Mar 25th - 28th 2007
We took Ryan Air from East Midlands Airport to Berlin Schonefeld. Reaching a foreign land at night was not advisable really…especially since we were unaware of how the transport system in Germany works, unfamiliar with the train networks and we only had a few sentences of directions to our hostel given on our booking slip…I think we looked so lost at the train station that a friendly German couple approached us and conversed with us in English, asking us where we’re heading! our hostel, Jetpak Original is located somewhere in the forest (of course we didn’t know this before booking), at the end of Pucklestr – where the Germany’s President lives! Isn’t it cool? We were welcomed by extremely friendly hostel owner, who told us lots of things about Berlin the moment we stepped into the hostel, advised us on where to go and the transportation mode to take…Unaware of how tired we were, he continued his story about the days he visited Singapore…A very nice guy indeed…and the hostel itself, even though is located in the forest, is so high-tech: the toilet is equipped with motion sensor for the lightings, the common room has a home-video system, free internet, and the REAL Germany 2006 World cup stand which the owner bought (must have cost him a bomb!)…Anyway, it was a very homely place to stay…yummy breakfast…a good hostel experience to start off the whole journey around Europe!
We joined the New Berlin tour – a 3.5-hours walking tour guided by a very enthusiastic & knowledgeable tour guide…and it’s for FREE! Even though it’s called a free tour, at the end of the tour, if you find that the tour guide has done an extremely good job, then you are encouraged to tip him/her…but if not, then a handshake with the tour guide is enough at the end of the whole tour. Our tour guide was a petite Bosnian girl, called Naida, who knows everything abt Berlin and claims to have fallen in love with Berlin…She brought us to Brandenburg gate, the Reichstag, Hitler’s bunker, the Holocaust memorial, then following the line of the Berlin wall through the Nazi government district to Checkpoint Charlie, Gendarmenmarkt (Berlin’s grandest square), Museum island, and finally the tour ended in the old royal gardens Lustgarten with a very shocking but interesting story about how Berlin Wall actually fell by accident. Throughout the tour, I was so amazed at the immense knowledge that she has…and the way she delivered every single part of Berlin’s history…brief but enriching enough! At the end of the whole tour, even poor students like us who are traveling on budget, thought that she deserved to be tipped!
After the tour, my knowledge on history increased tremendously that I could sense it almost everywhere in Berlin…
We went to the Pergamon museum right after the tour. It’s one of the five museums located on Berlin’s Museum island and it houses the collection of classical antiquities, collection of antiquities from Babylon and Persia and Islamic arts. The Zeus altar, the Ishtar gate and the Market Gate of Miletus are the most famous items in this museum. Amazed at the existence of the whole collections, I decided to touch some of them…Next, I found myself being yelled at by the guard,haha…
No trip to Berlin would be complete without a trip to the Reichstag - home of Germany’s Parliament. Being close to Brandenburg gate and right next to the wall before reunification, it is one of Berlin's most historical landmarks.
We went to the Pergamon museum right after the tour. It’s one of the five museums located on Berlin’s Museum island and it houses the collection of classical antiquities, collection of antiquities from Babylon and Persia and Islamic arts. The Zeus altar, the Ishtar gate and the Market Gate of Miletus are the most famous items in this museum. Amazed at the existence of the whole collections, I decided to touch some of them…Next, I found myself being yelled at by the guard,haha…
No trip to Berlin would be complete without a trip to the Reichstag - home of Germany’s Parliament. Being close to Brandenburg gate and right next to the wall before reunification, it is one of Berlin's most historical landmarks.
The entrance to Reichstag is free! That explained the long queue that we had to endure...but a 45-minutes wait was really worth it. We took the elevator up to the dome and walked the spiralling ramp all the way to the top for the breathtaking view of Berlin. The glass dome reflects the transparency in government...From the dome, we can look down to see the Parliament in action beneath the glass ceilings, formulating policies for the people, who are standing above them...and look up for the view of Berlin's sky. It's really really superb!!!
Next, we went to the East side gallery, a 1.3 km long section of the remaining Berlin wall, which's covered by graffiti, making it the largest open air gallery in the world. Most of the drawings on the wall clearly portray the people's feelings after reunification, the freedom that they could finally experience was written all over...lots of tourists left a trace on the wall too!
