Day 6 : Berlin

This morning was a quiet one. There was some laundry to do and organization that needed to happen. By the time we left the hostel it was about 12:30. Mind you, from that point on we were on a walking tour of the city and what a tour it was! Our guide was named Matt, from Leeds, and he knew so much information about the city and the history of what had happened everywhere. All of this information from a FREE tour. I recommend trying out a free tour while in any city if you are tight for cash but really want to learn about the things that you are seeing.

While we saw the typical Berlin landmarks like the Reichstag, Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie and the spot the Royal Palace used to be on. There were also some silly things learned/saw while on our tour, a scale replica of the Titanic made out of chocolate, learned that the "guards" at Checkpoint Charlie are actually strippers and last but not least saw the infamous balcony that Michael Jackson held baby Blanket out of.

We also saw some historical things that were off the beaten path, like the possible final resting place of Hitler and his wife. Which is that seemingly innocent photo of a tree to your left. I say possible because there is much debate as to whether it was actually Adolf Hitler in the grave, which incidentally is in the middle of a car park. This actually used to be Hitler's backyard and supposedly has a giant bunker underneath of it running from all the edges of the car park and could comfortably fit 20 families indefinitely down there.

Furthermore, that car park is almost across the street from a giant memorial to the dead Jews of Europe.

This place was incredible. You are walking and there is only enough room to walk single file and if you turn down another row or waiver from your straight line there is an overwhelming sense of loneliness that overcomes you. You call out to the person with you and if they don't answer straight away you begin to believe that there no other people around and you are the only one walking amounts rows upon rows of giant cement slabs. It was a very interesting feeling, not depressing though.

On our tour there were a couple of people we met and decided to head out for dinner and a drink with, Rebecca from Philadelphia and Will from Melbourne. We sat, ate, drank and chatted for a few hours and then headed in our separate directions. More walking and more subways to figure out, but we made it home safely and then almost immediately passed out for the night.

Words learned today...

Donnerstag : Thursday

Briefmarke : Stamp (postage)

Schloss : Palace

Badezimmer : Bathroom

Day 5 : Berlin

Today was supposed to start at 8:30 but, in keeping with my signature move, I turned the alarm off in my sleep. We woke up about 9:30 in order to get ready and head out on our first full day in Berlin. I will say, while I really like this hostel and would recommend to anyone looking for a clean, slightly more quiet ,hostel in Berlin, it does not have the greatest breakfast. As it was only a 2€ breakfast, maybe it was worth the cost, but definitely not something that we paid for twice. That's about the only downside I have found to this hostel.

Now that we've done the tour of the area surrounding our place of residence for the next 3 days we're heading to a place called Museum Island (aptly named as there are multiple museums on this little island) to the Neues Museum (New Museum) for some Egyptian life and death education as well as to see the bust of Nefertiti! For those of you that don't know who she is, look her up, she was a pretty interesting lady.

This is not the museum that Nefertiti was in, this was a museum to the right of it, but I thought this one looked really pretty, plus it's supposed to have a partially built temple in it!

Since I'm new to this city I'm still not sure where I am going, I've always prided myself on knowing exactly where I am and how to read a map, but it seems that on this trip I'm failing on all accounts. I keep getting turned around and my hardened Nintendo mapping skills are not serving me as well as I am used to. Maybe I'll have to take an intensive Zelda mapping course when I get back. That'll be a good way to spend the long weekend, forget laundry and seeing my family. HA!

This was all a very long way of saying, "Today we got lost again."

After the museum and wandering around we walked down to the main shopping street (Kurfürstenstraße) which is full of rather expensive stores that this backpacker could not afford. Typically I would be all about some nice upscale designer duds, but when you weigh the price of the items PLUS it's physical weight in your pack and the space you have left, typically that seems to be enough to make me believe I have enough worldly possessions.

During this wandering we came across some pictures of Knut (the polar bear at the Berlin Zoo) does anyone know if he is still doing okay? I remember awhile ago I was watching him on the web, but I haven't heard anything about him in awhile.. is he still okay? Did something horrible befall him? I hope not. So cute, Knut. On the topic of bears, check out this amazing display!

They are called Buddy Bears and they have been travelling around the world spreading love and acceptance for all. Luckily they were stationed in Berlin while I was there and I got to have a little photoshoot with the Buddies.

Appropriately I tried to take pictures of all the countries we were visiting on this tour, however, when I found Canada I must say I wasn't overly impressed. In 1,000,000 years (seriously, 1 million) I would not have EVER picked this bear as being Canada bear. Now before I show you what he looks like, please picture in your head the HUNDREDS of things that this bear could have on him to represent our country.. ready?… okay.

Was that what you were picturing? Yeah, me neither. There is not ONE classic Canadian symbol on him! NOT ONE!!! Okay, have to stop this. To say the least, Trevor Good I'm not impressed with your Canadian representation. If anyone can explain to me how that is Canada, please do. Thanks!!

