Oh my lord! So much to update ya'll on!
So, the bus trip to Amsterdam took about 10 or 11 hours I think but it was pretty good. Seemed to go fairly quick. Once we arrived there it was all worth it. As we got off the train in the central station you could already smell the marijuana in the air.
After we dropped our stuff off at the Stayokay Hostel in Zeeburg and freshened up we headed out into the Red Light District. It wasn't as full on as I was expecting, I found it rather hilarious watching the girls in the window tap on the glass like little birds, gesturing to men and inviting them over.
It was eye opening to walk around a city that is so drug friendly. People were just walking around smoking joints and we had a man follow us offering cocaine (don't worry mum, we ran away... after doing a line). Eventually we found a little Coffee Shop called "Feels Good" where we all enjoyed a beverage.
The next day was Queen's Day, this celebration was extra special as it was the last time they will celebrate a Queen as she handed her reign to her son that day. The streets were filled with people dressed completely in orange. The pubs were empty, the party was outside on the streets and canals. DJ's scattered the area so we quickly found a spot out of the way of the passing crowd where we happily bopped for what seemed like hours. We wandered around for about 5 hours before Kaylee and Taize went back to the hostel. So Ruth, Bron, Gav and I ventured out to find "Feels Good" again.
After finding it and enjoying some hot chocolate we managed to drag ourselves back home where we stuffed our faces with ice cream and nachos.
The next day the others caught a bus back to London, leaving Ruth, Kaylee and I to explore some more in Amsterdam. We walked around for hours enjoying the free samples in the many cheese stores along the street and the beauty of the city. Later that day we split from Ruth as she had to catch a bus to Prague and we ended up having dinner with one of Kaylee's friends she met whilst in Thailand.
The next day we headed to Groningen to stay with K's cousin and her family. It was nice to just relax and get away from crowd's. Their house was situated about 15 minutes outside of Groningen, a little village of 400 people called Woltersum.
We enjoyed some wine, cheese fondue and the cutest triplets ever before retiring to bed and sleeping for 9 hours. The next day we headed back to Amsterdam and caught an overnight bus to Berlin. It may have been cheap and it was worth it now that I'm here but it was the worst bus ride ever. I barely slept. But anyway, I'm here now!
Our bus arrived at the station at about 6.30 and we didn't get to our hostel until about 8.45 as we were given wrong instructions about transport. Thank you random stranger but the train never arrived as the station was closed. So after waiting around for an hour for nothing we caught a 22 Euro taxi ride so we could finally dump our stuff at the hostel and venture out a little to see the city. We're currently staying in Mitte, a fairly central suburb. We walked around looking at all the little boutiques and cafe's and enjoyed a delicious Thai meal at a nice restaurant (it was nice until we realised they had charged us 6 euro's for water).
That night, after getting a much needed nap, we had dinner at a Vietnamese place across the road and enjoyed very potent cocktail. By the end I was a little sloshed, we bought a bottle of vodka and demolished it in our room that we had to ourselves. After singing and dancing and making videos for a few hours we made our way to the gay district. The taxi drivers were hopeless, we caught about 3 before we got anywhere. After asking countless gaybo's where to go I was finally directed to a club called Connection. Things get very vague from here on in. After dancing/swaying for a period of time I remember exploring a downstairs area of the club. Immoral things were happening down there which I will leave up to your imagination. By this point I was done and made my way back to my hostel.
The next day, once we were able to move, we wandered out to see some sites. We visited Brandenburger, the memorial for the Jews that were murdered during WWII, and gazed at the Reichstag, the current Parliament House for Germany, it is 400 years old. We strolled around Alexanderplatz, visiting a seven story department store, and experienced Berlin's train system. I think we're finally getting used to doing things without people holding our hand.
So now it is Monday, I'm waiting for Ruth to arrive so we can all go out and explore some more. I can easily say that London is my favourite city so far but Berlin is definitely a close second. I don't know what it is but I really enjoy being here. It's a huge city but there doesn't seem to be any hustle and bustle, the streets are clean and quiet and the overall look of the city is really beautiful. Buildings are centuries old and covered in statues of soldiers, academics or animals. It's interesting comparing things to Sydney, Australia really is a young and "modern" city opposed to Berlin which has buildings that are older than Australia.
We're staying here for two more days before leaving for Munich so I'll probably make another entry from there in the next week.
Auf wiedersehen!
