We landed about the same time Traff got back from dropping us off at the Airport.
:S
Hayley met us at arrivals, and took us back to her flat for cake and lots and lots of very strong coffee. Their flat is amazing! it's really Soviet looking and the owners have made it really modern inside- all white painted plaster and exposed brick work with wooden fixtures and vintage furniture - Hayley has been collecting event posters to decorate the walls- which looks pretty cool.
Once we were super caffeinated we headed out to the town centre to see all the touristy sites.
We started with the reichtag, Brandenburg gate and victory memorial
Then the holocaust memorial and the terror museum- Which was quite harrowing for a holiday visit.
Then the art market, Museum Island, the outside of the cathedral
And then the supermarket for chocolate and alcohol!
They don't sell spirits and mixers to go like in the UK- I ended up with bitter orange and sparkling water, crem de menthe and lemonade and a wine spritzer- everyone else had beers.
We stopped off for bagels and the headed back to the flat for an evening of alcohol and watching Frozen.
I liked frozen more than I'd expected I would.
On Sunday we started the day with breakfast cake!
:D
Then headed out to one of the markets- Second hand markets are a massive deal in Germany- in the trendy areas in the East they even have karaoke and entertainment- the items tend to be very expensive and it's really aimed at tourists.
In the West, it's still a place to trade things you don't want any more- loads of bric-a-brac and second hand clothes, bathroom fixtures and soviet era home furnishings.
Pretty cool way to shop!
I got a coat for 4 euros- and a pair of brand new green boots for 10 eruos, and a blue H&M dress for 2 euro.
:)
Pleasing.
Hayley bought her own weight in knitwear and ray picked up some skirts and t-shirts too.
After the market we got take away pizza and took it back to the flat to eat.There are loads of Turkish and Italian people living in the West, so you can get excellent pizza and kebabs very cheaply. And ice cream. 1 euro per cone. :D
I could not live in berlin and not be the size of a house!
In the evening we went to see the East berlin art gallery- it's graffiti art painted on the remains of the wall- and some of it is very powerful.
Then we went to check our a bar called white trash, which has flame throwers and a tattoo parlour.
Then for drinks on the way back to the station. the bar had sliding bathroom doors- which was weird.
We also stopped off for Burgermeister burgers- which are amazing! I could eat them for every meal-they even did a fried tofu burger!
:DIt smelled sooo good!
I had ment to take a photo but remembered as I was finishing the last bite of my burger! Ah well, there will need to be a next time!
Monday was Ray's birthday- so we had more cake for breakfast
and then went to the zoo.
After the zoo we had planned to go clubbing in White Trash, but after all the walking we decided on a beery and moochy evening in.
Tame, but 25 is an old age!:P
Whilst we were at the zoo, Dai had got ray a birthday cake and candles!
Very impressive!
On Tuesday we went to Pottsdam- Pottsdam was the kings town and is a really historic place- with buildings and architecture in "quarters" so there are dutch buildings and businesses in on place, russian in another etc etc. It also has a number of impressive palaces.
We didn't see any of that.
Ray and Hayley spent 7 hours shopping.
:(
It was exhausting!
Then we had ice cream!
yay!
More famously delicious berlin ice cream served in a specific ice cream cafe!
Hurrah!
On the way home we got a double decker regional train! yay!
Wednesday was our last day in Berlin- We went to the resale shop- and bought traditional clothing with West germany or Soviet labels in them- I got two dirndle skirts for 4 Euros which was amazing! I wish I'd had room for more clothes!
I had a whole basket of clothes to try on but tricky decisions had to be made regarding bag space.
We spent ages in the shop browsing and trying clothes on- Ray found a leather jacket with a "made in west germany" label for 20 euros! It's just soooo cheap!
I suppose it's a part of history that many people our age or older remember, and would like to forget, which makes the really iconic clothing quite unpopular.
In the fashionable districts in the east they sell the same items to tourists for 10 times the price, but it just doesn't seem to have caught on in the west in the same way.
After shopping and lunch from the Turkish supermarket, we took our bags over to Whitr trash to meet Dai, Josh and Katie- they arrived 5 hours before we flew home and it was pretty weird seeing them in the middle of berlin!
We only saw them on Porthcawl last week!
After milkshakes and photos, Hayley took us back to the airport- which is where the fun started.
:(
Our flights were delayed by almost 2 hours- we had to eat an awful lot of zoo biscuits to keep ourselves busy.
We landed in the UK at 11.30 and finally cleared passport control an hour later!
O_o
We got back home at 3:30.
twas a very long day!
No comments:
Post a Comment