We Heart Berlin!

Our stay in Berlin was great....Totally loved it! On the first night Arthur the guy who ran the hostel had invited us out to the cinema along with his girlfriend Jess, her cousin Steph, and a couple of other people staying in the hostel. The cinema however, was fully booked when we arrived so we got some Gluhvein (hot wine - Elliot had a beer!) and headed to an old building that locals had taken over and was using as gallery space. Very Cool! Our fave was a guy called Tim Roelfs who did collages. There was a while floor of people who made jewellry, and on the top floor a Russian artist who did massive paintings, slightly dark but very detailed... (we later bought a couple of prints :))

We were then taken to a bar next door which, when I walked in, I obviously didnt notice the huge metal dragon I was stood under and when it started the breath fire - crapped myself! Think the bar staff found it amusing! Was a really ace place though, but could only stay for about half an hour as there was a band on and we hadn't paid the entry fee. We walked back to the hostel in the snow, and went to the Curry Wurst stall that was near by with an Indian guy who was staying at the hostel (who we called Raggy - Raghav). We had seen Curry Wurst advertised everywhere but had NO idea what it was. Turns out its a German sausage, usually cut up into pieces with a tomato sauce on and loads of curry powder! Its DELICIOUS! My new fave food... We went back to bed in our shared single bottom bunk!! Slept rather well to start with but then the Australian guy, Brad from our room (who we had earlier been for a drink with in Belushis) got back absolutely WASTED and kept everyone awake for ages. He ended up crying and eventually being quiet...odd boy!

On our first full day we did as we had promised to do and did the walking tour. This was a free one that took you to most of the historical places. Started at Brandenburg Gate, went to the Hollocaust Memorial, the site of Hitlers bunker, Nazi Airforce building, Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie (some more curry wurst for lunch) then to some cathedrals, a Christmas Market and ended on Museum Island. Was very interesting and the girl who took the tour was great! (if you go on the New Berlin Free Tour try to get Stephanie the New Zealand girl!!) We wandered about some more, met up with Raggy on Friedrichstrabe and walked back to the hostel together. It was his last day in the hostel which was a shame cause he was fun and had very good knowledge of UK football so him and Elliot got on very well! But we said fairwell, and had a lazy night in in the hostel.

The next day, New Years Eve Eve, we decided it would be best if we bought our tickets for the pub crawl! We went to the TV Tower at Alexanderplatz and met up with the tour group who were arranging the pub crawl. €35 each later we had our New Years Evil tickets :D It was snowing really heavily, and we wandered about the area. They had an outdoor museum with info about the war etc which we read through, and we went to a HUGE shopping centre for lunch and a paroooze. Ended up going to Belushis again for a drink where we saw Brad again and he apologised for the other night (LOL). We had booked ourselves in for Avatar tonight, so went back to meet Arthur, Jess and Steph and went off to the Sony Centre IMAX again. The film was very impressive. I enjoyed it a lot. Elliot didn't so much, but was a nice night anyway!

New Years Eve! We decided to take it easy as we knew we had a big night ahead...We went back to Potsdamer Plats where the Sony Centre is, and Elliot dragged me on a huge sledge run (which was totally ace!!) and we just wandered around. There was a big section of the Berlin wall there and an outdoor museum. The snow was SO thick, ridiculous! After several snowball fights we headed back and started to get ready. We had had to move rooms after the first night, and we were sharing a room with some Aussie girls and some Brazilian boys. We had some of the €1 beers Arthur sold and made our way to the first stop of the crawl which was the Yesterday Bar! Very cool with a fake lab set up and mushrooms on the ceiling and fake people sat at the bar :) We were split up into 2 groups and went to the next bar which for our group was the gothic bar (Last Cathedral!) Free shot on your way in. It was very.....gothic. Got called "fucking tourists" as we went in by a local....NICE! After some time there we went to the next bar which was a swing bar, cant remember the name but very nice. Free cocktail and shot on the way in. Lots of dancing done by me and Elliot! Then off to the next place which is where we all grouped up and spend midnight. It was an outdoor complex place and there were 2 bars with different music on, food stalls, and a massive outdoor area (covered in DEEP snow!) with bonfires by the river. It was so lovely and really quiet! We were all very drunk, felt like me and Elliot were worse though haha and when midnight struck we all ran about hugging and watching the fireworks by the river. Was lovely :) A group of people had bought loads of champagne and left it chilling in the snow and pulled it out at midnight to share about. After this lovely joyful New Years I then think I lost the camera. I was so gutted as all the pics from the last few days were on there!! I cried lots and tried for ages to find it in the club to no avail and we lost the group at the metro station! GUTTED! After we got off the metro, Elliot discovers he had it in his pocket all along....OMG I COULD HAVE KILLED HIM! But I was just happy we had it!! Luckily Arthur knew the clubs we were going to and had put them on our map before we left, so although we lost the group we still miraculously managed to find the final club! And just as we arrived the group was just going in the side entrance THANK GOD cause the normal queue was HUGE! We danced a lot and stayed til god knows what time....Got the trains back and went to bed. I think it was about 4-5am?? And we thought we were going to be the first ones back as everyone seemed up for a right big night out when we left, but everyone was in bed!! Apart from one Aussie guy who was staying up so he didn't miss his early flight...Losers! We had an awesome night anyway :)

Obviously not much to say about the next day, sleep, hangover and diet cokes in Belushis - Thats all!! Spoke to everyone else in the hostel who did the Brandenburg gate for New Years and they all had a very disappointing night as it was freezing and rammed full...Unlucky!

For the last full day, we decided to do the Alternative Tour (by the people who arranged the New Years Evil) which was very interesting. Showed you a lot of the Graffiti artists work around the city. He took us to the same place Arthur had taken us on our first night and it ended in the complex that we spent New Years!! But was still interesting.

The next day was our last. It was bitterly cold, the coldest day so far! We walked to the flea market down the road, but was too cold to enjoy it to its fullest!! Although it was very interesting, we had to head back and collect our bags to go to the airport. Was really sad leaving Hostel Aloha and saying goodbye as we had totally loved it and it felt like a home from home...But we left and went to the airport. HUGE queues and a very very long wait as the flight was delayed but eventually got on and settled down for the 12ish hour flight to Beijing!