Goodbye Berlin, Hello Roma!

So it has been a couple of days since I've updated. What have I been up to, I hear you ponder?? Quite a lot actually, and I can definitely tell that this travel bizzo is super-tiring!
Not long after I put up my last post, the Aussie guys I had been hanging out with sent me a text to say they were at a bar if I wanted to join them. Given we're all on roaming with our phones I definitelzy appreciated the message. So I finished with my bike (sticking to the footpaths, Dan) and headed back to the hostel for a shower. The place I was to meet them was the artist squat that we had gone to a couple of days before on our tour - called Teschel. This was the old blown out apartment buildings now used as galleries/studios & bars. In Germany it has been football (soccer) mania with the Euro cup coming to a climax and everyone in the city was out on that balmy night to watch the game. For 2 days previously the city centre (right behind the Brandenberg Gate had been cordoned off in preparation for the concerts and stuff for this night... I wanted to steer clear of this area for fear of rioting. So I met Kev & Lisa and they were enjoying some beers on the top of a sculptural platform made of bits of welded together scrap metal. I climbed up full of bravado, but as the 6 meter high structure swayed with the breeze I felt increasingly unsafe and was brave enough to say so... I was relieved to sit in the beer garden and enjoy ground level! Thankfully Germany won, and I had a great night ending in fantastic pizza and revelry.

With tired bones I decided a sleep in was required. It's been so strange cause it gets dark in Berlin at 10-10.30 and is daylight by 4-4.30am, so it has been quite hard to convince my body that it needs more sleep. I slept yesterday til 11.30 (hurrah!) and enjoyed a relatively lazy day. The one thing I hadn't done that was still on my 'essential' list was to see the world's only gay museum. I expected good things... and while I enjoyed, it was such a gay men's history. It featured only a couple of gay women, even though my researched proved German history has a fantastically rich documented history of lesbianism. It felt more likea gallery than museum, and many of the images and names were familar, rather like old friends I hadn't seen for a while. I was struck by severe nostalgia for my studies and was drew to wonder (not for the first time during this trip) whether I will continue, and if so, in what particular specialist area?? It solidified my need to learn German to research in the area though. It has been pretty frustrating to be on the tip of understanding an exhibit if only the labels were in English!

I spent an hour or 2 there, and mozied back to the hostel via Alexanderplatz. I had my infamous and much promised 'Silly Dance' picture taken by some wowser fellow, but I enjoyed and had a good laugh...I will upload that pic in the next batch when it's off my camera. I sat last night in the hostel and chatted to some new recruits. I was so excited to meet a couple of women who were easily in their mid to late 60s travelling for 3 months from Adelaide. I think they could have been gay, but I wouldn't presume. They were so lovely and witty. And they are travelling almost a similar trip to me but via Eurail. Such an inspiration.

Today was an early start - on the train at 6.30 to the airport to Rome via Prague. Thankfully everything went to plan and now I'm all checked in and comfy at the hostel. Tanya arrives tomorrow... yay!! and we will be staying in the same hostel but in a private room. That will definitely be welcome relief. Even just to be able to have a bit of quiet at nighttime... although I've been sharing the dorms with lovely people. I do like this life. It could be very addictive I could see!

For now, much love and kisses.
Signing off from Roma in hot hot hot weather ... 30 and dry sweaty heat..
Always,
A
xoxo


This is what was affectionately referred to as the German Disneyland on our tour - Checkpoint Charlie. On the original site but everything else here is fake, and some things are hugely historically inaccurate! But still a must see.

The Hotel ... hmm can't remember the name... anyway, it's directly in front of the Brandenberg Gate and was the site of Michael Jackson's infamous dangling out the window of his son. People like JFK and Mandela have stayed here. And judging by the security on the day I took this, I think someone else pretty special must have been in town. Polizei everywhere!!

This was Hitlers Globe that I spoke of in the last entry... complete with a bullethole through Europe.

And this was his desk. It was specially designed to be huge and imposing. It doesn't seem it here, but i think it would have been about 3m x 2m.

This was the bed that I spent the last 3 nights in. Very comfy with crisp linen.

The Kathy Kurche memorial to the German people affected by war. It's inside, but has a hole directly above it that means that when it rains or snows, the sculpture gets wet. It's very moving and shows a mother cradling her dead son home from battle. The tiles on the floor felt smooth like they'd been washed over and over again in a river

Buttercup and the Reichstag. She begged to be in this one. I took it in front of at least 200 people waiting in the queue!

And when we got to the top, she wanted a picture with the Berlin skyline. She nearly slid right off the top too... the wind picked her up and I had a mild stroke.

The Reichstag proper.