After a cheese filled meal of Hard Rock Berlin nachos it was time for more shopping. Although we didn't really purchase anything, it was more like browsing. Our day of brewing was finished off with some delectable frozen fruit ice cream from a Chiquita FruitBar. What else could I order? Banana ice cream was the only option in my opinion. No artificial flavours or added sugars. On that scrumptious note, time to head back to the hostel for dinner!

Remember when I said I was staying at a great hostel? Well on Wednesdays there is a community Vegetarian meal that the hostel makes. And what is tonight? You guessed it! Wednesday! We met a nice lady named Sophie who moved from Greece to Berlin about a year ago. She was our head chef for the evening, instructing us to grate, chop, slice and peel various vegetables. In the end we had quite the spread: Greek Salad, Tzatziki, Pasta Salad, Potato Salad, Rolls and vegetable kebabs.

All capped off with a couple maple cookies all the way from Canada for our Australian dinner mates, who I did not take a picture of, but there were 3 of them, of which I can remember two of their names, Liam and Patrick. Hopefully we will meet some more friendly people along the way.

Words learned today:

Mittwoch : Wednesday

Drücken : Push

Altes : Old

Neues : New

Day 4 : Berlin

Made it to our hostel, after some confusion about the U bahn and S bahn. Don't worry, I figured out that S is for Subway and U is for Underground, that helped quite a lot in the journey. No more looking for the U bahn up the stairs. While I appreciate that goggle maps does it's best to help out with the transportation within cities, it would really help if they had a way to get the official maps they use. Massively helpful.

I liked the hostel from the minute I saw it, not only is it EXTREMELY close to the subway stop (about a 2 minute walk) it is also bring orange on the outside! The wall paper inside signifying the floor levels mirrors the intense 70's feel that they have going on with the orange building front outside. Inside is great though!

The Hostel is actually REALLY nice. If you're looking for a low key place to stay with a friendly atmosphere definitely check out EastSeven Berlin Hostel. The rooms are large and very clean. There are even some storage cubes on the wall which are currently housing my clothes and some shared food items. It feels nice to be a little more settled in a place.

Since it was only the first day here we decided to just do a bit of wandering around, as it was already past 4 (due to my slight difficulty with the transport systems). After struggling with the trains I decided that somewhere closer to the hostel was probably best for dinner. We ended up just a couple doors down at the Lemon Grass Scent.

I had some delicious spring rolls. I've never had them this way before, but I figured if I was willing to try Thai food from a restaurant in Germany, I should be willing to try a deep fried spring roll.

After that the fried goodness continued with fried rice with some chicken and veggies, super cheap too! Only about 6€ for the whole meal! Great eh?

The after dinner walk started out as just a nice little stroll around the area the hostel is in, but shortly after walking I looked at a map and realized that the Berlin Wall was really close to where I was staying. So we turned up a street and followed it to where we knew the wall was.

Even now, after seeing the wall, I can't imagine what it was like to have it there. I'm not really sure that I'll ever be able to understand the feeling of being caged in your own home, guess that is a round-about way of saying "I'm glad to be Canadian". Good thing Canada Day is coming up soon, I'll definitely have something extra to be proud about tomorrow.

Realizing it was starting to get dark we decided to head back home for the night to try and get to bed early. Yeah right. I think it's harder when your family is in a time zone that is behind where you are, rather than ahead, because it means they can stay up chatting and you're the one that feels the brunt of it in the morning… which in my case came before I even made it to bed.

Word learned today:

Diensdag : Tuesday

Hauptbahnhof : Main Station

Sträte : Late

Day 4 : Off to Berlin we go!

Woke up so early this morning in order to catch our train. My pack has officially started growing on it's own, I'm convinced it's alive. Maybe it'll grow some legs?! Yes! yes?…. no… probably not eh? Oh well, they say I'm a dreamer.

Breakfast consisted of a banana, some Museli Granola from a massive bag we bought for 1.20€ and a Clif bar.

As I sit here typing, I am currently traveling somewhere just past the border of Holland and Germany. Definitely time for a nap. I wish trains had WiFi.

Day 3 : Amsterdam

Today is our busy day in Amsterdam. Have to fit in as much as we possibly can. We'll see how we do….

Started off our day properly, with e-mails home and a a delicious free breakfast at the hostel. Multi grain oat bread with butter, a banana,1/2 an orange and a bowl of granola. Definitely realized how much I take advantage of being able to read a milk container to find out what's in it, if you can't just identify it by colour. Also, as much as I mocked the salami and cheese slices available for breakfast, I must say that it would come in handy when paired with some butter and bread slices. (A great afternoon snack!)

