BERLIN, Germany!

04 April 2015
The bus ride over to Germany surprisingly was not that bad. I got to the Sloterdijk bus in Amsterdam at around 11.20 because it was sort of confusing to find once I got off the train. They checked my ticket, made sure I had my passport and then I chose a seat. We left on time (this was a German company, afterall) and about midway through at 4am or so about 4 German policemen stopped the bus to do a passport check. The entire thing felt like something out of a movie. We arrived in Berlin at 9.30ish. I was EXHAUSTED. I collected my bags, walked to the nearest U Bahn station and hopped on the train to get to my hostel. I got there at 10ish but I couldn't actually check in til 2pm so I plugged in my laptop, watched Netflix and hung out for a few hours.

I'll be honest, I didn't do anything at all that day. I was too tired to be excited. I figured well, an overnight bus will save me a day of traveling and I can use that day to explore but I was wrong. I went to sleep soon after checking in. The hostel (Wombats - Berlin) had a kitchen so at 7pm or so I got up, walked to Lidl got a ton of groceries for less than 5 euros and went back to sleeping.

05 April 2015
Ok! So I'd had enough rest. It was a new day and I wanted to see what Berlin had to offer. There was a free walking tour at another hostel at 10.30 am so decided to do that. It left near Alexanderplatz which was one train station away or a 15 minutes walk so I just walked. It was very informative. The host Artemis was a Greek expat. She was very knowledgeable yet very opinionated but I'd recommend doing the tour if she's offering. She's fun. We saw the tourist highlights. The TV Tower, Brandenburg Tor, Checkpoint Charlie, the Berliner Dom. There's so much history in Berlin. It's amazing.

I hadn't realized that this was Easter weekend. So most things were closed or had very limited opening hours that weekend ='(  especially many of the museums I wanted to visit. But that was okay.

When the tour was over, I went back to sites that I found interesting in the tour.


06 April 2015
I did another walking tour because why not! This time I went with Sandeman's Berlin tour! Unlike the one in Amsterdam, this one was actually very good! Our tour guide was Australian expat who didn't smile, joke or laugh much but knew sooo much about everything! Here are some pictures.

07 April 2015
Today, I ran around Berlin trying to find souvenirs for family. Berlin was incredibly cheap but the souvenirs were actually kinda pricey. I also went around to more museums and just walked around the city trying to get lost in it's history.
08 April 2015
Time to leave this amazing city! My flight left from Schonefeld airport so that required me to take the U-Bahn from Rosa Luxembourg Platz to Alexanderplatz. From there I'd get off and head to another level of Alexanderplatz to catch a direct S-Bahn to the airport. Alexanderplatz is huge and I caught the train with 2 minutes to spare.

Back to Dublin before my next adventure!