Righto, final day in Berlin... This got a bit eventful! I was due to leave on the Friday but I'd caught wind of the fact that there was a carnival on over the weekend and I fancied checking it out so I managed to book an extra night at the hostel. I'd grouped up with these two Brazilian guys and a rather outspoken lesbian from Sydney. I'd just heard that someone at the hostel had been scammed out of €200 on a street game, so everyone was on edge a little more ...

So, after the quiet of Cologne, the capital of Germany beckoned. I researched various means of transport, but they all seemed fairly expensive. I'd heard about this website called BlaBlaCar, which is basically a hitch-hiking service that's really popular in Germany. I checked it out and this guy, Guido, happened to be going from Cologne to Berlin on the same day as me and was asking a fraction of the price of a train or bus. It seemed a little dodgy, I guess, but...