Day 3 Berlin - hello sunshine!!

Day 3 started much more leisurely for Nome and I, we were in no great hurry so we took our time. Lingered over breakfast and eventually headed out to see what Berlin had to offer. To our complete and utter delight the sun was shining!! And it's a beautiful day!! We went back into city and to Teirgarten, a massive network of parks right in the middle of city. The used to be the royal parks of the kings and queens of Prussia and used as hunting grounds. Then in the time King Frederick (did I mention he was the most loved?), he turned them into public parks for all the city to enjoy. And they are beautiful especially when bathed in sunshine. And huge Nome and I were wondering around for 2-3 hours and we only saw about half! After that we went back to Brandenberg gate for a tour of Alternative Berlin. Having throughly immersed ourselves in the history of Berlin we were interested to see what current Berlin had to offer. This tour was all about what was happening on Berlin post the fall of the Berlin wall, particularly in East Berlin. We saw parts of the city that are not full of tourists and heard all about the world of squatting, artists, hippies and street art. We saw some amazing artwork and heard how it came about and what are the 'rules' of street art. A new form of street art that is occurring is called yarn bombing. This I absolutely loved because the artists describe themselves as instead of arming themselves with spray cans they are armed with knitting needles!! They then cover bits and pieces of the city with jackets, beanies, socks and knitted people! It was an excellent tour. We finished up our day cocktails, Thai food and beers on a beach overlooking the river inn the sun. Next stop Prague and a few thousand midwives!

Day 2 Berlin -at least it's not raining!

So Day 2 in Berlin began early! Joy was heading off to meet her parents in Prague today and Nome and I were to change hostels. So after an all you can eat buffet (waffles, muesli, fresh brown seeded bread with cream cheese and ham and veggies!), we headed off. Now it wasn't raining but by Jesus it was cold!! About 6 degrees so I was wearing eveything I own again (at least 4 layers) and we were lamenting that fact that we didn't bring gloves or beanies). We successfully navigated the u-bahn although lugging the suitcases up and down stairs wasn't fun until we got to hauptbahnhof (the central station). We dumped our bags and raced into the U-bahn to Brandenburg Gate. We were hoping catch the Berlin free walking tour. Only 20 mins late and we caught them! So Brandernberg Gate was one of the gates to the city of Berlin back when Germany was part of Prussia. It has a statue on top that represented Peace. However during Napoleon Warsl Napoleon brought his troops through that gate to invade Germany. He was defeated and left through that gate. So the Germans renamed the statue Victory and the square that it stands in after the French. Thus they have a frequent reminder of a German victory over France! 

The next stop was the Jewish memorial. This is a collection of blocks of ranging sizes in the centre of Berlin. Is deceptive because the ground also slopes so some blocks are bigger than they seem and can tower over you. The designer of the memorial didn't explain his design preferring instead for people to make their own interpretations, it is an arresting sight and very thought provoking. It is a stark reminder of the 6 million Jewish deaths during WWII.

 From there we went to the car park over Hitler's bunker where he committed suicide. Then to the site of the 1950s protest of construction workers in east Berlin that ended with the army tanks killing 55 protestors. We saw remnants of the Berlin wall and heard about the history behind including the infamous attempted escapes into the west. After viewing the tourist trap that is Checkpoint Charlie we headed back in time to French square and it's significance in the Thirty Year War. As a place of terrible atrocities from the Swedish soldiers, the leader at the time needed incentives to get people to move into the area, luckily for him the Huguenots had just been expelled from France so as present to them he built them a cathedral. And not to upset the current German residents he built them a cathedral as well opposite the French one but with the German spire just a little taller! Both were heavily bombed during the war and rebuilt to the same size.

Next we saw the Royal library, heard of the adventures of King Frederick the most lived king of Prussia and saw the memorial to the 20,000 books burnt at the beginning of the war. We also stood in front of Humboldt University that produce the likes of Lenin, Marx, Brothers Grimm and a mere two dozen Nobel Prize winners (oh and Einstein lectured there). Our tour finished in front of the Royal Guard House which is now a memorial to the victims of war and tyranny. As I'm sure you understand by now Berliners will never forget. If there is a space in the city then they will find another reason to make a memorial.

