Prague and Cesky Krumlov

On our last full day in Prague we went on a Castle Tour. Before the tour started we ducked into a small pub to grab some lunch. We weren't feeling too hungry so we got a meal to share, and thank goodness we did! The Czech people really love huge meal sizes! Since the pub served traditional Czech food, we weren't too sure what to get. We ended up ordering a dish called the Prague feast. And a feast it was! We were served roast and smoked pork, pork sausage, pickled cabbage, dumplings and potato pancakes. It was one of the best meals I have had whilst being abroad! The smoked pork was absolutely amazing! I also really love the pickled cabbage over here, it's really delicious. It was an amazing meal, for an amazing price. 

The Castle Tour was really interesting. The guide showed us around the castle grounds, explaining the history of the castle and the town along the way. We had the same guide as our walking tour the previous day, and once again she was just excellent. Since she is from the Czech Republic she was able to add a personal touch to the tours which makes them that much better. The Prague Castle is the biggest castle in Europe, and it is incredibly beautiful. The arcitecture is just amazing. My favourite part of the castle is the gothic cathederal in the centre. 

It's absolutely amazing. All of the windows inside are stained glass and the ceilings are arched and tall. It was so beautiful. 

Our guide took us to this point in one of the gardens that if you stand in the centre of this perfect circle, your voice reverberates off the stairs and amplifies it and makes it sound super weird! We also went to a place of the castle grounds called the Golden Lane. This is where the people working at the castle would stay. It was a lane of tiny old houses on a cobbled road. It was really cool to see! 

We were able to climb the stairs and go into one of the old houses; there were also gift shops in some of the houses so we got to go in those too. 

From the castle walls you get the most incredible view of Prague. You can just see for miles. 

The skyline of Prague is truly unique, and magically beautiful. I am so glad we got the opportunity to see the castle and the amazing view. 

We finished up the tour around 6pm and wandered back down through the town and made our way back home. 

The next day we were off to a little town called Cesky Krumlov! Cesky Krumlov is about 3 hours away from Prague, still in the Czech Repuic. It is a beautiful old medieval style town that has been incredibly well looked after. All of the buildings look as though they are the originals, and in many cases they are! There is a beautiful old castle on top of a hill, towering over the town. On our first day we wandered around the town for a little bit. It is not a very big town, you can walk from one side to the other in about 15 minutes. But it takes so much loner than that, because there are so many distractions along the way! There are so many quirky shops and incredible smelling food stalls and cafés. We found a small pub on the river near our hostel, so we decided to have a drink.

 

It was really nice! We sat by the river and watched people float by on rafts and canoes, and children playing in the water, people eating dinner. The weather had begun to turn kind of bad so we headed back to the hostel after doing some grocery shopping. Our roommates at this hostel were really nice guys! We got a long with them pretty well, and chatted to them for a while. That night we had dinner, then ventured out into the town for a while to explore a bit more. After a little while of walking around, we made our way back to the hostel. 

On our second day is Cesky Krumlov, the weather wasn't the best. We decided to try and visit the castle before the rain started. We didn't go on a tour of this castle, we just wandered around on our own. I think that Cesky Krumlov's castle is much nicer than Pragues. It's not as large and grand, but the details on the walls and whatnot are just breathtaking. The first thing you will notice walking up to the castle is a bridge over what was a large moat. If you peer down into this moat, you will see that it holds no water. However what it does hold, are two huge brown bears!

 Apparently in the old days many bears used to roam the moat, deterring enemies from attempting to breach the castle. Now there are only two, and they live there in the moat in a nice large fake forested area, with a waterfall and lots of bushes and trees. 

As we wandered further into the castle grounds, I became more and more amazed by the buildings, bridges and squares. They were incredible! We were told about a Czech artist who has an exhibition going in what were once the dungeons of the castle. We managed to find the exhibition and paid to go inside. At first we only really wanted to go in to see the dungeons, but once we were inside we were both blown away by this artists work. There were incredibly thought provoking and interesting pieces. It was also amazing to get the see the dungeons. You walk down the stairs into the dungeons and the temperature drops almost instantly. There's a damp smell, and the lights cast eeire shadows on the walls. 

It's easy to imagine prisoners of the castle going mad in the dungeons, as without the lights it would be completely dark, damp and even colder. We spent a long time meandering through the dungeons, taking in both the artworks and the dungeons themselves. 

Once we were done looking at the exhibition, we continued on our way through the castle grounds. We crossed over this incredibly high and magnificent bridge, that has the most beautiful view of the town.

