Berlin: trying to escape paying for the bathrooms.

Yes that's right. You may not have had to pay for the bathrooms in France but starting in Germany you better have cash on you if you need to pee. However, if you are eating in the restaurant you shouldn't have to pay but they will still ask for money, sometimes really aggressively. So pee and then run before they catch you for your 50-75 cents.

Welcome to Berlin where the tour we took went something like this “please look over to your right, where now stands a new hotel we are building, now if you look over to your left you will see this other new building that we just finished building”. Now I understand Berlin went through some terrible destruction during WWII but I didn’t realize this until I actually went to Berlin and saw that there isn’t that much physical history left. However, the places that we did see were incredibly eye opening. Also I got to see and stay with the wonderful Karo, another au pair friend. She was totally understanding when we got into Berlin in the morning and just wanted to take a nap, gave us a tour of the main points of Berlin, and packed us lunch on a daily basis!

I hadn't noticed this until now but apparently I took a great photo of two strangers when trying to photograph the Reichstag building.

Escaping the wall. 

One of the days we explored Berlin all by ourselves. First we took a cruise on the Spree to see the shore-side buildings. Personally I wouldn’t recommend this cruise to people who are like me and want to see historical Berlin. This cruise was cool to see modern buildings that Berlin has. [If you think about why that is: attacking bridges to stop supply runs and population transport is a strategically method of thinking by the Allies, so with history it makes sense why we saw mostly modern buildings along the shore].

We then went to explore the German History Museum, and walked around Museum Island. We ran into a not-so-lovely lady at the cash who for some ridiculous reason did not understand that summer vacation is a thing, and a student card cannot be validated until September (you know when school actually starts and you use the student card).  So unfortunately we did not see any of the Museums on the island. However, if you are in Berlin for a long period of time definitely check them out.

One of the museums on the Island.

At one point we went to a market that is very popular in Berlin called Hackescher Markt which we really enjoyed! We stopped by a comedy show (that was in German but who cares, actions are universal], and listened to some great music.

                                               

A market is more fun with beer.

So while in Berlin we were suggested we try “CurryWurst”, a sausage with curry powder and fries. It sounds simple but remember this is a German sausage and it was delicious! We also wanted to try some schnitzel, but we weren’t looking to pay 30 euros for the real veal meat. Instead we looked up a place on Trip Advisor that was apparently the best. So we ended up taking the train 20 minutes out of central Berlin to end up in a pretty sketchy area (the reviews on Trip Advisor did warn us about this to be fair), and came to a small place under the bridge. The place was decorated with black writings on the wall in all different languages. We ordered two pieces of the regular schnitzel (which came out to about 12 euros for both), and were incredibly pleased with the portions and quality of the food. The place is called Scheers Schnitzel, if you are in Berlin definitely check it out, it is worth the hike out.

I don't know how to flip photos in blogger... But this was the schnitzel we got! comes with a side salad. Just looking at this photo makes me want to go back to the place.

On our last night in Berlin we went out with Karo and her friends for some Happy Hour drinks. Luckily for us the bartender was kind enough to extend the Happy Hour prices well past the hour. After enjoying some large drinks we made our way home to start packing for our bus ride to Prague the next day.

Berlin where the monuments that do stand are breathtaking but you can see what war has done to them. 

Dortmund: Travelling Like Hobbits

Dortmund was an unplanned stop on our eurotrip. It was more of a 12 hour layover, which was made much easier because I got to see a friend that I met at the beginning of my au pair year!

I am sure I would have enjoyed Dortmund much more if I wasn’t sleep deprived, it didn’t rain 50% of the time, and the bathrooms were free (even though I didn’t pay for them, but it was incredibly frustrating to be told I have to pay after eating at the restaurant).

If it wasn't for this park we visited in Dortmund and my friend coming by, I feel like Dennis and I would just have slept in a McDonalds. 

It was funny as most of these barrels had drifted to the little island across this pond. So it is virtually impossible to grab the barrels without swimming across. So we had to wait for the only barrel available that was [at this moment] occupied.

Let the hobbit adventure begin! 

Barreling is harder than it looks. It also feels like you might drown at any moment. Not suitable for small children, or people who cannot swim. 

Like I mentioned, this park was really cool. It had the barrel riding (pictured above), these swinging things, cinema, a nice walking path, and... 

Flamingos. 

Advice for future travellers do not take two over night buses back to back unless you are a smaller than average height, function when sleep deprived, or are a robot who can just shut off for a couple of hours.

Clowning around in Germany.

Welcome to Germany, where 50% of the population speaks Russian. It was so wonderful, while I could not communicate with people in their foreign language I could still communicate with them in something other than English. 

Getting to Germany was a breeze. Although my ears have never hurt so much during landing.

My first impression of Germany: “wow this country is so clean!”. Seriously it was spotless! Although they could make their transport a little cheaper… seriously 30 euros for a train ticket for a whole day! Compare that to France prices, which are 9 euros for the whole day (maximum 16 euros if you are over 25) – this is all within a region; I don’t even want to know how expensive it would be to travel in Germany into different regions.

My first trip was to Düsseldorf. That was where I landed so my friend – whom I met while au paring in France – thought it was a good idea to stay there and explore. The city was very nice. We went on a spinny wheel thing (not sure how to call it, but it’s a mini version of the London Eye) so we could see the city from a view.

The day after was Halloween! Yes a got to spend this wonderful day in Germany. Although first my friend and I explored Paderborn – a small student village “ish”. We did visit a beautiful church. 

Getting ready for Halloween was nice and easy considering I had packed all I was going to wear – the beauty of travelling all your outfits are ready for you. Guess what I went as.

We went out to a German student house party, which was awesome. Confetti was everywhere – thanks to me, but no one has to know that.

Party was amazing, people I met where even better! I had a lot of fun, I don’t believe I’ve yet had this much fun going out in Europe. I can’t wait to come back to Germany!

The next day, after sleeping in for quite some time, my friend and I headed of to Köln (pronounced Cologne in English), which is one of my favourite cities so far! It even has a bridge with locks, similar to the one in Paris. Cologne is a beautiful city, I wish I could go back.

All in all, my time in Germany was fantastic, I really enjoyed the new places and the lovely people I’ve met.

Also a new post on chocolate will come soon.. maybe tomorrow. The more things that have happened to me that I haven’t posted yet the lazier I am to write about them.