After breakfast we packed up our bags, stored our valuables in the lockers and headed out for the day in the direction we thought was correct. Once realizing that we were completely in the wrong place we started making our way TOWARDS the Anne Frank House. We had a long wait, but it wasn't bad and the weather was amazing (later confirmed by a store clerk who told us today was the nicest they've had all summer. Way to wear jeans today… idiots!). Definitely worth the wait. If you're in Amsterdam I would recommend that you make time to go to the Anne Frank House.

You might have read the Diary of Anne Frank in school but never really paid that much attention to it, or had an that huge of an emotional connection to it or maybe even never read it at all, but you should still go. I don't think I've ever made it through the entire book but I definitely felt a lot of things walking through that house. I started comparing timelines in Anne's life to timelines in my family's, for example, Anne was just one year older than my mom's parents and was transferred to BB camp on my Grampy's 15th Birthday. Sort of puts things into perspective in an eerily close to home way. While I love that my family has German heritage, I'm very happy that all of my close/semi-close relatives left Germany well before this all happened. I'd hate to know my relatives had any part in that. To say the least, it's had an impact.

Originally we'd planned to go to the Van Gogh Museum so we headed in that direction. Got lost. Turned around. Found a great little market. Saw a castle. Then finally made it to Rijksmuseum and the famous I amsterdam sign.

Our major dilemma of the day was...Van Gogh Museum vs. Heineken Brewery.

Two cultured ladies like ourselves both very interested in the arts, but also… we're only 25… you can't really blame us for the choice we ultimately made....

We met some other Canadian ladies (Sam & Alicia) who are on a similar schedule to our own, who we are hoping to meet up with for Canada Day in Berlin.

There is an interesting phenomenon that I noticed in Amsterdam, all the museums or attractions seem to have these interactive video screens that you can send messages home to your friends and family telling them where you are and what you just did/saw. We ran into them at the Anne Frank House and at the Heineken Brewery. They are great and definitely help to incorporate a social media aspect into the typical "going to the boring museum on a field trip" mind-set of… I'd say the youth, but I know I was that way when I was young, and sometimes still am, so let's just say… of the technologically inclined. Either way, a great way to stay connected while out exploring.

After our cultural enrichment we decided to head back to the hostel, walking of course, and stopped for dinner at an Indian restaurant that we found along the way. Since it was about 8PM at the time we figured we might as well have a full Indian meal on the nicest day of the summer, because when you're sweating hot the only thing you want to do is eat some spicy curry! It was not as good as Taj Mahal, but still very delicious. Onion Baaji, Matter Alloo, Rice, Naan and some free Papadams.

On my way back to the hostel I noticed a very familiar sign....

Those that know me understand exactly why it was much required that this photo be here. I'm now on the hunt to find a MAC in every city I visit (if there is one).

No ice cream tonight. Just packing and sleep. How come my pack seems to be growing in size exponentially?

Words learned today:

Maanoag : Monday

Bitte - Please

Verboden - Not Allowed (I think a more direct translation would be "Forbidden")

Advocaten - Lawyer

Day 1/2 : You are now arriving at your destination

Woke up early. Didn't get my package from MEC. Ran all over town to track down replacements. Learned how to use a compression sack. Left late for Halifax. Technical difficulties with the airplane. Scored a sweet 3 seat row to ourselves. More delays due to the thunderstorm. Departed 2 hours after scheduled departure. Missed our reserved train. Had to book another. Almost missed that one. Didn't know a pack could be this heavy. Sitting in my seat drinking sparkling water.

Thus begins my European Adventure.

Holland (or the Netherlands) really is a farming country. Countless beautiful rolling fields and cute little gravel roads with happy couples biking around the countryside.

All of this just from my train seat, can't wait to get out and explore.

Day 2 : Amsterdam

Got to our hostel and got all settled, showered and set up then we decided to head out on the town. At first we just went for a walk around the block and then back to our hostel, as we didn't really know the area. Then we decided to venture further into the area we are staying, which just happens to be the Red Light District. Overall, I must say it's not quite what I expected. It's a lot more just awkward but really still a very neat area of town. As the other streets around here, there are two streets separated by a canal with a couple bridges between.

It was getting close to dinner time, or 1PM for those of you on the East Coast, and we decided not to be TOO adventurous and just had dinner at the restaurant at our hostel. After having a delicious meal of nachos (or cheese and sour cream, depending on your affiliations) and a greek wrap (never would have thought to combine grilled peppers and feta cheese. Deeelish!) we became the stereotypical visitors to Amsterdam and stopped off at the Grasshopper for a little relaxation time.

As it was only around 8PM we decided to go for another walk around town and stopped at the Royal Palace for a quick photoshoot and then finished our day off with some amazing ice cream from a little place beside our hostel. Not realizing it was directly next door we walked straight past our hostel and only clued in about 5 minutes down the street. Silly tourists.

Words learned today:

Flughafen - Airport

Danke - Thanks

Zondag : Sunday