 We made it to the bottom of the castle gardens, and the highest point of the actual castle grounds. At the top there was a viewpoint and a place to get some drinks. 

We both got a beer (yes dad, I drank a beer!) and found a place to sit down, watch the people go by and take in the view. When we were finished with our drinks we made our way into the castle gardens. They were just beautiful! All manicured bushes and grass, and beautiful trees and flowers. We walked to the end of the garden where there was a lovely pond/small lake, with ducks swimming around and lilypads floating on the surface.

We wandered around the gardens for a while, before the weather once again turned bad and we had to head home. 

It rained for most of the afternoon, so we were pretty much confined to the hostel. It wasn't so bad though, this hostel is very small and cosy so it was kind of nice to just sit around and drink tea. Once the rain stopped some of our roommates suggested we go out for dinner and drinks. We went to a small pub in the old town square, and all tried different traditional meals. Harrison really loved his meal, but I wasn't too happy with mine. We moved to another bar once that one had closed, and had a few more drinks before heading home. 

Today we had planned on visiting the Budweiser brewery in the next town over. The lovely owner of our hostel helped us look at bus timetables and how to get to the bus stop and then to the brewery. We headed up to the bus station, and we waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. The bus never showed up! We were pretty disappointed as we were looking forward to seeing the brewery. It was also a bit annoying as we had wasted our morning finding the bus station and waiting for a bus that never came. We made our way back into town and looked for somewhere to have some lunch. We walked around for a while before settling on somewhere. We found this vegetarian resturant right on the river. I think it was the best meal both of us have had since we have been away! The food was absolutely delicious, and the location couldn't have been better. It was a great afternoon. 

We are hoping that the weather is good tomorrow so that we can hire a canoe and explore the river! 

Dresden and Prague

On Monday (6th July) we left Berlin for Dresden!  Before leaving Berlin our bus made a quick stop at the East side gallery so we could see the art on the East side of the Berlin Wall. We had already seen some of it, but it was nice to see more! 

The bus trip was the shortest we have had for a while which was really nice! I was so excited to get to Dresden, as I would be seeing my friend Marie! We arrived at the drop off location, got off the bus, and there she was! It was so amazing to see her again.

We headed back to her home and were treated to a delicious lunch. Marie had a driving lesson that afternoon, so she had to leave us for a few hours. We just got settled in and relaxed until she got home, which was nice. We had been so busy in Berlin, we hadn't really had a chance to just stop and relax. When Marie got home she told us we were going to bike to the supermarket to buy some things. Whoever said that you never forget how to ride a bike obviously had never not ridden for 8 or so years and then tried to ride again. It was a difficult, scary and painful experience trying to relearn how to ride a bike after not riding one for so long. Marie was incredibly patient with me, and very encouraging. After a few false starts, I finally managed to get on the bike, and stay on. And then I realised we had to ride on the road, which is something I have never done before. That was absolutely terrifying. I think I gripped the handle bars so hard my fingers went numb. However, I made it to the supermarket, with only one incident of not being able to stop and riding into a parked car. But it was okay! The biking wasn't as bad as I thought it would be, especially since the cars and people on the roads are so courteous to bike riders. We got everything we needed from the first shop and then rode off to the next one. On the way there, the second incident occurred, when once again I couldn't stop properly and dropped the bike in the middle of a crossing island. But once again, it was okay I didn't get hurt. We got what we needed from this shop, and made it home with no more incidents! Once at home we hung out for a while, catching up on two and a half lost years. We had a delicious dinner of cheeses, meats, these awesome corn cake things, fruit and veggies. It was so good. 

After dinner, I braved the bike again and Marie took us to a gorgeous park. On the way there I crashed into another parked car, and this time actually did do some damage, but not too much. I came away with two grazed knees, a grazed calf and an epic bruise that just keeps getting darker. 

It could have been worse, so I was lucky in that sense. However, it was the last proper biking accident I had for the rest of the time in Dresden! Anyway as I mentioned before, this park was absolutely beautiful. It was covered with rich, lush forest, and was incredibly well manicured. In a large clearing of the forest there was an old summer house, with a huge pond in front of it and beautiful gardens filled with flowers. At one point we stopped in the gardens to take some photos, and were attacked by these huge flying bugs. So that wasn't too great! 

We rode around the park for a while, and then stopped to get an ice cream at this really cute beer garden. It was outside and had fold out chairs you could sit in, and it was covered in fairly lights and lanterns and had flickering fire torches. It was lovely! And the weather was beautiful too. Once we were done eating ice cream and chatting, we rode our bikes back home.

