My interrailing adventure: Part 5

So here is the final instalment of our amazing trip around Europe, all about our time in one of my favourite countries:Germany.

Day 25

I was initially very nervous about going on a night train, but once we were settled in our seats in the tiny compartment I found it very easy to fall asleep. I had a headphone blasting music in one ear and an earplug in the other, in an attempt to block out the incredible volume of noise coming from the train's engine. It worked pretty well and  was soon dropping in and out of sleep. It sounds weird but when I was sitting there, as the train pulled away into the night I felt incredibly alive. I was doing some that unnerved me, something totally new and it felt great. I was seeing a whole different side to travelling and Europe just by getting a train later on in the day. That's the thing with a trip like this. You're moved by the things you don't expect to be moved by.

The train arrives in Szczecin in the early hours of the morning and I see the first rays of sunlight from the carriage window. The carriage is a lot emptier now, as there were several stops in the middle of the night, but the small corridor is filled with people leaning out the windows, desperate to feel cool air on their face and looking out for the next stop. Like most international trains in mainland Europe, this one is behind schedule, which means we've missed our connection already. When the train finally arrives in Szczecin we realise we have a two hour wait for the next train to Germany.  We have no choice but to sit in a small, draughty waiting room, with no money or food for breakfast. Outside it begins to pour, which reflects my mood.

We have three more hours worth of travelling on three separate trains and I manage to sleep for most of it, failing to keep my eyes open for more than five minutes even when I know I need to get off the train soon The carriages are warm and the seats comfy and I relish the few extra hours of precious sleep.

We arrive in Leipzig just after midday. We are staying at Central Globetrotter Hostel , which is based in an old building next to a weed shop. Everything about the place is rather pleasant except for the showers. Imagine a line of swimming pool showers with the only separation from other people being a thin plastic shower curtain that seems to have the bottom half chopped off. This was not a bonding experience that me and Izzie expected to have on this trip, but I am too sticky and sweaty to care, so hurry in and turn on the taps only to be blasted in the face with freezing cold water. Just get me some lunch.

We head into the town centre of Leipzig to find somewhere nice for lunch, as we decide to eat out to celebrate finishing our last major train journey. I haven't eaten a proper meal since five O clock the day before and I'm in need of nourishment. Whilst we look for a cafe I feast my eyes on the beauty of the city. Leipzig's architecture is a mixture of Bruges and Krakow, and I find the winding streets, passing everything from churches to vegan cafes, endearing. As a German student this is a natural place to visit, as this is where the protests against the East German state began in the autumn of 1989, which ultimately saw the fall of the Berlin wall. We pass the Nikolai Church where the first peaceful protest took place. It feels great to finally see somewhere connected with an incredible movement in history, which truly fascinates me.

On a little street off the main shopping area, we find a little cafe, whose menu makes my mouth water. I order a galette and an eisschokolade- basically a chocolate milkshake with icecream and whipped cream. Each sip is a symphony for my taste buds. The sugar is truly welcome in my flagging body, and I sit and sip and enjoy the sunshine whilst listening to the incredibly talented buskers in near distance.

I got very excited.

We spend the afternoon mooching around the city centre, shopping and generally exploring. We find of all things a WOOLWORTHS! Of course we have to go and have a look. Sadly there's no pick and mix.

Risen from the ashes

When we get back to the dorm in the early evening we meet an American student called Hunter, who is over in Germany for the summer doing an internship in Berlin. We chat about the differences in culture between Germany, America and Britain, covering deep and insightful topics such as mainland Europe's inability to have good pillows. We're so deep in conversation that when I look at my watch I am amazed to find that three hours have gone by.

Around nine two more dormmates arrive: a British couple who have just arrived from Copenhagen. We chat and joke around for a bit before finally having some dinner.  By half ten I am happy to collapse onto my bed and drag my tired body under the duvet, content to be in a bed again.


Day 26

Leipzig is small, so there is no need to rush out this morning in an attempt to try and see everything. We relish a chilled morning, sipping coffee and musing over maps. Most people have checked out leaving us in the dorm with an odd lady who sleeps straight ,like a mummy, and fully dressed.

We spend a few hours in the Zeitgeschichtes Forum, which covers Germany's history from the end of WWII to the present day. The exhibition is so vast that I almost get lost in the museum. At first I am very diligent in reading all the information in German, but soon  my brain gets tired and I find myself just looking at the items on display. I make a mental note to come back if I hopefully get the chance to live here on my year abroad.

