Travellers' crash and burn

By the time Anna and I reached Ljubljana, the capital city of Slovenia, we had been travelling together for 12 days and I had been travelling outside of Vienna for a total of 20 days. That’s 20 days of constant walking, sleep deprivation, high stress situations, braving all weather conditions, sleeping in 10 different beds and repacking my suitcase at least 12 times! (I wish I knew how many calories we burned.) After 20 days on the road, it caught up with me. I think the crucial factor was being so exhausted before we even boarded the train to Ljubljana and then not getting enough sleep on the overnight train ride.

After our previous experience on an overnight train, Anna and I upgraded to a couchette car, where there are only 3 beds instead of 6. It was very comfortable and a lot nicer; even the toilet was nice! Unfortunately, the train ride was just not long enough to allow me to get anywhere near enough sleep. Instead I greeted Ljubljana with one of my grumpiest faces, absolutely exhausted, lacking energy and in need of a shower. I would go so far to say, that I was actually angry at having to get off of the train instead of sleep more. In this state Anna and I (unsurprisingly) fought about which way to go and ended up making our own way to the hostel. Once there, the receptionist looked at me and I guess he felt sorry for me because he gave me the key to the room and let me go and sleep, even though it was 7am in the morning and usually check in time is around 2 or 3pm. I’m lucky that the receptionist was so nice, because if I had not been able to sleep, I probably would have gone back to Vienna just so that I could sleep.

But the room was free and I slept from 7am right through until 11am, despite the noise of music and loud people (still partying from the night before) right outside my window. I wanted to sleep more; in fact I probably could have slept all day. But we finally got moving at around midday. Anna and I spent the afternoon exploring the castle in Ljubljana. It’s quite small compared to other castles we’ve seen but it was nice to just wonder through and take pictures. The unique thing about this castle is there is a 3D movie you can watch inside, which outlines the history of the city. Unfortunately, it’s a little long and I found myself falling asleep. We walked through the main areas of the city – the dragon bridge, the triple bridge and the market. Ljubljana is quite a small city, so you do not need long there but it was nice to wander around there.

One thing this city has going for it is the price. I ordered the same meal at McDonalds that I had in Berlin, but it was half the price. We also went to a nice Slovenian restaurant where I tried squid stuffed with ham and cheese which was very nice. The highlight in Ljubljana was actually our hostel. It’s rated number 1 in Europe and it is the building’s history that attracted Anna and I to it. The hostel used to be a prison, after it was closed art students were allowed inside to redecorate the building. So each room is painted and designed by a different person. And now you can go here and spend the night in a colourful prison cell. There are bars on the windows, the room is tiny and there is a barred door (and an actual door outside that for privacy). The hostel is also located in a place with lots of character and by character I mean graffiti. Anna and I had plans to do other things in Ljubljana but we were wrecked. I just wanted to go back to Vienna and enjoy the comforts of staying in one place and to sleep and relax!

Here ends my April adventure which lasted 21 days, spanned 6 countries and 11 cities. As an overall review here are some of the things which I liked best.
My top 4 cities
1. Prague
2. Budapest
3. Berlin
4. Krakow
Cheapest City
Ljubljana
User Friendly City (easy to navigate, people speak English and are willing to help)
Hamburg
Best Hostel
Berlin
Best Restaurants
Krakow
Best New Food
Hungarian goulash with potato pancakes and salad

If there is anything else you would like me to rate or asses, post a comment and I will happily do so.

Crazy kings and Nazi bling (Munich and Neuschwanstein)

In stark contrast to the Eastern European cities I visited (Warsaw, Krakow and Prague), I felt safe at Munich train station, even though we arrived just as late as in the other cities. But in Munich there were people around, shops were still open, it was clean and there were no homeless people. (When we went to leave Munich we discovered that there were no homeless people because there are no chairs or benches in the station, this was quite the problem while we had hours to wait for our train!)

