Berlin so far

Hello again,

Well I survived the last day in Norway- packing followed by an evening BBQ and swim in the fjord at Bygdøy. It was a lovely evening, nice and warm so we enjoyed using up our remaining alcohol (special thanks to the Spanish girls who brought Sangria!) and chatting as we pretended that the sun went down. The three Spanish girls and I were all leaving the next day, making the number of medical students remaining dwindle even lower.

The next day I was up very early after a late night spent sorting out the multitude of things to sort out- trips to the bin and glass bins with rubbish, finding room for the things I was keeping and deciding what to leave behind for the next group of Aussies, cleaning my room up and finalising my travel arrangements.

My bus left town at 11:15am so my housemates kindly offered to escort me to the train station and assist with my luggage. I stopped off briefly on the way to hand my keys to one of the German students who had offered to drop them in for me and made it into town with plenty of time to scout out the bus and get to the front of the queue in order to ensure that my luggage made it on the bus and I had some say as to where I sat (Norwegians are very, very good at elbowing forward, but I didn't spend a semester here for nothing!)

It was weird heading into town knowing it was the last time I'd read Norwegian ads on the train, the last time I'd go past Nationaltheatret station, the last time I'd hear the first Norwegian phrase that everyone learns: "dørene lukkes (doors closing)", the last time I'd head into central station, the last time I'd catch the bus out of Oslo... I was definitely sad to leave, it's been an amazing semester. At the same time though, I was really looking forward to Berlin and visiting Lena. I think it will hit me more when I head home: though I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again, in a few weeks time life will have picked up just where it left off and I don't think I want this adventure to end!

When I was searching for information about the facilities on board Swebus Express I discovered a whole series of articles outlining a crime ring operating on these buses. Basically passengers would load an oversize bag into the baggage area and when other passengers arrived at their destination they would discover they had been robbed. Turns out the oversize bag contained a short statured person who had all the time in the world to rifle through bags and select the best pickings! With that in mind, I took special care to ensure that I carefully locked all the bags I was to be storing below decks on the bus!

The bus wound its way from Oslo to Gothenburg in Sweden, followed by Halmstad, Helsingsborg, Lund, Malmo (all in Sweden) and then over the bridge and through a tunnel to Copenhagen. The Swedish countryside was a stunning backdrop as I surfed the free onboard wireless, read books and relaxed.

In Copenhagen I had an hour and a half to kill before boarding at 9:30pm for the overnight bus to Berlin. I had thought the night bus would help me save on the costs of accommodation as well as allowing me to get to Germany with a whole day ahead of me. Perhaps not the best idea, as I forgot to factor in the 45 minute ferry journey between Denmark and Germany at midnight, which required us all to get off the bus. Nevertheless, it was cool to cross four countries in a day and I'm impressed by the ferry: the train to Germany also goes on this ferry to get across the waters!

After about 2 hours of restless sleep we arrived in Berlin at 5am, 45 minutes early. Whilst a relief to get there I soon missed the warm and comfortable bus as we (myself and two punks I met on the bus) wandered around trying to find a coffee shop that was open, me dragging all my luggage around. Giving up, we headed to the bus station waiting room to hang around for a few hours, figuring that 5am was probably a bit early to rock up at a hostel.

They escorted me most of the way to my hostel (they were going a few stops further along my line) and I then walked the remaining km or so with my luggage, despite getting lost a few times and asking in my halting German where to go. Luckily I found the hostel and was able to leave my luggage there and have a shower before joining a free walking tour that was leaving the hostel about an hour after I got there.

The walking tour ran like this: a guy from the company came and picked us up and escorted us to a large group near the Brandenburg Gate. There, we met up with the groups picked up from all the hostels and were split into different language groups. The large number of English speakers meant we were all given a number and the guides then called out a series of numbers who they then met to take them on the tour. As a guide, I think there were about 100-150 numbers given out to the English speakers, plus German and Spanish tours were run. And these tours run 2-3 times a day, most days of the week!

Our tour guide was a New Zealander who had lived here about 6 months. A history nerd (like me) she was fantastic as we went on a four hour tour of all the main sites of Berlin: Brandenburg gate, Holocaust memorial, the wall, the former Luftwaffe building, the French and German churches, Museum Island and Berliner Dom, Reichstag and so on. She told us a well organised and detailed history, answered all our questions well and gave recommendations about what to see and do (and what to avoid). At the end she offered to answer any other questions we had such about the city or what to do here. The tours were 100% free although you were encouraged (though it was only mentioned once) to tip the guides as they do not get paid for these tours. Most people gave her 5 euro, and there were 30-40 people in our group, so I'd say she gets quite well paid!

