It's been an interesting first few days. Quite a learning experience. As much about myself as about travelling solo. Turns out meeting new people and just hooking up and seeing the sights together isn't nearly as easy as I was hoping it would be. And so far, sight-seeing alone probably hasn't been as much fun as with other people. Regardless, I've still seen some cool stuff, and there's still so much more ahead of me.

The first day was basically a write-off. I landed in Berlin shortly before noon, after about 28 hours worth of flying and stop-overs in the last couple of days. First thing I had to do was figure out how to get to my hostel. The first adventure. There are no trains or subways to Berlin-Tegel airport, so the bus was the only option. I had found directions which went something like take some bus, then get off at a station and switch over to a subway, go a few stops and then switch to another train and then I'll be right outside the door to the hostel.

I later found another which said the easiest way to the city is the airport shuttle. So I decided to take that and just walk to my hostel. Turns out that this shuttle was actually the first part of that other list of directions I found and in hindsight I should have followed those ones. As it happens much of Europe is having a heat-wave and Berlin was a full 10 degrees hotter than the average for this time of the year at 35 degrees. That, with my back-pack and a rather longer walk than I thought had me feeling pretty crap by the time I reach my hostel, which did indeed have a subway stop literally 5m from the front door. Oh well, live and learn.

The first night was spent in a private room and was basically recovery. I watched a bit of German TV, but gave up when I realised I couldn't really understand anything. The second great adventure came when it was dinnertime and I realised I would have to venture out and find something to eat. It was about here that I discovered the first real challenge of travelling alone. I found a little marketplace not far from my hostel called Hackescher-Markt with quite a few restaurants with outdoor dining. Even though I was sure most people would speak English, I was still nervous about having to it down somewhere and order. I wandered around for probably half an hour deciding on what to get and building up the nerve. In the end I had some of the best damn chicken I had ever tasted.

It was the next day that I actually got out and did something. I got up to 10 and had to change rooms to a 6 person dorm. There was no one there when I was dropping of my bags, so I was still on my own. I had to once again venture out for lunch. I went to the same markt and got some extremely delicious currywurst. Then I walked to the Brandenburg Gate. The first actual landmark of my holiday and the subject of the cover photo of this entry.

From here I could see a spire with a gold angel looking thing on top in the distance. I decided to walk to it. It ended up being a hell of a lot further than I anticipated, but the walk was nice, through the Tiergarten. Very picturesque. The spire was the Berlin Victory Column, and you could actually go right up to the top. I did, even though the number of steps just about killed me. The thought that I had to walk all the way back to my hostel after going up and down this wasn't a pleasant one. As I was leaving I also managed to get talked into donating 5 euro to some deaf charity. At first I thought she just wanted me to sign something, then I realised she wanted money and she was adamant that it was a 5 euro min donation. I had already signed the petition so I thought it was be quite rude to not donate. She was also deaf and may have not even spoken English anyway, so I could hardly talk my way out of it. But hey, it was for a good cause I guess.

I walked back via Unter den Linden, which is suppose to be an amazing street, but right now is basically one large construction site as they are adding a new subway line under it. Seems to be the theme of this trip since Melbourne.

That night was wet and miserable and I was exhausted and wasn't really up for going out and sorting out dinner again. I think I was getting a bit overwhelmed by the enormity of what I was actually doing. I actually just got some m&ms from the vending machine in the lobby and ate those and then sat in my room wondering what the hell I was doing.

I'm going to have to start writing these entries more often. This is longer than I expected and I still have two more days to write about. I'll break them out into other entries.