On our first day in Munich Anna and I went on a daytrip to Neuschwanstein castle. This is the famous castle which inspired the Walt Disney castle. It was built by Koenig Ludwig II of Bavaria who ‘may or may not have been gay. We’ll let you decide. His favourite animal was a swan…’ ‘GAY!’ The story behind this castle and this king is actually very interesting and while I’d heard of Ludwig and his castle, I actually learnt a lot on the tour. Basically, Ludwig was a dreamer. He grew up in a castle in Bavaria, which is absolutely stunning, and he loved nature and doing his own thing in the surrounding mountains and forests. Ludwig used his position as king to build beautiful castles and palaces which he dreamt up in his head. He actually sent Bavaria broke and it’s not at all surprising when you see Neuschwanstein. This castle took 17 years to build and was never finished. Only 5 rooms inside the massive castle were ever completed. In fact, Ludwig’s bed frame alone took 4 years to complete due to the sheer extravagance. This behaviour, including Ludwig’s will to hide away in his castle from his duties and his subjects, resulted in him being declared unfit to rule. A short time after this Koenig Ludwig II died in mysterious circumstances. Construction on the castle stopped when the king died.

Regardless of his sanity, or lack thereof, Ludwig chose the most beautiful location to build Neuschwanstein. In the backdrop of the castle there are beautiful mountains, crystal clear streams and rivers and even a waterfall. To the other side of the castle one can look down towards Ludwig’s father’s castle, huge lakes, green fields and forests. This place has an incredible natural beauty to it. In fact, I found all of Bavaria stunning. The two hour train ride there was amazing. I have never seen so many green fields. Everything is green. You feel like you could happily skip through the fields here forever.

The actual castle was kind of a letdown. I mean it is impressive but not THAT impressive. The inside was also disappointing because there are only 5 rooms to look at, but those 5 rooms are amazing and worth seeing. When it comes down to it, I would only recommend this castle if you have a lot of time in Munich. The real problem is it takes 2 hours on the train each way, then you have to transfer to a bus, from there you then need to catch another bus which takes you up the mountain to the castle or you can hike for one hour to get there. So basically, you need a whole day to see it, but you would only spend 90 minutes there. So in terms of time, it’s not really worth it. It’s also expensive. For the train, buses and entrance ticket (entrance is only on a guided tour), it costs 30 euro or around AU$60. So if you have the time and money, go for it, otherwise I’d give it a miss.

Funnily enough, Anna and I spent our second day in Munich in Munich! I convinced Anna to sign up for a Third Reich themed tour, which I read about in my travel guide, for 10 Euros instead of going on a free walking tour. I’m glad we made this choice though. We signed up and paid for the tour in the morning and then went back for the tour in the afternoon. When we arrived, we discovered that no one else had signed up that day and we were the tour! It was just us and the tour guide, which was awesome! It was great because it meant I could ask lots of questions. I normally have questions but don’t ask them because I don’t want to hold up the group. It was also great to see my university courses in history coming to life. Yet despite my knowledge on the topic, I learnt a lot on this tour and would definitely recommend it if you are interested in history. We saw the buildings and rooms where Hitler and the Nazis used at the start of the movement. If you know where to look the fact that office buildings today used to be bomb raid shelters or the headquarters of Hitler’s SS is evident. If you know what you are seeing, the destruction of Nazi infrastructure during the Second World War is also extremely obvious. This tour really brings the history of this city and era to life and you begin to kind of see how Hitler managed to gain power and how life was changed under Nazism. The thing that surprised me the most was that some main sites and streets in Munich are now under video surveillance. These are the most ‘sacred’ sites to Nazis and there are cameras to make sure that no one is still adhering to the Nazi traditions there.

Anna and I also explored the main sites in Munich on our own. The market, old buildings, churches, Olympia stadium and the Hofbraeuhaus are just some of the places we went to. However, day 10 of constant travelling started to take its toll. (Remember I had actually been travelling for 2 weeks.) We didn’t see everything we should have because we were exhausted. My calf muscles were starting to hurt and cramp and my feet were really sore from all of the constant walking we had done. My skin was starting to peel, my hair was comatose and I was just really looking forward to getting back to Vienna so that I could sleep in my own bed, shower in my own shower, eat proper meals and just relax. We really wanted to have an afternoon nap but we had nowhere to go. We were already checked out of our hostel and our train did not leave until midnight. It was the low point of the entire trip. We wanted to sleep but we just could not do that. Instead we had to stay awake waiting for a train, knowing that we had another night of sleeping on a train ahead of us. And of course, this is when we discovered that the train station had no chairs. A brilliant couple of hours for us.

