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.