Well our pub crawl last night was loads of fun. Elena and Eleni (yeah, we thought it was complicated too) are the two German girls we were with.

This pub crawl had at minimum 40 people and I can tell you where everyone was from. All of them.

2 Americans

2 Germans

4 Brazilians

And everyone else was from Australia.

I kid you not. Our entire pub crawl was mostly Australians. None of them which, by the way, are traveling together.

Okay, a few of them were. But my point is most of them didn’t know each other. But that didn’t matter either because Aussie Aussie Aussie Oi Oi Oi still happened. It was kinda cute actually.

Anyways pub crawl was fun! The last “club” was actually a DJ. I’m not sure he accurately knows what year it is, but everyone had a blast with the older music anyways.

Today Holly and I just did last minute gift shopping and exploring. We ate lunch in the Tiergardens which was SO good. After that we just grabbed food and are back at the hostel. I got an early flight out!

I know, very anti climatic. I’m not ready to leave yet 😦

After spending all day walking around Berlin, through the Tiergardens, around the zoo, and past the holocaust museum we went back to the hostel. By the time we got there I had to pee SO bad. I told Holly I was going up to the room and she said she would meet me up there, I thought. I walk into the room only to find my self staring at Andy, Ashley and Ryan.

I didn’t actually go to the bathroom for two more hours.

I walked in and these three guys are talking. Andy is from Scotland while Ashley and Ryan are from Manchester. We make introductions and the conversation continues. Holly eventually joined us and seriously we were all up talking for hours. I can’t even begin to tell you the array of subjects covered in all of this time. Anywhere from world politics to the proper way to make a cup of tea. It was absolutely hilarious! We eventually left the room and went down to the lobby where we started to play pool. It was tons of fun but next thing we know it’s late. Really late.

I woke up the next day and I was losing my voice. I have absolutely no idea why. I wasn’t screaming or using it any differently than I normally do.

Ryan says it’s cause I talk so fast. Load of crap if you ask me, I talk fast all the time. His next reason was blaming the water. Who knows!

That was Andy’s last night then he headed home. We spent the next two days with these guys. They are the most intelligent 19 year olds I have ever met. They’re brilliant. They also make stuff up all the time, but it’s rather funny. They like a good banter and were not shy about reminding us about how they, as British people, created us. Everything we get is from them and we say almost every word wrong. Hahaha. It was a great time.

Holly and I woke up the next day to go do a bike ride tour of Berlin. However we got there too late and missed it. We went back to the hostel to sleep more and then go at 4:00. 4:00 rolls around and that didnt happen either. Holly had to apply for a few jobs, so she did that. Eventually Ryan, Ashley, Holly and I played ping pong and all agreed to go out that night.

We had a blast. We at one point were in a club that was the most German thing I had ever seen. It was Contact Poison. Some hard techno club where everyone just looks like they are stomping as their dancing. It’s crazy. I have never seen anything like it.

I don’t know if contact poison was the name of the place or the DJ but try looking it up on YouTube. It’s crazy.

The next day we woke up and Ashley, Holly and I got some food. Went back to wake up Ryan and then went all the way back to where the topography of terror area is to do this hot air balloon thing that gives you an aerial view of Berlin. We get there only to find it closed because of the winds. That was a bust.

We came back to just chat and hang out before Ashely and Ryan went out for the night.

As of Day 4, Ashley and Ryan left for Amsterdam and Holly and I went to the flea market with two girls from Germany in our room. That was great! So many hippie things, I loved it. We spent all day there looking around and shopping and now we are back in the hostel, about to leave for a pub crawl. Tomorrow is my last full day here!

Our last day in Scotland wasn’t too crazy. We decided to do our own Harry Potter tour.

You see there’s a cafe were J.K. Rowling wrote some of the first Harry Potter book. There’s also a graveyard in Scotland with a grave that says Tom Riddle on it, very close to this cafe. Also, the school that inspired the concept of Hogwarts is also in Scotland. These were our site plans and mission for the day.

Our plane left out of Glasgow at 8:55am. We needed to take a bus from Edinburgh to Glasgow then to the Glasgow airport. The last bus out was at 11:59 or the first was 5:00am. It takes at least hour and half to two hours to get there. So as you can see we opted for the midnight one and getting to the airport early. Cause of that we decided to do a little bit then rest before our adventure at midnight.