Prague

I arrived in Prague at about 7am in the morning after a sleepless night on the train feeling tired and disgusting. Unfortunately, Anna and I could not check into our hostel until 2pm which meant we couldn’t sleep or shower. Instead, we were forced to explore Prague in the same clothes which were starting to smell. On top of this because it was 7am on what we believed to be a Saturday (by now we had no idea what day or date it was, just measuring time in terms of what city we were in) there were no shops open. I remember walking back and forward past a coffee shop we found waiting to get coffee. But damn that coffee tasted good when I finally got some!

Prague is a very beautiful city. It’s full of character with lots of market stalls, churches, beautiful old buildings, Jewish buildings, clocks, squares and bridges. Anna and I tried Czech donuts, which were ok, and Spanish donuts, which I absolutely love. These donuts actually turned into breakfast for us both days because they were so close to the hostel.

We explored the castle complex which is the biggest in Europe. There really is a whole town inside. It is absolutely stunning with brilliant gardens, beautiful fountains, the most amazing church I have ever seen and long cobbled stoned streets. Unfortunately, it was also extremely crowded with tourists. However, because there were so many tourists there we did find that, unlike Poland, a lot of people spoke English and people were friendlier and willing to help. Another thing we discovered here and indeed throughout our travels was that some Czech people have really boring jobs like standing at the castle gate in a guard’s uniform. Once an hour they get to move in a changing of the guard ceremony, but otherwise they just stand here. Europeans have similarly unappealing jobs at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Warsaw and Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin.

After we explored the castle city we made our way to Petrin tower which is a smaller version of the Eifel tower. It is situated on a hill overlooking the city and offered great views of Prague. Despite utter exhaustion and feeling disgusting (we were both wearing our matching black hats to cover our unwashed hair) we climbed the tower. And by the time we had looked out over the city it was 2pm so we raced back to the dorm to shower.

Once we arrived at the dorm we found a less than satisfactory showering situation. The shower room was mixed sex, there was no lock on the shower cubicle and there was no private space to dry yourself afterwards. But by now Anna and I smelt disgusting and we knew it. Our hair was greasy and gross. We didn’t really think twice about it – we showered there anyway. Luckily because it was 2pm we didn’t run into anyone else in the bathroom. We felt much cleaner and happier afterwards.

This brings me to the youth hostel situation. Up to then we had been pretty lucky in getting dorm rooms to ourselves (an upside of travelling before the peak tourist period). Our first night in Hamburg there were 6 people in the dorm room, but they all left very early before we got up. In Berlin we booked a room for 4 people and had it completely to ourselves which was great. In Warsaw we had one quiet old man as mentioned and in Krakow we booked our own room and own bathroom due to the polish currency conversion making it an affordable option. Then in Prague we were in a room for 5 people which we had to ourselves the first night. This was great because it meant we were able to get some well needed rest. On the second night three girls joined us. They were all exchange students and we were just sitting in the dorm room chatting to them for ages. They were so nice and it was really great to get some different conversation.

I really had a lovely time in Prague, it’s such a nice city to just wonder through the streets and take in your surroundings. But we only had two days there and we were back on a train once again, this time on our way to Munich, which was a 6 hour journey. The train was still an Eastern European train and the toilet situation was not ideal. I walked the entire length of that train busting to go to the toilet before I found something suitable. The first one was closed because it was broken, the second one had a broken window for all of the outside world to look in and see what you are doing, the 3rd was broken at the bottom so you could look down and see the tracks underneath the train as you peed on them and finally I went in the 4th and last toilet on this train.

The train journey was also interesting because the other people in our 6 seater cabin were quite talkative. One guy was from the Czech Republic and he did not bring any entertainment with him for the 6 hours so he expected us to talk to him. He used 3 different languages in attempts to continually talk to people, even when the person he was talking to had headphones on, was reading a book and just replying with ‘mmmm’ noises, he did not stop talking. I spoke to this man for quite a while because I was bored and it was a great excuse to talk in German. We spoke about really random things like tourists getting ripped off and the financial crisis. But by the end of the 6 hours even I wished he would just be quiet!

