One of the major reasons Barry and I were in Berlin is the work related conference he wanted to attend on the weekend. So I delved back into the world of couchsurfing. I spent three nights on the fold out sofa of a great host, Dana. We spent Friday night chilling out in her Berlin flat and making plans for the rest of the weekend. As I really love free stuff, I decided the free walking tours of Berlin (well, they cost a tip) were definitely the way forward.
Saturday morning I joined the Alternative Tour of Berlin which covered a lot of the city’s graffiti artists. Led by a British guy who is well on his way to becoming a failed artist, I got to see a side of Berlin I wouldn’t have found on my own. Some of the art/graffiti was amazing, some of it rubbish, some of the techniques were very impressive. Like filling a fire extinguisher with paint to spray higher onto a wall, hanging from the top of the wall to tag a high position (the heaven spot), or painting the wall a solid colour and chipping away so the underlying brickwork created the picture. Very cool.
The alternative stuff is quite cool but Sunday I decided to revisit my first love-history and attended yet another free walking tour! This one was of historical sites, a lot of which I’d already seen on my first visit to the city many years ago, but it was good to be reminded of all the things I’ve forgotten.
The weather was so much warmer in Germany than in Scotland so Barry and I were quite keen to camp. The original plan was to head out of town to Brandenburg but we found that most of the campsites were hard to get to by public transport. But we found a city campsite on the an island on the outskirts of Berlin. Rivers, an island, forest setting. Sounds ideal, right? Unfortunately it was also on the flight path of one of Berlin’s airports. Not the most relaxing camping trip I’ve ever had.
For our week and a half, Berlin really showed us a varied lifestyle. A bit of working, a bit of a holiday, a bit of camping, even a bit of swing dancing.
Success.