It's bright and sunny when we head out of the museum and we decide to head to the botanical gardens after lunch. Leipzig's train station is huge and has several floors of food outlets and shops under the platforms. For lunch we decide on NordSee - a fishy version of McDonalds. Not only is it cheap, but it's also great quality. Why don't we have these back home?

The botanical gardens is beautiful and peaceful, with many locals taking a the time out to enjoy a Sunday stroll in the sunshine. On the way back we walk through the extensive medical campus of The University of Leipzig and are both impressed at how nice and state-of-the-art it is. I'm really excited that I'll  possibly be able to study here for a year.

Day 27

Leipzig to Berlin. Berlin is only an hour's train journey, so we spend the morning mooching around the shops as outside it's pouring with rain. We find a shop that sells products  from the DDR, including spreewald gurken from "goodbye Lenin." This makes us very excited.

The shopping centre we are in has an exhibition of different lego models and they are amazing. Everything from a map of Europe and its important landmarks to a huge church have been made out of the stuff. It does make me question how much time these people have on their hands though. And how big their garage is.

We head back to the hostel to collect our bags and meet the British couple who are getting the train with us. We arrive in plenty of time to find that our train has been cancelled, so have no choice but to camp out in the station for an hour and sponge off the station's free wifi. The train soon arrives, marking our last train journey of the trip. *sobs* Our interrail pass runs out today, making Berlin our final destination.

We arrive at Wombats City Hostel Berlin as the clouds begin to part and let through a slit of sunshine. The hostel is much smaller than its sister in Vienna and it actually has air con. Wooooo! We set up camp in our dorm, before exploring the hostel and find the bar on the top floor, which boasts incredible views of the city. Unfortunately today it is too wet and windy to really take in the view.

The hostel is joined to a restaurant that serves American and Creolean cuisine. I choose the most amazing tuna steak dish, which comes with pasta flavoured with cream, lemon and capers. The perfect celebration to the end of our rail journeys. We have travelled thousands of miles in a matter of weeks and have arrived at the end with little hiccups or any major drama or fall outs. I couldn't be prouder of us.

After dinner, with our pac a macs in toe, we head to AlexanderPlatz to buy some train tickets for the week. The hostel is only a ten minute walk from the centre and passes loads of cool cafes and bars where groups of hipsters huddle over steaming cups of cappuccinos. We pass an office which is nothing more than a desk and chair in an empty room. Yep, we are definitely in pretentious hipsterville.

While we are in Alexanderplatz it tips it down. The locals respond to this by running into shops for cover, but being British this doesn't faze us. We walk around, enjoying the room on the pavement that the bad weather has brought. I'm glad to finally feel slightly cold. This is my favourite type of weather.

In the evening we meet our dorm mates. There is a solo Australian traveller called Bex, who is travelling for a year and so far has been everywhere from Cambodia to Israel. After her week in Berlin she is spending a month camping in Africa. She has loads of amazing stories and I listen in awe, hoping to be as cool and well travelled as her one day.

The day draws to a close and we head to the hostel bar for a couple of drinks. We make friends with a bunch of Australian guys, who we teach how to play gin rummy and bullshit. We seem to have made friends all over Europe from all over the world with just one pack of cards. It's amazing how something so simple can bring people together. It's a shame that in this day and age we prefer aimlessly surfing on the internet, flicking through Facebook pictures of people we hate rather than chatting and connecting with people who have incredible stories to tell.

Day 28

Our first full day in the city. We decide to do a walking tour to see the main sites, and head to the iconic Brandenburg Gate where it starts. On the way we pass many stunning and impressive buildings from several different eras. This is a far cry from the edgy concrete jungle part of the city that I saw in my last visit to Berlin. I begin to realise just how huge and diverse this place is.

Our tour guide is a Venezuelan, who tells us about the city's history in very good English, despite the fact that he is used to presenting it in his native language of Spanish. I doubt I would be able to talk spontaneously about the start of WW2 and Hitler's death in German. 

We pass many incredible sites, including the memorial for the murdered Jews. Walking through there makes me feel very disorientated and claustrophobic. It is such a powerful piece and again I realise how important art is to society. 

The tours ends in the early afternoon and we head back to Alexanderplatz, where we explore the market there. Stalls selling everything from bohemian clothing to handmade soap sit alongside food stalls from all cultures, whilst a variety of street performers perform acts to an audience of tourists. I indulge in the German speciality- Currywurst. A Bratwurst is smothered in ketchup and curry powder. Each bite is pure delight. I love a good  bit of German sausage. 