Krakow

My first impression of Krakow was one of disgust, stress and fear. Anna and I arrived at the main train station at around midnight to find another dirty train station. By dirty I mean the floors were not clean, all of the signs were old, falling apart and covered in graffiti, the smell was unpleasant, the lighting is quite dim and the people were dressed untidily with messy hair or unshaven faces. Compared to the modern design and lighting of Berlin, it was very unwelcoming.

Anna and I could not understand any of the words on the signs and there were no ‘normal’ people around. Instead, there were dozens of homeless people sleeping on the seats in the train station. I was genuinely concerned for my safety. Anna and I attempted to find a taxi at the exit, however, the exit we chose just lead to a dark walkway and we did not feel safe. There was no other human being in sight and we were confronted with the loud noise of a couple men heading our way. The problem was because we could not understand the language we did not know to expect. Perhaps we was on his way back from a sporting match and he was yelling about that, perhaps he was yelling the words to a song or perhaps he was drunk, but we had no way of knowing. It was quite scary.

We managed to avoid the men and take another exit (walking past more areas which smelt like human pee) to find two taxis. It was extremely dodgy looking and I was very freaked out. In fact, I have never felt so helpless before in my life. I couldn’t communicate with anyone and I did not know a phone number to call for a taxi. What choice did I have? So we took the taxi. We drove for a long time and got further and further from the city. I was very nervous, wondering what I could or should do. I was not at all comfortable trusting this random taxi driver. Eventually, we stopped at some random street and we were told we were at the hostel. Luckily, there was a small sign on a gate which I noticed, because otherwise I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to go inside. Anyway we found our hostel which was clean and the staff were nice and in the daylight the next day, things did not seem so bad. But at the time, I was very uncomfortable with the situation.

The next day we went to Auschwitz, which I guess put the horrors of the night before into perspective. It was quite a solemn journey in many respects. To get there we had to cram into this incredibly small mini bus, where your knees were touching the seat in front of you and you could not stretch your legs at all. However, it was difficult to complain when you know how thousands of people made the journey there crammed into cattle train cars. The roads were windy and bumpy and it really was the worst bus ride I’ve ever been on. After 10 minutes I was starting to feel sick in the stomach. This ride was extremely fitting though and just the fact that you knew you were going to Auschwitz seemed to put a dark cloud over you for the day.

One thing that really struck me about Auschwitz was the size. It is huge! Everyone knows that a lot of people died there, but you never really stop to think about how many people were imprisoned there at any one time. There are so many red brick buildings, that all look the same, row after row. Even the structure of Auschwitz is foreboding. I’m sure it is physically possibly to explore the entire camp as well as the gas chambers at neighbouring Birkenau, but I’m not sure it is emotionally possible to see everything. The entire experience was just so draining. Reading about the suffering that went on there and knowing that someone probably died where you are standing, or knowing that hundreds were executed just metres away is indescribable. I do not think that you can really comprehend what you are seeing. Auschwitz is by no means a tourist attraction; it’s a spiritual journey to pay your respects to the people that died there. Visitors do not smile and chat. It’s a place of silence and reflection.

I recommend paying extra to watch the film showing footage of what the Red Army found when they liberated Auschwitz. It will make you feel sick and disgusted, but it’s the best way to understand the horror of what went on there. There are so many dramatic things that I saw which I could list here but it does not seem appropriate. Auschwitz is an individual journey. It’s worth going there, but please only do so with the right attitude.

Once we were back in Krakow I was disappointed by what I was most excited to see: the biggest medieval square in Europe. Sure it was huge, but there wasn’t really anything too exciting there. I mean, the church was fairly impressive…but it was just lacking something. Maybe I was just tired. I would be interested to hear other people’s impressions on this square. The castle, however, was a pleasant surprise. I was amazed to find entire rooms full of medieval armour and weapons, huge tapestries, furniture from all over Europe, paintings, wall and roof decorations and basically extravagance. It’s incredible that Poland was able to recover all of these things after the Second World War and Soviet occupation.

