Frankfurt

We had an overnight stay in Frankfurt so that Tim and Bill could experiance some German food and of course beers. We headed into the town centre after a long bus ride from the airport, the place was a mix of old and new with massive skyscrapers as well as medieval looking houses and churches which had been rebuild after the war. We went to a couple of nice pubs and sampled some steins as well as having a huge pork knuckle for dinner. The pubs were pretty quiet for a Saturday night, nothing like the party central cities of Berlin or Hamburg.

Hamburg

Hamburg is a port city and our hotel is just near the wharf and is pretty decent for once. On our first night we headed to a street called the Reeperbahn, it has the best clubs in the city but is also the most seedy area in Germany. There is about 100 strip clubs and sex stores. We found an Irish bar in between some strip clubs and it had some live music and decent prices. There was also a fair just near our hotel, it was kind of like the Ekka. I won Mel a world cup lion after some hard work on a side show game. We also went on the Ferris Wheel and the batteries on the camera ran out just as we took the first shot. Today we walked around the city and to the major historic buildings, we then went back to the Reeperbahn and a Ramdom old German man bought me a beer and kept talking about how much he loved Midnight Oil, that was about the only word we understood. We left after about 30 mins, funny stuff. Talking about old men we saw our first fight in Berlin outside a kebab shop at 1pm in the afternoon. A 50 something guy from Naples asked if we were Americans we quickly said no and then he loved us when we said we were Aussies. He then started badmouthing Berlin in a mix of English, German and Itailian. After about 5 mins a 60 something year old Berliner came out of the shop pushed him then kneed him in the balls. The Italian then crash tackled him to the ground. The fight was then broken up and we finished our kebab and walked back to get our Laundry.

Berlin Pubcrawl

Berlin

We are having a great time in Berlin, yesterday we went on a Third Reich walking tour and saw where Hitlers bunker was located, the SS building, Air Ministry and the few surviving Third Reich buildings. The Tour guide was from NZ but he knew what he was talking about, we got a few bad looks from some older people on the street when he was yelling out Hitler, SS, Nazis etc but we finished the tour without too much trouble. It was well worth the 10 euros. We then went on a pub crawl organised by the same people. It cost 10 euros and included 3 free beer kegs at the start and free vodka shots all night. As you could imagine it was very messy, met a few nice Aussies and Americans. After strggling to get up this morning we went for a walk around town and have seen most of the big sites including the Reichstag, checkpoint Chalie etc.

Dresden

Been taking it pretty easy here, had a look around the city on the first day and looked at the old town which has been rebuilt since the Allies fire bombed it in the closing stages of WW2. We went to the Zoo today and it was pretty good, a lot of animals in a small area. We are staying in a nice hotel here which is a change, no hardcore partying and drinking unlike in Prague. I am still recovering from all the massive day long sessions at the Hostel with the Kiwis, Americans, Brazilians, Itailians and even Egyptions. I also have a nice reminder of the hostel with the hundred or so bed bug bites which are still iching! Heading to Berlin tommorrow. Brett