Pay to Pee - Berlin Style

Let me just start off by saying how much I loved Berlin! I knew the second I got off the train that I didn't have enough time there, but had already booked my trip to Prague so I had to leave in two days' time. (I am NEVER planning ahead again!) I started off the trip the way I always do - with a Sandeman's New Europe free walking tour. It's such a great way to get your bearings and see some cool stuff. We started at the Brandenburg Gate, walked over to the Holocaust Memorial, saw where Hitler's bunker was (it's now a parking lot), saw some Trabis, some remnants of the Berlin Wall, and learned a lot of history in the process. I've always been interested in how the Berlin Wall worked. It was actually a wall built around West Berlin, so not just through the city, cutting it in half. East Berliners weren't allowed to leave, and West Berliners were allowed into the East once a year and at an expensive price. Families were torn apart, people lost their jobs because they happened to wake up one morning on the wrong side of the wall and couldn't get to work. It was crazy, but fascinating and I plan on learning a lot more about it once I'm home.

Another interesting tour I went on was the Red Berlin tour with the same company. We went into one of the "ghost stations" that was closed the entire time the wall was up. Some of the subway lines started in West Berlin, cut through East Berlin, and then ended back up in the west. From the '60s to the '80s the stations in the east were closed, walled up, and manned by guards and the trains would just pass right through them without ever stopping. This particular station hasn't been renovated and still has this scary, kinda Nazi-ish writing on the walls. Really interesting history.

So, I usually tend to just wander around when I'm sightseeing, but without fail I'm going to have to pee at some point. OH MY GOD WHY IS GERMANY WORSE THAN FRANCE WITH THE PUBLIC TOILET SYSTEM??? I have never paid so much to pee in my entire life. I never paid less than 40 cents to use the bathroom. I even had to pay for the bathroom in a museum where I had already paid to get in. What kind of craziness is that?? And tell me why did I pay EIGHTY CENTS for the toilet at the train station. That's seriously like a dollar. When I tell my future children that the reason they can't go to to college is because all of mommy's money is circulating within the German public toilet system, they're going to be upset.

So Berlin was really fantastic and I've actually been thinking of making a return trip there. I'm in Prague right now which so far I love! I've already gotten lost about 50 times so I decided to call it a night and venture back out in daytime. So one of my favorite songs is "Never tear us apart" by INXS and that video was shot here in Prague! (I learned that from Pop Up Video - oh hey '90s reference!) That song has been stuck in my head since I got here!