Somehow we managed to be in town on Friday 3rd Oct, which is the day that East and West Germany officially came together. To celebrate, the government really turns it on with free concerts, giveaways and entertainment all over the city- Its pretty much like a German Australia day.. for Germans. Not Germans living is australia- germans from germany. And i guess australians in germany too... Anyway, half the town was on the booze this night and we felt it was wrong to act like the aliens we were so headed into the nearest deli inside our traino and stocked up on becks. It was quite a challenge with the 6 or 7 different flavours that were available, but after checking it wasn't a mid strength, we settled on gold. On the platform of Hoptbanhof (main station) I counted 6 people out of 40 odd that werent drinking haha.On the way to the clubs, we ran into a few German people about our age that made us a bit wary- They kept coming up to us in groups and we werent sure if a fight was on its way or what, but they just wanted to say g'day- friendly crew! For pretty much each and every German that came up, we had our own international paper scissors rock championship- Lets just say Australia has it in the bag.. or maybe they were just playing dumb trying to learn our tactics.. Most encounters were pretty much the same "where are you from?" "Australia" "Oh! Australianish- Kangaru, ja!" to which we reply with a balled fist and hit them with the first rock of the patented double-fakey scissor smashing combo that was our world domination team.
Earlier that day me and Lyn went on the Alternative Berlin tour- It was pretty cool and gave a different perspective of Berlin from the world war and history tours that were dominating the itinerary. We hopped all over town by S-Bahn, buses and trams and saw things like 3D murals, street stenciling, art fabrication workshops, the worlds largest indoor skate park, Artist studios and the highlight of the tour... A closed absinthe shop. Damn public holidays! The wall murals were pretty cool and after getting a quick run down on the stenciling scene it became a game of wheres wally picking out different artists works. It was funny hearing the stories that stirred in the social scene from artworks that were done- one bloke went around stencilling love letters to "Linda" all over town, and some people got so into it they started stencilling rebuttals and others started up with supporting the guy and tagging it around the place. We got into another German tradition here that I will be continuing back home- The doner kebab. Donner means "tomorrow" after some discussions with fellow Aussie booze testers, we found its more than just coincidence that we had all at some stage woken up with the kebaba still in our hands the next day after a night on the turps. For 2.50 EUR, its about the cheapest whole meal you can get as well and it has all the right food groups- animal products (or "meat" if that's what you think it is), bread, green stuff and chilli! of course the green stuff is just green because its in a green bottle- it looks more like beer when you pour it into a glass.
Its been an awesome stay in Berlin, and its sad to see it go- It has been great having the same bed for more than 1 night, and actually being able to call a place "home" for a little bit. The crew in the hostel have been awesome too. Some of the other Aussie guys: Tim, Kyle, Ollie, Todd and Paul all our front line allies that suffer through a night together, then as we stagger down to the common room the next day for a recovery session, sharing war stories and piecing together the puzzles we start plotting the next aussie invasion. The hostel facilities and staff have been kick arse too- cheap beers, wifi everywhere, hot showers... Its been like an extended family for a while and we have all had a ball. Im hoping the next place is the same!
We jumped on a train to Prague- 4 hours left now, and its all looking pretty good and well organised for the next 3 weeks, aside from having to book a train from Prague to Vienna to get onto the cheap flight to Cairo- It saved us $2000 AUD so I reckon a train ride of a few hours is money well spent. Im still not sure about tickets here- either are the conductors and sales people too. Internet price is 60 EUR, but if you tick a "discount" box, it becomes 30 EUR. I somehow managed to pay an extra 1 EUR and got lyns seat on my ticket too. We checked it with the DB ticket office to make sure it was all cool before we got on the train, and she just starts laughing saying she hasn't seen anything like it before... cool. Every carriage on the train was numbered 81-111 as well, so it took us way too long to find our seat number 269. It was kinda funny trying to squeeze 2 people against the flow of people through a one person wide train corridor. I wiped out a few people with my backpack that refused to make way which I thought was great, but then Lynda takes thee cake by nailing a guy awesomely- she hit the button for a pneumatic door and it hit a bloke clean off the train. I couldn't stop laughing. Also squeezed in a Pretzel before we hit the border into Prague- Theres the rest of the list crossed off- Sauerkraut, Bratwurst, Pretzels, Bier...
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