Berlin uncovered~

Welcome to Berlin, Germany!!!! In my opinion (so far), its one of the most beautiful cities in Germany. If you come to Germany and you dun visit Berlin then Germany would be a wasted trip for you.... It has a long history behind it too.... Berlin is the capital of Germany but during world war 2 most parts of Berlin were destroyed.... while they were rebuilding the city, the capital was changed to Bonn and now Berlin is acknowledged as the capital once again.....the east side of Berlin are kinda less developed than the west side... the difference is pretty much obvious....

So here we are arriving in Berlin!!!! Its realli nice and the weather is realli good which allow us to travel without woes for the next 3 days.

Stepping out of the main station i was pretty much amazed by the scenery.... Berlin is well-built by a combination of new and old buildings.... its realli a well-blended mixture hahaa.... the square in front of the main station is so wide i cant resist anymore and started snapping away with my camera.... and i got something good with it... hahahx~~ pretty asian girl lolx

But before me and zollin can do anything, we have to find ourselves a roof else we have to stay overnight on the streets and trust me it will be crazy..... the mornings and nights of Europe are freaking cold.... walk out of your building in your T-shirt, shorts and slippers if you dare.... i am sure you will regret it.....i know becos i DID that once.... OOOO WOOOOO.... "GEK KIANG~~"

We found a youth hostel at the eastern side of Berlin, you can take a train to Ostkreuz and its takes 10 min walk from the station to the A&O hostel.... it cost about 15-20 Euros per night and its realli cheap relatively to the other places around... but 15 euros is an 8 man room... and you have to share toilets and bathrooms with the other in the same level.... however me and zollin prefer to have some privacy (please DO NOT let your imagination run wild here) so we got the 4 man room which we have our own TV and toilet.... its more convienient this way... We were hoping that we have the room to ourselves and no other pple will come in (since its a 4-man room).... but we were disappointed when we walked into the room.... there are already occupants there but they were no were to be seen....most prob touring too in the streets.... we locked our stuffs in the cupboard and went off, to the city centre [PROTOCOL].... i mention about the German Wings blind booking system in the previous post.... there were another group of pple who also applied for the offer but ended up in Dresden... they also have plans to travel to Berlin.... so we met up with all of them for the afternoon... but the group which we mixed most with are the girls from NTU. We met up and tour the Potsdamer Platz... where there is an exhibition on the Berlin wall [1961 - 1989], which separates east and west Germany long time ago... there is a service where they will stamp on your passports for 2 euros i think....i didnt do it cost i dun wan my singapore passport to have any problems when i cross the customs... we took a picture and moved on.

Next we went into the centre of the area and there was museums around and oso this super big cinema...... It was a quick tour around before it turned dark and we, together with the NTU girls, decided to chill at a pub.... =)

We went to Hackerscher Markt where there is a row of pubs and clubs jus below the train station.... We went to AM/PM cos the seats were swings outside the pub and they were having happy hours on the cocktails.... it started getting cold and we shifted inside and you know wad~ they actualli have a basement which has a dancefloor for clubbing later in the night.... combination of both pub and club, how nice!! Here are the NTU girls from left, Rez, stacey who was the girl i showed earlier hahaha, Martina (i didnt remember her name until it was the last day of Berlin....hmm....tried to convo with her but P-H-A-I-L), and Joan~~ There are also pple who joined us later, Alexis from france and Yassim and Adil from turkey. We got abit high and took alot of photos but they are sensored WHAHAHAHA.... actualli its on my facebook lolx.... that night i drank 3 tequila shots each, 1 cocktail and 3 glass 0,5litre beer.

Hehe with stacey and joan~~ erm.... sorry yassim~~ didnt mean to steal your girls hahahax

Picture with Rez, she declared the only 2 singaporean guys here to everyone as Baby Zo and Baby Foo

We went back home at around 2am and one of the occupants for our room is gone, so that makes me, zollin and one more dude. The next morning when i woke up that guy is also gone.... probably chased away by my snoring ZZzZZZzzZZZZZZZzzZZZZ.... sorry =(

We washed up and met up with Rez and Stacey for the bus tour, i think its quite useful as you know the city better and you get to see alot of stuffs and there is a tour guide too.... The tour guide is the most important element of the tour.... if you have a funny one you will enjoy it else you would feel like jumping out of the bus hahaha~~ it cost about 12 euros per person and you can stop and board at any checkpoints whenever you want. There are alot of places which the bus will bring you but i will onli list the few prominient ones...

