I moved from France to Germany, to begin the next fortnight of my Eurotrip. I replaced crossants with sausage, crepes with pretzels, wine with beer and merde to scheiße!
Day 4: This morning I jumped on the train and arrived in Cologne for lunch, where I found Farina's house before setting off to Bonn to get my Beethoven on. I followed the tourist walk to see the Beethoven memorial, Beethoven house, Cathedrals where Beethoven performed and ended up at the Rhine. That night Farina and Yüg took me out to Thai. Yum.
Day 5: Today was my day to tackle Cologne. First stop, Cologne Cathedral. I climbed the 533 steps and enjoyed the view. Next I went to 4711 and bathed in cologne from Cologne. Cool? I thought so. After that I went to the Nazi Documentation Center. There were cells there where the gestapo used to hold prisoners. The walls were covers in writing and scratchings from the prisoners. Some were really shocking, others were inspiring, but it realy added an element of humanity to the place. There was also a museum upstairs which was interesting.The Cathedral
I made my way back through the town, stopping in on some cathedrals until I got to the Rhine. I had a nice read by the river, before strolling down to the Chocolate factory. Chocolate pasta anyone?
I went back to Farina's for dinner - traditional German with bread, cheese and meat.
Day 6: Today was a travel day from Cologne to Berlin. Kiki met me at the station, and we went to her flat. COOL COOL COOL. Kiki cooked us borscht and then we hit the town. We went and salsad the night away : )
Day 7: Sunday. Market day. Mauerpark, here we come! Cue Poloroid, Jacket, Dress... We had a corn on the cob, went home for a snack and then HARRY POTTER! With homemade popcorn. Kiki and I feel the need to draw to your attention that DANIEL RADCLIFFE HAS UNEVEN ARMS!
Day 8: Today we got our tourist on. We started off at the East Side Gallery and walked along the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall to Alexanderplatz. Next was Hockeschermarkt for lunch. Berlin doner. Yum. We walked to Berlin Cathedral, talk about beautiful, then down Und de Linden to see Bebelplatz, the location of the 1933 Nazi book burning. We passed the Reichstag and ended up at the Brandenburg Gate.
That night, Hetti took us out for drinks at her favourite pub which was fun.
Day 9: Today I jumped on Jill - Hetti's bike, and went to buy some poloroid film. I came back via Tiergarten and Siegerstrasse. When we came back Kiki and I painted Hetti's new head board, bright red! That afternoon, we went to the Holocaust Memorial and Information Center. It was intense, but really informative. We stopped by the memorial for homosexuals on the way back to the U-Bahn.
That night, after taking my first poloroid picture, we went out to dinner at Dicke Wirtin and had the BIGGEST SCHNITZEL EVER. Yum yum yum yum.
Day 10: Today was our day in Potsdam. We jumped on the S-Bahn, and went to Sanssouci Park. On the way to the station, Kiki introduced me to Adelbert, the most bizarre taxidermied concoction I have ever seen - park fox, bever, owl, chicken, duck... In Sanssouci, Kiki and I planned our lives there as royalty, rooms for friends, step-mothers, concerts, tea, dinner, baths... When we got a little parked-out we went to Brandenburger Strasse for some lunch, tea, postcards and other goodies. For lunch I had currywurst, which was an experience. I wouldn't say I enjoyed it, but I am glad I did it.That afternoon we met up with Kikis friend Tamara for afternoon tea before we headed back home.
Day 11: Today we hit up Kreuzberg. Kiki introduced me to Arrarat, the most divine stationary shop. Then we went to colours, where they sell second hand clothing by the kilo! After a lot of fun and rummaging around, I went to Museumsinsel to go to the Neues Museum. There I saw the famous bust of Nefertiti. That night Kiki and I played boggle at watched university challenge. Woo.
Day 12: Today we did brunch at 1900, the cutest little cafe ever. After that we went to see the Ladies in Kiki and Hetti's favourite secondhand shop where I got some great bargins. That evening, we were treated to a lovely dinner at SIR SIMON RATTLE'S castle between Berlin and Potsdam. We also played some epic rounds of boggle and pictionary. The perfect dinner party.
Day 13: Today Kiki went to Italy, and I met up with my first Intrepid group in East Berlin. I checked in, and met my first room mate, Laura (A primary school teacher from Colorado). We went for a walk around the area, past the East Side Gallery and things. That evening, we had our first group meeting where I met the other 8 travellers and Tomi our group leader. Once all the formalities were out of the way we went for dinner at a truly German pub and got to know eachother over some good chow.
Day 14: I woke up early, so I went for a walk to Treptower park where I saw a big Soviet sculpture. Jeff (A photographer from Washington) and I met at 10:30 to begin our day of sightseeing. We had both already seen the major sights, so we went a bit off the beaten track. First we went to Tacheles, an old Gestapo prison now converted into an art gallery, which was really cool, before walking past the New Synagogue to the Berlin Wall Information Center, where a section of the wall exists as it was set up by the Soviets. Our last stop was the German History Museum which takes you from 500BC through to the present day. That night we hopped on the overnight train to Krakow, ready for our next country.
All in all, Germany is a pretty sweet country. I also have developed a real taste for pretzels, and German bread. Ohhhh German bread.
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