For two nights in Berlin, we had dinner at an Indian restaurant, called Himalaya (a bit weird rite? Eating Indian food in Germany?)…but it was free!!! Thanks to Yanlian’s father’s friend, who owns the restaurant… Papadum, curry chicken, mutton, Indian beer…YUMMY!!! The last night in Berlin was indeed the last day we ate rice during the whole trip…
On our last night in Berlin, Alwyn, Lester and I went for the Pub Crawl – organized by the same company as the New Berlin Tour. For €9, we had the chance to visit 3 pubs and 2 clubs, were entitled to 1 free glass of beer and free shots of Orange vodka along the way…and most importantly, we got the chance to experience Berlin’s night life! We met a few Singaporeans, who also joined the pub crawl and coincidentally one of them is Lester’s primary school friend, who’s currently on exchange in Milan and he was with a few NUS and SMU students who’re on exchange in Manchester University…see how small the world is!!! Another group was those who are studying permanently in some of the UK universities…Everyone’s really enjoying the beginning of their Easter break…
It was one of the most memorable nights of the whole of my Easter trip…we really had lots of fun ‘crawling’ from one pub to another (and to me, the Pub crawl was also the Toilet crawl…thanks to the alcohol, I had to go toilet at every pub/club that we stopped at). We stayed until 2 am and guess what, the next available train was in 2 hours time, so we had no choice but to take cab! That was the first and last time for us taking cab in Europe…It really burnt a hole in ur pocket!
The next day, we were all set and ready for our next destination. Lester, Alwyn, Xianhong and Yanlian left for Prague, while I left for Hamburg ( I could not be bothered to apply for a separate visa for Prague!).
Mar 28th 2007
Thanks to Chingweng, who is currently doing internship at Airbus, Hamburg, I had the chance to travel around Germany’s largest and busiest port city. Having someone to bring you around is so much more convenient than reading street map to find out by yourself. According to him, in 1 day, I have managed to see as much as what he saw in his first 3 weeks in Hamburg,haha…That’s the advantage of having a tour guide around rite…
Some shots of Hamburg:
Some shots of Hamburg:
Look at the rainbow on the fountain, isn’t it uniquely beautiful? I was in Hamburg on a weekday and the city centre itself was packed with people in the afternoon…and according to my ‘tour guide’, they are all locals…Hamburg itself is not a very touristy place…Sight of tourists snapping picture around was rare. That made me wondering, don’t these people need to work? At the parks, you can see lots of locals sunbathing, enjoying a sip of coffee, chitchatting…and it was a weekday! This is what I called a luxury which you cant experience in Singapore!
While walking near the city centre, we accidentally found a giant spot of attraction: the Dommarkt. By the way, this was not in the itinerary planned by my ‘tour guide’,haha…It’s one of the most spectacular tri-annual festivals in Hamburg…and when I was there, the Spring Dom festival just started. Thrilling rides, beer tents, food stalls, musical events, family entertainments...all can be found in the Dom at the Heiligengeistfeld.
See how happening the festival is...
While walking near the city centre, we accidentally found a giant spot of attraction: the Dommarkt. By the way, this was not in the itinerary planned by my ‘tour guide’,haha…It’s one of the most spectacular tri-annual festivals in Hamburg…and when I was there, the Spring Dom festival just started. Thrilling rides, beer tents, food stalls, musical events, family entertainments...all can be found in the Dom at the Heiligengeistfeld.
See how happening the festival is...
We took the ferris-wheel ride to get the view of Hamburg from the top...
Our next ride was the stomach-churning Big Monster ride. This’s what it looks like from the top of the Ferris wheel...
There were many other roller-coaster ride...but the Big Monster was enough to make me dizzy!We headed to Frank and Frei Restaurant for a perfect German dinner: Schweinschnitzel & Banana Beer.
Schweinschnitzel is basically ’pork cutlet’- a traditional Vienna dish which has become so increasingly popular in Germany that it becomes a must-try when u visit Germany.
And the beer was perfect! It’s my first-time trying fruit-flavored beer...the banana flavour goes really well with the beer...Btw, it was only my third day in Germany and i had been drinking beer for every single day...all different types of beer...There will be more ’beer’ in the next few entries,haha...I should live the way Germans do when i’m in Germany, right? Beer in Germany is really really cheap...even cheaper than mineral water!
Oh btw take a look at this beer bottle, bought it in the supermarket in Hamburg.....The opening is so unique that after drinking the beer, I decided to keep the bottle and carried it around Europe with me...
And the beer was perfect! It’s my first-time trying fruit-flavored beer...the banana flavour goes really well with the beer...Btw, it was only my third day in Germany and i had been drinking beer for every single day...all different types of beer...There will be more ’beer’ in the next few entries,haha...I should live the way Germans do when i’m in Germany, right? Beer in Germany is really really cheap...even cheaper than mineral water!
Oh btw take a look at this beer bottle, bought it in the supermarket in Hamburg.....The opening is so unique that after drinking the beer, I decided to keep the bottle and carried it around Europe with me...
I left Hamburg very early in the morning on the next day, heading towards my next destination: Dusseldorf!
For more pics of Hamburg: http://picasaweb.google.com/lmakmur/Hamburg
Stay tuned for the next destination: Dusseldorf!
