Berlin

(Brest - Berlin 699km/434 Miles)
Total distance traveled = 14,168 km/8803 Miles

I woke up in another country, again. This time I hadn't changed all my money. Thinking I might have to pay something at customs or crossing the border, I kept the 70,000 or so Belarusian Rubles I had in my wallet. There's a 'National Health Insurance' scheme which all visitors to Belarus are supposed to have. I'd heard a few travellers saying that they'd been told they had to buy this. Nobody mentioned this to me though (probably as I was leaving the country and it was too late), and so I was left with all these rubles and nowhere to change them. I don't think it's possible to change them anywhere except within Belarus, but 70,000 is only about £8 (1,000 yen) so it's not that big a loss.

After grabbing a McBreakfast, I headed to my hostel in Berlin. It wasn't really near the centre, but the city itself is quite spread out meaning I'd have to use the metro quite a bit anyway. The hostel itself was nice, but there wasn't much of an atmosphere there. I chatted to a few people on the first and third night, but generally everyone seemed to spend their time out in Berlin.

There was a lot to see and do in the city, so I ended up staying an extra night. This was also partly to get a cheaper onward train. During my time in Berlin, I visited...

A Dali exhibition - bit disappointing as most of the exhibits were sketches, not paintings. Also a bit expensive compared to the other exhibitions in the city.

The Bauhaus Archive - more interesting than I expected. There was a lot of information in the small, Bauhaus designed building. It helped to show how influential the movement was in modern design.

The German Guggenheim - exhibitions constantly change, the video one there when I visited was OK, but nothing to write home about.

Topography of Terror - A museum dedicated to the Nazis rise and reign in Germany. Very interesting and lots of photos/documents, but pretty heavy going. Not just the topic, but the length and number of texts meant that this felt like I was reading a badly written textbook.

The Berlin Wall - lots of different sites for this. The most interesting were a place where the wall and its 'death strip' had been recreated, and the preserved area with wall murals in the East of the city. Lots of photos of these murals in my gallery!

The Neu Gallery - One of the better galleries from my trip. Quite a range of different artists, lots of exhibits, and not at all busy. They linked a lot of the art to the historical background in which it was produced, which helped you to understand the artist's reason for producing the work.

I also went to a couple of weekend markets, the monument to Europe's murdered Jews, Brandenburg Gate, the site of Hitler's bunker, and lots more places. Berlin was really interesting, and it felt like there were a lot of different sides to the city. Unusually for me in a city, I felt I could have stayed a few extra days and still found more things to see.

Photos of the city...
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Berlin/?albumview=slideshow

Some photos of the graffiti/street art in the city....
http://s214.photobucket.com/albums/cc250/davingtonsmythe/Japan%20to%20Russia/Berlin%20Graffiti%20and%20Street%20Art/?albumview=slideshow