Interrailing Day 3 - Berlin's East Side

Took the Metro into Alexandraplatz in the East side of Berlin. As I ascended the escalators I expected to see monuments built in Lenin's name, hammer and sickle emblems scattered around the street and a half dozen Eastern European widows mourning the fall of the USSR. Instead I saw Primark. I was initially nonplussed with how commercial the street had become but those feelings quickly subsided after we popped into H&M to get an emergency pair of sunglasses after mine broke before the holiday even started.

Once I got used to it East Berlin is a pretty cool place. Got to walk along the remains of the Berlin Wall while learning all about it at Checkpoint Charlie. I was tempted to chisel away a small bit of the wall to take home with me and my appetite for destruction increased after seeing chunks of the wall selling for €19 in the tourism shop. Could have helped myself to a free bit of history Rebecca talked me out of it.

Rounding off the East side was the Topography of Terror museum located on the site of the old Gestapo building. For better and for worse it was one of the most comprehensive museums I've ever visited, so many photographs, testimonials and documents on display but there was no flourish in its layout making touring the display feel like trawling through a humorous textbook. It was good to a point, and that point was when I notices Rebecca start to flag after all the days walking.

Finally we visited Tempelhof Airport which is now a virtually abandoned building, the old runways now converted into a public park. It was decidedly eerie there though, like nature had taken over a space that previously bustled with busy communtors and businessmen. Kinda cool though.

We rounded off our evening by cooking a small dinner and wrestling with our B&B's internet so we could catch up with Game of Thrones. Eventually we sorted something out and made a little cinama screen out of my  phone - worked rather well and took nothing away for how impressive the penultimate episode was.