Ok, holiday news
In general: the trip was nice and nothing bad happened, we didn't lose anything and were able to sleep quite well everywhere.
The beginning of the week in Berlin was lovely, sunny and warm but already on Monday I felt my throat was a bit sore... And I eventually did get a flu which wasn't terribly bad though. And I blame the ventilators in the plane and I should blame myself too because I didn't turn them off. But I was so afraid of the take-off again (as always) I thought I would faint or something if I'd had no air conditioning or something. Silly me...
We saw the famous Olympic Stadion on Monday but only from outside because it was closed. I think because of The U2 concert on Thursday. They were building something there and didn't let visitors in. On Tuesday and Wednesday it rained quite a lot but not all the time. We saw the Mauer Museum (the Wall Museum) which was full of German school groups. Also visited the Technical Museum which was a bore! I'm glad the tickets weren't more expensive... And saw quite a few other things people tend to see in Berlin :) .
The first hostel in Prenzlauer Berg was nice, quiet and very clean and the staff was funny (http://www.alcatraz-backpacker.de/). And the area was full of great restaurants and pubs in which we ate and drank every evening :) . If someone ever visits Berlin, ask me about the pubs, there are many I can recommend. The last hostel (from Saturday to Sunday only) was far from nice: terribly dirty and crowded with school groups not only from Germany. The kids (14-15 years old) wer running and screaming in the corridors and we kept wondering where the teachers were... Didn't even want to try the breakfast there. And the strange thing was that the owners of the first hostel were some sort of young hippie-style people and the last, not-so-nice hostel was owned by a family who'd had it for many years already.
On Thursday we headed to Chemnitz by train and were very glad we heard about the bombs in London after the trip, already in Chemnitz. It was totally horrible (we could as well have been there and were in the Berlin underground at the same time the bombs exploded) but luckily we had so many things to do there we didn't have time to follow the news all the time. Jördis and Sven picked us up from the railway station (and had met for the first time the same morning). Were also able to meet all the people we were planning to meet, the two Finns from Tampere, a girl I was a tutor of in 2003, Yvonne & Daniel etc. And it felt we'd never been away from Chemnitz. Nothing had changed really, except for the two student houses which were renovated this year (thank God).
The flight on Sunday was much easier although the take-offs just give me the creeps and I need to think about breathing all the time, I'll forget it and faint otherwise :) ... Landings are much nicer and not so shocking. Oh, Lauri from the Rasmus was on the same flight with us :) . And we thought that he should wear something else than black and no sun glasses if he wants that the people won't see him... Well, the Finns were as if they hadn't seen him duing the flight. And he travelled in the business class unlike we the poor. Stayed at J's brother and his girlfriend in Tampere that night before coming home yesterday.
I've always heard that the flight companies over-book flights so that they won't need to fly with empty planes. Well, our flight on Sunday was over-booked with three people and the lady at the airport also offered us another possibility to fly to Finland (via Munich) but we politely said no... I couldn't handle any other take-offs and change of plans, although J almost would have said yes.
The Danes :) are here on Thursday and we are waiting for them already :) !!!
The beginning of the week in Berlin was lovely, sunny and warm but already on Monday I felt my throat was a bit sore... And I eventually did get a flu which wasn't terribly bad though. And I blame the ventilators in the plane and I should blame myself too because I didn't turn them off. But I was so afraid of the take-off again (as always) I thought I would faint or something if I'd had no air conditioning or something. Silly me...
We saw the famous Olympic Stadion on Monday but only from outside because it was closed. I think because of The U2 concert on Thursday. They were building something there and didn't let visitors in. On Tuesday and Wednesday it rained quite a lot but not all the time. We saw the Mauer Museum (the Wall Museum) which was full of German school groups. Also visited the Technical Museum which was a bore! I'm glad the tickets weren't more expensive... And saw quite a few other things people tend to see in Berlin :) .
The first hostel in Prenzlauer Berg was nice, quiet and very clean and the staff was funny (http://www.alcatraz-backpacker.de/). And the area was full of great restaurants and pubs in which we ate and drank every evening :) . If someone ever visits Berlin, ask me about the pubs, there are many I can recommend. The last hostel (from Saturday to Sunday only) was far from nice: terribly dirty and crowded with school groups not only from Germany. The kids (14-15 years old) wer running and screaming in the corridors and we kept wondering where the teachers were... Didn't even want to try the breakfast there. And the strange thing was that the owners of the first hostel were some sort of young hippie-style people and the last, not-so-nice hostel was owned by a family who'd had it for many years already.
On Thursday we headed to Chemnitz by train and were very glad we heard about the bombs in London after the trip, already in Chemnitz. It was totally horrible (we could as well have been there and were in the Berlin underground at the same time the bombs exploded) but luckily we had so many things to do there we didn't have time to follow the news all the time. Jördis and Sven picked us up from the railway station (and had met for the first time the same morning). Were also able to meet all the people we were planning to meet, the two Finns from Tampere, a girl I was a tutor of in 2003, Yvonne & Daniel etc. And it felt we'd never been away from Chemnitz. Nothing had changed really, except for the two student houses which were renovated this year (thank God).
The flight on Sunday was much easier although the take-offs just give me the creeps and I need to think about breathing all the time, I'll forget it and faint otherwise :) ... Landings are much nicer and not so shocking. Oh, Lauri from the Rasmus was on the same flight with us :) . And we thought that he should wear something else than black and no sun glasses if he wants that the people won't see him... Well, the Finns were as if they hadn't seen him duing the flight. And he travelled in the business class unlike we the poor. Stayed at J's brother and his girlfriend in Tampere that night before coming home yesterday.
I've always heard that the flight companies over-book flights so that they won't need to fly with empty planes. Well, our flight on Sunday was over-booked with three people and the lady at the airport also offered us another possibility to fly to Finland (via Munich) but we politely said no... I couldn't handle any other take-offs and change of plans, although J almost would have said yes.
The Danes :) are here on Thursday and we are waiting for them already :) !!!