have been more kiwi either.. 'Mick and Matt'. Haha.
As we walked from our fourth to fifth pub it snowed again and we had a ball playing in it, i've seriously never seen such heavy falling snow, it was like something from Narnia. ( I know i've said this in a previous blog but i've never actually seen it falling from the sky like that!).
We crawled home around 4am and had to be up and out for checkout at 10.30am so were feeling a wee bit worse for wear. I had
to have a German Sausage so after a bit of wandering and a few lazy hours in Starbucks we made our way to the Airport and managed to pick one up at the station before we headed off on our 5pm flight. Luckily we were early as there were delays with the trains and it could have been a disaster!
What a great weekend we'd had. Berlin is such an amazing and beautiful looking City, you literally see all these nice new buildings then Cathedrals and other sites that have been bombed that are sitting just as they were the day it happened. The modern aspect is very tasteful and everything is so widely spread that the skyline is a combination of old and new. (Hopefully you can see from the photos).
Contrary to what I might have previously been led to believe the people were very friendly (except for one or two shoulder barges from old people) and we were often asked if we wanted help when holding a map at the train station.
Unfortunately we didn't get to try much of the food as we were only there a short time but I did get
to have a Nutella and Banana Crepe and a traditional Sausage (Bratwurst) so that was something.
It was just as I had imagined it would be, if not better and I can't wait to return there one day.
Anyway folks, that's about all from me. I hope you all have a warm and wonderful Christmas, I will be thinking of you (hopefully not too homesick on Christmas Day) from some part of Africa and I look forward to speaking to you on my return.
Merry Christmas and Take Care.
Love from Olivia xx
I have included a few photos from the Halloween Party at the end of this blog as well.
Other info..
The site for tours http ://www.newberlintours.com/nbt/
We flew with Easyjet and paid £130 all up for flights and accom, the accom was quite basic but was perfect for our needs. Flights with Easyjet are always a little squishy but fo that price you can't go wrong!
Berlin is the Capital of Germany with a population of 3.4 million. It seems a popular place for Students and people in Creative jobs but we were told it's not all that
Michael Jackson Spot
This is the hotel and balcony that Wacko Jacko dangled his baby from easy to get a job there.
Info on the Berlin Wall: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berlin_Wall
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