Berlin

Pictures: Craig's One Two Three / Mary's

Berlin.... in a last minute decision (I asked in the ticket line... "so, which city did you want to go to?"), Craig and I bought tickets from Prague to Berlin, and I´m so glad we did. After figuring out the S-bahn map (a fairly similar, yet nicer version of the Seoul Subway system), we settled ourselves in at the Sunflower Hostel (which I personally recommend... it has a washer AND A DRYER). It´s definitely more expensive than the other countries we've been in, but no worse than Canada.

Throughout all the cities that I've been to on these travels, this is the first city that I've actually fallen in love with - I feel like I could live here. There's a definite difference between a touristy city and a tourist-friendly city. Prague is a "touristy" city - almost every person I met - ate beside, walk passed - spoke English, or was a tourist. You don't get a real feel for the city when 90% of the people you encounter are from outside of the country. But Berlin, yes - there are many tourists, but it doesn't have that "touristy" feel I received from Prague. I love everything about this city. The food is amazing, the beer (and even girly drinks, Brett!) is cheaper than water, it´s a busy city without being too big (about 4 million), and the history of this city is just amazing. (That´s why it's taken us over a week to get to an internet cafe - there is so much to do here.)


Having enjoyed the Ultimate tour in Prague, Craig and I went on a couple walking tours (Insider Tour - I highly recommend) and went through the history of what happened to the country after WWI, how the Nazi Party came into power, the devastation after WWII, the Berlin Wall, the fall of the Berlin Wall.... I´m so intrigued with this city's history - and to see pieces of the history right in front of us made it so much more amazing. We also went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum, to the new Jewish Museum of Berlin, up the 2nd tallest tower in Europe, the Fernsehturm, the 1936 Olympic Stadium, as well as going to numerous restaurants, cocktail bars, cafes, etc, etc.... Oh I'm blushing - can't you tell I'm in love?


I lost my cable that connects my camera to the computer in Warsaw, so the pictures will have to wait, but in the meantime, the wikipedia sites I've provided have pretty good pictures of these places (and bonus.... there is no blue fleece involved with any of these pictures). UPDATE: The pictures are up

We're off to our 2nd last country, the Netherlands, tomorrow - then 10 more days left... I can't believe we're almost home...