New Years Eve and Berlin!

Wow, all I can say is that I learnt alot about Germans and Berlin yesterday and last night.

We are staying in the apartment that is directly across the hallway from the others, which is awesome as they are all set up with food and everything. They even bought a cheap microwave between them! Every one is getting along well too. Brooke and Tash showed up yesterday too, after I got an email from them. They didn't have anyone's number and were wandering round Berlin until we got in contact with them. They are sharing our apartment.

So, yesteday after the girls arrived we set out to explore the city. We caught the U-bahn (underground train) to Checkpoint Charlie which was the American border crossing from East to West Berlin. It is very touristy and there are heaps of people there taking photos.

We then walked up to Brandenburg Gate, via some shopping centers, stalls and the Jewish War Memorial. The memorial is pretty cool, very symbolic. Here is a photo of the girls standing on some of the blocks. The whole thing is a city block of a few thousand of these concrete blocks of different sizes.

From there we walked up to the gate where the huge Nokia New Years Eve party was. It was the afternoon so it wasn't particularly crowded. We were able to walk thru all the food stalls from one end of the Tiergarten to the other. Had our first Glühwein which was suprisingly nice warm (and strong) apple wine/cider. We then went home for a bit to get some warmer clothes and dinner before heading back to the party.

The next few hours were CRAZY! Fireworks are legal 3 days either side of NYE in Germany, and the Germans certainly make the most of their new found freedom. Everyone from kids to adults randomly let of fireworks and crackers in the street. The little kids and roudy young 'adults' make their fun by throwing them at people or setting off in train stations etc. where it makes huge bangs. It was very surreal in fact walking thru Checkpoint Charlie and past the Berlin wall remains with the sound of explosions in the background. Anywho, it is a pain in the arse wakling around the streets because you have to watch out for people throwing them off balconies or under your feet.

When we caught the train back to the festival, we found that the local police had blocked off all the streets around the Gate. We walked for an hour with a crowd of thousands around all the road blocks to get into the festival about halfway along the Tiergarten. then it really got crazy. Because they were letting thousands of people in at the one entrance point, once we got thru the security we were stuck in a crowd of thousands of people. We couldn't move for at least half an hour, and the crowd was pushing back and forward. We managed to get out of the huge crowd and walked thru the garden (away from the stalls and crowds of people) down to the main stage which was suprisingly easy to get to compared to the entrance crowding.

When we got there the Scissor Sisters started playing on the stage, and we were able to find the others off to the right of the stage, about 50 meters from the stage were there was room to move about. The crowd went on for at least a kilometre and it is amazing we were able to get so close to the stage, especially since we entered so far away. The countdown was interesting with us yelling in english and the rest of the crowd in German. After midnight, we decided to head back home and got stuck in huge crowds again at the train stations. We finally got back at 2am, avoiding fireworks and crackers in the street still.

Wow, well that was one day in Berlin. Cold, sometimes wet and very crazy. We head to Prague tomorrow where we are hoping for snow and a completely different experience. We are all sick of the germans now after their pushing, shoving and fireworks antics. I will leave you with one more photo of the mess outside the Jewish war memorial after the celebrations (public drinking is legal here, and glass wasn't allowed in the festival so everyone let off fireworks and broke bottles in the street).