....... i wrote this last night after a bit of a night out with some irish guys and thismorning I counldn't remember what I had written. but it all seems ok, except for a few missing letters. just fill in the blanks!......
poland!!!!!!!!!!!
so germany was fun, but i felt that it was just way too easy.
i decided that berlin was a great place to adjust to the europen way of life after the hecticness of asia. it was a good place to just sit back and relax for a few days while i adjused to a new way of life.
so i did all the touristy things - hollocaust memorial, brandenburg gate, reichstag, teirgarten, the wall, checkpoint charlie, tepographie of terrors, hitler's bunker, knut! ..... the list goes on.
it was a pretty amazing place to visit just to take in the history. i went to a few wall related places. checkpoint chrlie, although way way way too touirsty had some very interesting signs up that told the entire history of the wall. all you had to do was block out the gypsies and american touists to be able to appeciate anything.
the hollocaust memorial was probably one of the most memorable things yet. i didnt expect to run into it on my first afternoon there, but as i was walking along listening to my ipod when i hapened upon it. it is made up by lots of large concrete coffin shaped blockes [hundreds of them[ all at different heights on an undulating groud, it makes for a very unique place as you wander through it.
anyway, as i was walking through it, the song on my ipod was just finishing. i hoped that a suitable song would come on next, and i was so suprised to hear the "madworld" came on. it was as if my ipod could read my mind. in fact the next day as i was walking along the est side gallery [the berlin wall] it played a whitlams song that talked about tearing down the wall!
i went to the reichstag one morning. i had heard that the lines were murder [no pun intended], but i turned up at 9am on a monday morning, and was in by 10 am. when i came out jsut an hour later, the line was over twice as long to get in. hot tip - get there early to avoid the que. the building it;self gave a great view of the city and a unique vire inside german politicts.
i also visited the zoo, mainly to see knut, the infamous polar bear who they had bred there and became a major tourist attaction.
i have to say - he's gotten old and fat and ugly! but still he packs the toursits in.
as much as i loved berlin, im now in warsaw and already enjoying it. i feel that again there is a slight sense of adventure and the fun has been put back into travel
