Belated Berlin
Germany and Aussie girls (not us) with horrible fashion sense
12.12.2011 - 17.12.2011
5 °C
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Guten tag!!
We made it to Berlin at the very early time of 4.30am on the 12 December, and came to the not so welcome realisation that the train station was not heated.
First order of business was to find our hostel, which was actually closer to Potsdam than Berlin, but only a 20 minute S-Bahn ride away (which we got to travel on for free!!). The hostel was absolute gold - we had the dorm to ourselves the entire time and the breakfasts were great.
Even though we didn't sleep at all on the overnight train ride, we decided to stay awake and explore the city with the help of the Sandeman's Free walking tour. Our guides name was Kim, and she was from Australia!!! I was extremely envious of her hat. I have now bought myself a similar one. The tour in Berlin was our favourite walking tour so far. The highlights were the Brandenburg Gate, Berlin Wall remanents (ironically now behind a fence), the site of Hitler's bunker (now a car park which the locals use as a dog toilet), the memorial to the murdered Jews of Europe, Checkpoint Charlie and Aroma Espresso Coffee house where we went to almost every day for good coffee and hot chocolate (piping hot milk and then you were given a shot glass full of chocolate chips to pour in haha).
We also saw two Australian girls whose fashion choices give us all a bad name (the worst high waisted ill fitting pants with crop tops). They thought they were so cool.
We used Berlin as our home base and took a very adventurous day trip to Prague in the Czech Republic. The train ride was about five hours there and another five hours back, which left us with about five hours to explore the city. Of those five hours, about three and a half were spent being lost and/or running to catch the train. And getting ripped off in a local Coffee and Cigar shop. Prague is very dedicated to the smoking culture. Apparently Europe didn't get the smoking causes cancer memo. Overall, Prague was not a good day for us. It is not on my list of places to go back to, but Fiona may disagree.
Back to Berlin and a trip to an old WWII undergroud bunker. Highlight: a room painted with glow in the dark paint so that when lights we turned off, people could still see. It was pretty damn cool. Despite the health hazard.
Our last day in Berlin was not the best - we took a trip to Potsdam, the old centre of the Prussian empire. It began to rain early on and steadily got heavier. Then it turned to sleet and then to torrential sleet. We were soaked to the bone. Freezing is an understatement.
From Berlin it is on to Frankfurt.
Tschüss (bye)
Posted by melissa12maree 20.12.2011 09:59 Archived in Germany
