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

Dresden

Dresden, Germany

When I write these updates it sometimes feels a bit repetitive - 'went for a wander, went to this museum, saw this interesting thing', so I hope it's not boring to read. It's not boring to see - Germany is a really interesting place to travel around - not particularly hot, fun or adventurous, but sometimes interesting is more than enough. That said, I think I'm getting a little burnt out with just looking at stuff at the moment - more variety, experiences, and activities are required. And are coming soon...

Dresden's beautiful skyline

Maybe it's just me, but the word Dresden sounds a bit like dreary, dread, dross - negative words, but the place is far from that. A city a couple of hours south of Berlin - we bombed it to pieces in the war, but instead of just being rebuilt in grey concrete, they did an excellent job restoring what was there and putting some nice buildings in the gaps. After the high speed journey to get there that I wrote about previously, I found a good hostel in the young and creative area of Neustadt. Staying local on Friday, I set off bright and breezy for a change, on foot following a street art tour I found on a map, followed by another walking route to the old town around these grand old buildings, past the old opera house and palace, ending mid afternoon at a place I'd read about at home - the transparent factory.

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Now a lot of car companies like to have a top of the range model that lures people in, only to realise they can't afford it and then buy a cheaper model. Volkswagen have gone a step further by creating a quite frankly, out of this world factory to draw potential customers in. The building is completely glass clad inside and out (hence the transparent) and set over many stories, with polished hardwood floors rather than concrete, minimal noise, and barely a spec of dust to be seen. Very fake, but quite a sight nevertheless. There was no factory tour available so I made do looking round some exhibits, and at the building itself. The best bit is where they store the finished cars - in a huge round glass tower, where the cars are lifted into their bays with a robot - it's like a giant vending machine and amazing to see in action. A beer in the hostel bar chatting to a Filipino guy who was here to study finished the day nicely.

A week or so ago I flicked through a photo book of Germany - nice scenery but nothing too amazing, until I came across an area called Saxon-Switzerland which looked like another world, and fortunately it was near to where I was staying. So last Saturday it was time to head to the country - something I've not done enough recently. I had planned to hire a bike and cycle down there, but walking out the door to both rain and cold weather soon changed my mind, so I headed for the train - which with no explanation didn't turn up despite clearly saying so on the board. After a bit of hassle I managed to get the next one and a bit later than planned given the shorter days now, eventually arrived in the beautiful national park and soon forgot about the hassle. Full of weird looking sandstone formations - it was stunning, one of the best places I've been on this trip. After walking past the touristy bit, I escaped the crowds and hiked about ten miles around the forest, through deep and narrow tree-covered valleys, which hid more rocky formations. Having spent too much time in cities recently, seeing barely a soul for most of the walk was exactly what I was after.

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That night a German couple around my age came into the lounge of the hostel, and we got chatting. Their English was nigh on perfect, thanks to their jobs as an English teacher and university researcher, and they were a clever pair too. This little chat soon turned into a few beers out in town along witha Kiwi girl, first at an alpine hut bar set up for winter, then by the roaring fire pit in the garden of a rock bar. Really fascinating people, and once again I got to understand the country a bit better whilst having a good laugh.

The last day in Dresden was taken up with a visit to the Military History Museum; a bit of a one of a kind. The building itself is a bit controversial - an old arsenal, with an ultra modern knife shaped feature running through it. History wise I don't seem to generally have much interest in anything older than WWII - I guess I find it hard to relate to anything older than my grandparents, so didn't spent too long in those sections, and instead put time to the post 1930's exhibits on war technology, drugs and suffering among others. One section was on use of animals in war - did you know that in Normandy and the Falklands, the British army used to send flocks of sheep in front of them to detonate minefields?! Fascinating place.

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After my success with car sharing to get to Dresden, I tried to replicate it on the way back. After messaging four or five people in the morning (admittedly in English, to Germans!), like last time it wasn't looking good, until the last minute when I got a reply to meet a guy by the train station in an hour. Perfect. On the autobahn again, this time the chap was in his forties, driving his new Ford Mondeo a bit more sensibly on the autobahn than the last guy; only 90mph ish most of the time, with the odd burst up to 110. People were still overtaking us though!

