Koln der eins

Cologne day one.

Pull into the train station in the early evening, find my hotel (a cheap 1 star affair), check out an enormous gothic cathedral, then call Jordan's friend and we arrange to meet at a bar a bit outside of where my hostel is. His friend is having a birthday get together, so I'll be hanging out with a friend of a friend of a girl I met 2 days ago. Strange, but I look forward to getting a chance to mingle with some of the locals.

I just happen to spot the name of the bar while riding the tram, so I consider myself lucky to find the place. Its got an outdoor patio, and even with my not quite 20/20 vision I spot Jordan and her friends. They're all really friendly and speak excellent english, so I feel quite at home hanging out with them. One of them works as an independent real estate agent, and seems to be quite happy in Cologne (she seemed to sort of loathe berliner's, which I found a bit surprising). The birthday boy informs us of the European birthday tradition of him buying a round for everyone, and I sample some of the local brew. Its quite good really, and I in-turn inform him of the North American tradition, of everyone buying the birthday boy a round. We stay out till the wee hours of the morning, stopping for a late night kebab on the way home. I say my goodbyes to Jordan and her crew, wish her the best on the rest of the trip, and manage to stumble all the way to the hotel without getting lost once.

Cologne Day Two.

My second and last day in Cologne is actually only a morning. I have to catch a train at noon to get on to Brussels where my solo adventuring will come to an end, and I'll meet up with Brad and Julie. I'm really looking forward to the company, and spend the morning on a park bench just watching the boats sail up and down the Rhine river.

Berlin der Zwei

Berlin Day Two.

Jordan and I make plans to grab breakfast and head out to the Einstein exhibit. We find a cafe and I eventually settle on cold scrambled eggs on an open-faced baguette... interesting, but I'm still on the fence as to whether or not I like it. We make our way out to museum island, where Einstein: "Chief Engineer of the Universe" is showing. I hadn't even known of its existence until I stumbled upon a big red E during my first night in Berlin.

The exhibition itself is amazing, and me being the big nerd that I am, enjoy lapping up all the sights and sounds and interactive displays. They project a heated debate between Einstein, Newton, and Aristotle on the laws of motion, gravity, and relativity which is quite humourous. There's plenty of original Einstein items including notes, letters, scrapwork, and a very funny postcard that he scrawled on and sent to a friend while completely drunk. I was pretty surprised at some of the facts surrounding his life, namely that he was offered the presidency of Isreal (he refused) and how well he could actually play the violin. Again we discover while trapsing through the museum that we have to rush to catch our trains, so we leave the exhibit without fully enjoying the last floor. We quickly dash into the store where I can't help but splash out on an Albert Einstein action figure! Its really great, he has the full head of crazy grey hair, and chalk in one hand.

When we go to reserve train tickets, it turns out that Jordan and I are actually on the same train. Me with the peasants in second class, and her (because of the way her rail pass works), with the upper crust in first class. She's heading to meet a friend in a small town en-route to Cologne, and then gives me her friends number as they are supposed to be heading to Cologne that evening. Jordan and I say our goodbyes, as the train continues to rumble toward my next destination.

Berlin is the first city I've left where I've felt that I had missed many important attractions. I know that I have missed a lot in every other city due to the nature of the trip, but Berlin I feel especially strongly about. If I had to do it all again I definitely would've alloted at least another day or two, but I'm still really really glad to have seen it.

Berlin der eins

I wake up late, but still manage to make breakfast, pack and get on the train headed for Berlin. Its a 5 hour journey, and I'm particularly impressed by some of the small German cities we pass, there was one along the river near Dresden that really sticks out, but I can't recall its name.

Pull into Berlin late in the evening, decipher how to ride the S-Bahn trains, and a few stops, and several minutes later I'm walking to my hostel. This may be the best one yet. Its certainly one of the cheapest (14 euro's a night), awesomely centrally located right underneath of the TV tower in East berlin, and insanely clean and secure. The rooms look very Ikea (which I think is common of most newer European hostels anyway), and I'm really glad I found the place.

I head out for a walk and purchase really cheap, yet really tasty fish and chips, that come in a paper cone and are drowning in tartar sauce. I walk over to the museum island, through the Karl Marx park, and stop to relax for a while at the TV tower. The thing that first strikes me about the area is how new all the buildings are (I think almost all where built after the wall came down). There's lots of glass, its very clean, and the people seem to be happy, smiling, and very laid back. Stop at the hostel bar, and chat with another Aussie named Pam who works in a hostel in a small town in Austria. We had both decided to do a walking tour the next day, so it was a fairly early night.

My first full day in Berlin, I get up, eat bacon and eggs and am in front of the hostel ready to meet the rest of the walking group. There's only 3 of us, myself and Pam included. Our third companion is a fellow canucklehead from Vancouver, is my age, wonderfully sarcastic, and about 2 months into her big European adventure. We walk to a nearby coffee house, meet our guide and about 30 other tourists from other hostels/hotels. Our tour guide is insanely enthusiatic, and actually works as the director for some theatre house in Edmonton, when not escaping to tour people around Berlin. He's extremely knowledgable and completely loves this city. He keeps the information flowing, but still cracks jokes and keeps everyone entertained.

We start the tour by walking through east berlin and past some older buildings that are still bullet and bombshell scarred from the war. We walk into a former squatters area that now thrives with graffiti artists (whose work is now UNESCO protected). We make our way to the Reichstag, and learn about the rise of Hitler and the third reich. We cross into west berlin through cobblestone and copper markers showing where the walls stood not 16 years earlier. Now in west berlin, we move through to federal palaces, see the air-lift, and march on towards the Brandenburg Gates. Our guide recounts the JFK "I'm a jelly donut" line, shows us the hotel where Michael Jackson dangled his kid out the window, and from there we move onto the newly completed holocoust memorial. Its a site of much contrevorsy as one of the top ranking nazi officials was killed in his bunker that actually shares the site, and the 2700 monuments of varying size were protected in a special anti-graffiti paint that was manufactured by the same company that used to make the cyclone gas used in some of the chambers 60 years ago. Our guide takes us to the site where Hitler's bunker was and where he commited suicide (its now a parking lot!). From there we walk to a place where part of the wall still stands (I'm surprised to find its only 3 meters tall), and into checkpoint charlie (complete with a local dressed in military uniform infront of a couple of sandbags, that the American tourists practically line-up to get pictures with). Quick drink/lunch break and the tour marches on to Humboldt university, a roman looking plaza, past museums and the former east berlin parliament. Our guide has trouble holding back the tears as he explains all the events that lead to the fall of the wall. Tired, but filled to the brim with amazing sights and important historical knowledge 6 hours later, we join our guide for a pint at a nearby bar.

I chat with Jordan (the Canadian) and Pam, and we decide to head out to the Jewish museum, then the topography of terror exhibit (its about the gestapo and the SS). The jewish museum is really good, and we all learn a lot, but we realize that we have to rush if we want to make it to the other exhibit and grab dinner. After dinner, we reach the outdoor exhibit only to find it closes earlier than we had thought. So we all head back to the hostel, have a few drinks then its bedtime for all of us.