Berlin
Trip Start
Mar 11, 2008
1
17
37
Trip End
Mar 10, 2009
Berlin,
Germany
Thursday, August 21, 2008
The train station is huge, about 5 stories & it took me a while to find info & metro to get to my Hostel. But alas i did find my way & felt like i needed a stiff drink after 11hours of travelling. I arrived a the hostel in time for 2hours of cheap drinks & they had Jim beam for 2Euro's which made me very happy, i also managed to charm Mikey Blue eyes the bar tender & he gave me a good measure of jim beam which just a dash of coke, just how i like it! After 3 of these i was persuaded by some Auzi boys to go on the pub crawl that started at 8pm.
It was a huge night, but great fun & i managed to get up at 9am to go for a free city tour of Berlin
Arts Square
. The tour started at Brandenburger Gates, which used to divide the city into East side & West side. In the square is a Hotel called Alon where Michael Jackson pulled the stunt of hanging his baby out of the 2ns storey window! We visited the Jewish Memorial to remember the thousands lost. It is a huge area which Ash coloured blocks in all different shapes & sizes with uneven ground where you can walk through it, there are 2,711 blocks altogether,( i will email photo's soon), it's hard to explain.I saw where Adolf Hitler's bunker used to be & Checkpoint Charlie. The Opera house,I touched the Berlin wall,Berlin cathedral,Dutch cathedral,Rome cathedral. The burning of the books & the memorial statue for those who lost there lives.
I returned to the city the next day as there was so much more to see.
I also took a tour to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp, which was very interesting. On the gates is written ABEIT MACHT FRET which translates to WORK WILL MAKE YOU FREE. which really meant they would work you to death and then you would be free. No one was ever released from the camp for good behaviour! If you were too sick to work they just shot you
Berlin Cathedral
!In 1945 there was a Death March where 6,000 men died over the 6weeks walk due to lack of food & medical treatment. When they entered the camp they were stripped of their belongings, clothes, hair shaved off & given a number, (they no longer had a name). In total more than 52,000 men lost their lives in the camp.
On my last day in Berlin i was looking forward to going to Potsdam, The City Of Emporers, but when i woke up it was pooring with rain & didn't stop all day. So i just spent some more time exploring the city & sites.
Berlin is a great city & i now look forward to Prague!
Bye for now, jo.
