Little green men everywhere. On every street corner, at every intersection… Little green men!!! I was so lucky to even get a photo of one!!! (see photo below).

 

That’s right we have made it some 20,000km (half the circumference of the world) overland to Germany!

 

[Berlin, Germany]

Berlin is amazing… Such a breath of fresh air, an inspiring city. (And we are getting pretty good at picking them). The orientation of the city is fascinating, as Berlin was divided into four sections (along with the country) after WWII and then the east and west were further divided by a wall to keep the soviet section of Berlin separate from the capitalist section. The wall was up for 28 years, and when it came down there was more like two cities side by side with different viewpoints. This has led to an open mindedness like no other city in Europe (quoting the Lonely Planet here).

 

The bahn system (public transport system) stands out and really makes the vastness of the city extremely accessible. With a mesh of criss crossing under ground, on the street, and above the street transport options. Trains and trams wizz into stops every few minutes. Needless to say bikes are also rampid here.

 

They put Australia to same in term of forward thinking, with recycling everywhere and deeply ingrained into the physic. And much more sensible devision of rental rates, passing on the cost of water, rubbish, cleaning, heating, accommodation, etc to tenets instead of the landlord who lumps it all together in ‘rent’. This has the effect of reducing consumption of these services, making for a more efficient whole system.

 

After arriving we decided to head out and see a flick, having decided in Singapore to go to the cinemas in every capital city… Although its been a while since any cities have been screening English language films (in English). Afterwards we were standing on the S-barn waiting for our train when Ellie spotted Sam & Leonie…

 

[Sam & Leonie]

Turns our Sam & Leonie are Australians living and working in Berlin. Ellie’s sister, Jaree, studied with Sam at Tubening. Shortly after meeting Saw whisked us away for a beer in a bar with over 100 types of beer. Quite an impressive drinks menu, with beer from just about every major province in Germany. They after describing the average hostel we stumbled upon to them they were so kind as to put us up in their apartment for the remainder of our stay in Berlin. Which has been an absolute godsend, having even taken us on a walking tour of Berlin! They work all day, so we have been sleeping in and gloating in the privacy of a whole apartment, having spent weeks without a double bed, sleeping on train bunks, and in hostel dorms.

 

Anyway we are about to go out exploring again, although it does look like rain outside… Yes rain!!! We have escaped the Siberian winter, o glorious rain.

 

Bis spatter (see you later)

 

Nathan

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Posted on February 26th, 2007 :: Filed under Travel
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