Europe 2016

Today we all got up around 8am so we could grab some breakfast before jumping on the coach to head into town for a historical walking tour.
Our tour guide Merren was actually from Melbourne and was both informative, and hilarious. The tour went for around 3 hours and we saw some beautiful buildings and memorials. We learnt that majority of the old buildings aren't actually that old, as most were rebuilt after being burnt down or bombed in World War II. We also saw a beautiful memorial which represents all the lives lost in the Holocaust. There are 2711 blocks, all of numerous heights, so walking through the memorial is pretty harrowing, right in the middle you feel a bit suffocated by it all, you really feel the gravity of the situation.
Another highlight was getting to see the hotel which is famous as the hotel Michael Jackson dangled his baby from!
We ended the tour at Checkpoint Charlie, one of the checkpoints between East and West Germany which is still standing as it was back during the cold war.
We said goodbye to Merren and headed for a restaurant which she recommended, about a 15 minute walk away. There was a bigger group of us but we separated, so it just ended up being T, Brooke, Ebony, Carly, Sharnne and myself. It was one of those classic german restaurants with the women dressed in dredals and men in laderhoses, the traditional attire. The waitress we had was so lovely - we've been so lucky so far that everyone has pretty well spoken english.
I ordered something from the 'light meals and snacks' menu, as I didn't feel super hungry (and wasn't sure I'd actually like anything) so I ordered a meatloaf burger. It came out and was bigger than the other girls meals... Small meal, my foot! It was actually really tasty, but I only managed to get around half way through it before being full.
We had a quick bathroom break before heading on our way. A quick note about German bathrooms, or European bathrooms in general, is that majority you have to pay to use. Most of the time this means they are cleaner, and it is only usually 20-50 cents, but I feel that's still a bit steep for something that is really a necessity. Some places have also charged for drinking tap water, which again is more a necessity, but I assume they would give it out if someone desperately needed it.
From there we headed to the Topography of Terrors museum, which is an indoor/outdoor free museum, with pictures throughout Berlins vast history, from Germany's involvement through WWI, WWII and the Cold War. It was really informative, but it was quite difficult to read and process, particularly when reading about the disabled who were essentially put to death for their disabilities which were obviously completely out of their control. Some parents even sent their children voluntarily to these death camps, which none of us could really fathom.
From there, we needed to head back to Alexanderplatz to meet up with the rest of the group and get a lift on the coach back to our hostel. This was was probably a little longer a walk than anticipated, so it was lucky we had plenty of time, and the TV Tower (a huge tower which was built in East Berlin during Germany's great divide, as a symbol to show the West they had technology and weren't so far behind the times) was a perfect guide to aim for, so we couldn't get lost.
We jumped on the coach and got back to the hostel at around 4.30pm. It was a massive day of walking so we all chilled in our rooms for half an hour or so before getting organised and heading to the hostel bar for some pre drinks before our 'Cold War, Cold Drinks' walking tour.
As we opted out of getting a much earlier lift into town, we had to get ourselves onto the train, which proved to be a bigger task than anticipated as there we so many of us. Ashleigh and I were the last to buy our tickets, and when Ashleigh was buying hers, the machine refused to work, so the 2 of us had a bit of a fight with the machine and ended up getting left behind the group. We got to the platform in time to watch the train depart with everyone else on it, which was not so handy as we didn't know which train to be catching, or where to get off...
After asking a local, and running into two other girls from our tour (Tani and Divia), we managed to jump on the correct train, hoping we would make it in time... We arrived at Alexanderplatz and had to run out of the station where we ran into Sharnne and Nicolette. We still had a fair walk to our meeting point, and we were already late, so we weren't sure there was much hope, but I ran ahead and when I saw the bus was there, I turned around, yelled to the girls, and we bolted for it. As we got close, Jo closed the doors and pretended to drive off (sah funny...) but we managed to make it and were clapped on by the rest of the group. I truly hated myself for a good hour, I'd been so judgemental of anyone else that had been late the previous days, and now I was one of them. Also, running is not one of my strong points, and my asthma (which I very rarely get anymore) played up, I was completely out of breath and coughing quite a bit, with no water or ventolin to calm me down. Such fun times...
It was about a 10 minute drive to where we were going to meet this evening's tour guide, Riley. Riley was another Melbournian, from Northcote. He's been in Germany around 2 years now, with plans to eventually move back home, but loving life currently in Berlin. He was so typically Australian when he spoke, and threw in a lot of Aussie references when speaking about the Berlin Wall to really help us understand what went on. We walked through a few different memorials, and we learnt about a few escape attempts by numerous people, some sucessful, and others not. Berlin has such a confronting history, it's hard not to get emotional when hearing all the stories.
This section of the tour lasted around 45 minutes, and we headed back onto the coach for the 'Cold Drinks' section of the tour, where we headed on a bit of a bar crawl. We went to Mauersegler, which was a cool little bar with a huge outdoor beer garden, so we all took a seat and got our free drinks, and a free pretzel! They were HUGE, and sickly salty.
We stayed at this bar for around 45 minutes, before heading to Zum Starken August, a very cool bar with a very almost parisian decor, red curtains and cool wallpaper. On the walk there I had a good chat with Arwen about dogs, life and weddings. It's really cool to meet all these new people and learn about their lives - they are mainly Australians, but we also have a few kiwis, a couple of poms, a couple of Americans and someone from Panama!
Our free drink at this bar was a Jaeger-Bomb. I then got to have a good chat to Travis, who lives in Hawaii, originally from California. We talked a lot about my trips to the states, it seems I've probably seen more of his country than he has, which is generally the case with travellers (I really should see more of Australia myself!).
From this bar we headed for a tram stop to head to our final destination, Matrix nightclub, which is conveniently just across the road from our hostel - perfect stumbling distance. There wasn't as many conversations here, just lots of drinking and dancing. I think we probably left around 3am, went in search of food (kebabs and chips) and I think I stumbled into our room around 4am. Absolutely HUGE day!Leggi altro