Berlin

Back into Germany by train, eventually reaching Berlin after a night in Dresden. Heard so many good things about Berlin so I was very much looking forward to spending some time there. The visit was made all the more enjoyable as I spent the 9 days there with friends, Marnie for the first 3 days and Mark for the last 3 days. Did as much sight seeing as the weather would allow us to do, it rained most of the time I was in Berlin. One day it even snowed. Enjoyed the break in Berlin, rode my bike around a lot, saw a few photo exhibitions, museums and the East Side Gallery. Visited plenty of bars and cafes ofcourse, heaps to choose from. One night I went out to see some live music with a few new friends (a hospitality student from Brazil, a translator from South Korea and an online Poker Player from America) from the hostel I was staying at. I chose the venue as I heard it had live music playing every night. We stepped down into a dark cellar under a bar in a back street of Kreuzberg. There was an old electric guitar lying on a rickety table with an empty chair. About 15 people sat around the walls of the room drinking beer and wine, staring at the guitar, wondering if it was going to play itself or not. Finally a young man sat at the table, turned a few knobs on his amp and began yanking strings on the guitar, scraping metal objects across the strings and generally making a lot of distorted noise. 30 minutes later he had finished and he never once picked up the guitar. It was like watching a surgeon dissect a patient, without using an anaesthetic. The screams of the guitar still haunt me.