My favourite thing in Krakow was the salt mine. My friend from Poland recommended it to me and it’s totally worth the half hour bus ride there and back. One million people visit this mine every year and at any one time there can be up to 2000 people underground. We walked along a 2km trail, going down many steps to reach the depth of 150m. Statues made from salt were breathtaking. Even an entire church is made out of salt in this mine. You have to see it, to believe it. Our tour guide was also very funny without meaning to be. She would drone on in a monotone and every now and then pop in a comment to which I would smirk or raise an eyebrow. For example, ‘The horse is not real’ at the end of her speech looking at one of the re-enactments of how they transported the salt, in the church ‘would you like to sing something?’ and at the pool of water ‘it is impossible to drown in it’. Guide or no guide, go here!

The other thing that rocked in Krakow was the food. We picked up a free guide to Krakow from the tourist office which had a list of local restaurants. We used this information to pick 2 cheap and great restaurants. The first night we went to a cute Hungarian place, where we each tried potato pancakes with goulash (absolutely delicious!). The second night we went to a Polish place to try traditional Polish food which was also a great success. The Hungarian food was 5 stars!

Unfortunately, my adventure in Krakow ended like it started with another stressful hiccup in my trip. We took an overnight train from Krakow to Prague. It was my first time on a train with bunk beds and I was amazed how ridiculous it was. They squeeze 6 ‘beds’ which are no more than yoga mats into one cabin. You cannot even sit up on top of any of the beds because they are so close together. There is basically no room to put your bag and there’s a ladder outside of the door which you are supposed to work out how it works yourself. It took us at least 10 mins to figure out where to put the ladder and frustratingly the other people in the cabin just looked on in amusement. No one tried to help us. The worst part was we were assigned to the top beds which proved inaccessible. I could not figure out a technique of getting from the ladder onto the bed. I’m not a contortionist! The space was so small that I could not sit down onto the bed; I could not crawl onto the bed. I could only put my head and shoulders onto it, but then I wasn’t sure how to get on, you can’t crawl on your shoulders. Anyway despite numerous attempts, I could not figure out how to do it. So I was faced with nowhere to sit for a 9 hour train ride and nowhere to put my stuff. I asked the conductor where the train would stop but I had not heard of any of the places and I did not want to get off in the middle of nowhere. It was a very stressful situation.

Anna spoke to the conductor and told him that I was scared of heights and asked if we could go and sit in a chair somewhere. So we grabbed our bags and were going to go, when he realised we were actually going to do it, he then allowed us to sleep in another compartment which was empty on the bottom bunks. So we ended up with an entire cabin to ourselves. It was really frustrating to discover that there were other cabins with no one inside. I don’t understand why they tried to squeeze 6 people in one, when there were so many empty beds. Neither of us slept much due to the noise, cold, constant motion and uncomfortable beds, but at least I had a place to sleep.

And that's when things started to get weird (Warsaw)

Throughout my trip I wrote down dot points of highlights and interesting things that happened in my travel journal. These points were meant to jog my memory about things that happened and have formed the basis for my blog entries about my April trip that I am writing now in May. Now reading through my ‘points’ for Warsaw was, well interesting to say the least. They are all completely random and have seemingly nothing to do with the city itself. In fact, I have had to turn to my photos to remember some of the impressions from the city itself. I admit that while most of the things I am going to mention are of a negative nature, I really liked Warsaw and would definitely recommend going there. These are just the things that stood out to me the most.

Warsaw is a very beautiful city. Like most European cities its awe inspiring because it is completely different to Australia. Everything is so built up and congested instead of spread out and there are many historical sites. However, at times Warsaw and Poland in general was scary and dodgy. I did not feel safe walking around at night. Absolutely no one spoke English or at least was willing to admit they did and talk to us. The problem of homelessness was very visible and made me feel uneasy because it is not something I am accustomed to. In addition, when we were walking across the city we would turn a corner and find ourselves looking at half destroyed buildings with broken windows and people living in them. Nevertheless, Anna and I spent almost an hour taking pictures at one place, the defensive city walls, because it was just so different.

