Berlin, Hamburg & Düsseldorf

Next on my travel itinerary was a whirlwind trip through Germany. First stop was Berlin where I spent a couple of days catching up with friends, running around the Tiergarten, eating felafel and organizing an apartment for later in the month. Finding an apartment was easy and disturbingly cheap. After looking at a couple of places, I settled on a large room in a twin shared apartment in Schöneberg. It has high ceilings and is located on quiet street in a leafy suburb a few kilometers south of the city centre. Although I didn't take any photos, you can have a look around using Google Maps.

With my future organized, I headed across to Hamburg for the weekend to catch up with Hanna, a friend I met while travelling in Malaysia last year. Although the rain clouds were still stalking me, I toured the city in the rain, checked out a fantastic photography exhibition and met a bunch of smart and friendly locals. If I ever need a doctor or automotive engineer in Germany, I'll know where to come!

Hamburg has fantastic parks (complete with flying foxes and giant swings) and a safer, cleaner feel than Berlin but it doesn't feel quite as vibrant or exciting. I get the impression that it would be a great place to live if you already had a group of friends, but that making new friends might be tough. Many thanks to Hanna for sharing her friends and also for taking time off from final exam study to show me around.

After five weeks on the move, I was quite relieved to meet up with Tim in Dusseldorf for a week of doing not much. I was less relieved to discover that he'd just moved into an apartment right in the centre of the city and directly above Düsseldorf's worst nightclub. The city seemed to be full of friendly ex-pat Vodafone employees and we joined them for several dinners, a couple of pub crawls, some indoor beach volleyball and even made it outside for an excursion to Eifel Nation Park.

Staying in one place for while also gave me a chance to organize my life. I sorted out my future travel plans, ordered a fancy new computer and shopped for a German sim and cheapest phone I could find. My new Nokia 1800 might not have 'features' but at least the battery lasts for a week. I can now be contacted in Europe on +491637700122

Many thanks to Tim for letting me crash at his place (earplugs included) and to Miren for supplying a mattress and great travel advice!