Marie had to go to school the next day, so we had the morning/afternoon to ourselves. It was ridiculously hot. The type of hot that is just completely uncomfortable and draining. We had a late morning, eating breakfast, laying around, putting off going outside. When we finally did brave the heat, we headed off in the direction of the park we had been to the previous night. Since we had just been following Marie the night before, we didn't really know where we were going. We conveniently stumbled across a kebab shop around lunch time, and decided to give the kebabs we had heard so much about another go. And we were not disappointed! They were absolutely delicious! And massive! 

Super good value for money. We were really happy! When we had finished our delicious lunch, we continued on our way to the park. We finally made it there! We entered the park from a different spot to the previous night, and instead of walking on the big main path we made our way through the forest. It was really lovely. It provided a nice break from the sun, and was a beautiful walk. 

That night for dinner we had blueberry soup and dumplings. It was really interesting! Basically the soup is canned blueberries in sauce thickened with cornflour, and the dumplings are made from a dough and then boiled. It was something neither Harrison or I had ever experienced before, and it was pretty good! Harrison really liked it. After dinner we rode our bikes to Marie's school, where they were having a play night that some of her friends were performing in. All of the plays were in German, so we didn't really get everything that was going on. But it was fun to try as figure out the story from just their tones and movements. It was an interesting experience! 

The next day was thankfully a lot cooler. Marie had to go to school again in the morning, but only had a few classes so we were able to meet up with her at 12:30. We took the tram to downtown Dresden and Marie showed us around a big shopping centre, and the main tourist attractions of Dresden. She had to leave to go to a driving lesson, but we stayed downtown to look around more. We went into some really beautiful gardens, and saw some incredible old architecture.

 We went into a famous old church, which was just amazing.

The inside was so different to all of the other churches we have been into, it was all pastel and gold colours, with so many levels of seating. 

There was a beautiful painted dome in the centre of the church that was amazing. It was one of my favourite churches so far. 

Marie's choir was having a BBQ and awards night that evening, so once we were all home we headed off to that. We got to see Marie sing in her choir which was really nice! They were great! We met a few of her friends which was also nice. It was a lovely warm evening and we had a picnic bbq dinner outside on the grass, it was lovely. Once we were done with the choir dinner we briefly headed home before going out again. Marie was taking us to one of her friends birthday parties! It was pretty cool to experience a German party and meet even more of Marie's friends. We got home at around 2:30am. 

Marie had to be up bright and early the next day to sit her drivers test. She passed!! We were really proud. All of us were pretty exhausted from the previous night so we just lounged around at Marie's house for most of the day. We went to the shops at some point to get some things Marie and I needed, but other than that it was a relaxed day. Marie has the most adorable tortoise called Hugo! Harrison and I absolutely fell in love with him, so a lot of our free time was spent with Hugo.

That night Marie's school was having an end of year party, as the next day was the last day of their school year. It was really cool. All the teachers and students get together on the school grounds and eat food, sit by a fire, listen to music, play games and just hang out and celebrate the end of the year. 

I thought it was a great thing for a school to do. We stayed at the school party until it was over, and then rode our bikes into the city. We were celebrating Marie passing her drivers test and finishing this year of school, so we went to two bars and had a few drinks. The ride into town was absolutely beautiful, as the sun was setting. We rode over a bridge and got an amazing view of Dresden with the sunset in the background.

The second bar we went to was a hippie karaoke bar. It was interesting to say the least! Definitely an experience. Once we were done, we rode our bikes home for the last time. It was a bittersweet moment for me. I was pretty much terrified the whole time we had been riding the bikes, but I was also starting to get fairly good and actually enjoy myself. Since we were riding home at like 2am there was no one else on the road, so it was far less scary and made the experience really fun. 

Our bus the next day was coming at 11:30am, and Marie had to be at school for her last day at 10:30. So we had to say goodbye at her house before she left, which was sad.

 It had been so nice to see Marie again after so long, and it had felt like the time just flew by. I really didn't want to leave. It was a really lovely few days, and I really hope that I will be able to see Marie again soon. 

The bus ride to Prague was only about 2 and a half hours long, so not too bad. We arrived around 2, and were absolutely starving so we had lunch at the hostel. We were pretty worn out from the previous night, so we spent the rest of the day at the hostel bar, and just hanging out at the hostel. We went out in search of dinner, and came across this little Asian restaurant, where we got two huge noodle and meat dishes, 6 pieces of sushi and four drinks for €16 ($24). It was amazing! Prague has a different currency to the rest of Europe, and everything is very cheap for us. Our meal cost 300 czk, which is equal to €16. So it's pretty scary when you first glance at the bill and see such a huge number! But once you work it out you feel much better. 

