Discovering the beauty of Berlin

As always the morning was spent asleep on the bus after packing up the campsite and saying a teary goodbye to Kiki.. On our way to Berlin we stopped in a city called Dresden that was seriously bombed during the war and had stunning buildings and a really rich history (like literally rich – some of the people who lived there throughout history were seriously loaded). We had a walking tour of the city and we all had lunch there, which was more eventful for some... Amanda took us to a place that was famous for its Currywurst sausages and sauce because they served it at different levels of heat. Level one was really mild, and level 7 which had the same heat as pepper-spray... Quite a few people ordered the level 7 (I wan't one of them) and there were different levels of tears and swearing and red-faces, however Paul didn't seem to mind the fact that he was essentially eating pepper-spray. I tried a tiny bit of the sauce and even the smallest bit on the end of my finger set my mouth on fire, so how Paul ate it all I have no idea..

A bridge that the rich folk made so they wouldn't have to walk on the street with the commoners..

Family tree in the form of a massive mosaic

After Dresden we hopped back on the coach and made our way into Berlin. Now I wasn't sure what to expect from Berlin, having just visited the concentration camp and also knowing that there had been the Berlin wall, but I was surprised! We had the driving tour as usual, and we walked along part of the Wall which was so beautiful with all its different works of art on it. After the driving tour we checked into our HOSTEL!!! It was amazing! We had dinner at the restaurant at the hostel that night and then made the most of our proper beds and good wifi so we all went to bed early.

A memorial of some form...

This was a statue of a guy from world war 2 (?) who saved a little boy (or something like that) but he has a sword and a cape because it makes him look a lot cooler than if he had authentic clothes... 

I think this was my favourite part of the wall

The next day was a fantastic one! We all woke up so refreshed and then got ready and went into the city for our guided walking tour. It was one of the added optionals that you could choose to do, and it was about the Third Reich, so I was super interested to see more of the city and also learn more of it's history. Our guide was incredible as she had grown up in Berlin so she knew all about it and was able to answer all of our questions. I was amazed to see just how open Berlin was about the War, there were memorials everywhere and even things like their government building's architecture was all open and glass to represent the openness of the government. We walked through the Brandenburg gate which I was super excited about because I'd wanted to see it for ages, and we also saw the carpark where Hitlers bunker had been. It made me feel quite good because there was no sign to tell you that where you were standing had once been his bunker, it was just a carpark with weeds growing in it, as it should be. We finished the tour at Checkpoint Charlie, and we were told all about the wall's history, which I had no idea that it was so gruesome and horrible, and how recently the wall had fallen (or the fact that it's falling was due to a bit of miscommunication..).

Government building 

A memorial to the politicians that died. It had their names, date of birth and death, their political parties and the concentration camp that they were in)

A memorial to the Jews

I think this is the silhouette of a guy who tried to bomb the building Hitler would be in. Hitler left like 7 minutes before the bomb detonated...

A museum for the Berlin wall

Tom having a nap because it was just all too much

We went for lunch in a beer hall, and I had a pork knuckle, and god it was incredible! It was covered in crackling and it was just beautiful!

LUNCH 

We then got the train back to the hostel after a mission finding the right platform and then nearly getting separated from the group because when we finally found the right train the doors were nearly shutting, but by some miracle we all made it on!

We then all went to buy I heart Berlin shirts for that night's bar crawl, and on the way we walked along the Wall admiring the beauty of it after so many years of horror.

After a freshen up we all went to the bar at the hostel to start our bar crawl, and as we walked in we were each given a permanent marker. The whole point of the white shirts was that people could write over them, and it was hilarious! By the end of the night our tops were covered in quotes and sayings from the tour, or nicknames or memories. It's such an awesome souvineer and i'm going to keep it forever!!

The bar crawl was so funny! I didn't drink but I didn't have to because I was just buzzing from the atmosphere of it all (and the fact that I didn't drink made everyone else happy because it meant that they could take it in turns having my free drinks that we got at each bar. We ended up at a club just across the road from the hostel which was great because we didn't have to walk far to go to bed. In the club our wake up song played, so up went the duck hands and we all sung along at the top of our voices, as always.

Berlin was such a beautiful city and I fell completely in love with it, and I want to go back and see more of it one day!!

Next stop: Amsterdam!