ich bin ein berliner?

hello loyal readers; parents, steve, mietta, eliza, perhaps others? unlikely, but hopeful.

well, it's sunday afternoon in berlin and EVERYTHING IS CLOSED. seriously. it's one of the major-est european cities and it has the same attitude towards consumerism as the fricking tasmanians. so at 2:35pm, while you're all tucked up in your bedsies, or having a party for a boy who now lives under the stairs, i am listening to german punk rock (an inexplicable favourite of this hostel) and writing a blog.

dan has mostly caught you up with the end of the netherlands, i didn't do anything different other than fall asleep at the ICC (see below, turn head sideways for full effect) and get shouted at by a guard and frowned at by a judge, which is pretty cool because hopefully that will happen a lot in my future when i become an ICC prosecutor who is still cool enough to turn up to work hungover and accidentally have a bit of a nap during some very boring evidence.

seriously though, it was really amazing to see it in real life. last year at uni in my first year international studies subject i wrote an oversimplified and vague essay on how the ICC could never be effective, and now i'm here seeing all these people and all this scholarship and the complexities of the statute and i'm so overwhelmed. the court only has jurisdiction (bad law language, don't get involved law graduate boyfriend) over three crimes so far, genocide, war crimes (mostly stuff that involves death and torture of civillians) and crimes against humanity, so they're really serious cases. we didn't see any of the accuseds, but it was still so sombre and scary. really is an awesome place to be.

we did a little bit of last minute shopping/throwing money at dutch people and receiving stuff we don't need because utrecht was a great place to be, and we watched our last episodes of ally mcbeal with ding ding, and on friday morning we did the WORST WALK EVER to the train station. don't mistake me, i know all walking is bad, but walking in an enormous downpour with all your worldly possessions dragging through puddles behind you just sucks. i would show you a photo but it's decided to stop working sorry bye.

the train to berlin was sweaty and smelly as usual, and we sat too close to some chronic stare-ers as usual, and some old people fought with some other old people about seats and wine gums as usual, but otherwise it was a smooth trip.

our hostel is amazing, "heart of gold" hostel which is themed like the hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy which is cool. we met some awesome kids in our room, kelsey from seattle is a sweet girl who helpfully speaks german and stopped the polizei at the train station from setting their muzzled alsations on us when we tried to use the elevator. this is us trying to climb a bear, obviously i am not really trying because my arse is as big as the car tyre behind it but she did a pretty decent job. again for best results turn head to side.

she's gone now which sucks, but we've still got steph from canada who's working as an au pair in switzerland, who is leaving her job in september and asked me if i'd be interested (!!) har har never coming home. there's also the norwegian girls who we hated for the 4am light on penchant and nipple baring you've already heard about, but they joined us on the pub crawl last night and were vaguely tolerable. they pub crawl, on the other hand, was not tolerable, i didn't take my camera as i was ashamed and didn't need evidence of the disgustery, it was mostly GROSS australians kissing GROSS british people and doing shots straight out of the jagermeister bottle because after all, if you've got herpes, why keep it to yourself? share the blistering love.

so we bailed on that after too many free apple schnapps and went home, proud that we survived and ashamed that we parted with ten euro (almost 20 bucks!!) for the experience.

other than that interesting time, we haven't gone very crazy in berlin which is a pity because we won't get another weekend here. we went on a walking tour around the east and a screechy little lady called jessy told us about the history of berlin. it's amazing to think that less than 20 years ago the city was still divided into the rich western side and the poor, strong communist satellite city east berlin. the east seems to be much more interesting now, edgier and artier while the west is full of mean chanel ladies who frown at poor people who just want to try their glasses on for a second...

this is a building, possibly an old palace or something, i have forgotten because i am lame. it's a really nice example of the architecture though, and you can climb it apparently, which would be pretty cool. the gothic (?) style is really amazing and a lot of the city is really beautiful like that. there's also a lot of revisionism in the cityscape, for example, there used to be an imperial palace in the east from back in the days of the monarchy, and when communism came into fashion they pulled it down and made a "people's palace" where everyone could come and be buddies with the government. that palace got bombed by the allies, and years after the war towards the end of the cold war they started to rebuild it, but found out it was made of asbestos, so they sat around for a bit, then when the wall came down and communism went out of fashion they decided they'd rebuild the imperial palace. which they're still trying to do 20 years later. it feels a bit like they sort of switch on, switch off phases of their history.

we've done a bit of holocaust memorial stuff, there's this statue called "a mother holding a dying son", and beneath it is buried the remains of a german soldier and a murdered jew, so they can commemorate all the horrors of war, which is pretty cool. the roof is open, so when it rains she gets rained on, and when it snows the whole room powders over, which must be pretty moving.

there's also the modern jewish memorial which i don't have a great photo of, but it's basically these blocks, all of the same length and width but different heights, getting taller as you walk into it. its pretty big, maybe 200 square metres, and as you go you just get deeper and deeper into these blocks that are about the same size as graves. i really like the symbolism, because it's so stark and neat yet overpowering at the same time, it really communicates the fascist feeling, and how all consuming it must have been to be in germany at the time. and as you walk, the graves get taller, as though you can't understand how easily and rapidly the slaughtering occurred. very spooky and definitely haunted.

anyway, that's most of the interesting things about berlin, we're being lazy today because our bodies are sore from weird beds and pillows. we went to the markets this morning, i'm slowly knocking off souvenirs but really struggling, so if there's anything european you've always wanted that does not cost more than one euro feel free to make an application in writing to the heart of gold hostel berlin and you will receive a response within 4 to 6 weeks thanks bye.


hope you're all well, keep emailing as i check most days because i am a chump, i miss you but still don't miss melbourne so all of you just c'mere and we'll have a big partay. xxxxooooo

ps this is a bin. turn your head to the side. trust me it's pretty cool.