alive and in berlin

Right, well here i am sitting on the lower bunk in a youth hostel in Berlin after eating our delicious buffet dinner (yet again) at only 5 euro. We had chicken, pork, rice, a stew/salsa , salad bar, bananas and tea and iced peach tea.

I am now in possession of all my belongings, but am rather annoyed that my suitcase spent two days in amsterdam before me !!!! (more of that story later….. here on…. You are about to be bored senseless….)

But thats about enough for now, as i know i havn’t been able to update much in the last week or so owing to lack of internet and the expense of the internet.4 euro for an hour gets about ½ of our travel booking done a day, with no email and certainly no blog updates. So i will start at the begining, which, i guess for most of you is around the time we left for Paris.

JOURNEY TO PARIS :

We left London about 11 :00pm and got a bus to Paris, ok you live and learn, that is the last time we do that journey !!! we had to get off about 2 ;00am to catch the ferry to Dover (yes again) and then get off again about 3 :30am an back onto the bus for the journey into Paris. Chris had about 0% legroom, and i don’t think i had much more. When we arrived we had no clue even what area of paris we were in and the ticket machine didn’t work. So we trouped on over to the other end and found a person. A few trains later we made our way to the road we needed.

Paul was away in Marsaille that day and he arranged for his friend to let us into the apartement. Enter Frenchtime… not too bad considering i was so tired i could have forgotten my middle name. Guy was great he showed us everything we needed and then left. About half an hour later he returned with a bag of Bread and croissants !!! i was so happy i could hardly say anything. (we had had nothing to eat since early the night before and had had about 0 hours sleep.) Later that night we ordered pizza (sorry too tired for anything else)

THE NEXT DAY…

Funnilly enough we slept in this day …

THE FOLLOWING DAYS..

All kind of blur into a mishmash of fun.
I dind’t like Paris last time i was here (jetlagged, middle of winter, 6 hour stop over…) but how much i love Paris now ! it was awesome ! luckily my French came back to me far quicker and far better than i thought it was. I was concerned that i wouldn’t be able to converse with people at all. I met Paul’s new lady friend, who i must say is beautiful and loverly, and several other people and i don’t think i said anything toooooo shocking this time. I was concerned when i said something in responce to a « do you want another drink sarah » i responded i french with a phrase and the conversation stopped, ( i thought oh no i’ve just said something reallllly bad…..) but no Paul grabbed my hand and said « you are truly French that is a very very good french expression for saying « i want another drink »
Later on the comment was made that m French was best surrounding drinking phrases…..lol……

The shopping in paris was excellent and sooo cheep !!! we found some really good bargins, including a beautiful warm black ¾ length jacket for chris that was only 39 euro !!

I bought some very very very very very high boots ! black.

These were sorely tested the last night we were there when Paul took us out for dinner (mussels and chips and beer ..ohhhh my god yummmmmmm) and because he paid ( we cursed and tried to bribe the barman but to no avail) we said we would take him out for a nice drink… this happened to be miles away (new boots) to which Paul and Chris keep making comments like : « would you like a wheelbarrow, a fighterfighter carry, and : it’s only 100meters…..every few minutes.

It was a realllllly nice drink and we walked back. Such a beautiful city. Paul was really wonderful. He was working a lot but it was great to talk when we did have time J

A FEW DAYS LATER…

We left Paris, bound for Copenhagen. We didn’t do much here except go to a really good museum. We had no time for anything else. We spend out last day sitting in the airport reading and drinking, (it was pissing it down)
On a high note we found beer in copenhagen that was 2dkk. (about 50cents an bottle..ish…)

BERLIN

Beautiful plane flight into berlin, i took some sneaky and WONDERFUL photos out the window and we landed in Berlin, after a 40 min flight. (I love Europe)
We we at the luggage return spot and a sign came out saying ‘last bag’ Problem as i had no bag, it was late, we were in Germany now so no French speaking for me, and we had to find our hostel. We knew what had happened straight away !! it was the silly girl at Copenhagen airport who sent my bag to amsterday under another passengers name. The reason for this was that my bag was 2kg over the 15kg weight limit. (THANK GOD i took out my unmentionables bag, my cammera cables and my NEW boots and jeans and a jumper and put them into my hand luggage….) while i was repaking my bags she mucked up the process and sent the bag to Amsterdam.