Post the walking tour we found a German cafe and had beer, aperolspritz (some sort of liqueur drink that Nome is drinking), applespritz (what Joy has, it's not beer!), currywurst and deep fried Camembert cheese. I would feet quite fat if I moved to Germany!

We then queued for quite awhile for the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which is underneath the Jewish memorial. It's a free information and display area and it was definitely worth the long wait queueing in the cold. It chronicles the history of what the Jews of Europe endured from losing their public transport rights, to bring made to wear the Star of David, to bring housed in ghettos, to work camps and then the many horrific and senseless ways they were murdered. This centre has provided photos and excerpts from people's diaries, letters, postcards of Jewish people and what they felt and knew of their situation. Wherever possible the centre described stories of Jewish lives pre war from all over Europe and then what happened to them post war.

The whole experience is heartbreaking but it's a poignant tribute to these peoples lives.

After that we put Joy on a train to Prague and checked into our new hostel. Not being quite done with WWII we visited the Topography of Terror in the ruins of the SS headquarters. Through propaganda and newspaper articles it's shows Hitler's and the Nazi party's rise to power and the campaign ofalies and terror that they used to bring about the war. It was fascinating and horrific to observe with hindsight the web of terror that they weaved to achieve all that they did. More info was given about the Gestapo and the SS and by the end of that exhibition Naomi and I were ready for a drink!

We went to a excellent German pub outside of the city centre which boasted a beer list of over 100 beers and lovely German food. We finished the day with delicious apple strudel!

Day 1 Berlin

Today started out very eventful (see previous blog rant about travel sim) with Joy enroute to Berlin on her own and Nome and myself to go later. I had an excellent phone call with Dad (yay for Skype) to congratulate him on his birthday and then Nome and I hit the road.
A few hours later we landed safely in Berlin (no passport control which was disappointing because I didn't get a stamp) and headed out to meet up with Joy who had been sightseeing for a few hours.
It is BLOODY cold!!! Constantly raining with an icy cold wind that chills to the very marrow of my bones! Oh talk about miserable. On reviewing my wardrobe (which is mainly packed for a Mediterranean summer) I ended up wearing majority of my clothes, I looked quite bulky but at least I was warm.
We met up with Joy at the museum island and went straight to German pub and indulged hot soup (with several kinds of potatoes) to warm us up.
From there we headed to one of the suburbs to view the east side gallery. It's part of the Berlin wall that hasn't been torn down but instead turned into an outdoor art gallery with the walls covered in paintings by local and international artists. Some gorgeous artwork that serve as reminders of the isolation and lack of freedom felt by the East Germans post world war 2. We wondered along it for awhile but the cold and rain drove us back inside. (This weather is doing nothing for poor Nome being sick!). Back to our hostel then aptly called the Grand Hostel Berlin, red carpet up to the entrance and massive doors that take two people to open. It's a converted hotel and the rooms are huge, ceilings are distance and our room at castle in the corner (not sure why, think decoration).

We eventually ventured back out into the cold and rain and found a German restaurant in our area called The Atlantic! I had a giant Weiner schnitzel with tomato and onion stew and massive roast potatoes, love the German philosophy of everything being meat and potatoes!! And of course I had a big Berliner Pilsner for Dad in celebration of his birthday! Thus ended a cold and wet but good German day!

