Ah Berlin, I had no interest in going to you previously. Had it not been Richard's Birthday then I probably would never have made it. But that's what I've learned, sometimes its the places that you've not thought of going before that show you what you've been missing.
Its not that I had anything against Berlin per se, other than that fact that its not Italy I was sure it was a lovely place. But if I had some Euros laying around and I had some time off then my first choice would always be somewhere in Italy which is definitely the wrong attitude.
It was Richard's birthday, his 30th in fact and it was to Berlin that he wished to go and so we went. On a whistle stop weekend break to Germany. It was the middle of February and freezing. Just cold in England is below zero in Germany. Our first night there we ended up drinking giant beers and very strong mojito's while talking to a Russian guy called Vlad who was meeting some of his friends in the bar of the place where we were staying. He told us where the best Mexican food was and where all the whores were. There are a lot of them in Berlin it seems, all identifiable by their moon boots. For some reason after all that alcohol I thought it wise to go outside without my coat for my first cigarette in about 3 years. Don't worry, it was my last. Oh and the place we stayed was excellent. Its called the Circus Hotel, its in Mitte district in Berlin which is a bit more residential. They've got an eco philosophy so they've put lots of thought into the paints used and bathroom fixtures and they're colourful without being garish which I like, some colour is nice. The showers were fantastic, I expected, when they spoke of sustainability that the showers would be drippy low flow things but they were perfect, good pressure with the rainfall shower heads, I was a happy woman. Breakfast again made me happy, they had a good choice of different cereals, breads, meat and cheeses, fruit and salads and then you had a choice of teas, coffees or juices to drink. The lattes were some of the best I've had, certainly equal to those in Italy, and they were made by a lovely boy from Sydney don't you know. We wandered out and had our first proper explore of Berlin, we had wandered out briefly the night before where Russ found somewhere that sold giant slabs of marzipan wrapped in a thin layer of cake and chocolate, which he then devoured while we weren't looking. There was a very light snow falling as we walked and even though we were rugged up, the colder got in deeper than it usually did in London. The rest of our group went up the TV tower for views of Berlin but Russ and I wanted to keep walking and we wander down to a near by church to take pictures of the architecture and statues. After about an hour of walking our faces hurt from the cold so we went into a restaurant and ordered hot chocolate. When its that cold its not a treat its medicinal. Just as we finished the rest of the group wandered past and we all walked down to the Brandenberg Gate to face the onslaught of people in army uniforms offering to stamp your passport with all the former checkpoint stamps for the various sections of Berlin as it was when the wall was up. Then for no reason at all there was a man dressed as a giant chicken who kept jumping in to photos with people and then demanding money. The holocaust memorial was near by, we probably didn't spend as much time there as we could have but walking through it was very impressive. The sound of the city disappears once you're in the middle and the ground is all uneven to simulate the effect of being on a train. By this point lunch was required and we found somewhere suitably German and had currywurst and schnitzel. Oh how I love the schnitzel. Then after a tiny bit more wandering we happened upon a giant chocolate shop, the likes of which are not seen outside of Germany, which truly is the land of chocolate. They had sculptures,they had all kinds of little chocolates and they had these beautiful wood and velvet boxes that presumably very well off people would choose to take their chocolates home in.We went to their restaurant upstairs and had a cake and hot chocolate each which was entirely too much chocolate. We walked a little more down to check point Charlie to get over it. Check point Charlie seems to be where all the really touristy bits are, there were lots of tourist shops selling t shirts and pencils and soccer balls with I love Berlin or an equivalent on. There was an interesting display about the wall there though and how people escaped in speaker cases or modified tiny cars to smuggle people out. Everyone else grabbed a cab back to the hotel to rest before dinner but Russ and I did a bit more wandering and then caught a light rail back. The run those in Melbourne so it was a little bit like walking through the CBD except the signs were in German. Ooh and the first bit of flying related good fortune happened to me on this trip. We were at the airport for our flight back to London and had gotten through the gate pretty early. We were sitting there waiting for everyone else to get through when one of the guys from the airline came up to us and asked us if we didn't have to urgently get back to London, would we mind going on a later flight and he would give us 250 euro to make up for it. The next flight was only 2 hours later so we were happy to. Hurrah! My next flying related dream is to one day get upgraded, just putting it out into the universe.
So what happened while we were in Brighton, I'm going to keep this brief, we got engaged! We headed down to Brighton to pick up our dream ring thinking that we would get engaged later but once he had the ring in his pocket, Russ couldn't resist, so we got engaged in the Jamie's Italian in Brighton while talking about when we should get engaged.
Next up: Takin me Fiance to Straylia.
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