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Sandy and I caught our flight out to Berlin on Thursday evening. Due to a slight scheduling mix-up, Jill ended up getting an earlier flight. Our flight to Frankfurt was slightly delayed, but we made our connection. Nathan and Bee met us at the airport and we got a taxi into town, dumped our stuff, then headed out to a pub for a few 0,5l of Berliner's best. The night ended with a visit to the 24 hour Oktagon kebab house on Warschauer Strasse. The kebabs were quite different to what I have eaten here. The bread was more like a squashed roll, lightly toasted, and the meat actually tasted good, even without a lot of beers.

After a comical (for us) start to the day for Nathan - he literally got dressed as he ran out the door, slightly late for work - we all took a walk around the majority of the city, starting the East Side Gallery, via the Brandenburg Gate to Potsdamer Platz (that page has some GREAT photos of Potsdamer Platz from June 1994 - present; well worth a visit). We collected some more people back at the flat, then all headed out to dinner at a Vietnamese place on (or just off) Rosenthaler Strasse, which may have been called Monsieur Vuong. Very tasty.

After food, the girls headed home and the boys went out. First off, we headed to a BRILLIANT jazz bar called b-flat where we heard the Carlo Morena Quintett. They were out of this world, and the music and location just came so perfectly together! Unfortunately, we only caught the second half of their act, so we had a few more beers, then headed to find somewhere new. The first place was too cheesy by half, so Robbie took us on a tour to find a bar "he knew". We almost ended at a strip joint, but finally settled on a Russian bar. We enjoyed our Becks, Andy enjoyed a sleep, and we thankfully all managed to leave with our lives. It was an interesting place.

We ended the night with more kebabs and got more beers from the kebab place too!

Saturday morning arrived WAY too soon, and saw Sandy, Jill, Andy and I stumbling around Berlin, on the tourist trail. Actually, it was mostly just me who was stumbling... We saw the soon-to-be Berlin Wall museum and then visited Checkpoint Charlie. The museum is being rennovated and expanded just now, so it was not the best experience, although there is a LOT of information in there. Once it is all nicely organised, I'm sure it will be considerably more enjoyable to visit.

We visited an Irish pub, the Kilkenny, as it was almost St Patricks Day. I managed to struggle down a Guinness, as well as my first food of the day - but we had to get back to the flat for the big party, and the reason we were in Berlin, the housewarming.

Thankfully, after a few beers, I got into the swing of things! It was a superb party - loads of people, good music (most of the time), good conversation, delicious food and some great drunken antics. There were no breakages and only a few spillages. We finished up at 7am ... and then were back on our feet by 1pm.

Nathan had popped out and got a load of food, and we were all on great form. Hangovers somehow skipped us all by, so we finally managed to drag ourselves out of the house and see Karl Marx Allee, Alexanderplatz (where we climbed the TV tower for great views across Berlin and back to Potsdamer Platz, where we grabbed a drink. We got tickets to see Good Bye, Lenin! (some English info here), which was such a brilliant, captivating film. I'm not going to describe it here, however I REALLY encourage you to see it when it makes it to your country. The night finished with some food at Alex, next door, then another kebab!

On Monday morning, Sandy was flying off for work, so Jill and I packed up the rest of Sandy's belongings then Nathan, Andy, Jill and I headed off, aiming to get to the Reichstag (more great views here). Jill and Nathan had to head to the airport/work, but Andy and I managed to zoom up and get some great views. After that, we headed home and I jumped on to a bus to the airport and flew home...

Overall, my Berlin experience simply could not have been better. We had great friends, weather, food, drink, laughter, music... I really felt that there was so much left undiscovered, and I am certainly planning to get back there sooner rather than later. If you've not been, I thoroughly recommend going.

The full gallery of pictures is here.