Review of the Katmandu travel umbrella

I bought this just before I left Australia at (surprise surprise) in Katmandu. It's a little pricy at around $30+ but I was taken by how thin and compact it was. It also had a large metal clip on it that you could clip to your bag. Also once I got to the checkout if I became a member they gave me 20% off which made it far cheaper than expected! So in Berlin I've used it for the first time all day. Now it is early days but so far I LOVE it! It's extremely light so I don't even notice it hanging on my bag and really light when using but it's very sturdy, we had some bone chilling gusts of wind that did turn it inside out but it never broke (again early days but I was surrounded by people with broken useless umbrellas) it also folded up very compact back into its holder and dried quickly. Even if I didn't have time to let it dry my lovely Grandmother (Gran Matthews) has made me an umbrella bag - artistically embroidered with a girl in the rain on it - that's waterproof, so I can throw it in that and none of my other stuff gets wet (can I also mention that bag that Gran made, she gave it to me prior to my first European adventure, so I used it for that entire 18 months -especially in Ireland- and then it lives in my work bag for the past 4 years and it has carried many umbrellas but never let my things get wet; so it gets a 10/10 in review but not everyone has a grandmother who can make these things for them!). So to sum up this is an excellent umbrella and I'm looking forward to a long relationship with it (but actually hope i don't have to use it again in Europe!)

Day 3 Copenhagen

Ah so day 3 begins. Still lovely and sunny but with a brisk icy wind that cuts through to your bones. So with that in mind we started our day in the National Museum. We saw Vikings and their treasures, some amazing old alters, crosses, jewellery, statues and paintings from pre the 13th century (that stuff is OLD) learnt all about the history of the Danish from the 1600s-2000 (for instance in the 1700s the average age of marriage for a woman was 27 and they usually had only 4 kids!). Then came the best exhibit; Toys! Gorgeous teddies from the 1900s (Gran Crook would've smuggled them out in her handbag!), wind up toys from the 60s and the absolute best bit was a magnificent collection of doll houses! All shapes and sizes from different eras and mounted in a special display so you walk around the back of them and see inside and they were all finished, some with teeny tiny irons, oven mitts, sewing machines or a loaf of bread on the table. Just lovely, could've spent hours there!
However there were sights to be seen so our next stop was the Our Saviour's Church on the island of Christianshavn which has a magnificent tower and 400 steps to the top. So of course we had to climb that! It was steep. Not to bad inside the tower (bit tricky with people coming down) but the last section is outside the tower which winds around to the very top. It is very windy, the steps are slippery and there is but a rail between you and a very very big drop. Typical European country in that they feel if you go up there it's up to yourself to make sure you get down safe (if it was Oz or the US there would've wire and safety netting and big signs saying call lifeline). The view was absolutely incredible but looking down... (Kylie you would've cried). It was totally worth the hike up there but I don't need to go back in a hurry!
Once back on solid ground food was in order so we found a floating cafe on the canal where we partook in some excellent Danish food (Joy had the best salad of her life, I had an amazing sweet potato frittata and Nome had potato on bread -and you can't fail with that).
After that we cruised through the city checking out shops and ended up at the Kings Garden and lazed about in the sunshine (i.e. I had a nap). The King's Garden is home of Rosenborg castle one of the earlier Danish kings palaces. It had a moat.
After that was dinner in a pub where I sampled a local dark lager Rod Tuburg (Dad it was excellent I would recommend!) and then back to the hostel.
Once home we had a wee bit of a drama on finding out that Joy wasn't on our flight to Germany tomorrow having somehow booked a flight on the 28th of Jan not May. Ekkk! Luckily Naomi's lovely husband Ewan came to the rescue and organised for Joy to be on an earlier flight for a price that doesn't break the bank. So as I write this she's on her way (hopefully safely) to Berlin where we will join her later today!