Almost back in Berlin, I got the guy to drop me at the airport. Not because I was flying, but instead to meet a visitor for a few days - my brother. He had no idea I was going to meet him until he saw me at arrivals holding a 'Dr Butter' piece of card. I'd been looking forward to this for a while, and after three and a half months without seeing anyone I know, I was absolutely delighted when he rocked up. We then headed off into Berlin for a few days of slightly more upmarket travel than I've been used to of late; always nice!

Old Dresden

Neustadt area

Transparent factory

VW Transparent factory

German night out

Swiss-Saxony

Swiss-Saxony

Military history museum

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

Germany photos

For your viewing pleasure, I've put a a load of my Germany pics online - the rest will follow next week, so sit back and take a look.

Click here

You don't need a Facebook account to see them

Auschwitz

Auschwitz memorial site, Poland

Most people reading this will probably have heard of Auschwitz. For those who haven't, it's a former Polish army barracks which seventy-odd years ago the Nazi's took over after they invaded Poland, turned into a concentration and extermination camp, and murdered huge numbers of people, mostly Jews. It's sadly the site of the biggest mass murder in human history. 

It might sound odd but sitting in the hostel in Krakow, I had a good think about whether or not to go there. Why would I, or anyone else want to visit a site of torture and mass extermination? Is it disrespectful to visit such a place as a tourist, with no personal connection to it? I decided though that it's a memorial site, with a historic value and the only way to really comprehend the events of the Holocaust. It's not pretty reading but I feel it's worth sharing. 

I thought it was a bit sad that the swanky tour companies get rich off the back of an atrocity, so decided to get a local bus there from Krakow for the day and pay for a tour on site instead, getting there around midday. We first watched a film of archive footage, which was pretty graphic and uncompromising in it's content; some filmed by the Nazis during their rule and some by the Allied forces when they liberated the camp. 

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Our guide took us round the smaller of the three camps first, which mostly is preserved in it's original form. We were shown round many of the prison buildings which now house museum exhibits, including items that belonged to the victims - for example a huge pile of 40,000 pairs of their shoes, removed before they were killed. It was a truly chilling sight - I looked at them, and tried to comprehend that each pair belonged to an innocent person who was killed just because of their race. Believe it or not, the Nazis were so sick they even sold all such possessions in second hand stores back in Germany, though didn't make clear the origin.  

We then took a short bus journey up the road to the main site of the atrocities. Here, huge numbers were imprisoned in horrendous conditions and worked essentially as slaves in work camps. But even bigger numbers - over a million people - ninety percent of whom were Jews, were taken to the end of the train line into a building where they were told they had to all shower, before going to the sheds they thought they would be living in. Except, instead of water coming from the ceiling, the Nazis released poisonous gas. A sick tactic to get people into one room without resistance. A death factory.

In all the tour lasted about four hours, and was pretty moving. It doesn't bring you to tears, but is very sad, depressing and uncomfortable to do, but equally, is enlightening to the events and worth doing.

The guide at the end of the trip told us that his personal mission, and the reason he does his job, is to to educate people to the events, and help stop such a thing ever happening again. Good plan.

The end of the line for many, in more ways than one

Land of Poles

Krakow, Poland

I knew I was getting further East in Europe when the bus I was boarding in Prague was to terminate in Ukraine, and the sign was also written in Russian. 

St. Mary's Basilica, Kraków

Once again I'm in another country I didn't really plan to visit, but thought I was too near to miss. The main reason I must admit though, is to visit a place I've heard about many times, though not for good reasons. More on that in a separate blog.

Before coming here I'm not entirely sure what I thought about Poland. I knew they were invaded in WWII, I knew it was under Soviet rule for years afterwards. And I knew a few years ago there were nearly a million Poles living and working in Britain after the EU opened it's doors. I guess then, that I expected it to be quite poor, cold, and bleak looking and the people equally cold.  