It is still grey in the afternoon, so we decide to take in a museum, and choose a small exhibition on Anne Frank. It's only two stops on the UBahn from the hostel, so we decide to just wing it, as our train tickets aren't valid yet. On the second train a plain clothes ticket collector emerges, sending us into a blind panic. Luckily he is busy with another customer when the train pulls into our stop, so the minute the door opens we leg it. We decide to walk back. 

The Anne Frank Exhibition is very insightful. It is divided into two parts. One half is a  historical timeline, with one side of the wall depicting the timeline of the holocaust, with the other showing the birth and childhood of Anne Frank  and her sister. Seeing pictures of her everyday family life makes me realise that these people and millions of others like them led perfectly normal, happy lives before the Nazi takeover. It makes the feeling of loss and sadness far greater. 

The other part of the museum is an installation focusing on the everyday lives of six young people from Berlin and compares their views on certain issues such as war and discrimination, hope and dreams with Anne Frank's. What strikes me is how insightful and bold Anne was in her writing. She was clearly a very bright young girl and each word of hers resonates with me, especially as I have the luxury of hindsight. She is an inspiration. It saddens me greatly that she never got to realise just how influential her work would become. 

After dinner we head out for drinks in the hip area of Kreuzberg. It was our favourite haunt when we came here last time and we visit the exact same bar that we fell in love with two years ago. It's a tiny dive bar on a corner, filled with local punks who obviously know the suitably Gothic bartenders. We sit on one of the wooden benches outside and sip on Berliner Weisse- a local speciality, it's beer flavoured with either elderflower or raspberry syrup. Depending on the flavour the drink is either bright pink or bright green,  but delicious either way.

It comes in a  cool glass too.

The area around Warschauer Straße SBahn station is always bustling and full of buskers in the evening. On the way back to the hostel we past a full blown band performing an impromptu concert to a crowd of locals and more bizzarely a guy dressed as a strawberry playing some sort of dideridoo. I love Berlin's eccentricity.

Day 29

The day that I have been looking forward to for the whole of the trip has finally come. ZOO DAY! The sky is still keeping with the grey overcast weather, but it's warm enough, so it's the perfect weather for walking around and seeing the animals. It's not great for standing in a massive queue for ages though. An old man plays his accordion to the waiting public.  It seems that everywhere in Europe we go, there is someone playing an accordion. It's become all too much for Izzie.

When we finally get into the Zoo I am like a little child again and can barely restrain myself from running down the path. Berlin Zoo has the largest selection of different species of animals in captivity in the world and we see and each and everyone. We see hippos yawning and swimming (the word for Hippo in German is Flusspferd which literally translates to river horse), Lions strutting around and a sleepy seal that can't keep himself awake. My favourite part of the day though is visiting the petting zoo.Here goats and sheep are free to walk around and you're able to stroke and feed them. We find the cutest baby goat and follow him around religiously. The sheep seem to get annoyed that the goats are getting all the attention and food and start bleating and running around like crazy, taking out several small children in the process.

Another great part of our visit is watching a sea lion show. Seals and sea lions are my favourite animals and I watch in awe as they perform flips and chase Frisbees. After seeing that the trainers have such a close bond with the animals I'm seriously considering giving up the degree and becoming a sea lion trainer, despite the fact that I am the worst swimmer I know.

Back at the hostel we get chatting to some girls in the foyer who are thinking of checking out a local techno club this evening. They are happy for us to join them and we agree to meet them for pre drinks later.

According to the guy on reception, Berliners don't start clubbing until around one or two in the morning and even that is considered early. We hit the hostel bar around 11 and play drinking games with some Australians, who are clearly on something, to get ourselves tipsy enough to carry on going into the early hours of the morning. By half one I am so drunk that I stumble back to the room to sober up on paprika pringles and chocolate chip cookies. When Izzie comes and finds me I can barely make it down from my bunk bed.

We head for the club around half one, which is still ridiculously early for Berlin standards. The nightclub is an old abandoned warehouse and inside it is absolutely huge. We head for the top floor, where there is a massive dance floor and already a big crowd. The thing with techno is that there never seems to be a change of track, it's just the same beat on repeat with the occasional remix. Amongst the sweaty bodies and cigarette smoke (yep you can smoke in nightclubs over here) I get into my groove. I have no idea how to dance to this type of music, but I carry on anyway. I'm too drunk to care.

