Berlin pictures and all (The Elin and Eiko part of the week)

I left Stockholm very early in the morning. It was raining and it was cold.

The first thing that met me after taking the train from Schönefelt to Hauptbahnhof was the logo of a Swedish company. (I actually surprised someone a few days later by pronouncing and translating it. It IS a real word and it means waterfall)

Desperately looking for something that didn’t resemble Sweden I focused on the sign on the train telling you where to get on with a bicycle.

The weather wasn’t the best so Elin and I decided to climb the big staircase going nowhere another day. That day never came though.

Elin have found a lot of people in the cities she’s visited through CouchSurfing (.org). We actually found the page independent of each other. I have been a big fan of CS ever since I joined, but this was my first time using it as a guest. Eiko was my first host and even though he was quite busy he made it a great experience.

Eiko did a bit of studying in the Couch, surrounded by our things.

Elin and I wandered about Berlin a lot the days she was there and this is a short summary:

A church we never looked closer at.

Another church, but we had a look inside this one.

We decided that Hitler makes a nice Lego character.

Elin.

The Tele tower sometime during the 60;s?

Me by a fountain.

Elin found a girlfriend. But as we all know she’s not always that well mannered. They did make up quite fast again though.

The Central Station in Stockholm has nothing on the Hauptbahnhof. This picture is taken from the middle floor.

What’s the time where you are now?

The compulsory Berlin picture

I asked the guide what the thing with the boats was all about. She said she didn’t know, but said that there had been a big anchor in the middle of the square the week earlier.

We did some American things too. Like Dunkin Donuts and KFC…

Der Reichstag. You can get up to the very top of the glass roof. When the politicians forget whom there representing, all they have to do is look up.

Propaganda

A huge reminder of the people who died due to the ethnic cleansing during the Second World War.

Now days the ruins of the wall is protected by… a wall.

The stones are placed all along the line where the wall once stood. Sometimes they disappear into a bush or something, but there always there.

The old East Berlin Ampelmann (now all over town ^.^)

“Trains to Life, Trains to Death”
Someone had put fresh flowers in the hands of the statues.

These pumps are all over Berlin. And they work!

Just a bunch of nice buildings and a painted wall (you don’t find that in Stockholm):

In Sweden we put a sign on the door saying “No commercial!!!! on it. I like this better. The mailbox simply says “Letters and papers”.

Eiko’s eggcups suited nicely for eggnog.

Very late on Elin’s last night in Berlin we decided to go out. At Kottbusser Tor we found an almost empty place with music we liked.



We realized that two nice drinks could be bought for less than a cheap drink in Sweden.












But the beer was equally cheap. (or maybe it’s Sweden that’s expensive…)

Time

I can't remember the last time I was as popular as I was this last week. As soon as my regular sim-card had found it's way into the telephone it started beeping, asking me all kinds of questions and even more could be found on the answering machine.

Therefore I'm still not finished sorting out which pictures to post on the blog. I hope you're all a patient bunch (though some of you have already asked for another post), and I'll get everything up here as soon as possible.

Too much fun

Dear blog readers. I've tried to find the time to write here. As you might have noticed I'm not doing that well. I still can't get the computers here to read the memorycard from my camera so there's no pictures in this post.



Elin and I explored as much of Berlin as we were able to in the little time we had. We went to Kurfürstendamm where we found ourselves some warm clothes and wondered what all the fuss was about. We took one of those (tip based) free tours led by an Austrailian, Elin says they always are, and felt that we got to see most of the sights. I've eaten at KFC and DunkingDonuts for the first time btw. though that's not very German i suppose. We have wondered about the difference between the S-bahn and the U-bahn, noticed the waterpumps all over town, that youre not allowed to play fotball on the playgrounds and that you insert the keys in the locks upsidedown from what we're used to.
The last night Elin was here we went out to have a drink and dance a little and on the 15 th Elin continued to Prauge and I went to see my next CS-host Judith.

Yesterday Judith, Suzanne, Ida and I went out partying. I'll try to post a bunch of pictures tomorow and you'll get to see Judith in traditional Bavarian clothing (octoberfest style ^.^). We started at the ackerkeller wich is a really cosy place much like the ones I wish we still had in Stockholm and then went on to SchwuZ. I really wish Elin could have seen SchwuZ. I think it's the type of place her friends have talked about when they've told her about the Berlin nightlife.

I'm going back to Stockholm tomorow and I'll do my best to give you a big post with lots of pictures as soon as I'm able to use my own computer again. There I'll tell you all about the Jewish museum with the metal detectors at the entrance and what conclutions Ida and I came to when batteling for best Scandinavian country over dinner yesterday.

Hallo Berlin!

At 07.50 this morning i set foot on the land where my grandfather was born. But this is not a story of my grandfather. This is a story about me going to Germany to meet my sister who has gone interrailing.

I took my time getting from the airport to Hauptbahnhof where I was supposed to meet my sister, and I still spent over two hours waiting for her. When she finally arrived we ate and went to our couchsurfinghosts apartiment. Here everything is great even though the heatingsystem isn't working properly. Eiko is really nice and we seem to have a lot to talk about.

I know I have promised a lot of pictures. Unfortunately the computer here can't read the memorycard from my camera so you will have to make do with the one I took with my mobilecamera.

This was my breakfast today. A butter croassant with cheese. Not the weirdest breakfast I've ever had, but still.

Right now we are all quite tired and someone will wake us all up at 07.00 tomorow to fix the heat so I don't think we'll be going out on town anything tonight.