The Elephant House. This cafe was so cute! It was red and even had a sign out front, stating how proud they were about J.K. Rowling being there. Holly and I weren’t hungry, but how do you not eat at this cafe?! It’s not very often I find myself in this situation and to our delightful surprise it was relatively cheap! My meal was great- just a baked potato, bacon and Brie. We too pictures, soaked it in and headed out to the graveyard.

This graveyard was huge. The tombstones look like the ones in Harry Potter movies, or any movie for that matter. If I ever needed to film an eery, foggy, and dark graveyard scene for a movie, I would pick this one. We walked around what felt like forever in search of the grave. We had absolutely no luck. Between the amount of graves, how old they were, and placed in no methodical way, we were hopeless. But it was great to explore and see none the less. We had decided not to go back to the school because it was much farther than we realized and we had seen it previously on our highlands tour as a drive by.

At this point we headed back to the hostel where we killed time before we left. Showering, packing, relaxing in the lobby and Holly napped. 11:15 came and Holly and I stepped out into the night, beginning out next adventure.

This trip we have been making a habit of traveling at night. I haven’t figured out why yet. Either between finances and timing it worked out better or Holly and I secretly have an evil desire for adventures and stories.

We get to the Edinburg bus station, grab our bus and are on our way to Glasgow. Because I hadn’t slept at all, I was exhausted. I made attempts to sleep on this bus. I was determined. But by the time I did, two hours had gone and we were in Glasgow. It’s now 2 in the morning and we are at a bus station. You can guess how many people weren’t there. We walk up to a sign to check the time when the shuttle will leave for the airport. As we approach the area we can see one man standing there with bags. We don’t say anything and proceed to read the sign. Next thing I hear is, “Ya’ll know if this bus is going to the airport?” I look up, smile, and answer proudly with my west coast accent and say, “I sure hope so.”

The guy smiles and says “Who would have known! Two in the morning, I’m stuck at a bus station in Glasgow, Scotland and I run into two Americans!”

This was Mike. Mike from Tennessee. The spunkiest person we have met this whole trip. He was in the army, on his way back home to his daughter and wife. He was mighty awake for 2:00 in the morning. The three of us talked and talked, killing the time waiting for the bus and on the bus. This guy shows us pictures of his daughter, told us about his first Hostel experience (which sounded like something you would see in a movie) and we were cracking up. He was open and friendly, but just winging his whole trip home.

Finally we get to the airport. It’s 3 in the morning and everything is closed. We look around to find everyone around us sleeping. I, determined to sleep, make shift my own bed. As my mom says, I can’t sleep anywhere.

At 6:55, two hours to our flight we were able to check in. While I was checking in, a woman went up to the counter and seemed rather distressed. She asks the attendant how much a flight to Dublin is because another airline said it was £199 (which is insane!) And the person said they only have flights to Belfast. So I looked at her and I said “you can take a bus and a ferry, it’s much cheaper” and she looked at me and said “are you American?” I said “a huh” and she just started to ball her eyes out crying. Ami brought her son to London for his 18 birthday and was suppose to leave on Sunday but because the baby was born and other mishaps she was now in Scotland and missed her only possible flight because the bus driver took smoking breaks and was now stuck in Scotland.

We spent about an hour helping her find a cheap flight to Belfast and a bus to Dublin because the ferry would be too late. She was so grateful and added us on Facebook. She’s like I need to know people like you guys! It was great, she’s still trying to get out of Dublin (where we explained how to get to) but she’s enjoying it now! It was crazy.

Holly and I go through security, get on our flight and I pass out. I slept before we took off and woke up when we landed. We even landed 30 minutes early.

We make the trek to our hostel, check in and take a long nap. Our first official day wasn’t too eventful, it was tiring!

Our next first full day in Berlin Holly and I walked all day. All day! We walked to the Berlin Wall, which I touched! We saw the wall, went to check point Charlie and just all over. It was fun!

We went to the Topography of Terror. I have no words. Just pictures to explain. Ill post it separately.

The cool thing is, well one of many, the two bricks along the ground are placed where the Berlin Wall use to stand.

Also, much of the Berlin Wall is painted on and used for graffiti art. The part I’m in front of is the only part of the wall left that is not allowed to be touched.