Germany

Berlin was once of the cities I had been looking forward to visiting. When I arrived at the hostel I was starving, so I went in search of the nearest fast food place. I found a place that sold hot dogs and miscellaneous other unhealthy but delicious food items. Little did I know, this was just the first of many visits to the hot dog man.

The hostel I was staying at was pretty boring. Everyday I went to the bar for a beer, and everyday the same German guy was sitting on a bar stool, as if waiting for my arrival. He kept me entertained with his stories for a little while, but one night I decided to do a pub crawl. We went to all sorts of different ‘alternative’ bars. Berlin has so many alternative people, that really the alternative people are the people who aren't alternative. Ponder that for a minute. At the end of the pub crawl, I miraculously found my way back to the hostel on foot.  But it was not the hostel I was looking for. I was in search of the hot dog man. And, even in the early hours of the morning, he was waiting, ready to produce another delicious hotdog.

One day I decided to do a bicycle tour of Berlin. Berlin is bicycle friendly and has some nice areas to ride around. We rode between various war related tourist attracts. Probably the most well known is the Berlin wall, which used to separate East and West Germany:

.. and checkpoint Charlie, which at one point was the only way of getting between East and West Germany. 

Also, there's the Brandenburg gate. Google it if you care. 

There is a lot of interesting history in Berlin. They've also build a Jewish memorial, to commemorate the Jews killed in WWII. It’s another one of these abstract designs that according to the designer ‘means whatever you want it to mean’. Designing these things must be the easiest job in the world.

After a couple more visits to the hot dog man, I was off to Hamburg, home of the Hamburger. It’s occurred to me that Germans name all their food and beverages based on the city they were invented in, with ‘er’ appended to the name. The beer made in Berlin is called ‘Berliner’. And there’s Frankfurter. And that’s all the examples I have.

Hamburg is also famous for its red light district, the Reeperbahn. But don’t be alarmed, there’s nothing suss going on here. Oh wait:

The Beatles apparently liked it here as well, so they made a statue of them:

Summary

Awesome:

Interesting history, good nightlife, cool red-light district, nice cities.

Craptacular:

I don't think I would be respected in Berlin with my mainstream attitudes, decent clothing, no tattoos, no piercings and positive outlook on life.

What's Next

The Netherlands. Known for drugs and prostitutes... and windmills.