Berlin!

On our last night in Amsterdam we wandered around the red light district for the last time. It was actually quite sad to leave, we had had such a good time and experienced so many new things. 

Once again, we were up bright and early to catch the busabout bus. 

We were headed to Berlin! I was especially excited to be visiting Berlin, as I absolutely love learning about the history of WW2 and the Berlin Wall. I find it so fascinating. The bus ride was really long. We left at 8am and got to Berlin at 6pm. We didn't have any very exciting stops this time. Our last stop was at the old checkpoint Alpha, which was one of the checkpoints you had to go through to get into Berlin. I think that would have been really interesting to explore, but we unfortunately only stopped there for a really short amount of time. 

We arrived at our hostel at about 7. We were given our room number, so off we went to settle in. We got into the room, only to find out that there was only 1 bed available! They must have double booked us with someone else. They were pretty good about sorting it out quickly and giving us a new room, but it was still kind of annoying. That night we made dinner and went to bed, we were exhausted. 

The next day we had a pretty late start, but we decided to go to some markets that our bus guide had recommended in Mauerpark. It took us a while to find the park because our directions weren't the best, but once we did we were so excited! The atmosphere of this market was the best that I have experienced so far! There were so many people. They were lounging around the park, or having picnics, playing music, singing, bartering, selling things.

 It was amazing! Once we got into the actual markets there were even more people! This markets sold clothes, souvenirs, jewellery, and that sort of stuff. It was all very interesting! At one point we came across a food stall that was selling something called Currywurst. Basically this is German sausage with a tomato sauce/relish and curry powder sprinkled on top. It is apparently one of the very Berlin dishes, so of course we had to try it. Harrison really liked it, but I wasn't too sure. Once we were done wandering around the markets, we both grabbed a beer from one of the stalls and went out into the park.

Every Sunday (when the markets are on) this park holds public karaoke. There is a big hill in the park that has had a bunch of bleacher like seats carved into it, and there is a large round section of ground in front of the seats. So it created a stage, which is called the Bearpit (look it up, so awesome.) 

Some guy comes every Sunday with a small amp, a laptop and a microphone and sets up karaoke. Anyone can sing, you don't have to sign up or even be good. If you get a flash of confidence whilst watching someone else sing, when they are done you just stand up and say you would like to sing next! There was a huge crowd! The seats were absolutely packed, we didn't even get to sit down. And the crowd never boo anyone, they sometimes join in, and clap for every person, even if the singer sucks. It was really an amazing thing to experience. There are also a bunch of other people set up around the park that are not a part of the karaoke, but are playing music anyway, attracting small groups of people. So we spent the afternoon sitting on the hill, in the sun, drinking beer and listening to the music of the park. It was really great! 

Our second day in Berlin we decided to go on a walking tour, to get our bearings in this huge city. However, we ran into a bit of trouble on the way there. We had purchased extra train tickets the previous day, as they give you discounts if you buy in bulk. Whilst we were on the train the ticket inspectors came around to check tickets, which was fine because we had a ticket so we had nothing to worry about. The inspector looked at our tickets, then looked at us, and said something angry in German (which was just terrifying in itself). We told him we didn't speak German, and he switched to English. In Berlin you have to validate your ticket before getting on the train by getting it stamped by a machine. Our ticket had two validation stamps on it, one from the day before and one from this day. This was not okay, as it looked like we were trying to use yesterday's ticket to avoid buying a new one. We hurriedly explained that no, we had actually purchased tickets, we must have just stamped the wrong ones by accident. Basically he said too bad it was our fault, we needed to get off the train with him. So we got off at the next stop (which actually happened to be our stop) and he told us we had to pay a fine, as this was a criminal offence. Since we don't have a German address we either had to pay then and there, or we had to be taken to the police. This really freaked us our as we didn't have enough cash on us to pay the fine. Luckily the inspector was nice enough to escort us to the next stop which had an ATM. So with 4 ticket inspectors escorting us onto the train (we probably looked like criminals) (which I suppose we were) we headed to the next stop. We got the money out and paid the fine, and the inspectors took us back to our stop. The ticket inspector was actually really nice about the whole thing, we understand he was just doing his job and he had to fine us, but he was also kind about it in the fact that he explained everything and apologised and explained that once we paid the fine that was it, we had no record or anything and were free to go. It was a hard, and expensive lesson to learn. And it really sucked. 

We made it to the tour just minutes before they were supposed to leave, because of the ticket situation. We were really lucky, as the guide we got studied history at university so he really knew what he was talking about. It was an amazing tour, my favourite out of all the tours we have done so far. Berlin is so rich and alive with history. It is such an interesting place to learn about! During the tour we got to see the Brandenburg Gate, the last standing strip of the Berlin Wall, Check Point Charlie, Hitlers bunker and tons of other really interesting places. We both really loved it.

 It was a fascinating 3 hours, they just flew by! After the tour we went off to find somewhere to have lunch. We spent the rest of the day wandering around the city. 

Today we went to the Typography of Terror. This is an outdoor and indoor museum of the history of Berlin, showed through photographs, newspaper clippings and letters. It took us over an hour to get through the outdoor section, which is placed along the remains of the Berlin Wall.

 It was really interesting. As I've mentioned before, I really enjoy learning about the history of Berlin so I really enjoyed this museum. The indoor museum was similar to the outdoor one, it just went more in depth. We didn't spend as long in there as we had in the outdoor one. Once we were done with the museums, we walked along the remains of the wall. It was a moving experience. 

We have recently discovered that Berlin has a Primark! So after the museum, we trekked to Primark as we needed a few things. One thing I didn't expect from Germany (maybe it's just Berlin?) is the heat! It is so hot here! And so humid! The walk to Primark was pretty far, and in the full sun most of the way. So by the time we got there we were pretty knackered. Shopping was the last thing I wanted to do, but we didn't want to have to come back so in we went. And my God, it was busy. It looked like total mayhem, with clothes just everywhere and people digging through piles of stuff. We got what we needed as quickly as possible, and got out of there. By this time it was fairly late in the afternoon and we were tired, so we decided to walk back to the hostel. We grabbed a few drinks on the way back, and sat on the roof for a while drinking, talking and taking in the views. It was a nice late afternoon/evening. 

Tomorrow we are changing hostels, but will still be in Berlin (this hostel had a max amount of days so we figured we would just split our time between two hostels rather than spending two nights at a new one). We are still here in Berlin for another week, and I'm excited to learn more about the city and see all the awesome things there are to see.