| From: "Bron Gondwana" <brong@brong.net> Date: Mon, 5 Aug 2002 17:17:01 +1000 (EST) |
Forewarning - the german keyboard swaps y and z (for which I fully intend to kill someone - idiot designers) - probably because Germans use z a lot more than y. Anyway, if I get them back to front, you know why. After I finished writing the last entry, and the dishes (somehow they got voted as mine) I joined a very strange card game (Fluxx) that Christer and Kate were playing. We then taught Christer 'bartok', to the amusement of our captive audience (Tiff). Thursday morning (5th) was washing day - we had booked 7am to 10am, so we were up at 7 to put the first load on! We set an alarm and then slept between each load - sort of worked. Caught a tram to the ferry to the archapelago (supposed to be very nice, and included in the standard cost of 11skr for a 2 hour transport ticket). Unfortunately, the girls decided we needed to buy strawberries (nothing wrong with that) and we missed a boat by about 2 minutes (the next one was in half an hour, which we couldn't afford to still be back in time) - so we had another 1/2 hour tram ride back into the city. Walked through the older parts of town, and climbed to the crowned tower (now a museum like every other old building in Europe! - ok, maybe not quite all), then caught the train to Malmö. The train kept stopping, travelling slowly, and strange announcements came through the PA. A girl called Louisa was sitting next to us (she travels on the train every day, 3 hours, to get to Uni - crazy) and she translated for us - seems that the rain had taken out some signals. Our 1 hour transfer time at Malmö was being eaten up. We got going finally, but only slowly. Eventually they stopped at Lund and got us Berlin overnight train people out of the train and into taxis. There were 7 trains ahead of us in the queue - must have been a bad day for them! Overnight train was hot, and rolled into the bottom of a boat where there was no ventilation, and no trace of an escape option if the boat started sinking. Guess you just have to hope it doesn't sink! Shared a couchette with some loud ocker Aussie blokes who went off to get pissed, letting us sleep :) Going to write about Berlin later, since I'm nearly out of time. We're off to Dresden now. |
| From: "Bron Gondwana" <brong@brong.net> Date: Mon, 12 Aug 2002 07:44:12 +1000 (EST) |
We slept in and were woken by the guard when we arrived in Berlin (luckily it was the last stop - though I would have set an alarm otherwise)... had to buy a map, as we were off the edge of the Lonely Planet one - then found the hostel (A&O Backpackers) where we couldn't check in until 2pm, but could at least leave our bags (it being about 7am at the time). Went into the city and caught the 100 bus as recommended by the guidebook, though I think we both slept through bits of it! Saw the very impressive Siegeßäule (Monument to the Prussian Victory) and a very bombed out church. I wanted to see a real Berlin Cabaret, so we booked some tickets for that night at the half-price tickets place, then went back to the hostel to sleep for a bit, dress up (as much as we can with travel clothes!) and rushed to find the place, having only a street name and number. Of course we didn't realise that this particular street was numbered up one side and down the other, so we walked a long way in the wrong direction first. It doesn't help that very few buildings have street numbers displayed. We arrived right on the starting time rather than half an hour early like we should have. Turned out it didn't matter, as "he" (we assumed the main performer) was sick and had been rushed to hospital. Doh! So much for that night out. |
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