Berlin part 2, finally

an exciting bit of the wall

another exciting bit






click me


me and Sam at the Brandenburg Gate

the sky gearing up for a torrential afternoon

Reichstag building



holocaust monument



Last morning in Berlin. All you can eat buffet brekkie again. The way to go. eat as much as you can and then you won't have to stop and buy food tilll dinner time. We got on the bikes again, and headed down to the wall again following Guys lead on a bit more tourist action. Rounding up 6 people on bikes to follow has its drawbacks, well along the wall it did anyway. But we all managed to meet up at the end of it to carry on so that was good. Guy took us to Museum Island, where we stopped for a rest and a look around. We didn't actually go into any of the museums, save that for another time. The buildings around there tho...the way they are all together and big grey square things with great columns out the front and the sky was all grey and moody, it all looked so steely and serious. There was also a couple of markets around there we went to, didn't buy anything (we only have carry on bags when we go away so there's never any room) Onwards!

To the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag Building. I was reading about that last one, and there's a rather confusing explanation of the name/title of the building. Being that the word was used (before the war) to describe parliament but not anymore. Now it just refers to this building here. If you'd like to read that normally, I'd say google it too. Again we stopped on the grass field here to enjoy a bit of the heat and have a rest, and I biked around the edges of the park and sidled up to a tour group hoping to catch a few fun facts, but it was (of course) in German. It's crazy to be in these spots where so much crazy nasty history has passed, and actually see the hundreds of bullet holes and dents and chips, in aaaaaaalll the buildings you walk past. It gave me this kind of eerie feeling. We walked past fashion week in this amazing park, stopped, and the subway tunnel behind us was all dented with bullet marks. It's hard not to imagine the people being in there and shooting back? I dunno. Lets not go there. Except for one last thing, when we were biking through the park, and there was this plinth with rusty bent metal on the top all bent like someone had ripped off the statue on top...aaaaye.

Anywho, we kept biking through this amazing park that was like a super sized Woodhaugh Gardens in Dunedin, passed the statue of victory, and on to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. Whoa. The last two photos up there are from it, all the coffin sized blocks at different heights. It started to rain while we were there, and so we all hid under trees and thought it would stop so we could wait it out. after 10 minutes of wishful thinking however, we decided to bike to the station and get the train back to the hostel. Guy and Sophie thought they would wait it out a bit more and ended up biking all the way back in the rain hahaha, oh dear it came down that day. Thunder and lightening too. Huuuuuuuuuge rolling thunder that felt like it made my chest rattle.

Back to the hostel to dry out, down to the kebab shop for THE BEST KEBAB EVER, a few beers, a small jaunt across the bridge one last time, and then we had to go to the airport. Berlin is so very awesome. It makes me sad I can't visit as often as I'd like.

So it's just me Sophie and Guy on the flight, and I know I had a small rant about RyanAir last time, but yeah, here we go again. We were delayed for 45 minutes, but they don't tell you this stuff. There was about 100 too many people in this waiting room, over half the people didn't have a seat. Booo on you. We got my favourite seats tho. I always try get the furthest back I can, as close to the doors as possible so you can get off at the other end as fast as possible and not have to wait on half the plane to disembark first. Call me impatient, but it's the little things in life right. Most hilaaaarious flight ever, Guy and I had had a wee taster of bourbon in the duty free lounge, and I was all tired and semi-delusional, and everything was funny. It was good. Couldn't find a blimmin teatowel to save my life tho! Why Berlin, why? Anyway, it was an amazing trip. As always.

So now what? I'm going to Jesus camp next week. Should be interesting. With work that is, camping too. Keep you posted. X

Comments

marg said…
would of been weird being there and amazing at the same time
July 19, 2012 at 8:30 AM
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