An End of Epicness

I had intended to go to Prague after I left Budapest, but it turns out I am more attached to showers than I thought I was.  I took a night train from Budapest to Prague and arrived at four in the morning.  I crashed in the train station for a couple of hours - along with about twenty or so other backpackers, and was awoken at 7am by some gruff Czech police.  Given my lack of sleep, and my grungy state from the hot trek around Budapest, I was not in a mood to explore.  So I didn't.  Instead I hopped on a train to Berlin where I checked into a hostel recommended to me by Christian, and took a much needed shower.  A bonus of the ride to Berlin was that I was able to see the passing countryside, instead of traveling in the dark.  The Czech countryside is beautiful, it was everything Dracula put in my imagination.

I have (briefly) explored Berlin.  I managed to eat a whole bunch for breakfast and then escape without paying.  I’m a terrible person.  I know.  I also didn’t leave the hostel until about noon.  I spent most of the morning aimlessly puttering around Facebook, my google reader, and dearblankpleaseblank.  In fact I wish I had waited until later to leave.  It was pretty rainy out, and I have made it to the Berlin Hauptbahnhof so early because my backpack was heavy and the rain prevented me from sitting anywhere in particular.  I left the hostel and headed east, intending to make a semi-circuitous route of the nearby parts of the city.  As I was walking along the river I came across a very nice young man from New Zealand.  Apparently he works in the mines in western Austraia.  He is here to meet up with friends and attend two music festivals, one in German, and one in Hungary.  He was a nice young fellow, and was just wandering about, so he accompanied me for the next two hours.  We headed first to the Berlin Cathedral, where they were charging 3 euros admission, so I declined to go in.  I really hate that some places charge admission to go into churches!  Churches should be free!   

Anyway, we wandered past the church and then to checkpoint Charlie.  There we spent some time looking at the memorial of the checkpoint, and I took a picture of the sign saying “you are now entering the American sector”.  From there we walked to a preserved section of the Berlin wall which had been placed next to a building which had served as the headquarters of the police service in Beriln.  There was a really excellent museum set up, and it had a shelter over it.  Here was where my new friend left me – apparently it was too much reading for him :p  I spent quite a bit of time reading the plaques se up, but it was even too much reading for me!  I eventually went on to wander past the Brandenburg Gate and the Bundestag before returning to the central train station.