BERLIN!

This place is very cool! We have just been go go go for the past three days, taking is as much history and culture and awesome Kebabs (Berlin is the second largest centre for Turkish people other than Istanbul) as humanly possible.

Yesterday we did a free walking tour of the city and I totally recommend it to anyone who visits here. The tourguide was so passionate about the city and about the history and the 5 hours of walking around went by so fast. I really had no idea of the history of the Berlin Wall and now that I do it is just remarkable that it happened, and not even that long ago! So we saw the Reichstag (the parliamentary building that Hitler may or may not have burnt down to gain full power in the 30's), Brandenburg's Gate with the famous peace/war lady on top, saw the site where Hitler's bunker (site of his suicide) used to be, a part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and learnt of the amazing escape efforts of East Berliners at Checkpoint Charlie Museum.

One story that amazed me and kinda made me laugh was about one couple that got separated when the wall went up. The gentleman found a new girlfriend on his side that looked like his wife who was stuck in the East, unable to get out. He convinced his girlfriend to go on a day trip with him to 'the other side' and swapped themover - giving his wife the girlfriend's passport and visa and everything. Very cunning but he got caught and thrown in jail unfortunately.

We went up into the Reichstag building today and the dome from the inside is so cool! All mirrors and glassy and very impressive. A very good view of the city from the top too.

Tomorrow we travel to another German city - Leipzig, stay tuned.