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…)

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.