Hi Everyone at home! hope all is well in Perth!

We are currently in sunny Berlin on our last evening. We arrived here in the 25th of May. dont ask me what day it is today..we never know. its a trait in the life of a backpacker.

We arrived at our hostel and met up again with the busabout friends we made earlier on the trip. We had a few drinks and went on a pub crawl with a group of around 50 people. it was a fantastic night and we made friends with a girl called amy from perth who is good friends with one of our close friends blake hurley at home. Australia is a small small place! After around 5 clubs we decided to call it an end to the night and managed to find our way home with a full belly of kebabs.

The next morning was a slight sleep in then we had to check out of our private room and move back in with the commoners. This time though we got to bunk with our friends Jill and Adam which kind of makes it nicer since we are not complete strangers living together. It was good fun with lots of giggles and jokes when the lights go out just like on school camp. Anyway after we checked in we had an afternoon nap. you will notice this is a common theme in our blogs...dont worry we are not wasting our valuable 'tourist time' we factor afternoon naps into our program. That afternoon Mike and I went for a stroll and took photos of really cool looking old buildings. Dont ask us what they were, we spent a long time trying to figuire it out and read the German signs but gave up and concluded that they were nice and old and deserved some photos to be taken of them.

That evening after a walk around Berlin we went and had dinner with all the gang at a bar with swinging chairs for everyone to sit on. we had dinner here also which was rather nice and sipped on apple schnapps which is now my favourite drink! After dinner we went back to the hostel and had drinks in the courtyard since it was a really nice evening. The group of friends that we made on the first night on Busabout are a really great bunch and we have so much fun with them. Its a mixture of age groups but we all laugh at the same things and share a common interest which is our days adventures. Whenever we meet up at the end of the day it nice to have people to talk about it with since we cant call home and talk to you guys.

The next morning we rose early and swiped our breakfast. Mike bought breakfast and made Bek sandwhiches for the day and for breakfast. Breakfast is good in Europe. It consists of bread, salami, ham and cheeses. So Mike is in heaven and Bek is happy to eat lunch food for breaky. Today we were off to a free walking tour about the Third Reich. It was all about Hitlers rise to power and WW2. This was a really interesting tour which we both thought we learnt a lot from. More than we learnt in all the years of history at school. If only our school excursions came to Berlin! we would be so much smarter!! After our tour which went most of the day we went home and said goodbye to our new friends Jill and Adam. They were off to Sweden and we would not be seeing them for the rest of the trip. Rest assured we would catch up with them when we were all back in Perth. After this we went out to dinner with Kate and Dan to an amazing vietnamese restaurant (Berlin has the most amazing restaurants and bars) where we filled up on cheap, healthy meals. We then went off back to the hostel where Mike wrote his Amsterdam blog (he is getting so fast at typing!!) What used to take him an hour to write now only takes him 50 minutes!! Whilst Mike wrote our blog I tacked the shower. Sounds funny doesnt it? Not so funny when you try and wash your hair with one hand while pushing in the tap with the other to make the water keep running. Its hostels ways of making you take short showers..its more like torture and very annoying. We then spent the rest of the evening having a coffee with our other friends Theresa and Dan and planning where else on the trip we would be meeting up.

The next day we got up early and went and got our passports stamped at the Brandenburg gates with stamps from the berlin wall - west side and east side. We then went on a tour to Sachenhousen. This is one of Germanys main concentration camps. Over 200,000 people were in Sachenhousen and almost half of them died whilst under the Nazi order. This number is not the highest..other concentration camps had a lot more deaths such as Auswich which had more than a million.Anyway, to say this was a good day would be wrong but this would be one of those days that changes your life. It sounds very dramatic I know but to me there have been a few times in your life that you wont forget. This is one of them. It was a hard day and not enjoyable and the worst part that Mike and I had trouble with was comprehending that this in history terms was not long ago. Some of the stories we heard was difficult to take in but also very interesting. We were really glad we did the tour but were both exhausted after this had a quiet evening when we got home.

That evening we got our first taste of wiener schnitzel and to be honest...we wearnt that impressed. Mike would probably say that the microwave shnitzels mum buys for Mike would have been better to eat. BUT....we will try again and not give up on the germaners and their love of meat, meat, meat! That night we retired to our quiet dorm as our roomates were out on the pub crawl we had already been on.

This morning we checked out again (moving back to luxury in the double room) and went on the hunt for checkpoint charlie. we went the wrong way but eventually found it and to be honest we were disapointed. We were hoping to learn a lot but walked away with lots of questions. In fact Lauren...we will come ask your dad for a history lesson when we get home even though he is geography..oh well he seems like a wise man anyway im sure he can answer some questions. We got our photos of the wall though and we got to see some amazing escape attempts and photos.

We managed to get ourselves very lost on the way home (beks fault) and finally stumbled on starbucks and the air conditioned comfort which we miss sometimes. we then went back to check into our room. 'apparently' we had already paid for our room..we didnt question this and discussed the fact that backpackers are naughty people without morals and consciences who will do anything to save a buck.

We went and had yet another afternoon nap and then made our way to dinner which was our last kebab...anyone who has been to Berlin...Lauren and Blake...im talking to you...will understand what i mean when i say that Berlin has the BEST kebabs in the world..big statement coming from me but I am ready to argue this case if anyone wishes to challenge it. So we had our last kebab and went and explored the supermarket...yes we still enjoy these excursions immensley. we had fun trying to decipher the english from the german and made some purchases for our long bus ride tomorrow. We are off to Prague in the morning and we will be in contact from there.

We have also added a new section called Stupid Arguments. Our auntie Sadie said she wasnt hearing enough of our juicy bits so here is the argument of the week. Anyone who has travelled together with their other half will understand that there is no higher stress situation you can get in than being lost or in transit in a foreign country. well we are on the road for 4 months and are constantly lost. we both attempt to keep the peace during these times which means that in strange situations one of us will snap.

This weeks Stupid Argument goes like this: Bek and Mike are at breakfast...Bek is cranky because it is her turn to be the 'breakfast consumer' this means that Bek has paid for breakfast and Mike is scabbing food for free. Therefore Bek is the one who has to serve Mike his food as he cant go to the counter and get it himself. Anyway...Bek wants to eat the cheese she bought in Holland but cant find her cheese slicer...thats right we have a cheese slicer. Anyway Bek cant find her slicer in Sphynktie...thats right..she named her handbag after the egyptians. Beks bag was very expensive....she reminds this to Mike all the time when she shoves him out from under the umbrella when its raining to protect sphynktie from the elements...or when he throws it off the bed or into luggage compartments. To sum it up she never has a bad word to say about her beloved bag. Today was the day the bag and Bek would bump heads.....Sphynktie has too many pockets...at least 8..this means there is 8 places that the cheese slicer could be....8 attempts failed to find the slicer...Bek started to get angry because of course this was Mikes fault that the manufactuer of the bag decided that 8 pockers were needed...Beks starts yelling at Mike and cursing Sphynktie...Mike grabs the bag..takes one look and locates the slicer in pocket number 1.....Bek accepts defeat and apologises for her outburst to Sphynktie...and nods and Mike..end of arguement. Not to extreme is it? not to juicy either...so stay tuned for next weeks events..they might not involve Sphynktie and will definately involve Mike.

Lots of love Mike and Bek

PS interesting fact of the blog number 4 is: In Germany there is a highway called the Autobahn...this highway has no speed limits only suggested speeds of 130km....if there is an accident on the Autobahn cars cannot be removed from the highway until one party accepts liability..therefore on most days there can be traffic jams for several hours waiting for someone to admit they were wrong!!