It was now time for Berlin. Mareike met me at the main station and we caught a regional train to Spandau, it certainly takes a bit of time to get out there.  I dropped all my stuff off at Mareikes lovely big flat, we ate some dinner then headed out to a club. If you got there before 9 it was free entrance, we met Mareikes flatmate Anika on the way. When we arrived we had to stand in the pouring rain (with a small umbrella) while I finished my drink, but there was thunder so I was happily excited, like a small child.  There were 3 rooms, all with different types of music. One was hard rock/heavy metal head banging stuff (I tried it for a bit, there was a dragon on the wall that breathed real fire! But it wasn’t really my thing), another room had more club music with a band playing later on, and the final room had chairs etc and two bars. Outside there was a pool 0_0 and while we sat under shelter while it rained, two guys jumped in! I can imagine that happens most nights…An hour, a taxi,3 bus rides and a desperately needed McDonalds stop later and we were home again!

The next morning we slowly got up and eventually left for East Side Gallery, art painted on the Berlin wall in 1989/90 and then headed to Mareikes Mums place. After we visited her Grandmother Mareikes Mum took us out to dinner at a Japanese restaurant, which was really amazing. It was a full course meal with a lovely soup, salad and we watched the chef prepare fried rice and after that our main meal of meat/fish and vegetables, it was fun to watch him cook our food! Best Salmon I’ve ever had.

When we got back I found Sibylle (Dad use to date her when I was younger) in Mareikes kitchen and it took a few seconds for me to realise it wasn’t an unknown friend of one of the flat mates but she was actually there to see me (to be fair, I hadn’t seen her since I was 11). She told me that she followed some girls into their apartment the floor below and they looked at her confused saying ‘We don’t know you…’ ‘Of course you don’t, I’m here to see Leigha!’ then she heard a dog bark upstairs and realised she was in the wrong flat…hehe.

We went to an icecream place down the road and I ordered a brownie with two scoops (the smallest thing I could find) but even that was too much after my huge Japanese dinner, but what I had was rather delicious. Sibylle then took me to see Zitadelle Castle and we can hopefully see a show there when I come back in September. We aimed to be back by 11 as I had an early rise the next morning, it really was a nice evening J

So, Heidi Park near Hamburg here we come! People were up an about around 4am, I chose to ignore them until 4:55am when I got up, dressed, ate and sleepily waited to be told we were leaving (it was to be a 3 hours drive…*sigh*). Lisa (Mareike other flat mate) made us all sandwich’s which looked very professional and were delicious. We made our way to a small village outside Berlin to meet 6 other people who were coming with us, 5 of them went in our car and we moved into there people mover, I’m not quite sure why but it still got us there.

Our first proper ride we went on (I’m sorry Mareike but I don’t count that small log ride as a proper ride J) we had to wait an agonising hour, I was desperately hoping it wouldn’t be this bad for all of them because I wouldn’t wait this long again! The ride was called Colossus and was 70m high with a 60degree drop, I really started getting nervous when we were close to the front. Then was really quite against the idea when we were strapped in. Mareike was totally fine and I couldn’t get out so had no choice but to be slowly pulled higher and higher.  I always started inwardly panicking when we near the drop but then….what a thrill of course! My neck was pushed backwards when we reached the bottom (it was even worse the second time I went on it at the end of the day) because there was no head support, but after that I enjoyed the ride. Every so often I would look sideways and see the look of terror on Mareikes face and he screams sounded more frightened than my childlike cries of excitement. So from then on any big rides I wanted to go on Ani (her flatmate) went with me while Mareike and Lisa went on other rides.

Eventually Ani and I got the confidence to go on the Kraken, an almost 90degree drop into the jaws of the beast then a giant loop, but alas it was closed due to technical difficulties. We met some of the people who came with us and apparently some of them waited and hour and a half, were close to the front and we then told it had to be closed! I must admit I wasn’t overally disappointed, and wanted to go to an area with a giant swing thing, and lots of machines that spin you (I don’t know how else to describe them). I managed to pursuade Mareike to go on the swing thing where it spun you backwards and forwards and all around. Much to her relief 30seconds in the light drizzle turned into heavy rain with thunder and lightening so all the rides had to be closed. We sprinted to the shelter Ani, Lisa and a lot of other people were huddling in and waited for the rain to ease. I felt like a child again enjoying there scary sound of thunder and getting excited when I saw fork lightening, it was very close! When the rain eased somewhat we ran to the arcade centre around the corner to meet two others.