1) Start of the bustrip!!

2) Berlin Hauptbahnhof

3) Memorial church and TV tower of Berlin (nv take picture cos i am not a fan of TV towers)

TV tower is where you could get an overview of the city from a very high altitude...nid to pay to get up.... not very worth it i think hahaha every city has a TV tower [in german : Fernsehturm]

4) Siegessäule [victory pillar]

5) Reichstag [Parliament building]

6) Checkpoint Charlie

7) Museum Insel [A cluster of 5 museums with different exhibition]

8) Kanzleamt [Chancellor office] - that brown statue infront, they say it cost 8 billion euros... hard to believe though.....

9) Holocaust Mahnmal - its a museum which records the lives and happenings of the jewish pple in the past here in Germany... the stones are jus the memorial...the real museum is underground!!

10) Berliner Dom

11) Brandenburger Tor [The main tourist attraction in Berlin...it goes down a super long history]

Yeah besides the 11 places i listed out about there are alot more places for you to go around, to see, to visit.....Schloß Bellevue (Castle Bellevue), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (House of the culture of the world), Friedrich der Große (Friedrich the Great - jus a statue along their main city street, Unter den Linden), Neue Synagoge (New Synagogue), and seriously many more!! So taking the bus tour is realli a good choice cos you could have a general view of the tourist attractions around and decide where you would wanna revisit again later....besides the bus tour there is also a ship tour along the berlin river whose name i already forgot =P

After the bus ride we went back to Brandenburger Tor and Reichstag to get better pictures and to chill on the grass patch like everyone!!!! At the brandenburger tor we saw this weird looking bicycle and we hop on to it for a wonderdul tour of the area.

There are alot of street performers at crowded areas.... and some are realli interesting and some not so... the performer in the center caught be taking a picture and i ran off before i was asked to pay money WHAHAHA~~ Besides street performers, sometimes some gypsies will come up to you and ask "English??" then they would show you a paper asking you to give them money.... i realli hated that.... why cant they go to work..hmmm .... are they allowed to?? when i reject them they even scold me.... "CHINOISSss......" WTH man..... yesh chinese are stingy pple!! its in our blood you cant blame us!!!

The guide brought us to the front of reichstag where we sat down to chill..... we wanted to enter and have a look but the queue is so freaking damn damn damn long.... yes you get my point!!

After touring for the whole day, we decided to pamper ourselves with good food~!!!! oh the speciality of Berlin is curry wurst so be sure to try it if you are here~~ i ate alot of it even though it cost a bomb. Back to the topic, we ate at this restaurant...i ordered steak and we drank red wine hahahaha!!!

The last day of berlin was simple.... we went to the Museum Insel but we onli went up the Berliner Dom. In front of the Berliner Dom :

On top of Berliner Dom :

Inside the Berliner Dom :

Its finally over~~ a life like a king~~ i spent almost 600 sgd in Berlin.... Stacey and I both share the same idea of "why save money when you are on a tour trip~~" Therefore i am eating pasta everyday now in Stuttgart in order to offset the expenditure in Berlin.... this coming week to scotland and england.... the King returns.... hahaha..... nothing goes better than enjoying life in Germany.

Blind Booking with German Wings

Finally i have the mood and time to blog again~~ i got this motivation from this handsome, good-looking man from Finland - Olli (ok...i am not gay pls even though i look at guys too).... because he says its interesting to read my blog so i dun wan to disappoint him hahahax.... these photos are kept in my camera for a long long time and i should realli put them out before they collect dust.... It was Oster Ferien [Easter holiday] and in Germany or rather Europe, this festival is celebrated throughout a span of 4 days [Karfreitag, Karsamstag, Ostersonntag, and Ostermontag]. And it was a thursday evening and tmr is Easter. =) Long weekend for us but no plans... sobz... i was playing some games when zollin asked me :

Zollin : Eh~ wanna go travel or not? German Wings blind booking to Budapest, Athens, Leipzig, Vienna, Barcelona, Dresden, Milan, Rome.