A review of Australian Post International Sim card:
All 3 of us bought this travel sim prior to leaving Australia. They cost about $50 comes with $20 credit and claims to work in every country. Once you've bought it you need to go through a process of registering it and activating it which you can do either online or on your mobile. You need an unlocked handset. It also has an app where you can check your balance, change data settings, top up with credit and trouble shoot issues.
So how did we find them? In a word; rubbish! They are difficult to activate, it's not a straight forward process. I did mine online which was OK to begin with but once I'd logged out of my Australia post account and went to go back in, it wouldn't recognise my password and it takes a week for them to change your password (which still hasn't happened). This was OK because I could top up on the mobile app. Nome and I both activated ours in Australia before we left. Joy tried to but couldn't get it to work (inspite of having an unlocked iPhone - it is an older one, not sure it that was problem). She attempted to trouble shoot by updating her software, resetting to factory settings (turning on and off numerous times, taking out the sim constantly) but to no avail. So hers has never worked. The added complication is on her and Nome's phones (both iPhones) the app frequently and constantly crashes. The app does work on my Google nexus. My issue was if I took the travel sim out and put my old one back in, I had to reactivate it each time it went back in, this involved a text from the app and that cost me money (unimpressed). The next issue was although we could text each other in Europe we couldn't text internationally. At first we thought it was just adding the +61 to the phone numbers but we found out that you needed to delete every text that had the number in it otherwise it wouldn't register the +61. This wasn't a huge hindrance for me because my phone is fairly new but it meant Nome was wasting ages trying to delete all messages. She then managed to successfully text her mum and brother but no matter what she tried she couldn't text her husband (we even tried putting him under a fake name).
So the question remains do you even need an international sim?? With the advent of smart phones and free WiFi (at least in the northern European countries, I think you may have to pay in the south) you can use whatsapp, Viber and Skype to text and call home and it's free. I think it can be risky using roaming with your Australia sim (I've heard horror stories of bills of $1000s of dollars) but if you are savvy I think you can adjust your settings with your carrier so that doesn't happen.
Having said all that now that we've had to split up from Joy she borrowed Nome's phone so we can text her and find her in Berlin when we get there so that is one positive aspect of it.
We have successfully used it to call home but when we tried to call the airline in Berlin to sort the flight issues it failed completely. Again what is the point of it.
So to conclude I think perhaps you do need an international sim when you are going from country to country particularly in a group that might split up but I definitely wouldn't recommend to Australia post travel sim. So many companies provide free ones with travel insurance or with tours so I think that might be the way to go!

Just as an addit I'd saved this blog as a draft to post later when I've got WiFi and this morning while checking out of the hostel, the travel sim completely stopped working. Not great timing what with Joy in another country! 3X to authenticate it sim in and out repeatedly on and off repeatedly and then finally I figured how manually register it to the network. Ohhh good lord I hate this sim!

Day 2 Copenhagen

Day 2 of Copenhagen began ridiculously early because the sun is up at 5am and therefore we were as well. However we bummed around for a few hours indulged in a hostel breakfast (overpriced but we compensated by eating absolutely everything) and then headed out on a free walking tour.
On my last trip to Europe it was first thing we did in every new city which was to suss out a free walking tour and begin with that. The concept is they show you the main sights of the city tell you a few stories and a brief summary of the history and if you like the tour you tip them. If it was terrible you don't pay. And it's up to you how much you pay, so it's excellent for impoverished backpackers.
This tour picked us up from the hostel and started in the town square. Nome was now feeling loads better and it was a glorious sunny day so we were off to a great start.
We heard 6000 years of history in 20 mins (in the first 4000 years nothing much happened) - then about Vikings, Bishop Absalom - founder of Copenhagen and pirate hunter and faith converter, the oldest Royal family in Europe, the golden ages, the century of the northern sea wars (Sweden and Denmark have fought more wars between them than anyone else has), the decline of Denmark - plague and two great fires that kept wiping out everything (they built 5 town halls in total), Napoleon wars and invasion by Nelson (twice), going bankrupt -which turned out to be a good thing because they became left out of world politics and instead produced some of the greatest writers and philosophers, was neutral in WWI, invaded by Hitler in WWII, had a pretty amazing underground resistance and then post WWII became the greatest welfare country in the world with the happiest population!
We also heard all about Carlsberg (so much more than just beer), walked on stone streets made by Vikings, saw canals, Royal Island, the Danish parliament, the oldest building in Denmark (survived 2 fires!), saw the royal theatre and where Hans Christian Anderson lived, possibly the world's ugliest opera house, Christianshaun - a new island to cope with over population and the royal residence! We waved at Princess Mary, we'll probably head over there for high tea today!
All in all an excellent tour. Sustained by our extremely large breakfast we headed out post tour to see the Little Mermaid statue. She is gorgeous but like most things in life - smaller than you think.
After that we ended up at New harbour (which is actually the oldest harbour) for a very late lunch and our first taste of proper Danish food, herrings, bread and cheese (and beer!). We then went on a canal tour coasted along the water in the sunshine and heard more stories and histories (but in three languages!).
We then headed to Christiania which is free city in Copenhagen. Basically some hippies, artists and architects began squatting on the island of Christianshaun  in an abandoned military place in the 1970s and as a social experiment the government let them have that area to themselves. They have their own rules and are not governed by police or military. This means that's it's full of pot and hippies but it is worth a look. Some gorgeous art work is in there, it's quite green and full of trees ABC's people do seen very relaxed and happy but of course that might just be all the drugs.
After checking that out we then headed into the meat packing district for dinner, a cheap Italian restaurant called Mother that had excellent wood fire pizzas (great recommendation thanks Mutty!)
Of course we were completely knackered by then so we finished up at our hostel in time to catch a blazing sunset from our 8th floor room over the city. (For those that are interested the sun sets at 1030pm).
So today is our last day in Copenhagen so hopefully more adventures to come!