Berlin is a fascinating city: full of modern history to keep me happy, lots of interesting buildings (many of them rebuilt eg the Reichstag!) and heaps of memorials, with striking symbolism which our guide explained well. There's also some impressive modern buildings such as the main train station, so big and modern it could have easily been a terminal in Singapore airport and the glass dome on top of the Reichstag which allows people to look down upon the pollies. Equally, there are the massive apartment blocks from the Soviet Era and huge wide open spaces.

Following my long night and 4 hour walking tour I found my way back to the hostel where I was told the bad news: my room was on the 3rd floor of a building in which each floor was 2 levels deep. And: there's no lift. Although I followed the reception staff member's helpful suggestion to look for a cute boy to carry it for me, the complete absence of any prospects forced me to complete the journey with first my suitcase and then backpack by myself. I may have to time things better when I move out....

Not surprisingly, after a quick trip to the supermarket across the road to arrange some dinner (and marvel at the cheap prices after so long in Norway!) I was knackered and hit the sack for a deliciously long night's sleep.

This morning I rose and made my way to Alexanderplatz to meet up with an Aussie girl I met yesterday. We had decided to go to the former concentration camp, Sachsenhausen, on tour. The camp is about 1 hours train ride from Berlin and so we met up with a guide who took us out there and gave us a 3 and a half hour tour of the camp for only 10 euro.

Sachsenhausen was a 'model' concentration (not extermination) camp and was also the HQ of the Nazi concentration camp machine. It is located near a town called Oranienburg and it is very strange to walk there from the train station: you turn down a suburban street and suddenly it is in front of you. Many of the nearby houses are two or three stories and hence they had views straight into the camp.

Some facts about Sachsenhausen: it was originally designed in a triangle shape so that the main guard house could view all areas of the camp at once, thereby reducing the number of staff needed to run the camp. It was the sight of the large counterfeiting operation of British notes run during the war (virtually indistinguishable from real notes, even by the banks in Britian). One punishment work squad were forced to march 40km around a circular track to test out the soles of Army boots. Often they were given 30kg backpacks or various stimulants to test as well. One of the former Jewish barracks was the victim of a Neonazi arson attack in the early 1990s and the barracks were reconstructed whilst keeping the evidence of burning in place to remind people of the event.

The tour was a good way of seeing it, although if I was going again I think I would be just as satisfied with an audio guide and taking the camp at my own pace, particularly as it was a very hot and humid day. However, he did give a very complete history of the place. Particularly fascinating was the way the camp had changed over the years: from concentration camp, to a Soviet camp until 1950, to a Soviet memorial to political enemies of the Nazis (without mention of the other prisoners interred there) to a modern day memorial to all victims of the camp's history (during the Third Reich and the Soviet era). Like much of Berlin, it seems, many of the buildings were reconstructions rebuilt to show visitors what they were once like. The Soviets knocked a lot of things down and constructed huge communist memorials which overshadow many of the remaining buildings. Our guide was horrified to tell of the attempt after the war to blow up the former crematorium in order for the Soviets to build a shooting range! The foundations of the building are still there, though badly destroyed from this attempt. Visiting was a moving experience, but something I have wanted to do since I was about 16, so I'm really glad I went.

Following our tour the others headed off to catch the bus and then the train whilst I remained to peruse the bookshop before also heading back into town. I was back in Berlin by about 4pm so went for a stroll in the main station (to work out where to go on Sunday before I'm weighed down!) and then decided to hit the museums. The museums on Museum Island are open from 6-10pm on Thursdays and most offer free entry at this time. I first went to the Pergamon museum but left when I discovered they were not offering free entry as they had a special exhibition included in the entry price. I then headed to the Bode museum to look at art from the renaissance. It was an interesting way to spend an hour or so, but as it's not something I know a lot about I decided to move on to the next museum.

Construction work made the next museum difficult to find and dwindling energy supplies after 8 hours wandering round in the sun further lowered my motivation to look at ancient Egypt. I was just about to give up and go for dinner when I discovered a further museum on the banks of the river: the DDR museum, which detailed life in East Germany before the wall came down. A very interactive museum, for only 3.50 for students, it was a great way to spend an hour looking and playing with all aspects of life in those times- from trying to start the cars they had, to watching propaganda films and investigating typical apartments.

By this stage I was shattered and ready to pack it in. I walked back to Alexanderplatz to get on the u-bahn (subway) home when suddenly I noticed a commotion on another platform. Turns out Berlin Fashion Week (which we had already encountered on our walking tour) had commandeered a train in the platform and was running some sort of shoot or something. It was great to watch the scantily clad (and that's only the audience) and fashionistas observing the process and commenting on the models they saw.

Anyway, that's my first two days here. Tomorrow: an interview, more museums, then hopefully a swim in a lake nearby to cool off!

Anneke