So we have now arrived in Hamburg after an extremely eventful two days in Berlin. I have a feeling that soon my feet might explode from the pressure of all the walking we have done. We basically walked all the sites in Berlin in one day and managed to survive!
We arrived in Berlin with three hours to spare before the game started. So much time you think! well we didn't realize that the hostel was not in the center of the city and that we had to take two trains and then a bus to the town that it was in. No big deal, two trains were easy, the bus on the other hand was not so easy, we ended up asking a girl where the street was and she acted as if she knew but i am not sure if she did. But to be honest she at least gave us a starting point. So we get off the bus and ask at a gas station where the hostel might be. Little did we know that the address was supposed to be Kornerstrasse 53 not 3! so we were walking and walking asking so many people (not speaking much english) where this street was, pointing here and there we finally found it with about an hour to go before the game. Ahhhhhhh, we dropped our bags at the hostel and started run to the train and then run to the statium and then RUN to our seats. I honestly think we ran more than the players on the field! We got there and were lucky to only miss 10 minutes of the game. It is so us, not to figure it out in enough time. But if we would have known where the hostel was we would have been fine. I was just so thankful to find the hostel and then go to the game, i almost started crying at the thought of missing the reason we came here! It was an uneventful game but such and experience. But I will let sam tell you about the Germany game experience, man -o- man!
well my cold has started to work itself through my body, starting with the throat and then the ears and then the nose and now the chest.
But we had two bad sleeping nights in the hugh berlin hostel but are so excited to be in the Hamburg hostel/ hotel, it is so nice we have our own shower and a double bed with sheets you don't have to pay for and water you can drink! I am actually going to Auf Wiedersehen and take a quick nap before the england game. Sam has a better memory of everything we have seen and will hopefully give you the run down.For all the couples with children that were going to come with us to German, we were just talking today about how hard it would have been for all the little ones like Calli and Koji, this place was backed with people and people going crazy over the germany win. We wish you could all have come but when it comes to the kids it was probably a smart decision.
Love you all
Well, it indeed has been a furiously hectic last two days after the calm of Wiesbaden, Cologne and Munster. We got bikes in Munster and joined the biking crowd. I'm not sure our arses are so grateful, being highly pedestranized (read cobbles) we rattled our way everywhere. Erika took this picture of me while riding, I'm not sure how she did it.
The cathredral was a great place, more fascinating somehow than Cologne and this astronomical clock, built in 16th century but dated forwad to 2107?!?
We went for dinner in Pinkus, which was the most German place so far, the interior was like a Brauhaus should be, the food was famously German and even a Frau, complete with blond hair and an apron. I ordered Gebrane Blutwurst, which I belatedly realized meant panfried bloodsausage, looked and tasted just like black pudding, so I was at home there.
Right after leaving the place, we had one of our genuine world-cup moments and I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture. We were on a narrow street with a couple of little pubs that had set up several big TVs outside, and so walking up the street we stopped to watch Japan vs Brazil. As you may know, Japan scored the first goal, a nice one too, and all of a sudden this one Japanese man jumped out of a pub screaming his head off to the surprise and amusement of all the germans around him. He was so excited. We moved on to watch the second half at the public large screen so I didnt see his disappointment as Brazil replied with 4 goals. Nevertheless, a good moment.Friday we headed to Berlin. As Erika mentioned, it seemed all we did that day was run against the clock. But we made it!
It was indeed a crap game, one penalty and little other excitment, but it was great to finally be part of the world cup experience. I took a little video with our diggie camera but I've still to figure out how to post that. There was a huge variety of fans, 71,000 in all, and they were the best part of the game, with the mexican waves, spontaneous chanting and flag-waving. But after that day, I didn't even stay up to watch France drag its sorry ass into the next round, we were knackered.Saturday was the most information intensive day to date, let me recap in pictures:
Treptow park soviet memorial, the pictures don't do it justice, the entire place was a Stalinist devotion to the fallen Russian soldiers.
Pergamon museum, with the Altar of Pergamon and Ishtar gate, neither shown here, but both worth paying to see alone.
Various sights, such as the New Guardhouse, which is the collective tomb for the remains of an unknown soldier, an unknown concentration camp prisoner, and a resistance fighter. We also spend a good deal of time at the Checkpoint Charlie museum and ogling remains of the Berlin wall outside and nearby
The place is stacked with stories of everyone who tried to escape, even the border guards themselves. It was a living museum, so as soon as someone escaped, they had their pictures taken and were interviewed, and went to see their own exhibit at the museum.We then tried walking to the Brandenburg gate, where they were going to show the Germany game. So we were walking directly there from the south, past Tiergarten, and it would have taken us like 5 minutes. But no, silly us, its a football game, involving Germany being shown in the heart of the city. We, (and the hundreds of fans who grew in number steadily as we got closer) were diverted around Tiergarten (the equvialent of central park, NY or Hyde park, London) I joke not it was almost as if a new berlin wall had been built around the park, so we kept walking. We missed the first 30 minutes and two goals of the game, but we could tell what was happening from the screams and cheering from everyone around us. Even the police were actually huddled in their vans watching the game from their laptop or whatever small tv they had. Finally we got there
but we couldn't even see the gate. We had to pass another three big screens before we even got to the gate. Unfortunately, there were no more goals in the game, so we missed most of the uproaring that the crowd could have done. Anyway, we got to the gate and got our picture about an hour later than we intended:
Our last stop was the Reichstag to see the wonderfully football dominated view. Adidas had this large football park right outside, even the TV tower had been converted to represent a pink football. We headed to the hauptbanhof and joined the thousands of fans streaming over the river into the station, as the game had finished and everyone was going home. At one stop when we had to change trains, they were running all over the street and rocking vans and busting eardrums with their whistles, it was crazy. Last thing we did was to head to a pub near our hostel to watch Argentina vs Mexico. Three mexicans had set up shop there and everyone was buying them drinks and toasting them. We were all disappointed for the Mexicans when Adam 'touch-me-I'll-dive' Sandler scored that wonder goal but they then got up and serenaded us with what sounded like an operatic funeral dirge, mourning their country's loss. They took it well, probably because it was Argentina.
So, we woke up late, somehow caugh the train to Hamburg. Spent five minutes trying to find our hostel in what seemed like a red-light district with all the sex shops, but it was a nice hostel after all. We haven't seen the city at all, just went to the public viewings of the England game (crap game, can you believe that the tv feed cut out just as Beckham kicked his goal?!? The only piece of excitement in the game and we didn't even see it!!) But there were a ton of portugese fans for the later game and that made it all the more exciting. The public viewing had all these tents where every country in the world cup were plying their cuisine, it was interesting to walk around and see all the different styles.
Its now monday morning and we're about to fly to Dublin. More later.
posted by SamErika @ 8:33 AM
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