Berlin and Prague

I'm realising photos are going to be difficult to get put up on this with limited time and what not, I will try and get some on soon.

BERLIN was cool. we got there the first night and went for a wander (which was a bone of contention, I wanted to see Berlin asap and Deb wanted to do it after a drink, I figured I wasn't in Berlin to see a Hostel bar and she said it would only be one. I still stick by my option, the next night indicated I was right) Any way so went explored Berlin at dusk and dark and it was cool walking aimlessly.
We woke the next morning to our bus being burnt out (probably by soccer hooligans as there was a game of the Euro 08 on that night) and some peoples belongings and most peoples sleeping bahgs went up in smoke. Not ours very luckily. We then went on a walking guided tour of Berlin with a very loud and knowledgable American lady and we saw the likes of the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Checkpoint Charlie, The Berlin Wall, where Hitlers bunker and house was, the Jewish monument, as well as other sites, and got a very good and thorough history lesson at the same time. We then went to the Checkpoint Charlie Museum which was a bit unessicary after the tour info but hey, you don't know this till you try, then we walked around Berlin till about nine that night out to the Jewish Museum (we didn't go in, as it looks huge, Debbie just wanted to see the architecture) and did a little bit of shopping (which I and Deb must say we haven't actually found anything cool to buy yet) and wandered around looking at more sights. After 12 hours of walking we ended up doing our first night of 'socialising' at The hostel bar which was on a balcony 7 floors up looking over Berlin at night. That was to 2am.

We left Berlin and stopped in DRESDEN, the city known for a very unfortunate reason as we all know. Summer has started, goddamn it was hot. We were there for 2 hours on a sunday which meant it was a little quiet but still plenty of tourists looking at the sites. I have noticed in Germany there are actually a lot of Germna tourists also (though I am probably chucking a bunch of Austrians etc in there with my untrained ear). It is also strange that all the cool architecture in germany is unfortunately mostly 'rebuilds' of the buildings that were nailed in dubyadubyatwo, but have been made to look 300 years old, so they still look cool.

PRAGUE is an interesting one. We got in around 6 or seven (it stays light very late here, Amsterdam like 10.30 at night and the rest like 9.30 -10.) and it was stinking boiling. We went straight to Prague Castle and its surrounding buildings on the hill in Prague which overlooks the city. Amazing, absolutely beautiful picturesque city and archtecture. We then walked from there down into the Old town Square acros the Charles Bridge. The old town I did not like I must say. I had read how you get scammed here and most of us on the trip have encountered dodgyness in the restaurants. Not speaking Czech or being able to read it does not help one bit either. The town itself is amazing with its narrow cobbled streets and great old buildings and the Astronomical Clock(which is not worth waiting for the 'show' it puts on every hour, I've seen better from a cuckoo clock) but unfortunately you feel very uneasy in the Old Town of Prague, I got offered 'hash,ecstacy' within ten minutes of being there and it's notorious for it's pickpockets, dodgy restauranters and taxi drivers, and the people just aren't friendly at all. (I must say the Dutch have been the friendliest so far). After getting back to the hostel and checking in we then spent the night till after one at the hostel bar (thanks to Deb, a disturbing trend I'm noticing, not unlike Doug and Frans scenario in SA). I awoke to the sound of an explosive bomb rocketing throughout the city about 5 or 6 o'clock this morning and then a nother not long after, I honestly wondered what was going on and the noise sounded like nothing I had heard before in volume etc. After about 3 of these horrendous bomblike sounds I got up and looked out the window, The sky was dark but there was no rain at all. It was thunder and went on for maybe 15 minutes sporadically and was honestly horrendously loud and I've not heard anything like it before, especially without rain. We then spent today (stinking hot and summery again) on a canal cruise and then spent over an hour walking through shops etc, and stopping at the odd one, to the National Museum to see the remains of a Woolly Mammoth. You can imagine our dissapointment after getting there to find they planned to close early today for 'technical reasons' and had closed an hour before we got there (remember that time we went all the way to Prague and didn't see the Woolly Mammoth coz they were closed??). So we went for a wander, some of the sights today included the building where Mozarts Don Giovani premiered and the 'dancing' house which is a strang looking building, among others. I must say after today I liked Prague alot more (as I always thought I would) the only thing is really you have to be on your toes and the people are not friendly, of well.