Berlin!!

Ah, post from my fantastic hostel in Berlin-the Jetpak. Its great- big rooms, toilet-with a bath, playsation and satellite TV. Oh, and great people at the counter. What more can i ask for?

There's so much to see in Berlin! absolute tons!! The city is humongous and the public transportation is messy (the map looks like a buncha snakes tangled together). And german isnt the easiest language to pick up. For me, its kinda like french- impossible to pronounce and harder to match what i hear to what i read. Still, its pretty cheap so that's a plus point.

Had a great tour tour of East berlin today- only cost me a fiver!! I could've got it for free, but the guy sure as hell deserved a tip. He ran us through the history of berlin and most of the major sights- the city's been through so much!! Most of the sights are on the eastern side- imagine, only 17 years ago, all under soviet rule!!

I felt really bad for main kejar-kejar with Z at the holocaust memorial. Its suppose to be a sombr reminder of all the Jews that died- going down to the information centre, we got to find out all about what the 3rd Reich (hitler) did to the Jews. It was terrible to read about. They make the exhibits very personal by delving into the lives of families who were affected by the holocaust- they showed that it wasnt just Jews, it was individuals, people like you and me, who were evicted by their homes in their own country, killed because they were 'different'. Im appaled at how human beings have it in us the ability to systematically exterminate (harsh term, but that was how it was done). Mobile gassing vans? Mass crematoriums running day and night? Making women strip, lie face down and shoot them in the back? That is sick and wrong.

enough sombreness for now-most of the sights in Berlin are fairly new (18th and 19th) century cos most of the place was bombed to bits in all the wars. Its been done up brilliantly (most of it) and berlin looks like a great modern city. If your ever in Berlin go for the 'free' tour. These guys know their stuff and the 3 hours fly by and you learn so much!

Not much else apart from good-ole sight seeing. My travelling mates arent the most wild party types and so i spent the saturday watching satellite tv movies (dubbed in german for about 1/2 an hour before i figured how to switch 'em back to english-hurrah, i felt so clever!) and now on sunday night we had just spent the past 2 hours in a mc-donalds in a train station and now im sitting here typing my blog while sipping a brew (only a euro, courtesy of the great hostel reception).

Wanted to hit the palace tomorrow, but sadly its closed. My travelling party are not too keen to do a walk of east belin to check out the museums so it may be the zoo. Or the sex museum. I prefer the walk or worse comes to worst, the latter.