On Friday morning we decided to revisit some of the places Torben had shown us on the walking tour yesterday in order to spend a little more time there. Our first stop was the Holocaust Memorial, which was quite recently completed in 2005 & consists of lots of large, grey, concrete blocks of varying heights set out over a reasonably large piece of land. It's quite an abstract memorial & there has been division amongst the German people regarding opinions about whether or not it's really an appropriate & effective memorial for the holocaust. There's also an information centre underground, which you can enter through the middle of the memorial free of charge, to learn about the holocaust. It contains information about the history of WW2 & how it affected the Jewish people, as well as personal stories from survivors, & letters written by Jewish people while they were in the concentration camps. It's a very moving memorial & I certainly felt that the information centre had perhaps a little more relevance to the issue than the abstract architectural memorial above it.

After that we wandered back down to the Berlin wall again & took a bit more of a look around Checkpoint Charlie, where tourists were lining up to have their passports stamped at what was the former official border between East & West Berlin. It doesn't actually have any official purpose, but is more of a souvenir, & probably holds more meaning if you remember a time when to go from West to East Berlin was a big deal! Whereas for me, the wall came down a year before I was born, so I've only ever really known a united Berlin in my lifetime. It was pretty crowded with tourists so we decided to head out of the centre of the city a little bit to a café that the hostel staff had recommended, called Salon Schmuck, which is a little bit alternative & does great brunch.

Turns out we spent about 45 minutes searching for that restaurant, walking up & down the same street about 5 times! But we did finally find it, & it was well worth the search. We had a great shared brunch at about 2 in the afternoon, which consisted of lots of local cheeses, different types of bread, fresh juice etc. And it was a really cool café, which had a little second hand clothing store attached to the back of it.

After late lunch/brunch we decided to do as the Berliners do & ride bikes! Now the old adage goes "It's as easy as riding a bike". Well, I have to disagree, because it seems that in the space of a few short months I had all but forgotten how to ride a bike, & that's a pretty scary thing in a place like Berlin where people on bikes ride ruthlessly along the sidewalks or on the roads. So there I am, tentatively wobbly along on my bicycle while people go speeding past me on pathways I'm quite sure were not designed for two people to ride side by side, trying not to kill any poor pedestrians in my path. But once I got the hang of it, it was so much fun, & I had the added joy of feeling incredibly proud of myself for something as simple as riding a bike haha

We took a wander through the Turkish markets, but given that they're only open for a couple of hours, twice a week, it was pretty intense & we didn't stay long. It was a really hot day & people were crammed in between two rows of stalls with shop keepers yelling out & little, old men wheeling their shopping carts around to do their weekly shopping. So instead we decided to escape the heat & head to Badeschiff.

Not having a beach, Berliners have had to be inventive about where to go when things heat up. Solution: build a pool IN the river! So right at the edge of the river (which really isn't the kind of water you'd want to swim in) they have a little man made beach area where people flock to when it gets hot. And they really do flock there (particularly being a super hot Friday afternoon) - we had to line up for about half an hour just to get inside! It's a gated area so you have to pay to get in & a guy checks your bag, which is kinda strange, but it was SO worth it :D We went for a brief swim in the pool, which was actually icy cold but very refreshing! Strangely enough most people weren't there to actually swim, but to simply lie around near the pool & sunbathe, chat & people watch.

After we'd cooled off at Badeschiff we rode our bikes back to the hire shop - by which stage I'd totally re-mastered the art of bike riding & was pretty much like a local ;) Then we walked back over to a restaurant we'd seen across the river from the Badeschiff, where you could sit right at the water's edge for a bite to eat & a drink. It was a really lovely atmosphere & the cool breeze coming off the water took the edge of the remaining heat from the sun, which was still high in the sky at 6:00PM. Then after a couple of hours hanging out there we attempted to go to a really awesome bar that my cousin, Andrew, had recommended (he spent several months living in Berlin a couple of years ago). Unfortunately our curse got the better of us & we arrived there only to find the whole place was closed for renovation! What are the chances?? All the locals we'd asked for directions had confirmed that it was indeed a really cool bar too, so we'd been really looking forward to it. It's called Madame Claud's Upside Down bar, & all the furniture inside is stuck to the ceiling so it's like you're walking upside down. So if anyone ever goes to Berlin, please go there & check it out for me, cause it sounds really cool & I'm just gonna have to come back now one day I guess! :)