Day 5: Berlin

Today has probably been one of my favourite (and most painful) days I've had so far on this trip. Because I had a late (ish) night last night I let myself have a bit of a lie in. So i got up at half 8 (I obviously can't do lie-ins when there are sights to be seen). Anyway, more time to see the city. I said goodbye to my new Canadian friends (they were leaving for Dresden today) and headed off to the Berlin Dom (cathedral). For a small price you can go around the cathedral and, even better, climb up to the top of the dome to get a view of the city (this was nowhere near as hard a climb as in Budapest mum). The view from the top was worth climb though (i even managed to stop some japanese tourists to get my picture taken). After my climb to not-so-great heights I headed over to Alexander platz and the TV tower. Unfortunately I forgot why I wanted to go to the square and left without a picture of the world time clock (oh well, can't be as good as Big Ben). After that slight detour I started the fairly long journey to the East Side Gallery of the Berlin wall. This is an absolute must see if you are in Berlin! Its quite a long stretch of what's left of the wall and the whole of the east side is covered in murals (and grafiti), most of which are incredible. I spent quite a while there walking up and down taking pictures, occasionally stopping someone to take a picture of me (hence the cover photo). After i had pretty much photographed the whole of the wall I decided to follow it's original path (which is still visible in the roads) up to Checkpoint Charlie (the place where American soldiers were able to cross the border). This is another must do thing in Berlin. Every so often along the route there are information pillars explaining some of the histroy of the wall, even more when you get to Checkpoint Charlie (as well as more people dressed in army uniforms for photo opportunities, and to get those all improtant visas).

By now it was lunchtime and I'd been walking for quite a while, so I went in search for some food. After a short walk i managed to find a restaurant serving German food (not quite as popular as you would think here in the capital, suprpsingly more Italian restaurants than German). For today's meal I opted for a braised pork joint with saurkraut and mushy peas (which for some reason were beige). The meal was delicious, and considerably less fatty than my schnitzel (well after I cut the actual fat off the pork). And no beer for me today im afraid, just a coke (after trying beer from the beer nation I have come to the conclusion that i do not like the stuff!).

After re-energising I made my way through Berlin's main park to the Victory Column (a large pillar in the middle of a roundabout with a gold figure on the top). A quick photograph later I started my longest walk yet, up to Schloss Charlottenburg (Charlottenburg Palace). This turned out to be a lot further than I had anticipated and by the time I got there the thought of walking around inside was a bit too much for me. I took a few pictures of the outside though (and got another tourist to take a picture of me). Then it was the very long journey back to the hostel, too long, I decided to take on foot, so I got a taxi (I've been walking non stop for 5 days now, this is harder than D of E!).

So there you have my second, and last day in Berlin (my favourite city so far). Tomorrow its time to move on again, this time to coquer Prague (fingers crossed it will actually be hot!). More blogging tomorrow.

Watch this Space.

Lois x