I really am annoyed as my bag in more travelled than me !

It took AGES to get back as they dropped it off 24 hours later and (apparantly) the 24 hour hostel wasn’t open, we rang and rang, (correction) the loverly people at the youth hostel rang and rang, and finally it got delivered 48 hours later. To the great relief of all concerned.

Berlin – Itself…


Possibly one of the most beautiful cities i have been to so far. I was expecting it to be all modern and ugly like the bits of cities remodled after the war. This was not so. I guess most of the building is rather recent, particularily as the wall has only been down about 17 years or so. The wide open spaces in the streets cause by the war and wall are a welcome relief to most city centers and their traffic.

The line of the wall is clearly marked by two little rows of bricks that go through buildings, roads, gardens …

TOUR
We did what was posssible the best tour we have done so far in Berlin. We went on the 3rd Reich walking tour, lead by a very enigmatic guide called Per. He took us all over the city for about 4.5 hours going into details about how Berlin was in the years leading up to and during the war. It was the best way to learn about a side of WW II that i have never really studied. He was really funny and well informed. He made some craking american jokes which i enjoyed immensley. ( I have to dedicate and entire journal to what we call « american jokes » as they are the group of tourists that have annoyed us the most where we have gone.)

Several hours later, and very much better informed about the history, we trecked back to the best hostel in the world with the most irritating room mate.

THE ROOM MATE SAGA !!!!
Ok Berlin YOUTH HOSTEL….

Full of about 200-300 teenagers here on school trips and a few other people, mostly « youth »

Dorms of 12 people in bunk beds sharing a toilet and shower, single rooms are available.

Enter old STUPID woman who thinks it is HER room and she rules the room. She is soooooo funny we all have bets to see how quickly she will have a go at someone in the room and what it will be for.

Yesterday she comes home from « work ? » and the first words out of her mouth were…. »which one of you is it that leaves the bathroom door ajar after you have been in there… » Apparantly the fan that runs for about 30 seconds after the light goes out annoys her. She has taken out 5-6 extra sheets from downstairs and made a cocoon out of her bottom buck to block out anyone looking into herbunk. She turns out all the lights at 8 :30 – 9 :00 and squeals at anyone brave enough to turn them on. She tells us to stop talking well before 10 :00pm.

Last night was possibly the best. About 10 :00pm, She was in her cocoon, We were all in our bunks, in darkness becuase she didn’t want the big lights on, pretending to be quiet, someone wanted to open the window, it was very stuffy and they asked everyone if it was ok, about 10 mins later she huffs and puffs out of her coocoon and storms accross the floor (and the people sitting in front of the window, and slams it shut about 3 times to make her point ! apparantly the noise from the street was too loud !!!!

LOL – we are all quietly giggling away at the amusement, makig sure we all cough VERY VERY loudly and wake her up as often as possible !!

Now onto what we did yesterday…


SACHENHAUSEN – concentration camp

We joined a tour group and went out to Sachenhausen. It was about 40 mins out in a small town. Most of it was destroyed and changed after the liberation and it was taken over by the communists (east germany) and used as a prisoner of war camp.

There was still quite a bit there though, as they are trying to recognise their history a little more and the information there was grim, but well presented.

PHEW….


Ok kinda back to today, just had two more aussies come into the dorm, and warned them about cocoon lady.

WRAP _UP

Basically having a great time LOVE BERLIN !!!!!!! it is Cheep and clean and fun !!!!

Off to Dresden in a day or so and then to Prague for 5 days. Then we are going to Poland but no idea how yet.

Sorry for the very very very very long update, and if you have got to the end then you either are totally bored, have no social life, or cheated and skipped the middle bit on your way down !!!!


Byeeeeee


Sarah and Chris