Berlin

After being pryed off a pole at the Amsterdam train station by rail officials, I was thrown on my train to Berlin. With a tear in my eye the train taxied out of the station and I was off on my 7 hour ride to the former Nazi capital of the world. How exciting.

Upon arrival at the Berlin train station I worked out how I was to get to my hostel in the centre of the city. It all went pretty smoothly with the directions I was given and in no time I arrived at the "Berlin City Hostel". This place is absolutely huge! From memory, the woman at reception told me that the place could bed over 500 people. The other cool thing about this place is that over half the people in here are actually German.

Despite this and after I put my bags in my room, I met a Brazilian guy in the common room who convinced me to come on the Berlin pub crawl. Needless to say it wasnt hard work on his part.

The other reason I was keen-to-crawl was because of the reputation Berlin as a city has for quirky bars and underground night clubs. This is exactly what we experienced.

The next day I was very brave in rocking up to Starbucks (the local meeting point for historical tours). From here, free tours depart daily checking out sights such as Hitlers Bunker, the memorial to the victims of the holocaust, the hotel where Michael Jackson almost lost a baby over the balcony and the remains of the infamous Berlin wall. The tour was amazing but my favourite part was simply walking along the old wall which divided East and West Berlin for decades. Some of the murals depicted along the wall are truly amazing. Art ranges from peoples names right through to heavy political statements. Furthermore, our guide had been touring for years in Berlin so he really knew his stuff.

Tired from walking all day, I returned to the hostel after the tour and "rested my eyes" from 9pm all the way through till 10am this morning. Needless to say, I am indeed feeling quite rested this morning.

So tonight is my last night in Berlin. Im not quite sure what Ill get up to today but Im keen to get out and about before heading out to London by flight tomorrow.