Maastricht - Berlin.

Arrive in Maastricht late afternoon. Stay OK is a brand spanking new hostel which is great but it has zero character. There are 3 other girls in my dorm and later that evening one came with me for a big walk around the city. It's a very beautiful place, right down the bottom of the Netherlands...it's so beautiful I could imagine living here very happily.

The next morning I get up a bit earlier and walk around the city again to take some photos and see the city in the daylight. Beautiful sunrise. I go back to the hostel to have the yummiest and biggest brekky ever, before catching my train at 11am. Bad point, for about an hour before catching my train I was fruitlessly searching for an internet cafe with my big pack on my back. The library didn't open until half an hour before my train left so ended up going there to check my email then running to the train station, with 15.7 kgs (my life!) strapped to my back.

I have to catch 4 trains to Berlin, the first two are only short and on the last two I have company from one of my roomates from the night before. Anya is 20 and spent last year in America as an au pair and although is German speaks perfect english with an American accent. She came to Maastricht to find a flat as she is studying at university there in the new year. We chat the whole 6 hours to Berlin and she invites me to her town about 1 hour out of Berlin. Sadly, I don't go as there is way too much going on in Berlin!

Once in Berlin I'm straight to the hostel, it's again a great choice and I have a whole dorm all to myself on night 1. 7 requests for couch surfing here have all been denied - it's pretty tuough handling all these denials but people already have guests, are travelling or not able to host. Oh well!

I walk al day Friday from noon til 10pm. Come back to the hostel to relax, it's been a good, but LONG day exploring. In the afternoon I did a walking tour which went for just under 4 hours and took in Brandenburg Gate, Reichstag, Hitler's Bunker (well we stood on top of it), Luftwaffe HQ, the Holocaust Memorial, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin Wall, SS HQ, Checkpoint Charlie (even though it's all replica now and surrounded by souvenir shops), Bebelplatz and the book burning memorial, Museum Island and Gendamenmarkt. It was really good (for free! The guides work on tips...don't worry I gave him a few euro) but feel like I need to go back and visit a lot of these sites again, especially the Holocaust Memorial. After the tour I tried to get a last minute, cheap student ticket to the opera 'Aida' but alas, it's all sold out. I'll try for whatever's playing the next night. I wander around the city, stumble upon a few cool things but felt like I was missing something. This is the one city Jen and I need to visit together, and being there without her is just not as cool as it would be with her...can't wait to see you in Perth, my darl!

On Saturday I take an 'Alternative Berlin' walking tour. It's a good group of about 10 people (yesterday was over 25) and we all get along well. Again, the guide works on tips, but instead of seeing monuments and historical stuff we see things like street art, graffiti and the districts that make up Berlin. We use the public transport as well so we can get further out. Had lunch at Curry, cheap and filling German nosh. We visit a vintage shop called Colours where you buy clothing by the kilo! I finally found an awesome beanie and it was only 1 euro 20! I also bought a silk scarf for 1 euro, noice :)

Visited Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauerberg and Mitte. We visit Eastside Gallery, a 1.3 km stretch of the Berlin Wall (and climb it - see photo) but walk along it on the other side, so have it to ourselves instead of tussling with tourists on the other side! In summer the tour would have finished here at a daytime rave! Instead, we escape from the Berlin Wall by crawling under a fence at the end...it's all very funny and really interesting to be going around town with a local. Amazing sunset. Great diversion from seeing monuments and cathedrals (not that there's anything wrong with that).

End up at this place which I've forgotten the name of which is a famous space for artists. Have a beer here and finish the tour.

Oh, and we also broke into an abandoned building (seriously) and climbed up onto the roof. This is all part of the tour (and the guide has his lawyer on speed dial should anything happen. Apparantly we wouldn't get in trouble if we got spotted by the cops because there is no sign on this building saying "no trespassing".

I decide I need a bit of culture to make up for my breaking the law (this photo is my bemused face at the top of the building and the one above it is another Aussie making his entrance). I head to Opera House half an hour before performance. I nab a ticket for 12 euro but it's the state ballet tonight (Jerome Robbins 'Balletabend") and not opera. It was lovely although completely weird to go to such a beautiful building in a hoodie, jeans and sneakers. It's Berlin so no one cares, at least that's what I keep telling myself.

Head back to the hostel and decide to call it a night but my dorm mates invite me out, I can't refuse. We leave the hostel at 1 am and head to Weekend, a club on the 12th floor of an office block overlooking Alexanderplatz. It's a crazy, Berlin nightclub and we dance until 5 am and then decide to go...and it's snowing outside! I feel giddy from the excitement of snow but that quickly disappears when I have to walk thorugh snow and slush in my 5 pound ballet flats with holes in the soles. They go in the bin on arrival at the hostel and my feet surprisingly defrost quickly.

What an amazing day that was! Graffiti, abandoned buildings, climbing the Wall, ballet, electronic music and snow. And that's just the main things I remember! I'm satisfied with my time here in Berlin and decide to head to Krakow a day earlier than planned.