Day 78

Berlin was excellent. Me and Tom thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! There is so much to do, and it is such a friendly city despite it's size. Initially we intended to stay just 3 nights, but ended up staying 5 instead. The location of the camper park was excellent, and we walked into the city centre every day.

On our first day in Berlin we did a spot of sightseeing, including the Bradenburg gate, the Reichstag building and the cathedral. 

After walking round and looking at the amazing buildings, we met up with dad. He took us for an amazing lunch at a restaurant called "Hans im Gluck" that served delicious gourmet burgers. The interior of the restaurant was so cool, it had trees inside of it! 

On our second day in Berlin, me and Tom were really keen to see what remains of the Berlin Wall. We walked to the "East side gallery" where the wall still stands and is covered in a mixture of paintings and graffiti. I really liked some of the pieces, in particular a piece called "My God, Help me to survive this Deadly Love" by Dmitri Vrubel which is a painting depicting the famous kiss of of Brezhnev and Honecker.

After visiting the wall, we bumped into dad again (so strange considering the size of Berlin!) and we all went to go an see the memorial to the Jewish people that fell victim to the Nazi regime. It was pretty moving. We went inside the free museum which showed extracts of diaries, and stories of families that we're persecuted and murdered. Though I have studied Nazi history, and was aware of most things the museum highlighted, I was not aware of the distance over which Hitler managed to persecute the Jews. Apparently, in his extreme effort to eradicate the entire religion, he even murdered thousands from the Greek Islands, France and even Britain which he had specially transported to be killed. 

Thankfully, our third day was not quite as emotional as the end of the second day. On Sunday morning we headed to one of my favourite places to go; a market! Mauerpark market was huge and there were so many nice things I could have spent a fortune on, but I limited myself to a €10 beige trench coat with a fur inner lining for the cold weather. Afterwards, we walked out of the market and into the park itself and watched some street performers in the sun. 

On our final day a problem sprung up in the camper, and some maintenance was required. We had also run out of essentials, so I went into town to get some bits (and slipped into a couple if shops) and Tom tried to fix the leak. 

Our time in Berlin was fairly expensive, but it was definitely worth it! 

Before Berlin, we were in Nuremberg, and luckily the camper parking there was free. We stayed there for four nights, and on one of the days, as we were parked in the Nazi rally ground park, we managed to sneak onto an English speaking your around the grounds. 

Prior to Nuremberg, we spent a night in Munich. The parking was at the Allianz arena - home of Bayern Munich football club. It was supposed to be €15 a night, but the barriers at the ground were broken and permanently open, so we snuck out without paying, as the guy who checked our ticket failed to notice it wasn't stamped. I decided that it was a sign from God that meant it didn't matter I had spent €15 at the night market the day before.... a girl can hope.

The night market was excellent, but again, I wanted to spend every penny I had with me. There were so many amazing clothes - English markets take note! It was so nice not having to look at table after table of strange dolls and kooky bowls. 

Today we looked round Dresden, and again thankfully the parking is free. Most of Dresden was heavily bombed in the war, so due to the chance to rebuild, the "old town" side of the river is all really picturesque. Strangely though, Dresden is really quiet, and there are only a few tourists milling about who are part of larger tours of Germany. 

Next, we head to Prague, which I'm really excited about. The further east we go, the cooler the cities become! After Prague, we head to Bratislava, and then finally, Budapest, where we still stay with some of Tom's friends before heading across Germany again to Amsterdam in time for all of Tom's friends being out there.