Berlin has been awesome!

Gottentag....hahah

Well guys, berlin has been great to us the last few days. We have felt very welcome, and safe in this great city. Maddy and i were talking about it earlier, but we didnt expect the hospitality we recieved from the people here in berlin. We thought people were going to be a little mean etc etc, but its been totally opposite.
The city itself is very clean and modern, and laid out with precision. The are no traffic jams etc and the place just dosnt seem crowded at all. Trust the germans to get it right.
Our 1st full day we walked around the city. Our hotel was a little way out, but there were alot of cool thngs to see on the way in. Our first stop was the victory tower, which is a big monument in the middle of a big roundabout. We went inside it and climbed the stairs to the top. From the top there was a nice view into the city, and of brandenburgs gate. The road leading towards the brandenburg gate was the road that the nazi army marched up. Along the road was a monument to the soldiers and there were 2 tanks on display. Pretty cool. Near the monument was a photo of the area looking toward the brandenburg gate after the war, which was insane. In photo There was nothing but rubble, and the gates. The whole area and city was just ruined from air raids and the fighting that went on. Being there and seeing the city as it is today made it hard to image that the war even happened.
We eventuaaly made our way to the gates. They are a cool site. I made sure we walked through the middle arch, as in the past, only the royal family and bigwigs could go though it. It was a cool experience. We then headed over to the reishtag, which is the building where the german parliment is. Is is a massive building and was damaged badly in the war, but is all fixed up now. We then went and sat at the monument for the murdered jews. The monument is not that old, but is very cool. Its a whole heap of cement rectangles. It seems to be level, but as you walk into the middle of thr monument, the level of the ground goes up and down, and its like your in a sort of maze.
We then went to a place they call the topography of terror, whe there is around 60 metres of the wall still remainng, and a visitors centre with the timeline of events from the election of the nazi party, ww2, the wall goiing up, and the breaking down of the wall. It as super interesting. We had a different picture in our minds of what the wall was like. I always thought it was very thick, as i hadnt seen a cross section of it before. It was actually not that thick, but was reinforced concrete panels about 12 feets high, by 6 or so feet wide. The panels had a thickened triangular bottom so they could stand, and be place next to eachother easily and quickly. They were then cemented in, and a thick round coping slid onto the top of the wall that was long, so as to hold and stabalize around 4-5 panels of the wall in place. We were both amazed by all this and the division of the city into east and west. It would have been crazy to live here then.
That night we ate at a cool little resturant. Our waiter was super funny.
Today we saw a few museums, one of which was set up to souw you how life was like for people living in eat berlin. It would have been wierd. Everyone was given pretty much tge same stuff, and everything had to be approved before it could be had. Eg music, clothes.. There were only a limited collection of clothes that could be purchased.. Haha talk about a strict dress standard.. No wonder they eentually got the wall down and went nuts with excitement.
Sorry to go on and on, but we have been so impressed by it all, as its just so different to how we have it in australia. Berlin now is very similar to australia, but they went through hell to get it. We are lucky.
We have loved it here and dont really want to leave. The weather has been nice and cool too!
We head to prague tomorrow on the train, so hopefully all goes well and to plan.
We have had so many cool experiences and have seen so much.
Talk to u all in prauge.