We're in Copenhagen!

So we arrived in Copenhagen!
The flight with Emirates was excellent the food not as good with Qantas but the entertainment selection better and more leg room.
We did sit behind the front row of economy we the parents with babies sit and can I say they treat those people royally! They got free gifts and photos and bassinets and lots of time with flight attendants. Unfortunately for us one of the babies (around 1 year old) has just discovered how to scream- not because he was upset but because it's a new skill. But otherwise a smooth flight, I watched Frozen - good movie and The book thief - terrific but not as good as the book (of course!). It's amazing how short 6 hours is after getting through a 14 hour flight!!

So we arrived in Copenhagen and jumped straight in a taxi to our hostel in the city (love this travel-couldn't be bothered negotiating buses and trains-hello taxi!). First impressions of Copenhagen, streets are wide, footpaths are wide and bike paths are wide! And there are bikes aplenty! We made it to our hostel with its 16 floors and reputation as the largest in Europe and to our 3 bed room in record time. Then a freshen up and out onto the street.
It was around 3 in afternoon so we went a wandering. Firstly down along on the banks of the river and then we wandered past a few canals. It's a gorgeous sunny Sunday afternoon with a cool breeze and the locals and tourists were out catching a bit of sunshine. Quite a few boats on the water which we are determined to go for a boat ride later if we can and lovely riverside cafes with everyone sipping drinks (or inhaling cases of beer in the case of some). The locals are tall blond Nordic looking creatures and this far we've decided the men are a good looking lot!
We then wandered back into the city and admired their Gothic buildings and of course statues of men on horses. We sauntered briefly through a palace (Mary wasn't home), checked out the royal stables and then onto the cathedral. We started getting a wee bit tired and sat next to a fountain and people watched for a bit (they feel at 20 degrees that light summer dresses are the way to go, we were in jeans with scarves!). Rejuvenated we carried on our wandering and admired more men on horses (mainly called Frederick) and lavish fountains with kooky statues.. is it a cow or fish? Or a cowfish!
Sadly Naomi who has been battling a head/sinus/chest infection pre leaving Melbourne was fading fast, so we found a nearby pub and poured diet coke into her. 500mls of coke is the same price as a pint of beer and they are cheaper than a pint of sparkling water! I had my first Danish carlsberg! Delicious!
We took Nome back to the hostel and put her to bed and then went back out to grab some dinner. As it turned out Joy and I were also fading because we ended up with chicken nachos at a bagel place -not the most traditional Danish dish but we were too tired to care! And it was yum!
Back to the hostel we then crashed at almost 9pm and it was still light out.
I'm now up and writing this and it's 5am and bright as day now. They must have very short nights here hopefully tonight I'll stay up late enough to see the sun set! (And not it rise the next morning).
Today we are planning a walking tour and then who knows where it'll take us!

Hello Dubai!

So I have safely arrived in Dubai!

We left Melbourne in the evening flying Qantas and have arrived in the early hours of the morning Dubai time (or about 1030am Melbourne time).