Unfortunately, this situation was also marred by the actions of one local. A young guy was standing and watching us take photos for a while. I noticed him and I deliberately put the camera down and motioned for him to walk past before I took a photo. He walked past and then stood on the other side of me. By now I was feeling really suss about this guy. Finally, he approached me and asked if I would like him to take a photo of Anna and I together. I did not trust him so I in turn posed the question to Anna, ‘do we want a photo together?’ Anna looked at the guy and decided to trust him with her camera. So he took our photo. Then afterwards he said, ‘now can I please ask you a favour. Can I please have a photo with you?’ (Asking Anna) Anna said ‘err, I guess so.’ So he gave me the camera and I took a picture of them but as I did he hugged Anna, went in for a feel and even attempted a kiss. Anna obviously pushed him away and I gave him his camera back and we said we had to leave to which he responded ‘oh I’m going this way too.’ So we said, ‘actually we’re going that way’ and walked off in the other direction. What a very strange person. We are definitely too nice!

The hostel situation was also very strange. For starters, we arrived and the receptionist said that there was only one other person in the room meant for 6 people. The problem was that one person was an old man. He never said or did anything but it was just weird and we could not figure out why he was staying in a youth hostel. In addition, we had an awkward misunderstanding with the hostel receptionist. Anna brought a towel with her but I was using one at every hostel we went to, to save room in my luggage. Therefore, when we got to the hostel we asked for a towel. The guy brought us two towels but Anna said, ‘oh no, we only need one’ because you have to pay for them. The receptionist looked from me to Anna and then went, ‘it’s on the house’ and gave us both towels. We suspect he thought we were going to share a towel! Finally, the shower situation was not up too scratch. There was no privacy. All the showers were in one room and had only curtains which we all know cannot be relied on as secure when you are showering. There was nowhere to then dry yourself and change afterwards, only this big room where anyone could walk in and of course we couldn’t make a run for the dorm room because there the old man was in there. So we decided not to shower that day and I ALWAYS shower. I felt very disgusting the next day. Anna and I even went out and brought hats to cover our unwashed hair!

One tourist highlight in Warsaw was the Warsaw Rising Museum. It tells the amazing story of the citizens of Warsaw who banded together to fight back against Nazi occupation and take back parts of the city. It’s amazing what this group achieved with severely limited resources. The group used courage and team work to organise communication, a newspaper, mail system and even electricity. They were quite successful but ultimately failed. The museum is great because it has photos, films, books, letters, artefacts, uniforms and even a plane to recreate the atmosphere at the time. It’s the most informative museum ever but unfortunately Anna and I were running out of time so we could not read a lot of the material.

Fine in Berlin

Of course nothing could ever ruin a trip to Berlin because the city is so historically and culturally rich and there are so many interesting things to see that it would always outweigh any negatives, however, our time in Berlin was marred by some unfortunate events and situations.

Firstly, by this time I had already been travelling for 8 days and Anna had also been travelling for a while so we both needed to do washing. What a waste to spend an evening in Berlin washing clothes but of course I could only fit limited supplies in my small bag and tshirts and jeans were beginning to smell funky. Instead of exploring Berlin’s bars and nightlife we found ourselves walking through the streets holding plastic bags full of used undies and clothes. It was extremely classy! (I know I am a great representative for Australia.) We spent 90 mins at the Laundromat and paid to put our clothes in the dryer 3 times and they still weren’t dry. It was quite a tragic evening.

Secondly, we got fined. That’s right, a 40 euro fine each. I have been living in Europe for 2 and a half months now and I know that unlike Adelaide there is no discussion or interpretation on things. That means if you have the wrong ticket on a train there are no if, buts or maybes, there are no explanations, you just get fined. It means there is no pleading ignorance, misinterpretation or misunderstanding on anything. Noone will listen to you. And I was well aware of this fact while we were in Berlin which is why I am so annoyed about this fine, because I knew better and I could have avoided it. Allow me to explain this properly.

