Berlin, Berlin, Berlin

I LOVED Berlin! I've been there for the past 6 nights, although I'm now in Dresden.. a little LESS happening here funnily enough!

In Berlin, I met a girl from Canada and we went on one of the famous Insider Walking Tours, which went for 4 hours and all around the main sites. There we met 2 Canadian guys, and the 4 of us spent the next couple days together. We went on another tour the next day - the Third Reich tour. And a few day later, Cold War Berlin. So fascinating.. I thought I knew my German history, but I have learnt so much.

One interesting thing on one of the tours was going to an empty carpark near some apartment blocks. Beneath the carpark was Hitler's bunker, where he shot himself. There's only a small sign to mark the spot. They don't want to draw any more attention to it in case the neo-Nazis make it a shrine and start gathering there.

Another interesting thing! TV Tower is the big spiky building with the sphere up near the top. This was built in East Berlin, as sort of an attempt by the Communist East to say 'hey life is good here, we're actually really advanced'. And it does really stand out on the skyline. It was huge, so it could be seen easily from the West and make a statement. But they soon found out that when the sun shines on the big sphere it creates a cross shape. The Communist East was anti-religion. They desperately tried to make it less shiny, etc to get rid of this cross image. But the West simply said 'what you're trying to deny is staring you in the face.' I have a photo of it where you can see the cross.

So what else did we do in Berlin.. well it's super easy to walk around without a map. I like the Brandenburg Gate area and I went up the top of the Reichstag. We also happened to be there on May 1, when everyone comes out and demonstrates/riots, so there was a big street festival and bands. Oh, and we ate a lot of German wurst.

So now I'm in Dresden, and it's the first day of Busabout. The hostel is really quiet! There were only 5 of us on the bus, but it'll pick up later in the season, we're told. Dresden has an old town and a new town, separate by the River Elbe. I'll wander over to the old town tomorrow I think. But it'll have to do reeeeaaaally well to top Berlin!

If you go to my Bubbleshare album on Berlin, there are more REALLY GOOD, expertly taken photos. :P

Oh wait, PS: did I mention that there's really cheap Kinder chocolate in Germany? Well today we discovered Kinder icecreams!! Oh wow.