Berlin- My kinda city

I absolutely love Berlin!! I decided to fly here from Amsterdam having a bit of luxury for a change. I chose the best hostel called St Christopher's Inn just has such a great social bar area where it was so easy to meet and hang out with people. I went on a free walking tour the first day which talked a lot about the war and Hitler and also modern day Berlin. The memorials and museums in Berlin help to acknowledge the past and the people who died and struggled while allowing Germany to show how they have recovered. There is a huge Jewish memorial that cost millions of euro and a museum to commemorate their lives. What is interesting is that Hitler's bunker and headquarters, where he killed himself, is now just a car park with no memorial or even a mark to show where it is. I went to a museum which showed horrific images of people being publicly hanged to scare others to doing the 'right' thing. We spent hours reading up about the lives back then throughout the war and the aftermath of it, very eye opening and horrific, how can human beings treat other people like that? 

Another museum showed the life of Germany as late as the 80's. They were living like the 50's with no money and everything being so strictly controlled. Spies were EVERYWHERE, everything was bugged and had camera. I couldn't believe that they had to live like that even within my lifetime. 

 So after a few big days of reading and listening about wars and communism it was a much needed relief to check out the beautiful christmas markets that are everywhere. They have an amazing atmosphere and gets you very excited about Christmas. Delicious currywurst (national dish invented in the war as a means to jazz up the mad tasting meat) and Gluhwein (hot red wine). It is absolutely freezing here being about 2 degrees, though I have a lot of fluffy knitted things and an amazing feather down coat. Though I feel so puffy and my muscles are seizing up being cold and restricted, I could not live like this forever though it is quite romantic for a few weeks, then bring back the Auzzie weather.

Spot of ice skating 

I went on an alternative walking tour which takes you to some of the graffiti sights explaining the artists some actually commissioned works others not so legal! It is pretty amazing what they do illegally though, ie train writers practice and research a train track and get in there and can paint an entire carriage within 2 minutes as it takes the police 3 minutes to get there. The work is usually washed off the next day though. The tour also talks about underground places and bars and the way life is in contemporary Berlin, they are billions of euro in dept and there are so many abandoned buildings here. Some of the spaces have been taken over by alternative types as chill out spaces and bars ie old metro stations and an airport which has been turned into a skate park, literally you can skate down the runway. However the sad thing is that there are big rich companies buying these spaces out and constructing big ugly company buildings so eventually there may not be any left.

 I went on an alternative pub crawl which takes you to some of these spaces which was a lot of fun and put the old Griffith Area to shame. I love all of the art and design here even the clothing shops and food stores display things beautifully and interestingly, you really get inspired.

Jamaican beach bar chill out space about to be shut down in a month

 

So contiki starts today, in a few hours. We spend 3 more days in Berlin where i'll check out a concentration camp and see a lot more of Berlin, I tried not to double up on anything, so I should have a pretty thorough look at the place. I am a little sad that I am leaving so soon I could easily have got a job here and stayed for a few months! The original plan, and Berlin would be my 1st choice, I will definitely be back one day.