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 as I said, it's very popular in Germany and the guy had long hair and a hat in his picture, so I figured I'd be fine. There was one slight hitch... Everything was in German. Literally, everything. So I messaged this guy in my pigeon German, basically asking for a lift, and instantly got a reply... "Yes". Ok, cool. So I rocked up to this station the next morning, stood roughly where I thought was a good place to stand and waited. And waited. And waited. And waited.

Eventually another chap came and sat next to me, and promptly launched into a long sentence in a language that sounded slightly Welsh with a touch more phlegm. Aha! A German. Fortunately, he spoke fairly good English and it transpired he was also doing the same journey as me. So at least I had someone to wait with now. And wait we did. After the passing of two, maybe three moons, our long haired friend turned up in a rattly old ford Galaxy. He was very welcoming but it appeared that he'd already spoken his entire English vocabulary in that message that read "yes". In the meantime a young couple had turned up with a dog smaller than most hamsters I've seen. They had to squeeze in aswell... On a six hour car journey. It was all going quite well until I asked the English speaking guy where abouts I was going to get dropped off... Quite a long conversation in German ensued and after a while, and a lot of laughter, he turned to me and basically said "you're screwed". My hostel was about a two hour walk from where I got dropped off, so a crash course in German public transport was required. I was confident they'd be on time... I just wasn't confident on where the hell I had to go. After quite a while, and having used up my monthly allowance of fortune, I ended up vaguely near where I needed to be. The hostel was really really cool with a big chill out area and lots of people! Finally, human interaction.

I weirdly bumped into the same guy from Bridgend that I'd met in Bruges, so we stuck together to see all the big sites. Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, bits of the wall etc. Its a really fascinating place with all the obvious historical... Erm... History. The following day I rented a bike and rode around for about 8 hours which was really cool, if a little frightening. German police don't like tourists very much, apparently.

Today I went with a couple of Brazilian guys to a concentration camp memorial about an hour from Berlin, which was really emotional and humbling. Over the course of the last few days I've contrived to lose my room key and a padlock key, but suddenly, after today, those really aren't big issues in my life anymore. Some of the stories there were truly tear-jerking and it really does help to put everything into perspective.

The walking (and cycling) are training my legs like never before so I'm hoping to get a proper hike in somewhere... Probably further to the south east. My next stop is Dresden for a couple of nights then the best part of a week in Prague.

Bonjour!