Originally when we booked the flight it had a 9 hour stop over and we got a complimentary night in an airport hotel during the stop over. However after it was booked we were informed that it was rescheduled to a later departure with a shorter stopover of about 5 hours and no hotel. Needless to say we were a bit cranky about that. In the because Nome had her Qantas club which meant her and a guest could get into the Emirates lounge for free, we would do that and I world organise a lounge pass for myself.

And so check in went smoothly (see previous post) and we all boarded. Then the flight was delayed for over an hour (computer malfunction) and the finally we took off. After we started flying the flight attendant came up and said here's your hotel voucher! So we got them after all! For some reason Joy didn't get a voucher but Nome and I did.

So the flight was 14 hours which have me plenty of time to try out my new travel pillow. The ultimate travel pillow which I bought online is blow up goes diagonal along your body and curves around the back of your neck. It has a strap at the top which either goes around the back of the seat or around you and the other bit clips onto the seatbelt. After experimenting i found that the strap around my neck and shoulder worked best (around the seat would've obstructed the person behind me view of their TV). The idea is you blow it up completely then lean on it and use a little pink valve to let it deflate slightly till it's comfortable to rest on.
So pros: really very comfortable, you can wrap your arms around it and curl into it. Great neck support and very good for someone like me who is a side sleeper. This ones that wrap around your neck bother me because you have to sleep sitting straight up. With this pillow you can lean to one side. You can also alternate sides. I was up moving every 2 hours so I alternated each side every time I moved. It would also be good as using as an ordinary pillow for sleeping on if I get caught out in an airport or somewhere. It rolls up fairly small, takes up minimal rim deflated and clicks together nicely.
Cons: it's bulky and takes awhile to set up. If you want to take a quick nap it's annoying because you have to get all set up. I was on the aisle seat and every time I needed to get up I would have unclip and detangle then shove it behind me to get up.

I paid about $30-$40 for the pillow and have decided it was definitely worthwhile. I wouldn't recommend it for short domestic flights but for long transatlantic flights it was a great idea. I'm also looking forward to using it on the long bus trips in Italy!

My back survived surprisingly well on the flight mainly because I moved constantly. I did take some panadol and ibuprofen before I went to sleep (got a good solid 3 hours sleep which was impressive!).

The things that I appreciated the most on the long flight was the travel pillow, my scarf, face mist, and eye spray.
The scarf was brilliant. At the start of the trip there was a freezing breeze from the air con down my neck and shoulders so the scarf was fantastic. Then when I warmed I used it first to sit on (got a very sensitive coccyx) and then when my back started to ache as a lower back pillow.
The fact mist was recommended by Kylie. I've got dry skin that gets very tight on flights and the vitamin E face mist from Body Shop was delightful, just sprayed it regularly (they also have vitamin c version which smells amazing-for next trip) and my skin felt lovely.
My eyes got red and irritated straight away -used the eye spray that you spray on the lids worked well and instant relief. Only downside is it's a glass bottle so I hope it doesn't break.

So we arrived safely in Dubai but an hour or two late. In the end we didn't use the hotel vouchers because by the time we got there it would've been time to board the next flight! We went to the Emirates lounge and batted our eyelids at the concierge Larry who let Nome bring both of us in so I didn't have to use my lounge pass. Ah Emirates lounge you are wonderful. Lovely long showers free shower caps and toothbrush and toothpaste. Massive buffet of meats, hot food, fruit, yogurts, juices etc. Big couches to curl up on as well.
This is the good life not sure I'll be able to go back to economy...

Next stop Copenhagen and the real adventures begin!!

Robyn's adventures begin!

So I'm checked in and awaiting my flight at the beginning of the grand adventure! Currently at the Melbourne airport next stop Dubai. Only 14 hours away but the excitement levels are high!! Traveling with the lovely midwifery girls Naomi and Joy! We trained together and now we are going over to Prague for the international midwifery conference and of course Nome's 30th birthday!! This amazing lady also has excellent Qantas club benefits so we are currently in the lounge enjoying free 12 year old scotch and food. And talking books. All my favourite things!! Next stop Dubai!

The girls prepare

The new luggage is purchased and we are getting set for our grand adventure.