Today we went on one of our much loved walking tours around the city. Our tour guide was a local, who experienced communism and it's fall in the Czech Republic first hand. It was so interesting to hear her stories, and have her share the history of her country with us. You could really tell she was passionate about it. Once the tour was over we went in search of lunch, and wander around the town on our own. The old town part of Prague is really beautiful.

 

All of the old buildings, narrow alleyways and cobbled streets are an incredibly thing to see. I'm really loving it! We spent almost 2 hours wandering around the streets, before picking somewhere to eat. Before we found our lunch spot, we came across these bakeries selling spiral dough things. I have no idea what they are, but they wrap dough around a large stick, cover it in cinnamon sugar and then roast it.

You can have them plain, or filled with Nutella. So of course I got one filled with Nutella, and it was delicious! For lunch we finally settled on a Czech bar. I had gnocchi with sheep's cheese and Harrison had roast duck with two different types of dumplings. He also tried a Czech beer!

 It was a really amazing meal! And also ridiculously cheap. It's so great! After lunch (that was really more like dinner, since we finished up at 5) we caught the tram back to the hostel. Tomorrow we are going on a tour of Prague castle, which should be really interesting! I really enjoyed exploring old and new town Prague today! 

The atmosphere is so vibrant and fun! There is so much to see, hear and smell! There were people playing music in the streets, and selling food and other goods, and street performers, all together amongst the beautiful buildings. It was really amazing. 

Berlin Zoo!

Today we visited the Berlin zoo and aquarium! It is apparently one of the biggest zoos in the world, and has the most animals out of any other zoo! It was absolutely massive! 

We got there at 11:30am and only left at 5:30, just before closing time! Today was just as hot as yesterday, but there was a cool breeze which made it slightly more bearable. It was a really nice day to go to the zoo. My favourite part of the day was getting the opportunity to watch the wolves be fed. It was a really cool experience! The wolves they had there were pure white and absolutely beautiful. 

I loved them, and so did Harrison! We got to see lions, tigers, bears (oh my!) (sorry), elephants, hippos, seals, leopards and so many more!

 And that was just in the zoo section! There were even more creatures in the aquarium! 

We also got to see the lions being fed! Which was cool (and pretty gruesome). The zoo is also set out so beautifully. It's huge, so all of the animals have very large and open enclosures. There were none that looked too cramped or unhappy, which I was really happy to see. There were also lots of ponds and gardens with benches that you could sit around on and see some of Berlin's native birds and small animals! That was something else that we really loved about the zoo. Whilst it held all of the zoo animals, they also had places like the gardens and open enclosures for native wildlife to use! It was such a beautiful place. 

There was also a petting zoo, where you could pet cute goats and sheep and things! I loved it! 

The aquarium was 3 storeys, but wasn't nearly as big as the zoo. They had all sorts of awesome looking fish and sea creatures, as well as amphibians and insects! 

It was really great! And provided a nice relief from the sun! 

Once we had finished wandering around the zoo (or more so that they were closing so we had to leave), 6 hours in total, we headed out to explore the area the zoo is in and find some dinner. Near the zoo train station is an old church that was bombed and severely damaged during WW2. They have left the church in ruins as a reminder, and hopefully a deterrent, to future generations about the war. It was a morbidly beautiful thing to see. Unfortunately it was closed for the day so we couldn't actually go inside.

Whilst walking around we stumbled across a small Sunday market. There was a little stage set up in the middle that had people playing traditional German music! There weren't too many stalls as most had probably closed up for the day, but it was really nice to see family's sitting around, listening to music together, eating, laughing, just enjoying each other's company. 

We wandered back towards the train station in search of dinner. We came across a kebab stall. We had been told that kebabs in Berlin are absolutely brilliant, so we decided to give it a go. We were sadly disappointed. There was more potato than meat, and I found what looked like a facial hair in mine! Yuck! However we will not base our opinions on the kebabs of Berlin on this one experience, I'm sure they are great. 

Tonight we have been blessed with a brilliant storm! It has cooled everything down quite a lot, and has just been beautiful.

Tomorrow we are leaving Berlin! We are going to a place in Germany called Dresden, where my friend Marie lives! We were both on exchange in Duluth when I did my USA exchange, and became very close friends! I haven't seen her in almost 3 years, so I am really excited! 

