Exit Germany

Berlin, Germany to Amman, Jordan, via Gatwick, England!

So last time I let off at a point where my brother and I were about to exit Germany - him to go home, and me to fly to Jordan, but it was to be a little drama filled...

Waiting for the train that didn't arrive

The last morning in Berlin we looked up the train times to the airport for later, to allow Chris to get to his flight home in plenty of time, and knew we had to be back at the hostel by 3.30pm to catch the train there. At around 3pm a little way across town, we went to get the subway back to the hostel, only to find it wasn't running on that route due to maintenance, so had no option but to walk back instead and therefore missed the first train to the airport. No problem we thought, plenty of time still. He got his bag from the hostel and we then went to the station, but once on the platform, despite it clearly showing 'airport' on the screen the train simply didn't turn up. A problem. We went to the ticket office to check, who told us another train was due in half an hour and where to go, which was pushing things tight but he could just catch the flight if he ran. And low and behold, despite doing everything right, that train didn't turn up either. It was very strange, and we couldn't seem to get an explanation from anyone for it. But that was it - Chris missed the flight - a bad end to a good week. He eventually got to the airport, and had to pay £70 to catch the next one.

In the meantime, my passport was ready for collection in the Indian Embassy - I'd had to leave it there for a few days to apply for a visa to visit, and you can only collect them between 4.30 and 5.30pm. I was flying later that evening so HAD to get it back. But because I couldn't have just abandonned my brother amongst the problems, I was now running very late. Two subway trains later, and a half mile sprint later, I got to the embassy at 5.25... Phew, disaster just averted.

  

I managed to get to the airport with plenty of time, to find my brother was on the same flight as me. Which might sound odd since he was going home, but the reason for this was that the only sensibly priced flight for me to get to Jordan was via Gatwick, England with easyJet - everything else was nearly twice the price. I was going home, but not going home! 

The flight was fine bar a very sketchy landing, and after collecting my bag I said my goodbyes to Chris and went to wait for my connecting flight in the morning. After nearly four months away, I was on English soil - It was a very strange feeling I tell you, partly because I was only there for nine hours. I had mixed feelings about whether I should have left a gap between my next flight and gone home for a few days, but rightly or wrongly decided not to. It would interrupt the flow of this trip, and wouldn't feel right. If I'm away, I'm away. My consolation was a splurge in the airport Marks and Spencer for a taste of home. I then found myself a row of seats and settled down for the night... for I was sleeping in the airport!

Gatwick Airport, a very odd view. Looks like I'm wearing a skirt. I'm not.

Final thoughts on Germany

I got thinking about my time in Germany. In all I've spent just over a month there on this trip, and it's been fascinating. Whilst I've met and chatted to many Germans, I've not felt I've managed to get under the skin of the country as much as I'd have liked to, to really understand the people and culture. I think I was spoilt in that respect in Sweden. But I've seen enough to realise that the Germans are really not as different to us Brits as you might think. The country isn't as over organised, serious, and expensive as the stereotypes say. The people are friendly and have a sense of humor. Germany being expensive is a bit of a myth - German products we see at home are often expensive, but that's because they're of a superior quality. With normal stuff, I felt the costs were pretty similar to the UK, though supermarket food and beer is cheaper. Of course in terms of common backpacking places, it isn't by any means cheap.

I only found a few areas where the scenery was particularly interesting, but there is a real depth of history, and loads of interesting stuff to see. The weather has put a bit of a downer on things sometimes though, with some of the cold and wet spells and I must say it made me question why I was doing this trip the odd time. Which looking back really meant, questioning why I was in a cold country similar to home, when I could be somewhere hot and different. No regrets though, it really has been great.

Anyway, back to the airport. I managed to sleep surprisingly well for five or six hours, given that I was lying across a row of seats. I was pretty paranoid about the security of my valuables whilst I slept, so put everything in my pockets, got inside my sleeping bag liner, and it all ended up fine. The next morning I went to departures, and boarded the plane - next stop, Jordan. We flew back over Germany, then down over Slovakia, Croatia, Greece, Cyprus and Israel, and finally started descending over very different scenery - the scrubby desert of the Middle East.

Kent countryside

Over the Austrian alps. Amazing.

Slovakia

Over Greece

First sight of Jordan

Berlin brothers

Berlin, Germany

The past few days in Berlin have been brilliant. Despite it being bitterly cold at times, having my brother Chris in tow has been great, making everything more enjoyable and given me a fresh perspective towards this trip. 

He's in his first few months working as a doctor in Lincoln, and the hours and stress have taken their toll a bit, so he was equally as pleased to be out here for a break. Monday therefore started with a lie in, for him anyway, before heading off to be proper touristy and see the main sights. We stopped first at the Brandenburg gate - an icon of Germany due to its prominence through WWII and the Cold War, followed by a walk through the park past the Reichstag - the German parliament, down through the park to the Viktoria statue and a bus ride down to the other end of town via 'Checkpoint Charlie', before getting off by the cathedral to look in the DDR museum which told the story of life in East Germany before the Berlin Wall fell. Phew. With Chris finishing looking round way before me, I realised I sometimes spend a bit too long looking at everything in these places without necessarily taking it all in. He has got a short attention span mind.

