Berlin's Tale

A captivating history and great, cheap food and beer would be my best attempt at summarising Berlin in nine words or less. Oh yeah, and the rain. Ten.

The first night we got there we were so tired from Amsterdam so we kept it short. A delicious dinner down the road and a quick walk around the entertainment area of Berlin and we were already in bed. The food in Germany is very heavy but delicious. I had sausages 'nurnburger' style with fried potates, pickled cabbage and a salad drenched in dressing.

The next day we were supposed to go on an early morning tour of the city but when we woke it was pouring down rain so we caught up on some more much needed sleep. When we finally did get up we grabbed some breakfast, my first heated chocolate-filled croissant, and definately not my last. What a treat!

Later that afternoon the sky had cleared a bit so we joined up with the later tour. We started just near the hotel and got a brief overview of the city's history and culture. I honestly never knew the history of Berlin that well and I was amazed at just how intense and complicated it was and just how recently some of it occurred. We ran from point to point as our tour guide pointed out a few of the major historical sites and buildings and told the story behind them. Halfway through, the rain settled back in again and we all pulled out our umbrella's, looking more like a mobile shelter than anything else.

The tour covered a fair bit of ground. We started at Hackesher Markt then hit Museum Island, Book Burning Square, Checkpoint Charlie, a part of the old Berlin Wall, Hitler´s Bunker, the Jewish Memorial, Brandenburg Gate and the very grand government building among many other hotspots.

We had to run through the rain for the train back to the hostel. Completely soaked and sniffling an ocean, we quickly changed and went out to meet everyone for the pub crawl. It was so much fun. In Berlin, as in most of Europe, you can drink on the streets wherever you want. We sat around for a while drinking shots and warming ourselves up in the rain. The first bar we went to was kinda small and very empty before we arrived. I suspect these places would pay just to have them on the list of pubs. We had our free drink, sat around for a while chatting and meeting new people, then headed off to the next bar for another free drink but not before all 30 or so of us kneeling down at the feet of our pub crawl guide on the street while he poured a "shot" down our throats. This went on pretty much the same until our fifth and final bar where I couldn´t possibly drink anymore and staggered back to the hostel. Casualty #21.

Another rainy morning in Berlin and we managed to get out of bed with enough time left in the day to drag ourselves over to Checkpoint Charlie Museum where we met up with Karen again. After lunch we headed into the museum and wandered off separately, completely engrossed by the story of the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie and the many, many inventive attempts to escape from former East Germany to former West Germany. Speakers, car engines, underwater propellers and hot air balloons - people used the most impressive means to escape. Some far less successful than others. Still in a Berlin Wall history lesson mood, we caught the train to Ostbahnhof to see the largest piece of the Berlin Wall still standing and covered in artwork currently being restored.

While we were there we walked past some band during sound check in an old, abandoned warehouse. On our way back there was a guy standing outside the gate doing signings and not knowing who it was, we went up and got him to sign the first thing we could find in our bags. As it turned out, the guy was from 'The Killers' and they were performing sound check for their concert that night.

The weather had cleared up by then so we shot up TV Tower and got a bird's eye view of the massive city that is Berlin. For our final night we went out for Thai with a couple of other Busabouters from the hostel, Nathan and Ta. It was a great spot Karen had found earlier, the food was bloody brilliant. I ate every last bit, down to the last grain of rice. We said goodbye to Karen and everyone else then headed to bed. That was Berlin.