Berlin

The day that we moved to our new hostel, was a huge waste of a day. We got to the hostel at about 11am, and were told we weren't able to check in until 3. That was fair enough, most hostels only let you check in in the afternoon. However we were then told that the baggage room was too full, so they couldn't store our luggage. So since the places we had planned to visit don't allow you to take big bags (and it would have just sucked hefting those things around all day) we had to basically sit around in the hostel and wait to be able to check in. So this was really annoying, and put us a day behind schedule. Everything has been pretty rushed since then as we had to squeeze that days activities amongst the other things we had planned. 

The next day went much better. We went on a tour of the Sachsenhausen concentration camp. This was one of the first concentration camps to be built, and was used as a labour camp. 

The tour was incredible. It was such a moving experience. To think that we were standing on the same ground as all of those tortured people, walking around a place where thousands and thousands of people lost their lives. I truly don't have words to explain this experience. It was something that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Visiting a concentration camp is definitely something you need to try and do whilst in Europe. It's truly something that will stay with you forever. The tour took up the whole day, so once we were done we went back to the hostel for the night and reflected on what we had seen that day. It was something that moved both Harrison and I very much. 

The heat in Berlin is only getting worse and worse. Yesterday we decided to visit a few museums, to try and escape the blistering sun. I really did not expect it to get this hot! It got up to 36 degrees yesterday, and is only getting hotter! And we are both so unused to the intense humidity, that it just makes it worse. It's incredibly draining. The first museum we went to was the DDR Museum. This is a museum on what life was like for the people of East Berlin under communist rule once the wall went up. It was really interesting! It's set out so that you kind of get to live and experience the lives of the people of East Berlin. We learnt about the kind of cars they drove, what they learnt in school, what music they were allowed to listen to, what their houses looked like, and the incredibly invasive nature of communism. The people were so restricted in every aspect of life. The museum was very well set out, and we enjoyed our time there!

The next museum we went to was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Berlin. This museum was mainly the personal accounts of Jewish people living through the holocaust. There were accounts from both people who survived the holocaust, and those who did not. It was a touching and very sad experience. I would highly recommend visiting this information centre if ever in Berlin. 

That night we had booked to go on an organised pub crawl, so we had to end our museum trips there. We got to the pub crawl at 9, and were greeted by over 120 people! It was totally crazy! We were not expecting it to be so busy! Over the course of the night we visited 4 different bars, so we were given the opportunity to experience some of Berlins famous night life. The bars we went to weren't really Harrison and my scene, so we didn't love the pub crawl.

 

However we did still have a fun night, and we got free shots and drink deals at every bar which was good too! We met a nice guy living in Berlin and chatted to him for most of the time in one bar. I also had the most amazing goats cheese, it was a deep fried ball of goats cheese with honey drizzled on top. It was absolutely amazing! The pub crawl ends in a club, but when we got there we weren't too happy with the area it was in, and we were pretty tired so we decided to call in a night. We finally made it home at 2:30am, and fell into bed, completely exhausted. 

Today we had a pretty late start, as we had gotten in really late. We walked to the shops to buy some eggs, which have turned into quite a luxury, and made ourselves a delicious breakfast. In the afternoon we went on an Alternative Berlin tour, with the same company that does the walking tours. It was a 3 hour walking tour around Berlin, showing us the more alternative, grunge scene that Berlin has to offer. I really loved this tour! We got to see some incredible street art, and places that if you didn't know were there you would completely miss them. We went down one alleyway and came out in the most incredibly graffitied court yard! The walls were covered in graffiti! But not that tagging crap, proper amazingly done works of art! 

We were taken into this stairwell that was also just covered in graffiti. It was so cool!

 We also got to see the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall, which also has some incredible artwork graffitied on to it. We are going to have to go back to see more! We were taken into this Jamacian type beach bar, that had a tree house bar, a fake sandy beach for people to lounge around on, and a very rasta, relaxed feel to it. 

Again, we would have totally missed it if the guide hadn't taken us there! It was a really fun and interesting tour. We got to learn about street art, the punk scene of Berlin, the underground scene, rebellion and various protests. I really enjoyed it. 

The new hostel we are in is alright. I think the best part about it has been our roommates. We met a guy from Russia who we really hit it off with. He was so interesting, and had a lot to share about his country. It was amazing to see him light up talking about it. We have also met a guy from California who is pretty cool. Our rooms are deathly hot though, so that kind of sucks! 

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.