Is that a straw or a stick?

So it turned out that we spent quite a lot of time in the lobby in Hamburg… It was just so cold and it was nice to just stop again. We did however meet some lovely people and went out to local bars a couple of nights with them.

We also got to meet up with a friend of mine who lives just outside Hamburg and she was kind enough to drive out to see us and take us to an awesome (and cheap!) restaurant right on the water.

Sara and I also went to the Reeperbahn which is Hamburg’s red light district, and had some dinner… and each ordered a drink…

Sara: 'that's the thinnest straw I've ever seen'
Ali: 'is it a straw or a stick?' (stirring stick)
Sara goes to drink out of said object
Sara: 'hmm possibly a stick'
Ali laughs hysterically...

We also did the city walking tour which… to be honest was quite unfulfilling. Our guide was lovely but such a dork, and so boring. Perhaps it was because he didn’t have much to work with and spent most of the tour saying “this is a shipping building” and “this will be the opera house when it is completed in 2020” and “here is another shipping building”… or perhaps nothing interesting has happened in Hamburg so he had no stories to draw upon… or perhaps it was because he had zero personality. Who knows!

Either way it was not a very good overall picture of Hamburg, although some of the buildings and canals are quite beautiful there, our guide didn’t really point them out.

But all up, Hamburg was just another city really and didn’t offer us anything amazing…

Berlin

Luckily it was only one train to Berlin which was much easier to navigate, and so we made our way to our hostel without a hitch… our hostel did not look like the pictures on the website so after a minor melt down we decided to suck it up and get used to it.

The next day we did our customary free walking tour of the city and were taken to Brandenburg Gate, Jewish Memorial, the carpark which now stands above Hitler’s bunker (apparently its still underground but the government has kept it locked so as not to build a “Hitler Shrine”), Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Paris Square, Berlin’s university, and the Memorial to all people who died in WWII, while we were told an astonishing amount of history.

That night we joined an organised pub crawl and were taken to a range of quirky pubs and clubs. One was a goth club that used to be owned by the band Rammstein, another was a Ping Pong club in which you ordered a drink and a paddle and proceeded to the table tennis table where each person was given one hit and then followed around in a circle to have your next turn at the other end, while people drop out if they miss, which continues until two people are left. We then stumbled onto a train at around 3am, harmonised with one of the busking bums on our train singing Bob Marley and got back to our hotel around 3.30am for a quick facebook update and then a much earned sleep.

Our next tour was about the Third Reich where we again walked all over the city and were told lots of history, mainly in regards to how Hitler gained power. We were taken to the Reichstag (parliament building), the Soviet and Homosexual Memorials as well as the old SS Headquarters.

The next day we went to the Jewish Museum which had lots of letters and artefacts from Jewish people during WWII which told heartbreaking stories.

Next we went to the Alternative city walking tour and were shown the more recent cultural side to Berlin. We were taken to Tacheles, an ex-squat, occupied by artists, each floor having a different gallery, metal workshop, or jewellery store. We were shown the different types of street art and funky bars throughout the city and ended the tour at the East Side Gallery which is a section of the Berlin wall which was put back up and artists were commissioned to paint in sections, which goes for about 1.5kms.

The next day we went to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp just outside Berlin. We had a fantastic guide that walked us through the camp, telling us stories of the people that lived and died there and the horrific treatment they received. For me, seeing the living quarters was quite disturbing, considering that two people usually shared each single bed on each three tiered bunk, and that 200 people in each barrack had 45 minutes each morning to bathe in the two fountain-like water holes, use the toilet (which would be their only opportunity for the day until they finished work), make their beds perfectly and get to roll call on time. Also seeing the prison within the camp, solitary confinement cells, and torture equipment and of course the gas chambers and crematorium were heart wrenching. Overall it was very interesting and something I feel is important for people to see and learn from.

We spent the next day sleeping in, shopping for my new camera and going to an English cinema to see “No Strings Attached” or as it is advertised in France “Sex Friends” and went back to the hostel to pack.

Prague

Again, it was only one train to Prague which was lovely and peaceful until a bunch of 50 year olds boarded and then proceeded to yell and shout to each other on opposite ends of the carriage, carrying on, switching seats and playing with their false teeth… quite honestly I’ve never seen such behaviour, I mean this was 1^st class after all! :P

So Sara and I decided to eat in the Dining Cart to get away from the “children” which was fun.

So far in Prague we have just walked around Old Town Square, Karl’s Bridge, lots of back streets and Palladium Shopping Centre. Last night we met up with Sara’s old work mate and his friends for his Birthday Party. We started with a nice Italian restaurant and then walked into the Old Town Square. It happened to be the 600 year anniversary of the Astronomical Clock so there was a video mapping presentation projected onto the building which was quite incredible. Follow the link for a video of it…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4LVEAiZJyg

We then went to another pub and then danced the night away at a gay club which was a lot of fun :)

We have about a week to go here in Prague so will probably do the walking tour tomorrow and then will try and get into the countryside sometime this week.