The city with the sad past
Trip Start
May 23, 2008
1
44
54
Trip End
Ongoing
Berlin,
Germany
Friday, October 3, 2008
the busride on Tuesday was a full dayer, and it rained pretty much the whole way. But we were pumped, as the guide on the bus that day had told us about an amazing and cheap thai restaurant near the hostel. A group of us all went, and it was amazing food, everyone loved it! And at about 6 or 7euro, for us it was a total bargain. Afterwards Allison mentioned the word donut, which sent us into a sugarcraving frenzy. the closest thing we found was a Starbucks (they really are everywhere!) and had hot chocolates and muffins up until they kicked us out at closing time.
Berlin has been absolutely freezing, and Wednesday was the worst of them all. This also happened to be the day that we wanted to do the walking tour
me, Lucy and Allison (choking) in Starbucks
. It was pouring with rain and while we were standing at the meeting point we came so close to bailing. But walking tours are by far the best way to orientate yourself with a new city, and there wasnt much else to do apart from go to boring museums, so i brought a 2euro plastic poncho instead and just dealt with it. The tour started at the Brandenburg Gate, built back in the 1790's as one of the main gates into the city itself. It was used during the time of the Berlin wall as a crossing point between the east and west. Its got some cook sculptures on the top and the whole thing looks quite grand. In the same square is the hotel that wacko Jacko waved his baby over the balcony from. Impressive. Just down the road was the Holocaust Memorial, and the site of Hitlers bunker. It was here that Hitler committed suicide, by eating a cyanide capsule. He had asked his bodyguards to burn his body, so that no-one could tell who he was. They only did it for 6 hours, which still left his jawbone, identified by dental records, which is a good thing as we know he is actually dead. Otherwise it could have turned into another Elvis argument.
We got to see part of the only remaining bits of the Berlin wall, which was interesting as i was expecting something rivaling the great wall of China, rather than a thin slab of concrete
Allana and Rick in Starbucks
. It is in fact reinforced concrete, with a circle of concrete pipe on the top, as the curve edge makes it almost impossible to climb over. This was the higher of the 2 walls, the lower wall was placed an average of about 5 - 10m away, and inbetween were sand traps, mines, trip wires - it was all very well thought through. At different intervals were guard towers, the guards under strict instructions to 'shoot to kill' should anyone attempt to get to the otherside. The tour also included Checkpoint Charlie, one of the main checkpoints between east and west, as well as bulletwounded buildings, and it concluded at Museum Island.We were all hungry and freezing, and Allison was killing for a donut, so we found a Dunkin Donuts around the corner from the hostel, and watched the rain pelting down outside while we stuffed our faces.
Wednesday night the fun began. We all decided to go on the Pub Crawl, but before-hand we needed some dinner so we went back to our favourite Thai place for another delicious meal... and HAPPY HOUR!!! Sushi was 2 for 1 and cocktails only 2.60 euro. I think we managed to get through 3 long islands each and man, were they good! The thai bartender even dressed them up with fruit, flowers and matching straws. Each round was decorated different
waiting for our rainy tour to start
. It made us very happy.We met up with the crawl at about 9pm, and though our guide lady was an utter psycho, we all got very drunk and had one of the best nights out of my whole trip. We all got back home at about 4am, 4 bars and 1 club later. There were many many stupid photos taken, so i guess i will share a couple of the with you. We all had a giggle going back through them afterwards.
So my stupid body clock woke me up at 8am yesterday - grrr! I went down to the bakery around the corner and got something to eat, then ended up going back to bed and sleeping all day! Very poor form on my behalf. I woke up and met Allison, Rick and Allana and we had a 'Museum Crawl' on museum island, as for that night only you could go in to the museums for free. We only saw 2 and im so glad we didnt pay as they were absolutely terrible! For some reason afterwards we ended up at McDonalds, which so far i had resisted eating, but everyone else was having it and i had the tiniest little inkling in the back of my brain saying go for it! Let me say i was bitterly disapointed. Bitterly! I will not be having McDonalds for at least another 5 months now! But we hung out there for a while laughing at the stupid things we had got up to the night before, then headed back to the hostel to call it a night.
Today i leave to go to Denmark to visit my friend Julie, which i am majorly excited about as i havent seen her in over a year. My bus doesnt leave till about 3pm, so thismorning I went back to read the huge display boards at Checkpoint Charlie, which tell stories of escape and outline a bit of the history of the checkpoint and the war. Afterwards i wandered the streets for a little bit, and now im just hanging out till i head for the bus station!
Comments
What a pack of drunks!!
Oh Kate, well haven't you been having some fun, good on you that's what it's all about. I've beaten your mum this time posting a comment, see she's just too busy gadding about to bother with you. Shame about all the rain but you'll be glad you didn't give up on doing things, god it's only water.(mind you I wouldn't have because my hair would've gone frizzy).
Anyway keep having fun, luv Donna xx
Overcoming the sadness
Well kate, if you notice the date on this you will realise how long it has taken me to get round to making this comment. How unusual for me!!! Now I have finished my 'travelling' for a while life has settled down a bit and I finally have time to think abut your trip again, although you know I have kept up with reading your blog and emails. Yes Berlin does have a very sad past but it seems like you and your friends tried very hard to erase that during your pub crawl and your memories will be a little happier for doing so.(The photos will help there if the brain has forgotten.) I have looked at all your pics of that night and can tell you all had such a good time and that's what it's all about. We do need to learn from the past and hopefully Berlin and Germany and have moved on to a better future. As you won't get the opportunity to do more blogs for a while now I will have to go into withdrawal and re-read some of the old ones. Keep having fun. Lots of Luv Mumxox