Brandenburg Gate

After, a stroll to the Alexanderplatz area, a Currywurst and chips (classic Berlin fast food) for lunch then a bus ride back across town for our booking to go up in the Reichstag dome. This glass and steel dome hovers over the main debating room of the German parliament, and is a real icon of the city. It, along with the parliament was burnt down, slightly suspiciously, just as Hitler entered power and was only fully rebuilt in the nineties after the two Germanys became one. It's a stunning building, and the dome above had great panoramic views over the city, and some info on the German government today. To round the evening off, we went for my first pizza in three months, accompanied by a decent German wheat beer. Proper.

The Reichstag - German parliament 

Tuesday was Berlin Wall day. Chris doesn't cycle much, but I somehow managed to persuade him to join me in hiring a bike and following part of the route where the wall used to stand. It was marked right through the city by a line of bricks in the road, and in a few special places the original wall still stands, as well as various info and photo points showing then and now. One piece in particular opened our eyes - they had restored a hundred meter section to exactly how it was in that era, comprising a double concrete wall with barbed wire and access track between, and watch towers looming over. It would have been a pretty grim time to be a German. Further along we managed to track down an unrelated sight - that of where Hitler's underground wartime bunker was located. It's now completely filled in and exists as a car park, but the information by it showed exactly where everything was. It was here that he committed suicide, then was burnt outside by soldiers. We kept cycling after this until dark, ending up at the east side gallery - an original section of the wall, nearly a mile long which various artists and painted muras, mostly based around peace, the wars and the city.

Berlin Wall section

It was my last night, and nearly the end of Chris's flying visit already, so we went out to a German restaurant for tea. He had a bad stomach so kept it simple with steak, I went proper German and had rolled beef and bacon, with red cabbage and potatoes, followed by Apple strudel. An excellent final meal. Chris's stomach soon improved, so we found a traditional pub to try a local brew, then for the true German experience, drank out of one litre glasses back at the hostel.

The final day was to be a bit on the short side because we both had flights later on, so we headed to Berlin Olympic stadium. This was another Hitler idea - to host the Olympics in 1936 and show what a great country they were (but hide all the racism and murders). After falling to rack and ruin post-war, it was gutted and rebuilt for the 2006 football World Cup. With Chris being a big football fan, we paid to go in and have a look about. The grandeur of it all was pretty impressive, though it wasn't as stunning as some of the other Olympic parks I've visited. 

After this it was time for both of us to be on our way to the airport, which was a bit drama filled but that's a story for next time...

1936 Berlin Olympic stadium

East side gallery

The last supper... In Germany

Back to Germany

Berlin, Germany

Poland was a fun little excursion for a few days and I'd like to have stayed longer, but unfortunately I had a bit of a deadline to meet back in Berlin to get a visa.

I'm heading to India in a few weeks and having looked into it found that I need to apply for a visa to visit. Visas are funny things - often when they're required you just pay for them on arrival and it's quick and painless, but the Indian one seems to be an exception involving going to the nearest embassy, filling in loads of forms, a big fee and a five-seven day wait. So this was half of last Tuesday gone, with the other half down to sorting out some chores, and as I was passing, a look in Germany's version of Harrods which was every bit as grand and expensive as you'd expect.

Holocaust Memorial

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It was back to normal on the Wednesday, starting with a wander to the Bauhaus museum. The Bauhaus movement was something I studied at Uni years ago so was interesting to see it first hand - a German design school from the 1920's which was very influential in modernising the look of products and buildings. After this, a walk through the Holocaust memorial, and across town to look around a museum called the Topographie des Terrors - a small building in a huge clearing, where once stood the headquarters and offices of the Nazi regime. It felt pretty odd stood outside, looking at this patch of land and trying to comprehend that so much evil and destruction came about because of what happened on that piece of land; the exhibition explained it all pretty well.

After the nice heat of Poland last week, Berlin is pretty chilly, and with the clocks gone back an hour the days are over too quickly. After grabbing a few layers, I spent Thursday mostly wandering round taking in a few areas of Berlin, seeing a huge former art squat, watching a fantastic street drummer, the Alexanderplatz, friedrichshain and neukollner areas, and finishing at the Stasi museum. The Stasi were in charge of state security in former East Germany, back when the country was divided in two and the place I visited was their former headquarters; left laid out exactly as it was when the Berlin Wall fell. As I learnt, it was a very perculiar country to live in back then, and not all that pleasant.

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With a few days to go until my visa was ready, I decided to escape south to Dresden - a city a hundred odd miles south, and rather than the bus or train wanted to try and use a liftsharing website called blablacar. After contacting a few people over the day it wasn't looking hopeful, but just as I set off to try and find a bus, a guy text me back saying he had spare seats. An hour later I was sat beside a nineteen year old German law student in his Renault Megane, cruising down the Autobahn, which as you probably know has in most areas no speed limits at all. He was a very knowledgable guy, and we had a proper a proper good chat about all things German. Sadly I realised that after nearly a month in the country, he's the first German I've had the opportunity to have a really decent conversation with - better late than never I suppose. But with the needle glued on 170 km/h, or about 105 mph pretty much the whole way, it wasn't the longest chat I've ever had!

Bauhaus museum

Topographie des Terrors

Art squat

Street drummer

Stasi museum