Day 7 - Berlin

Well, we had another night train last night. This time we had two Czech boys in our cabin. They did not speak to us. Didn't even join in our highly amusing game of cabin eye spy. We were all a bit excitable on the night train. By all, I mean me and Katie. We had watched the Donegal match in an Irish pub with Pauline and Kevin, howled as Dee got chatted up, and we were now on a train that was driving onto a boat. How were we meant to sleep?! Katie and I decided to go for a wander and ended up right up top on the ferry. We went out on deck and I got an amazing picture of the moon on my camera.

We arrived in Berlin at 6am. It's becoming quite normal for me to be up at this time lugging 15kg around on my back. I'll be putting a stop to this as soon as I'm home. We found our way to the hostel via some dodgy looking S-Bahn stations and its gianormous. The man at the desk let us drop our bags and we crashed on a couch for a bit. No naps tho, we still have some dignity left. Back through some more dodgy stations (we saw a man pushing his wheelchair up 2 flights of stairs and then sitting in it with one leg tucked under his bum) and we got to Alexanderplatz. There we discovered Berlin appears to be the hub for people pushing petitions in your face and huffing when you tell them you don't want to give €20 to deaf people right at this minute. (Mum, I kept my cool as I always do, promise) After oohing and aahing at Berlin Cathedral, getting my picture taken at the Pinnochio shop and wolfing down a subway, we got tickets for the city tour bus as we still were to early to check into our room at the hostel. I'd like to say I enjoyed the full tour with headphone commentary, but I may have nodded off for a bit due to the fact we had now been on the go for 8hrs and I was yet to nap. Also, the man on the commentary has the strangest accent going. He sounded a mix between Ringo in his Thomas the Tank days, Bono, and Tommy's Grandad from the Rugrats. Berlin is spectacular tho, such a beautiful city with so much history. There was so much I wanted to get off and see.

Finally we got to the hostel. Dumped out bags in room 409 and went on a hunt for food. The girls had pasta but I went for some nutritious potatoes... In chip form. We then went to the hostel bar for a few drinks and were highly impressed by their choice of music. My personal highlight of the night was recreating the Bob Fossil dance when 'I Don't Like Cricket' came on. Always goes down a treat. A few desperados later, it was time to meet our roommates.

Earlier in the evening we did a bit of detective work. We are in a 6 bed dorm. We came in and discovered a pop up wash basket next to one of the beds, and the bed was made. We deduced this must belong to a gay/European man (we are yet to be able to tell the difference). The other bed is unmade. We decided this is also a man. We don't think they are together as there is a solitary pair of shark flip flops in the room and no sign of any other footwear. Proud of our Poirot-esque efforts, we waited to see who would enter.

We were right. They are both men and are not together. Man 1 is possibly gay, but we can't make out if he is Canadian or just has good English. Man 2 arrived back after we fell asleep and we only saw his feet poking out of his covers and his trainers with a bottle of wine shoved in one of them. He seems like a riot.

Day 8 - Berlin

After sneaking around trying to get ready without waking our roommates, we went down for breakfast. Whilst I am on the mainland I am going to have to get used to cheese for breakfast. They can't get enough of it here, whipping the cheese out at every occasion. Also, the tea is the worst tea in the world. Why did I not pack tea bags? GREEN TEA IS NOT ACCEPTABLE IN THE MORNING, EUROPE! SORT IT!

We got on the S-Bahn (we are pro's at this now) and oh we saw some sights. One man got on in a black leotard, black flares, a long black cape and long blonde slicked back hair. No one on the train seemed to bat an eyelid apart from us 4 who were obviously desperate to know where the hell he worked. German people are so laid back, I could probably go out with my knickers on my head and they'd not even look up from their currywurst.

We got on the old Berlin tour today, hoping to see a bit more of the wall. Oh we did. We had a half hour stop at the east side gallery and were snapping away like no ones business. However, I was sorely dismayed. There are clearly signs everywhere saying not to graffiti. Now, I can understand Kim Jung on Interrail Tour 2011 wanting to let everyone know she knows John Lennon lyrics, I'm used to that. But stupid children writing Justin Bieber lyrics? On the Berlin Wall? A reminder of a horrific period of history, on the actual spot were people lost their lives trying to escape, bullet holes still visible around the place, and now covered in messages from 'Beliebers'. GET A GRIP! He isn't exactly going to walk along the Berlin Wall to read your messages and go "oh thanks Emmi and Dana, I'm so glad you will always love and support me." stupid children. I hope the guards at the wall caught you graffitiing and you have that ridiculous message carved into your skin. I won't even start on the Carly Rae Jepson lyrics. My Mum will probably tell me off for wishing physical harm to Emmi and Dana, so I'd rather not go into what I'd wish upon Kelly and her Carly Rae Jepson crap. Bottom line is, there's a time and a place for stupidity like that and it is most certainly not on the Berlin Wall.

I enjoyed this tour, despite a brief moment of rage. The live guide was hysterical, switching from German to English, cracking Dad jokes and being an all round dude. Yes, I did just say dude. I'm on the mainland, it's acceptable here. We then made a brief appearance at KaDeWe, the Berlin version of Harrods. We were told the 6th floor had 1300 different types of cheese so we had to go. Oh my, it was wonderful. The bread, the cheese, the chocolate, the sweets, the champagne. We were four scruffs drooling over food that was more expensive than the hostel bed we were staying in. We had to leave before I broke down in front of the chocolate counter, but on the way down we saw something ridiculous. A fur coat for a dog. Why does a dog need a €600 fur coat? I'm pretty sure it comes with a free one.

Next we went back to Checkpoint Charlie and walked along to the Jewish History Museum. The most fascinating place I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin. It's shaped like a giant lightning bolt and has 3 axis crossing over, the axis of holocaust, the axis of continuity and the axis of exile. Each one shows different areas of Jewish history. We went into the holocaust memorial tower, which was just a giant concrete tower with only a crack of natural light coming in through the top corner; and to the garden of exile which was giant concrete pillars on an angle under a canopy of leaves. Both were so simple, no decoration or fuss, but incredibly moving. We ended up spending 3 and a half hours at the museum, looking at all the exhibitions and reading all kinds. We decided it was our favourite thing we've done so far and we are now ready for Auchwitz on Thursday.

We journeyed back to the hostel, stopping on the way to get food for tomorrows epic journey. 6am train from Berlin to Krakow, 10hrs long. My plan is to post this blog before we leave the hostel so it will technically be day 9 when it goes up but ah well. We have Milka Philadelphia and digestives for the train tomorrow. In so excited I'm going to have to go to sleep now.

This was an epic blog. My apologies for wasting your time, but I'm pretty darn special so I'm worth it.

Ps, Mum I'll try and Skype tomorrow if the hostel in Krakow has decent wifi. Hope you haven't killed my peace lily yet, and I've decided when I get home in 26 days time I would like a lasagne please. I really miss vegetables already.

PPs, Emily Mac, this is your special mention. I saw a tie dye tshirt today and remembered your 'no hippy' rule. Why do you ruin my life?! Hope you and all the girls have a wonderful time in Vegas. Remember, be safe but don't be good! I want to see loads of pictures!