Me : Anything lor~ but confirm we will end up in Leipzig or Dresden....

*Yeah from BLIND booking is understood that we wouldnt know where we will go until we pay the money for the tickets....the blind booking is realli a good offer if you book earlier....not for pple like us who book like a day before.... this blind booking system oso allows you to cross out some of the places which you dun realli wanna go...so to cross out one you nid to pay extra 5 euros, but its worth it i guess.... if you dun cross anything you will end up paying 50 euros to and fro.... so either way its worthwhile too*

Zollin : Aiya the most we jus take a train to Berlin lor.... its onli 1 hour plus ride from Leipzig.

Me : Ok lor i anything de..... wad time is the flight??

Zollin : We nid to be at the airport at 6AM [Current time of conversation - 7:00 pm]

Me : Steady lor...play dota all the way liao no nid slp le.....

Zollin : ONZ!!

*And there we go~ we confirmed our plans for Easter less than 12 hours before our flight... no booking of hostels.... cos by the time anyone replies us we are already in Leipzig or Berlin.... so exciting rite!!! hahahax*

In the end we slpt too and woke up earli and made our way to the airport =) Because its BUDGET airline we have to take a bus to an open place to board the train by climbing stairs instead to boarding at the bay....and off we go to LEIPZIG!!!!!! Once we touch down in Leipzig, we took a train down to the main station of Leipzig.... its a standard thing to do cos in every german city there is a main station [in german : Hauptbahnhof]. And the city center [Stadtmittel] is always near there.



We took a look at the train plans and made our way to the city centre, in hope of seeing new stuff!!!!



Yeah and indeed we saw something interesting.... their water pipes are all built above ground... hmmm.... why would they wanna build it above ground??? abit unglam rite?? imagine the picture below without the blue pipes...isnt that a much much better environment?? Looking at the sight of it i only have one comment : "P-H-A-I-L!!!" (fail...lolx)

So we decided to alight one stop before the city centre and walk.... in order to see more =) took some pictures here and there.... as its onli the 2 of us, poor zollin had to be my camera-man....which he doesnt mind hahaha THX!!!!

*Alycia zollin is not bad a photographer himself... consider him next time!! dun always call the poor sweefoo please bitte~~ lolx*

Leipzig is not as dense as Stuttgart.... every roads are like so spacious.... the junctions are kinda bigger than TWO basketball courts.... easier to get accident like this?? cos you dunno where you are suppose to turn to rite? hahah i dun wan to drive here in Germany..... Left hand drive.... jus like when i played DAYTONA racing game in Singapore..... One typical thing about Germany is that there are also alot of bicycles paths along the road..... and pple cycle along these path not like in singapore so messy..... thx to all the bangala workers always riding in groups by the road.....creating lots of traffic issues.....at least ride on the walkpath....tsk! Oh anyway its a law here that you must wear your helmet when you ride a bike so obviously the guy in my picture is once again "P-H-A-I-L!!"

We were looking at the road signs and decided to go to the egyptian museum~~ so we followed the road signs and we arrive at this place which shows :

And so we look around..... we were on this flat piece of land.....HOW TO GO DOWN???

Thats the sign zollin is looking at. And there i saw a lift. Wow SO COOL the museum is built underground!!!!!! We went straight down and unfortunately its only a underground basement carpark..... so we went back up again.... WHERE IS THE FREAKING MUSEUM!!!!! we looked around once more and happen to see the other side of the road sign which shows :

It is then when we realised that the down arrow does not mean DOWN but backwards/U-turn/you are heading the wrong way!!!!! Once again ..... "sign P-H-A-I-L!!"

We were about to leave for Berlin, however before we make our way to the main station, we went into St. Thomas Church. Anyway Leipzig is the place where Bach the musician passed away so there are lots of places which commerates him, eg. restaurant, pub etc.

In the church~~~~ there are realli too many churches in Europe and this is definitely not the best or most beautiful one but it definitely has a long history behind it.... we took some photos and sat down and enjoyed the singing of the choir.... not realli choir but onli 1 lady...but still she has a good voice!!

Alrite after like half an hour in the church we depart for BERLIN!!!!!