After the rain stopped and we saw all the rides starting up again Ani and I went to a ride where you went from 0-200km in a few seconds, boy that was excilerating! And what’s better is that we only had to wait 20 minutes. We saw the Kraken was open again but I put our safety first and decided not to go on it due to the previous technical problem and the very big downpour we just had, you can never be too careful J We had just enough time to go on the Colossus again, unfortunately that meant we didn’t get to the gate til 6:15 (the park ‘closes’ at 6) and a lot of people wer quite annoyed at us as they had waited in the car since the lightning storm (which was at about 4:30…) and since they had give there phones to someone else they couldn’t contact anyone…. Whoops.

On Sunday Mareike and Lisa had an archery competition at 9am, she thought I’d get too bored watching it all so gave me clear instructions on what train then bus to catch to get there at 1pm, took about an hour! I came in the 7th round (there are 12) of the 18m, and Mareike was in the lead. After a lunch break I decided to go for a walk before the finals, in my stupidity I thought they’d be almost as long as the morning so I thought 30-40 minutes would be fine. However, the park was a lot bigger and more confusing than I thought and after passing a few people sunbathing in the nude, then people trying to sell drugs I realised I was a bit lost. I made my way to the nearest exit and ran in what I thought was the right direction until I rounded a corner and saw a monument that was across the road from the sports ground. I had taken far too long by this point and despite being in a dress with a backpack on I knew I had to run. Luckily I did! I just made it for the golden finals where Mareike and 3 others did one round, then Mareike and another competed in the next. Unfortunately Mareike just missed out on winning, but she had gotten the best score in every other round, she’s very good!

That evening the girls got a German movie out  for me (one that had English subtitles of course) we had yummy strawberries and I had popcorn (the ‘butter’ flavour was very salty, Germans don’t like salty popcorn) as well as chips, fatty I know.

On Monday Mareike had work at 1 so I hung out with her until then and left them at the supermarket. Cameron sent me an email the night before with a list of cool places he recommended and described how to get to them. I started at the Tacheles, a large building with squaters who produce art. I then made my way to Bernauer Straße Berlin Wall Memorial. Towards the end I watched a video of a woman describing how she lost her husband, this really upset me and I couldn’t read any more. I headed towards a street with vintage shops, more specifically Cameron’s favourite second hand shop ‘Pauls Boutique’. It is very well know for its shoes, it has a floor to ceiling shelf of Chucks then a wall dedicated to Adidas and many other different kinds of shoes. The shop had a very nice feel to it with high shelves full of old toys and every available space filled with clothes. Though it is a bit expensive for my kind of op shopping, I could understand why Cameron liked it so much especially because the clothes were such good quality.

I caught the train to another part of Berlin, within walking distance of the East Side Gallery that I had been to a few days ago. I walked around a big area of clubs and abandoned buildings covered in graffiti, I can imagine it would be a fun place to go to at night. There were certain areas I wanted to explore but they had fenced everything off, maybe to discourage squatters? I then walked to Oberbaum bridge which Mareike had shown me the day before as we walked to the train station. Two years ago Mareike brought me an amazing book with pictures of street art of Berlin, as I crossed the bridge I was really stoked to see the art that was on the front cover of the book, it was a nice feeling standing in front of it.

By now I had gotten pretty tired and my legs were very stiff from my run the other day (shows how unfit I am!) I didn’t want to walk back the way I came so walked in a direction that I thought I’d find a train. It was a bit of a walk but I managed to find one, though I had no idea where it was on my train map of Berlin so had to aske someone who kindly showed me how to get back to Spandau. I caught 3 trains didn’t have to wait for long between each train (max 3 mins). Mareike was still at work but Ani let me in and I just chilled for a while and finished Mums birthday video.

The next morning we went to the pet store down the road and I was like a little child looking at the cute bunnies and mice. When we were about to leave I noticed an area with a big light in the corner and said I wanted to check it out. Mareike casually said ‘Oh they have a crocodile there’ I just laughed and thought she was mocking me about being exited by all the cages, but they really had a crocodile!!! It wasn’t for sale though, so I’m not sure why they had it…..

We started our sightseeing trip after lunch and went to the GDR museum. It was brilliantly done, with great displays that were interactive and interesting. If it wasn’t a cupboard you opened then it was something you could touch or listen to. I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. Afterwards we went to a second hand store that was massive, I think I’ll go back there by myself with plenty of time because they had some really great vintage/alternative clothes.

We went to the Topography of terror open air display next, similar to the Berlin Wall Memorial but with information about the rise of Hitler and about people involved and people effective. It was very interesting and I learnt a lot but by the end we had both had enough and my eyes had gotten tired from all the reading and squinting in the sun, silly Leigha for leaving her sunglasses in Rostock. Mareike made me a lovely stirfry that night and I got frustrated watching the Big Bang Theory in German because it looked like it was a funny episode but I just couldn’t understand it!

It was Mums birthday back home too, I wish her a very happy birthday and send my love 🙂