For this first week, I have been crashing at my friends Dan & Ella's place. They have been very accommodating, & i'm quite grateful.
On the first day Ella took us on a little walk, primarily to go visit Dan at his place of work. The photo on the left is NOT where he works. It is a squat, that is also used as an artists space. What I found interesting (besides the weird characters habitating in its surrounds), was what Ella pointed out, is that the building is very indicative of East Berlin (where we are). Because there wasn't as much money in the Eastern economy, fewer of the delapidated buildings have been rebuilt. In my opinion, they should leave them like this, because it gives the place character & story. I also had a currywurst for lunch. Simon was obsessed with this in 2006.
I went with two of Dans work mates to a Football match between Hertha Berlin & Freiberg at Olympia Stadion. Its only early stages of the competition, and given Hertha's 0:4 loss, was supposedly a boring match. I however enjoyed the trip to the Stadion, exploring the Stadion itself, which was built by the Nazis...you can see in the pic its very 1930's design. The "empty" stadion of approx. 40k people was also a sight to see, compared to the pittance we get at NRL matches in Aus.
I borrowed Dan's bike and went on a bit of a run down to some of Berlins famous landmarks. I'll let the pictures below do the talking. Riding around Berlin is amazing...the whole city is flat, and 90% of roads have a bike lane. If no bike lane, the cars are über friendly and aware of bikes.
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