The trip is just about to come to a close, and we're flying out of our third last stop into Amsterdam from Berlin!

The train ride to Berlin was really quite beautiful from Prague with lots of sloping mountains, green fields and small villages. As we pulled through Dresden we picked up Andrew (an American) who Nick and I got chatting to on the train. We got to discussing hostels, and it turned out we were both headed the same way when we got to Berlin, but while we were staying at The Circus, he was staying at Lette'm Sleep - another nearby station. We said goodbye at Alexanderplatz where we headed off to our separate hostels…

Nick and I got to Circus around 10pm (after the delayed start from Prague), and once we got there found out the booking we'd made was for the 25th… not the 23rd… so we had no place to stay, and it was fully booked for the next two nights. They offered to call another hostel for us, which was nearby, but only had apartments left - setting us back almost 70 Euro between us…We loaded back on our packs and struggled up the street (Hahaha, finally pushing up struggle street for real!!! Lol) and who should we see in reception but Andrew!

After checking in we headed for a drink at a bar, and the first one we came across was quite busy… now, I have to say I had my suspicions when we got to the bar and it's name was "Fur mich oder for dich?" (translating to: for you or for me?), and it wasn't long before we say the first same sex couple making out… that's right - we went to a gay bar… Hahaha, there were some straight couples there too, and it had some good music and alcohol so we decided to stay there. The toilets were HUGE! The women's were in a MASSIVE room that had only one toilet, but 3 chairs to sit on and chill out… RANDOM! We once again encountered the forced recycling by the Germans when we had to put deposits on the glasses our drinks were in, or the bottles for the beer… around about 3am we made it back to the hostel, ready to get up for our walking tour the next day.

When we'd first checked in we'd been told that we would have to move rooms after the first night, so we packed up all of our things walked down the six flights to reception - only to be told that we were staying in that room… at least it was good exercise I guess… still haven't escaped the steps from the Inca Trail!! Hahaha

It's really strange being back in Berlin after such a long time (10 years!!!) as so much of Berlin looks the same but different… I'm definitely going to have to get out my old pictures when I get home! The walking tour took us through all of the main sights in Berlin and we went through so much German history - they did a survey last year and apparently 57% of Germans want the wall to go back up! After the tour we headed back to the chocolate shop that used to make chocolate for German royalty - until they became a democracy… now they just make chocolate for the people. There I spent the most money on chocolate I have spent in my entire life… Hahaha.

The guide also recommended a place for us to get some good local food, and off we set for Haufbrau Haus in Mitte… I got a soup and scalloped potatoes, Nick got a local dish (essentially cheese and bread) and then pork knuckle… I got through my goulash soup, and about 1/3 of the way through my 'main', Nick polished off everything on his plate, and then we waddled back to the hostel to pack… first though we made a detour…

One of the places that we stopped at one the tour was the place where the bodies of Eva and Hitler were cremated… The tour guide told us a story of 5 Australians who had peed on this site when they were taken there… Nick thought this sounded like a fine idea, so we headed back under the cover of darkness - I'm sure you can guess how the story ends…

Back at the hostel after we'd packed I checked the flight print out to make sure that we'd gotten directions to the correct airport… only to find out that it wasn't for the next morning but for the DAY AFTER… we had an extra day in Berlin!!!! YAYAYAYAY!!!

Our (actual) last day in Berlin we spent all of the morning running around trying to find a place to stay with Lette'm Sleep and Circus fully booked out. We finally got into AO Hostel at Zoo so we set off on our relocation mission. From that base we got to see a few of the places the tour had not covered including the bombed out Wilhelm Gedachnichts Kirche and Check Point Charley where we snuck in as students! Woot! Hahaha. The museum at Check Point Charley always almost brings me to tears as you read the stories of people who lived and died and tried to challenge the Hitler regime.

From there we headed back to Ka De We the oldest department store in Berlin where I showed Nick the Schilfe toy brand - one of the MOST over priced… 350 Euro for a teddy bear with a flower wreath on its head??? Lol

From there it was back to the same place for dinner where we once again over indulged… at least it's really tasty though! On the way to dinner we wandered past an impromptu rap battle which was really cool - would have been better in English though so we could have understood what they were saying… Hahaha.

An early night was planned, so we headed back to the hostel for our 5:30am start, and discovered our room was the wall for the courtyard which housed the bar… Yay… the noise from that combined with the squeakiest beds EVER made sure I had a great sleep!! Hahaha.

So, now we're off on our second last leg!! Miss you all and will be seeing you soon!!!

Much love!

XoxoX