A huge hello from Berlin... my favourite place so far...

We depart from Prague in the morning and head for our first stop Dresden, we have a bit of a look around and then find Starbucks... at this stage it was about 8pm back in Australia so courtesy of Starbucks I called Katie back home to chick in on all the happenings.. And hour later I realised the time, said goodbye and made a mad dash for the bus as we were leaving to head to Berlin... Made it... 2 minutes late.

We head off for Berlin and as we arrive we do a driving tour around the city. We see traces of what is left of the Berlin Wall and we stop at the Eastern Gallery. The Eastern Gallery is a section of the wall that is still standing and stretches for about a km or so and artists have painted the wall in different sections with stories and messages about what happened or just about things that they feel. It is a kind of graffiti art and is amazing... we only had a quick 10 minute stop here on the way in but I will spend more time here before we leave. We get checked into the Wombats hostel and come down for dinner... soup and goulash... must admit I was sceptical but quite enjoyed both... very surprisingly. Half the group went and seen harry potters new movie and for us remaining it was to the roof top bar for a quiet drink.... or so we thought.

Keira and I decided to get jugs of cocktails... this was our first mistake... there is also this game where you try and chuck a euro into a bucket... every time you miss a shot gets added to the bar... if you get it in then you win all the shots no matter if there is 3 or 30... Keira won the shots and at this stage there was 13 I think... she downed them all like a trooper and we kicked on... the others got back from Harry Potter and joined in on the drinking and then about 1am I called it a night.

The next morning we had a walking tour of Berlin... a third Reich tour. We saw where Hitler bunker was, where he died, the Jewish memorial along with parliament buildings and other memorials... The weather was terrible, it was bucketing down with rain and we were all miserable... we kicked on and the walk went over 1 hour long... as soon as it was over we grabbed some hot food.. Much needed hot food and headed back to the hostel. The girls decided that they hadn't bought enough clothes already and went off to h&m... I decided that my bag is too heavy already and headed back to the eastern gallery for a closer look... I think I was there for 2 hours slowly walking along the stretch of wall, interpreting what I believe the artists were trying to say... one piece really caught my eye in particular... It looked like a river with a bridge and a flood of heads coming over the bridge... the faces looked sad, alone and scared... I'm not sure what this piece is meant to represent but I think it may have something to do with the wall being built and people being marched away from loved ones and into a life they didn't want... Or maybe it was when the wall came down and people trying to find loved ones to reunite with... or maybe it is something completely different... I will never know but that is the beauty of the eastern gallery... it is all up to interpretation. I then made my way back to the hostel. There was a pub crawl that I was meant to go on that night but the weather was sucky and I was tired so opted for a few quiet drinks at the terrace bar. Nikki aka one half of Fleetwood mac formally known as Blondie also stayed back with a few of the other girls. We had a few beers and mingled with a few people... then I was at the bar and these guys were trying to get the euro in the bucket and kept missing... I laughed at them and said they were hopeless so they told me to put my money where my mouth was... literally and give it a try... So I did and straight in the bucket the coin went... first go... nothing but net! This was all well and good and then I realised I have just won like 14 shots... there goes my quiet night. I call nikki over for some assistance and we both start at one end each and work our way in.. Nikki stopped at a couple and I kept going... mistake number 1! Nikki then ran into some people she kind of knew from back home and they were talking about finding a bar that plays old school Beatles and rolling stones music and has a wall that is covered in Transformer dolls... this place sounds like heaven to me so me and nikki invite ourselves on the expedition to find the transformer bar.. Also known as Astro bar... after detouring the wrong way out of the station I take control of the map and get us back on course... however we never found the Astro/ transformer bar... instead we stumbled upon 60's night at this little retro German bar where we were the only foreigners.. We have a drink here and then look at the time and realise that we have to be on a bus in like 4 hours... there goes our quiet night. Nikki and I decide that if we are to make this bus we better bow out now... we pinch their map and head for the train station... we make it back to the hostel, a little wet from the rain, drunk from the shots and already tired thinking of the idea of being up in 3 and a half hours at this stage.. As we approach the hostel we run into Steve the other half of Fleetwood mac who went on the pub crawl... I leave them to get a kebab and I sneak off to bed... berlin is done... but I have a feeling I will be back... Next stop Amsterdam for our last 2 nights with the tour! Ohh dear it hurts already