ATV In Europe: Berlin
We arrived Berlin ahead of schedule as our flight was faster than the time table said. So we arrived around 9ish in German time and traveled straight to our Hostel, which was located in East Berlin – so in the former Communist part of the City and the country. The Hostel was really nice though and the staff very helpful! From the Hostel we were able to do a free walking tour of Berlin!
We arrived Berlin ahead of schedule as our flight was faster than the time table said. So we arrived around 9ish in German time and traveled straight to our Hostel, which was located in East Berlin – so in the former Communist part of the City and the country. The Hostel was really nice though and the staff very helpful! From the Hostel we were able to do a free walking tour of Berlin!
The tour itself took four hours as we visited many of the historical and important sights in the City, both East and West. Our tour guide, Matt, was English so it was perfect for us. He was also very funny adding many jokes ect as we toured around Berlin. We visited many spots such as the TV Tower and the Brandeburg Gate, part of the Berlin Wlall which remains standing ect.
We crossed from East to West Berlin at a point called Checkpoint Berlin which some Berliners refer to as Disneyland due to pretty much everything there being fake. There’s an American checkpoint which bares no resemblance to the actual checkpoint that once stood there. Stasnding outside the checkpoint is an “American” and “Soviet” Soliders who are actualy actors who by night-time are porn stars!!
The tour also took us to the big catherdual in Berlin where we were pestered from some Romanians pretending to be Bosinian refugues in order to beg for money. One of the Romanian peasants had a go at the tour guide for telling us not to give thm money! At Checkpoint Charlie they were also doing th rounds but we pretending to be German and not understand them!
On our tour we saw a protest by German students who were protesting about the introduction of tution fees there! Ah how that seems like an old fight for us! The proposal to introduce such fees to German uni’s is highly controversial one in Germany. It’s interesting to note the spot of the protest, outside what is now a university in Berlin. The spot is where the Nazis burnt thousands of books in their infamous book burning night which was headed by Joseph Gobbels who even burnt some of his own books which had been written while he was pro-Jewish.
It’s probably no concidenc the students picked that exact spot from which to launch their vocal protest! While we were in the square two vans of Police arrived to keep an eye on the shouting students!
Not speaking any German I thought would be a problem but actually it wasn’t. Reading things I managed to get the jist of what was written and most people spoke enough English to get by. Also a lot of the important signs were also in English, which helped a lot!
For food we shopped at the nearby Lidl which was very cheap, buying a lot of stuff (for breakfast and lunch the next day) for under ten euros! It was a nice comparison after Sweden which was very expensive and to the Uk which is also expensive!
