Big update

Thursday morning I set off to Bernauser Strasse, one of the parts where the wall is still preserved along with teh deathstrip. This was the scene of several escapes when people jumped out of apartment windows. After that got on the train at Nordbahnhof, which itself has some interesting displays about the history of the divided city.

After that went down to Yorckstrasse station and had a little look around there and from there back to the Charlottenburg station to have a look at the hotel where we stayed in 2005, nearly five years ago.

That evening went for a meal with Amogharatna at an Indian restaurant which was pretty good but so busy that they had to put more tables out in the street. It was a warm evening though, so it was fine. It was right next to the elevated section of the U1. The drivers of the trains that went past had their doors open, which seemed quite strange. After the meal, took the train to the end of the U1 where it goes over the Oberbaumbrucke and where the East Side Gallery is. Both were pretty cool to see but it was dark then.

Friday morning was spent at a museum where there was an installation Amogharatna wanted to see. It had quite a few interactive exhibits made up with lights, and a weird room where there were mirrors all the way up to a skylight. The room was only a few metres large but it looked huge. The final room was the best though. Basically they sealed off a few rooms and filled them with fog. Then there were lights in the ceiling that made different areas of the fog glow with colour. It was a strange experience as when you moved from one area of colour to another, it was so intense.

After that we spent some time finding an MP3 player for Amogharatna and had a coffee in the Kaufhof Galleria, a big department store in Alexanderplatz. It was nice and had a great view over the station,

On Saturday I moved into the hotel. In between Amogharatna's apartment and the hotel I took in the musical instrument museum near the Philharmonie. It was pretty interesting with many unusual and rare instruments.

The was originally going to be the Agon Aldea by the Bulowstrasse U-bahn, but they had screwed it up and overbooked. Fortunately as the Agon is a chain, it just meant they had to put me in another one. This turned out to be the Agon Franke, which somewhat frustratingly was not in an area I was familiar with. But after a rather scary taxi ride I found the hotel was pretty close to a station on the U7, so that was fine. Spent the rest of the day having a look at the Berlin nightlife, which is interesting.

Sunday morning was spent having a look at the flea market in the Mauerpark near Bernauer Strasse. Unfortunately I fell ill around midday due to the rather stupid calamari breakfast I had from a place in Alexanderplatz. Fortunately I had started to feel headachy and tired so when the throwing up and diarrhoea started, I was back at the hotel. The rest of the day was spent recovering with the aid of a giant bottle of Coke.

Monday I felt much better although I didn't really do much before going to meet Amogharatna again. We wandered around a bit and had some really good falafel from a place called DaDa, which I've had it from before. Really tasty. After that he had to go back to the Buddhist centre. I wasn't feeling great so I picked up a DVD and watched it on my laptop back at the hotel.

The last morning was spent with Amogharatna again. We went down to the nearby Turkish market, which was really interesting, loads of unusual food and things there. We got some bread things for lunch with sheeps's cheese and spinach that were really nice. All too soon though I had to get the train to Alexanderplatz to get the airport express.

The flight back was not good, was surrounded by unruly children so it wasn't peaceful at all. Saw some pretty amazing views on the way down though.

The rest of this week hasn't been too bad. Work is interesting as usual, and depressingly it feels like I was never gone.

Took the bike out this evening but was out longer than I meant to be as I saw Andy and Maz and chatted. I got caught in a rainstorm on the way home. Worrying as I hadn't ridden in proper rain before, and I'd read that the Gilera can have issues with the electrics in the wet. Fortunately it coped OK and I managed fine except my lower half got utterly soaked through. Fun fun.