Our first couple of days in Berlin were cold and rainy. The next two were 25-30 degree weather and beautiful though. Perfect wandering weather. Berlin has a lot of white and beige buildings and squares though so it was glarey as hell. Having lost my somewhat broken sunglasses under the Tube on the way back from Kew gardens in London, I spent a great deal of time squinting and shading my eyes. The parts of Berlin I did see through my fingers were gorgeous though.
At first, we did the walking tour/museum scene. As Courtney said, the walking tour was great, the history incredibly interesting, the tour guide a 'babe' (Courtney said it, not me...) and the museums sobering. Interesting as that all is, it isn't so much seeing the city as finding out about the cities past, and I began to wonder what all the fuss was about. So many people had told me that Berlin was the best city in Europe and that I was going to love it, but so far I didn't love it.
I went to the museum at the Jewish memorial and went up into the dome of the Reichstag where I was felt up by the resident security frau as I went through the door. I'm in Austria now and the tour guide I had last night made a point of telling us that the Germans didn't know how to construct the dome, and so got an Austrian to do it instead. The view was great. Every city we've gone to except for Paris has had heaps of gardens and parks scattered around. In the middle of Berlin is the Teirgarten, and from the roof of the Reichstag it seemed to go on forever. So vast! We walked through it for about half an hour without any sign of it coming to an end. For some reason there are millions of bees everywhere in Berlin too. Well... There are probably more than millions, but they just come up and bother you all the time. More than anywhere else. I wonder why.
Of course, we ate Currywurst. I saw a place selling Currywurst that was called 'Wurst :-)'. Wurst :-) pretty much sums up my thoughts on Currywurst. So yummy and void of nutrition.
We'd read our books that we brought with us so on our first day we organised boring stuff like laundry (I've discovered I really like doing my laundry at laundromats. Odd given how much I hate it at home) and trekked through the drizzle to an English book shop. Two British guys ran it and kept talking about the curry they'd brought for lunch. Must have been some damn good curry. I wonder if it had wurst in it...
At one point whilst walking through Berlin I sneezed and a German bloke said 'gesundheit!' A german! Aw yeah. I was chuffed.
Next we met up with Linda and a girl from Melbourne called Anne who she'd made friends with in the hostel. This was the day I fell in love with Berlin. We went out to Treptower Park and walked by the water in the crazy heat and then went to a market. It was unlike any market I've ever seen. I don't know if it was because of the beautiful weather, or whether it's always like it was, but there were thousands of people and a huge carnival atmosphere. Stands were selling beer, people were performing and crap was being sold.
It was walking around Berlin and doing the things that Berliners do that made Berlin so appealing to me. We found a cute wee cafe by a cute wee cinema that sold Irish hot chocolate with whiskey in it and had a lovely atmosphere. Irish hot chocolate and whisky will put you straight to sleep, but everywhere should sell it. Everything was really cheap too. Just as well, because our hostel had no kitchen. They did play some swingin' cool jazz though which kept bringing Tilley's to mind and making me want to sit there with Oscar and drink cider and gin (Not together though... Tristan.)
Time for the Australian tourists rant though. We went to a nice outdoor bar one night which after an hour or so was set upon by the dreaded 'Top Deck Tour.' If you don't know what Top Deck is, it's basically 18 year old Australians traveling around in a bus getting pissed with their tour guide. They have their whole days planned and get 'time off' during the day. It sounds like my hell. As we were sitting talking they all swarmed in and after a while a girl came and sat near us looking incredibly sick. Her friends came over to look after her and she kept passing out and saying something about accepting drinks from a stranger at the last bar whilst trying to dissuade her friends from calling the paramedics. After a while they came though and took her away. It must be so frustrating for them to have to save irresponsible teenage Australians when there are other people who need their help. I also can't think of anything worse than being that messed up in a foreign country so far from home. I can't believe their tour guide just gets pissed with them either... They clearly don't have the sense to look after themselves. Australian must have a terrible reputation over here by this point. A common conversation that Courtney and I have when we meet new people is as follows:
New Person: 'Where are you from?'
Us: 'Australia?'
New Person: 'Really?! You don't sound Australian!'
Us: 'Thanks! We get that a lot.'
I would really like to go back to Berlin sometime. It feels like a city instead of a tourist attraction. Places like Paris feel like a huge theme park most of the time. Not that it isn't nice, It just doesn't feel like a place people live and work. I think I could live in Berlin... But Berlin would have to fight it out with London for my affections.
Once again, I'm at a hostel without USB ports so no pictures today. HUMPH!
LOOOOOOOVE Bron xoxox
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