So I am back again from Berlin with lots of travel advise to those who wish to go into Germany....ummmmm....DON"T GO!

Haha I'm joking! Berlin is a wonderful place full of history. I now know all about the complete history of Jews in Germany, the complete history of Germany itself (although I spent most of my time in the reformation/Luther section and therefore did not have time to even read about the war let alone how Germany became a country), the complete history of the Berlin wall, the Cold war, communism in Eastern Berlin, etc. etc. etc. Eastern Berlin is where all the important bnuilding are and there is not much in western Berlin except a few things. One of the main points of interest to me would be the church that was destroyed during the war that they decided not to restore. Inside there were picture of it before and after and pictures of the surrounding area right after the war and now. Everything is new now because the city was basically destroyed during the war. The east side gallery was also very nice to see. I think it is the longest section of the wall that is still standing and they had artists come in right after the wall was tour down to draw pictures on it. I will explain some on the pictures later when I post them..they all of course had symbolism attached. I was talking with some people that I met in the hostel and they said that they were dissapointed that not more of the wall is still standing. I actually caught myself thinking the same thing but after I thought about it a bit I had to kick myself because really, after being divided for 30 years, I think that first thing that the people would want to do is to tare down the wall that separated them. To think that us silly tourists are dissapointed that not more of it is still up!

The hostel was pretty good. Jan warned me to stay away from the "hostel people" and I now know what that means. I met a mix of people. I was actually very discouraged at first when all I met was people who wanted me to go party with them. I was beginning to think that I was the only one that traveled to see things and everyone else just wanted a new and interesting place to party with new people...pretty expensive party experience if you ask me! Anyway slowly but surely real travelers began to surface and I had a good time chit chating with them. On Sunday and American from Texas and myself tried to find an english church but after 1.5 hours of travelling to get there we decided that we were too late to even catch the end of the service...dissapointing actually bc I had the whole trip planned out but b/c they were constructing in the subway system there were too many barriers in the way :(.

It was interesting to see German society. First of all I think that society revolves around beer and smoking. I actually saw 2 men sitting on a train at 10am drinking beer...I thought I was going to throw up. They keep smoking contained to specific areas...wait a minute...contained is the wrong word! They place smoking areas in the middle of the busiest trafic areas they can find...not contained at all so that everyone can breathe in and smell of smoke. I checked their life expectancy and it is only 2 years less then Canada at 77.4 years...that is a surprise to me! If it isn't beer and cigarettes that kill them it is going to be the stress that their aggression causes them. I have never heard so many blaring horns for as long in my life! And when I weas waiting at a counter the man behind me actually had the nerve to tell the man in front of me that he'd better move over to put the change back in his wallet because we were waiting there forever(this was all in German and I have substituted the meaning but the situation allows me to assume that I am right). Seriously we were waiting about 2 seconds. The man putting away his change smiled and moved over...I can be glad about that b/c I was sure that foul words or punches were going to be thrown!

I am sure that beer, smoking and aggression is not present in the lives of all Germans and I did meet some very nice ones, one of which was sitting beside me on the train, drinking a beer and having a cigarette, but these are the things that shocked me. As I become a more experienced traveller I am sure that I will get used to these sorts of things.

Anyway so there you have it. Good trip. Now I do suggest going to Germany but if you do please do not take the train. I will not explain in the blog but I suggest you take my advise...avoid the train at all costs...for 2 euros more and 4 hours less TAKE THE PLANE!!!!!!!!