On our first day in Berlin Anna and I needed to buy a day trip ticket to use the public transport system. You buy such a ticket from a machine at the train station and yes you can press a button to get English, but in our case the language, regardless of what language you read it in, was unclear. We wanted to buy a student ticket. In German the choice was a normal fair or a ‘ermaessig’ fair. In English, a normal or a reduced ticket. Our logic was, we are students therefore we buy the reduced fair. Even as we said that, I was questioning our logic. I attempted to explain that if we have the wrong ticket here, we are fined, regardless of whether we knew or not. Anna argued that you cannot get fined because the law says you have to attempt to get a ticket. I tried to explain that the laws are different here, but failed to convince her. I wanted to get the right ticket, so I wanted to ask someone from Berlin which ticket we should get. The difference was maybe 1 euro. It was of course Easter Sunday morning and there were like 3 other people at the train station. I went up to them and begun to ask them in German, then stopped myself and said ‘do you speak German?’ ‘No’. They were Canadians! The only other people at the train station were tourists. But here’s where I made the biggest mistake of the day, I asked them anyway! Why would they know? It was just stupid. And I hope readers here can learn a valuable lesson here: just because it’s easier to speak to someone who speaks your language, does not mean you will get the information you need. So we bought the reduced fair.

The next day we bought the same ticket and we had our tickets checked on the train, at which point we were asked to get off of the train. We were offered no explanation, no questions, no conversation at all. Instead, they asked for our personal details and said we had 2 weeks to pay a 40 euro fine but the fine had to be paid in Germany, which meant we had to pay it that day. 40 euro compared to 2 extra euro to get the adult ticket. My advice to you is if you are unsure buy the more expensive one, it’s better in the long run. The whole situation made me quite angry at myself for making the mistake in the first place and really put a dampener on my time in Berlin.

Thirdly, I was given the wrong information in 2 different countries and 3 different cities regarding my train reservation for Berlin to Warsaw. We reserved seats to ensure we would get on the trains we wanted due to our extremely tight schedule. I bought all of the reservation tickets together in Austria. Since then I had realised that our reservation from Berlin to Warsaw cost 44 euro while the others all cost 6. I asked in Hamburg and Berlin and was told it is only a reservation. We got on the train and discovered it was a ticket but by this time it was too late; another 22 euro each down the drain.

Finally, during our time in Berlin we were approached by pick pockets. My friend Ben who was in Europe over Christmas had told me about someone who approaches you with a postcard and asks you ‘do you speak English?’ Then when you reply that you do they come up to and ask you to read it to them and lean in really close and steal your stuff. Anna and I were approached by someone saying the exact same thing with a post card at the Reichstag and at Alexander Platz (two major tourist destinations). The two women who approached us could have been sisters and the fact that they were doing the exact same thing was extremely suss. When they approached us I said ‘no’ and took one giant step back away from them and they gave up and approached someone else.

Of course, the awe of Berlin far outweighs the negatives. We visited the Reichstag, East Side Gallery, Brandenburger Tor, Alexander Platz, Potsdamer Platz, Checkpoint Charlie and the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedaeniskirche. This church was the highlight for me (because I have been to Berlin and seen the other main sites before in 2004). I waited 5 years to see this church. When I was in Germany in 2004 my host family and I went to Berlin. I raved to them about this church which I had learnt about in history class. It was partially destroyed during World War Two and it has been left like that as a reminder. However, I never got to see it because my reasons for wanting to see the church were lost in translation. Instead my host family took me to the really modern church next door to pray and I never got to see what I wanted. I was very excited to finally see it and it was even cooler than I was expecting. There’s basically nothing left of the church and what is left has cracks through the roof and floor.

The other new highlight for me was the Haus am Checkpoint Charlie or a museum which outlines the history of the Berlin Wall and all of the escape attempts, both successful and unsuccessful. The museum was expensive at 10 euro to enter, but it’s worth it. Inside you will find inventions made my East Germans just to get themselves over or under the Berlin Wall. It’s amazing what people would do to leave the country. Some interesting and dangerous escape attempts include tunnels, canoes, hot air balloons, jumping from buildings (when the wall first went up), impersonating people and contorting bodies to fit inside different objects like suitcases, a safe, cars, car engines and a petrol tank. There are stories of people being hidden so well that later they could not get the person back out of the object. The human costs of the Berlin Wall do not stop there. Many escape attempts ended in guards shooting people and as the river is on the border many children drowned while swimming because no one was allowed to help them, in case they were trying to escape.

There are just so many things to do and see in Berlin. One could easily spend a week in this beautiful and interesting city.