Later on we head to the basement, where it is a lot darker and smokier. I want to sit down in the corner, but from what I can make out from the shapes in the shadows it's an area to get down and dirty and I don't want to give people the wrong impression. Soon enough the heat and smoke make it hard for me to breathe and we call it a night. Outside the cool air is just what my lungs need and I soon recover. We have no idea where we are, but make the logical decision of heading for the TV tower, stopping on the way for some well needed post clubbing food. German street food is some of the best I've tasted and the huge Turk-German population means that this is THE place for doner and eastern influenced food. I have a falafel, which sends my taste buds into overdrive. Every bite is exquisite. We mange to find a UBahn, whose name we recognise, after four when they start up again. w]When we make our way through Alexanderplatz the cafes and fast food stalls are setting up for the day. It's weird to think that I am on the way to bed.

Day 30

Our last full day of the trip. After our late night we spend the remainder of the morning in bed. When we finally have enough energy to move we decide to go off and do our own thing for a few hours. Izzie heads to Potsdam, whilst I head over to Potsdamerplatz to visit The Museum of Film and Television. The museum depicts the development of the film industry, from the first black and white film to the present day, with a focus on the German Film industry. As a German film buff I am totally in my element, and devour every snippet of information. The first room is filled with mirrors and several screens showing clips of films throughout the ages. The images reflect off all available surfaces and the effect is utterly breath-taking. I lose myself in the world of film for a good two hours and come out feeling culturally renewed. On the way back to the UBahn I follow the German film hall of fame and find the stars of some of my favourite German actors and actresses.

To mark our last night of the trip, we decide to go to an amazing Indian restaurant in Kreuzberg that we fell in love with when we came to Berlin two years ago and decide to invite our friends we went clubbing with last night to share it with us. It's really nice to show people somewhere you really like. They are just as impressed by the curry and Kreuzberg as we were the first time. We have a great evening with great convo and equally great food. This is their first stop on their trip and I feel a pang of jealousy. I wish I could keep going, but to be honest I'm out of energy and money. England beckons.

Day 31

Home day. Waaaaaa. It hasn't really sunk in that we're catching a plane home this evening. I'm so used to moving from place to place now that it just feels like another journey. But our flight isn't until half nine this evening. We still have a day in the city to enjoy and we aim to fill it with as much stuff as possible.

We intend to spend the morning at Mount Mitte- a high ropes course in the middle of the city, but it's not open until two, so we go and look at the Berlin Wall memorial we passed on the way. When the wall went up in the sixties, dividing streets into East and West Germany, many people died trying to flee from the soviet occupied East into the ally-controlled West. The memorial shows pictures of all the victims, some as young as two years old. I make sure that I read the names and ages of every single victim, even though there are over 100. It's the least I can do. These people deserve to be remembered. I'm deeply moved by the exhibition. I can't believe that these people were killed just because they wanted to choose where to live. It's a freedom I take for granted.

In a historical mood, we go to visit the East Side Gallery. We've been here before, but it's such an incredible and powerful art installation that we want another look. The road is filled with tourists, wanting a cool colourful background to their selfie, or to pose with some of the more iconic pieces. There really isn't anything like it. It's just such a shame that people have felt the need to scribble all over it. Some bellend has written 5SOS on several different pieces all up the wall. This is a historically significant piece. This wall divided a nation for twenty odd years, yet all some people are bothered about are promoting their favourite band. Unbelievable.

He calls himself the Neighkid Horse.

We have lunch at a small schnitzel shop by the wall. You can tell it's good, as it's full of locals instead of tourists. I try a  Jaeger schnitzel, which is the traditional pork schnitzel smothered with mushrooms in a creamy sauce. Just my cup of tea.

Soon enough it's two o clock and we head back to the high ropes course. The sun has finally peeped its head out of the clouds and for the first time today I can take my jumper off. After a brief training session, we are let loose on the three levels of the course. We have a great time, crossing bridges, crawling along a rope mission impossible style and battling a number of obstacles. I feel like I'm on Jungle Run and have a great time, despite falling off a barrel, getting stuck in mid air and having a breakdown.

Before we know it it's time to head to the airport, after a month of travelling thousands of miles, visiting 6 countries and ten cities. I've had a blast, changed my whole perspective on life and will definitely be back in Europe with my trusty backpack again before you can say duty free.