Berlin

So the train trip ended up being pretty good. i got a sleeper cabin and because i booked it last minute there was only me and a girl from Krakow called Barbara in it, so it was really roomy compared to the cabin next to us that had 6 people crammed into it. Barbara was really nice she about 26 and had just started her own tourism business with a friend of hers (so if you ever need to go to Krakow click here). she was going to Berlin because shes part of a youth organisation of which shes the vice-president (what a go-getter!) We had a couple of drinks in the food carriage, which i think helped the trip becuase when i hit the hay i could hardly hear the train noises and had a great night sleep.

I have to say i was a little worried about Berlin, mainly because i heard so much good stuff about it i hope that it would meet expectations. but sure enough it did. Berlin is a really cool town i couldn't get over how different it was compared to Munich, considering it is the same country. not only did i get to meet up with Josh and Kate for a few days, we were lucky to catch up with Nick who is Rach's brother ( i worked with Rach in Brisbane) he lives here and gave us a few tips about where to go and check out. One of the streets we were on had a massive street party that seemed to come from nowhere and i get the feeling this happens often, it seems that a party can spring from out of nowhere at any moment for instance i was walking across a bridge and a DJ just started playing a set and all these people started dancing and drinking in the street! it was marvalous, even though it was pretty cold. and the bars here a pretty awesome also, but i think mainly because of the people that hang out in them, i think i could people watch forever around here, there are some very 'interesting' people around here to say the least.

I was lucky because where i was staying seemed to be the cool area with lots of great shops close by. They had some great vintage and second hand stores around (at one of them the garments price depending on how heavy it is) but on Sundays there are some brilliant flea markets. i could've gone nuts, some of the clothes, furniture and artwork they were selling was awesome, if only it were so easy and affordable to send stuff home. at one of the markets there was a guy with a marrionette, he was so talented it was quite amazing what he was able to make the puppet do, it was like it was an extension of his body. they have some great book shops here too. full of brilliant design magazines, damn those Germans know how to design! some of the bars here are brilliant too. i heard some amazing stories of a few underground bars that have now been closed. one of them you could only enter through a secret door in the bathroom of a kabab shop!

Just down the road from where i was staying is the Berlin branch of West Coast Customs, who are the guys that did the TV show 'Pimp my ride'. i'm not really into cars that much but it was pretty amazing what they do to these cars. when i was there they had the Bloodhound Gang tour bus and some German Championship boxer's Smart car (which i have to say is a strange choice for a boxer, don't you think?).

I took a tour of Berlin too and saw some amazing sites and got a bit of background about them:

- like the hotel where Micheal Jackson infamously dangled his baby from a window.

- where Hitlers Bunker was (and how the civilians today, on the aniversary of his death, take there dogs there so they can releave themselves on it)

- the book burning square where thousands of first addition books were burnt by the nazi's, one thing i liked about the book burning memorial was you had to look through a glass window on the ground into a room of empty book shelves to symbolise all the books that couldn't be replaced, perhaps it was a bit obvious, but i liked it.

- the Berlin wall, which is alot smaller than you think it would be, the better section i think is whats known as 'the east gallery' where lots of murals are painted on it. I also heard about the how the wall was never meant to fall, which i never knew about. the spokesman wasn't informed correctly and let the cat out of the bag, what a huge bugger up! (see here on youtube for more) its pretty amazing how far the wall actually stretched, and how it was created (firstly with barbed wire and military) in under 48 hours. i can't even begin to imagine what it was like to live like that.

- Checkpoint Charlie, which is pretty overrated and just a tourist trap, even the guide said so.

- The Brandeburg Gate, which its a miricle its still there after half the things its gone through.

- saw another Frank Gehry building, which from the outside looked nothing like his work, and thats because it had to be altered because the German government thought it was too out there because it would over shadow the Brandeburg Gate. the original concept was for the building to be like a Whale, so the comprimize was that the outside would be made plain and the inside like an inside of a whale. really cool. the funny part is, the building is a bank! so much for thinking banks are conservative.

- The giant TV tower which was built during communist reign to prove to the rest of the world that they can keep up with the rest of the world, only problem was it wasn't built properly and started to sink so they had to smuggle people in from the outside world to fix it. supposidly the media had a field day!

- The Reichstag which, because it caught fire, was pretty much the reason we had WWII. it was enough of a reason to allow Hitler to get into power, because he convinced them it was the communist (long story, too long for a blog). anyway, its been restored to its former self now, but with a new addition, there is a glass roof so that the people of Berlin can always go and look in on Parliament, it was designed this way so that the government would never make the same mistakes again. the list could go on. i think the most interesting thing was the 'Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe' which is 2,711 blocks of concrete that are buried at different levels which, are designed to produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere. they are quite amazing to walk through. the Museum underneath is quite amazing also. it caused a bit of uproar because it cost something like 25 million EURO, and to be honest i don't see how it could cost that much. but it is a very moving piece of architecture.


Something quite interesting here is the stop sign men, at the lights, wear little hats. which in itself is kinda cool but the interesting thing about them is they used to have a cartoon about them to teach children how to cross the road and he is a much loved character in Berlin. so much so when they started converting all the stop men to normal everyday one (like the ones we would see at home) there was a HUGE uproar and people protested in the street and thousands of people signed petitions to keep the man as he was.

the archtecture here is quite cool too. as you can imagine alot of Berlin was flattened in the war and has only recently been rebuilt, so alot of the old buildings aren't actually that old, they have been reproduced. however, some of the statues that sit on them are original, Hitler ordered them to be taken down during the war and but into bunkers incase they were damaged during the war. that was probably one of Adolfs good ideas.
but along with the old stuff there new buildings are quite amazing also. (like Frank Gehry's building as i mentioned earlier) so its quite a modern city really. Berlin is quite big, but in fact only something like 50% of it is being used, and there are lot of office space in prime real estate that doesnt get used at all. the main give away is that the streets aren't really that busy compared to other major cities. but in a way this is a good thing because a lot a unused buildings are taken over by artists and use them as studios. some of the artwork and street art in and around these areas is amazing.
I also saw a spy museum while i was here, it was pretty cool, i was amazed that some of the stuff was real. cameras and mircophones hidden in some strange places, like rocks, tree logs, ties, there was even a shoe phone! it was kinda funny becuase i felt like the stuff was straight from the TV show 'Get Smart'.


Since the wall came down you can imagine there have been a few teething problems. one of them is that he east feel that the west are just taking over there side and pulling down buildings at erecting the ones that were there before the wall. an example of this is the the 'Palace for the people' on Muesum Island. which is currently being demolished and being replaced by a the building that was originally there the Royal Palace. i can kind of understand this because the area was orignally built to work with the Royal palace and when its built the surrounding area will make sence. but the people really loved the 'Palace for the people' because it was for them, it originally had a few movie theaters in it, cafes etc. it was kind of like a place where boyfriends and girlfriends would meet. so it had a history with the people of Berlin. supposidly it was a bit of an eyesore and the government pulled it down. Eyesore or not i still think it had a place in Berlin, i think i would prefer to walk through that then see something reconstructed.

Berlin is such a great city, i spent about a week here and there was still heaps to explore. Off to Hamburg now for a couple of days, more when i get there.