I grabbed this train to Berlin from Amsterdam and went to my hostel where I met a kid named Aaron (Winnipeg) and liam(Australia) we were in the same room so we chatted and became friends. It was evening so I didn't do any sight seeing the first day. We heard if this good club called watergate and it is known for it's sunrises in the morning. Yes you are suppose to go out at 1am and stay out till sunrise. This is not how I do things but I attempted to stay out to see the sunrise but at about 530am I couldn't stay any longer so I started walking back to the hostel. This turned out to be a much longer journey then I anticipated. I came across the Berlin Wall on my journey and it was just a big graffiti museum practically. I ended up taking a can because I was much further from the hostel then I realized.
The next day I slept in a bit.... But rented a bike a rolled around Berlin. Literally rolled haha so funny but I biked and saw the Brandenburg gate, Jewish memorial which was like a maze and had a bunch of different sized columns, Berlin Wall memorial, topography of terror, the tv tower, Berliner Dom (beautiful church), Reichstag (parliament building), tier garden, and many other things.
One thing I noticed very quickly about Berlin was that it is a very modern city. 86% of the buildings was destroyed in WWII and instead of a lot of talk about the Second World War, the Cold War and the Berlin Wall separating the city was much more prominent. I had learned about this wall in school but actually seeing it was crazy and how the government built the wall around west Germany in just 55 hours. Another crazy thing to think about was the wall was built in 1961 and was taken down just 25 years ago in 1989. Very very recent. So in comparison to the rest of Europe Berlins history is much more recent.
Anyway finished my bike ride and seeing the city and met up with Aaron and met a new set of Australians Thomas and Liam (different one) and told stories and laughed a ton! We went to a old nazi bank vault that turned into a club. Clubs in Berlin are famous for being in the craziest places and stuff. We did not stay out as late this night...
Morning came quick again but I took the free walking your At 11 and I learned much more about the city and even saw places I did not see on my bike including the hotel that Michael Jackson held his baby over the balcony. One of the stops on the tour was where Hitler commuted suicide in his bunker. Very eerie in that area. And after the tour I just walked around and took in the city sites. I hung out with Liam, Aaron and Thomas the next two nights and had a blast. They are all hilarious. Oh also I went to templehof which was an old US airbase from the Cold War and people now just bike, rollerblade, skateboard and anything else on the long runways. Many people were even kiteboarding. It was absolutely massive and very cool
I was planning on meeting my buddy Michael Schallinger in munich but he texted me and said his uncle needed some work done on his apartments. So I went to ingolstadt for a couple days and helped him and his uncle scoop gravel, lift blocks and cut and stack wood. I worked about 12 hours and he paid me! Extra spending cash much needed at this point in my trip. After the work was done we went to the Audi museum, realized I want to be a proffesionals car driver when I grow up then I went with Michael to his home town Vachendorf and we went on some hikes, shot some birds with a cannon (camera) and just relaxed and hung out. Oh and did laundry because I didn't have one piece of clothing that didn't smell terrible. Didn't do laundry for a month.... Don't tell anyone
On Friday we headed to munich to see what it had to offer. We took the train only 1.5hours from his home.we dropped our bags off then went to Dachau. This was the first concentration camp formed by the nazi in 1933 and was the longest running concentration camp closing in 1945. This was not an extermination camp but 43,000 people still died here because of the brutality, starvation, and disease. The gate at the entrance said ARBIET MACHT FREI which means "work and set free" which the nazi were giving the prisoners false hope. The camp was originally designed to hold 5-6000 people but at one point there were more then 30000 people staying here at one time. This place made me feel very uneasy and really made all the stories books and history I learned much more realistic.
We headed back to munich and went to the famous hofbrauhaus which is a big beer garden that holds 7000 people and you order beers by the liter very big. And then we went to a concert that night. The band was called monster truck and it was hard rock. Good show but I'm pretty sure the singer permed his hair. Kinda goofy looking.
The next day we went to the Olympic park from the 1972 Olympics and this is where 17 Israeli's were murdered by some Palestinians. The Olympic park though was gorgeous and very crazy architecture. We then ventured to the English gardens and relaxed and watched some people surfing in the river. They have the river bottom set up so people can surf. I wanted to try really bad. We went to the market and made sandwiches for dinner and met up with one of michaels friends at the night.
Today I'm just catching you all up on my travels and I leave for Barcelona Spain on Wednesday got a flight for 35$ so I thought that was worth it!
Still meeting amazing people and enjoying my time.
Booyah Spain I go Wednesday
Awesome! Looks like a great experience! say hi to ze German for me!
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