At 1am I was awoken suddenly by the bus driver shouting 'KRAKOW' and was the only person to get off in the deserted station. With those preconceptions in mind, walking out of the station late at night to my hostel a mile away I was a little on edge. But these fears were unfounded though as the Poles, in my limited experience there, seem to be a good bunch, and the city of Krakow - old, pretty and well kept.

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Walkabout

Kraków Cathedral

It was a miserable morning on the first day, but I went for a walk anyway to see what the city was about, seeing the usual market, square and castle along the way. 

I found some info on a free walking tour of the Jewish areas of Krakow, and decided to go along after lunch. This isn't something I'm normally into, but it made sense considering that I was forty miles away from the main site of the Holocaust, and found the tour pretty informative yet sad.

Typical rural house

Poland is cheap, very cheap. Their wages are well under half of ours in the UK on average I believe, so I took advantage of this one night and went out for tea - my three course meal consisted of potato pancakes for starter, Polish dumplings for main and Apple pie and custard for desert, in a nice restaurant for the grand total of £8 - this is on top of the £3.50 a night dorm bed including breckfast!

Ojcówski National Park

The White Hand rock at Ojcówski National Park

On Saturday I wanted to hire a bike and get out of the city, so cracked on fairly smart. Unfortunately the seemingly simple process of hiring a bike turned into a right ordeal. First shop was closed, big walk to find the next didn't actually exist, then an hour and a half later finally had the heaviest and crappest bike I've ever ridden. Beggars and all that.

Ojkowski was quite a small park, basically just a valley, but was very beautiful and quite unique with various limestone formations everywhere - stacks of rock, archways and caves. Being the weekend the Poles were all out enjoying the warm sunshine and it was pretty busy. 

Nightlife
The hostel I was staying at for some reason wasn't very sociable (except a odd retired Brit who'd lived there a year!) So I decided to go on one of these organised pub crawls, since Krakow is known for it's nightlife. Upon seeing the group, I was a bit hesitant whether to bother as they were all much younger that me. But I'm glad I did as it was a great laugh and met some great people - a group of lads from Ireland, an Aussie couple, a girl from Kenya and a bunch of Germans. 

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Communist Tour

Nowa Huta district

In the 40's when Poland was ruled by the USSR and therefore a communist country, a huge new town was built in the edge of Krakow called Nowa Huta. I was planning to leave Krakow on Sunday, but decided to stay one more day to see this place (a bad idea as I found today). I was told by far the best way to see the area it was on a tour - expensive but it sounded worth it. Wandering around on your own sometimes isn't enough. 

I got to the meeting point at 2pm and once again no-one was there. I spoke to the info centre who kindly pointed out that the clocks changed the day before and I was an hour early. Duh! An hour later I returned, but no one was there, so I went to complain, and now find the tour bus was caught in a traffic jam for another hour. The frustration! 

Eventually the guy showed up driving
an authentic 70's Communist built minibus. It was hilarious - small, odd shaped and noisy, but really got you into the spirit of it all. Nowa Huta turned out to be quite a unique looking place - grand but bland, and my knowledge of that era is now a little better. But to be honest the tour really wasn't worth the money really. Oh well.

I had to get back to Berlin, Germany to go to the Indian Embassy (another story) on Monday, and rather than an expensive and slow bus or train, I wanted to try and get there using one of these car sharing websites - Carpooling or BlaBlaCar, something I've not managed to use before. Quite a few lifts were advertised, seemed quite straightforward. But after over two hours of searching about, and messaging a number of people, I ran out of options and had no option but to take the train. Twice the time, cost and distance, and very annoying. I then went to pack, only to find I'd lost my only jumper, a bag with food in, and my shower gel. It wasn't turning out to be a good day.

I eventually tracked down everything but the gel, and caught the train. Passing small forests and patchwork Polish countryside on the way, all fairly flat with small fields, I at last sat back and relaxed, and nine hours later at midnight, I was in Berlin, capital of Germany.