In Love With Berlin

I never imagined it possible, but I love this city!! I only came here really as a stop over en route to Denmark and not because I had this burning desire to see Berlin, but I am sure as hell glad I did pay the city a visit, as I'd have to say it's probably the best city (except for maybe Hanoi, Vietnam) that I have ever been to worldwide. There's just so much history to the place yet there is such a youthful energy to it as well. And the Germans themselves aren't as unfriendly as the rest of the world accuses them of being. I will definitely come back one day and spend a good few weeks here, I think Berlin deserves that much time.

Well, yesterday I took a walking tour of the city hosted by an American girl who, like so many other new Berliners, came here in her early twenties and decided never to return home. We travelled to all the famous sites including the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin Wall, Checkpoint Charlie, the area above Hitler's bunker (there is nothing left of the bunker so it is impossible to see the bunker itself) and, low and behold, the hotel at which Michael Jackson dangled his kid from the balcony a couple of years back. It was all so very interesting, I think particularly interesting because not long before nicking off overseas I went to the Dendy to watch the German flick 'Downfall', which detailed Hitler's last days before his and East Berlin's demises. There were quite a few sites that got the emotions going too, such as the newly created memorial for the Jews that died during the Holocaust and the crosses nearby Checkpoint Charlie recognising those that lost their lives trying to escape to the West at this infamous border checkpoint. Seeing such sites really bring home just how brutal humanity can be. It's sad, really sad.

Anyway, I am heading off to Munich in about an hour, or maybe Koln (Cologne) or wherever else I decide upon when at the train station. I'm reluctant to leave Berlin but I guess there is more to a country than it's capital city and, like I said, I will be back here anyway!

P.S. Happy Birthday Poppy (for 4 July) and Nanna (for 5 July). I love you both so much and wish you both an awesome day! Miss yas!!!!