Had an absolutely lovely time in Berlin with Tom, Jen, Monica , and moi. Got there Thurs night really late, stumbled across the road to the actually extremely nice mexican restaurant, then few drinks (rough as hell red wine). Remember it was 'Dad's day' which was actually Father's day, which meant a load of drunken men everywhere. Which we were all perving at, of course!!

Then Thurs, leetle wander around the city, after breakfast at a nice juice bar down the road on the corner (fit men in both the restaurant and the bread shop afterwards). We refrained from shopping, just went to see part of the Berlin wall (I was navigating can you believe, so must've improved since the last time I tried). We then walked to the part where Jen's mate was, had a touristy lunch, and then went into his Irish Bar - wasn't so great, because we had to sit there while they downed the drinks, and I just wanted to be outside really wandering!!

Then we had a wander around the shops and market there, Jenny got all a bit emotional from the booze I think, was a bit sad. That sucked. Then we went out in the evening after a little rest to meet my friend Jen , who lives there now. Had quite a few bottles of wine around hers, met her strange friend adam and his nice girlfriend Regina, went to an odd Turkish place that was probably the worst place we ate in all weekend (but he swore by it), and then Jen and Mon left, we went on to another bar, Jen left, and we ended up in the Roses for a nightcap. By this time Tom was absolutely hammered, no wonder he felt shocking for two days afterwards, Bummer!!

Sat was up around 12, had the most amazing breakfast in a cafe with swingy chairs down the road, for literally two hours. Had a wander past the vintage shop (there was one really nice shop there with an absolute beast of a woman - all of us thought she was horrible and got this horrible vibe off her). Then we were heading to the wall but actually ended up shopping for hours - which was nice except I was soooo hungover I couldn't even be bothered to do that. Which is probably a good thing considering how much have spent recently!!

Then on to the central part of town. We thought we found checkpoint charlie, but we didn't (after the TV tower bit), we just walked for hours. We did find the Brandenburg Gate, where there was a big 60jahre celebration party going on. Where my ending was that they sang ;we are the champions of the world!!' at which point we left. Quick kip, Jen got a bit funny because she hadn't eaten anything, then out for the cheapest sushi ever, and forced ourselves to one bar because we could (Pluckinsky's, the friendliest loneliest bartender in the world who gave us chocolates at the end, sooo nice). Then back home absolutely exhausted!

Sunday we managed to get to the other part of the wall we wanted to see (after another stop at the same cafe as the day before, for another amazing breaky!!) then to checkpoint charlie, then into the car for the (as it turned out) hugest drive back, over ten hours on the way home. Unbelievable. And it was scary driving on that Autobahn, I'm fine when there isn't much traffic but really don't like overtaking on that side of the road. I almost went into a car to the side of me, when this bus started pulling into my lane. That was at the beginning, and after that I shat myself every time I had to drive. yikes.

Anyway, got back yest evening pretty flipping tired, to unpack and fall into bed. What a great weekend though.

I'll post up some photos, but really was a city where I thought I could really live there at some point in my life. Maybe if I can one day will go back (been looking at jobs but you need German as well as English..) now I wish I'd listened to Mr Millington at KES! How bizarre to get that feeling.

Lots more hectic than here, longer working hours etc according to Jen, but on the other hand, friendly arty people, cool style, cheap food and accomodation. FaB!!