Day 6-Berlin- Uprising of the beggars

Today it took us quite a whole to get out of bed but we still managed to get out of the hostel by 10. We had a very jam packed day of seeing the sights in Berlin. First stop was Checkpoint Charlie. There were so many tourists around so we didn't say for long. They were also charging 2 euros for a photo with a fake American soldier. We didn't oblige. We were then ambushed by a begger but we had a lucky escape with our pockets still intact.  We did get some nice photos of us in front of a piece of the Berlin Wall though...

After this we walked past a section of the Berlin Wall and opposite was a free museum, of course we went inside, seeing as it was free. It was very factual and we learned about the Gestapo and the SS, it was shocking to see that a man who had been charged with 55000 murders was only sent to prison for 9 years. Some of the pictures were disturbing, seeing someone laughing whilst killing innocent people just seemed a bit surreal. Moving on... 

On our way to the Jewish memorial and the Brandenburg gate we passed through Potzdamer Platz. This was alright with some cool architecture but apart from that it seemed a bit over hyped. At the Jewish memorial Myles and I looked at it for a bit, but then went through it losing each other on purpose many times. 

At the Brandenburg gate we did the touristy thing and took a few photos but other than that, again, there wasn't much going on. It was worth the visit though. Neither Myles or I had the guts to go up to someone and ask if they'd take a photo of us. I gathered up the courage to say excuse me to someone but they ignored me. We did manage to get a photo of us together by using the self timer on my camera and sprinting into position but other than that it is proving quite difficult to get photos together. Another annoyance is that we can't get the photos from my proper camera onto the blog yet. There is a plethora of cracking photos! 

After this Ben decided he was once again hungry, and I had no money left so we began the search for a maccy ds, a suggestion from Poppy and a cash point, you'd be surprised but there are no cash points in Berlin. After an intensive look, we found a maccy ds, but no cash point, so lunch was on Ben! I had just finished my big tasty bacon and started tucking into my fries when a beggar approached harassing me for some pommes Ben managed to shoe her away by shaking his head and saying nein. Shortly after she weaselled herself a cheeseburger off an Italian couple and was told to leave by an employee. 
 

Next on our long list of destinations was a massive tower, seemed very similar to the Shard in London and we didn't think 12 euros each was that bad so we decided to trek over too it. On the way we walked into a couple of girls who were asking for signatures for what looked like a petition. We signed naively but then noticed the last column said money donated. I wrote 0 euros and dropped the pen back in the girls hands as she wouldn't take it. I then said no and said I didn't have any money. Myles, however, decided that it was a good idea to get his wallet out and show them the 10 pound note in his wallet. Luckily he managed to snatch his wallet back into his pocket before they could take that. He did then take the small change out of his pocket and they managed to grab that from him. I then told Myles off of course and we had a good chat about how we can ignore anything like that happening again. Berlin seems to be beggar ridden. 

We got to the tower but the queue to get in was 3 hours apparently so we abruptly left the over packed establishment. We then decided to go to the Berlin cathedral. This was actually really good and definitely worth the 4 euros we paid to get in. There were many good photo opportunities. 

 

 

 We thought these next three fellas looked like they were posing for their Facebook profile pictures... 

 Our final trip of the day was visiting the victory column which was basically the cheap alternative for the tv tower without a lift, I honestly thought those stairs would never end. We didn't spend too long on top of the victory column as it felt like it was going to fall. However, we got some nice photos and the views were amazing. That pretty much sums up our day for now.  We're off to town now for a curry wurst and a couple of cheeky ones at our local. Stay frosty!

Ben & Myles x