Currywurst, Bratwurst, Liverwurst, it's the worst!

Another long drive and we found ourselves in the beautiful city of Prague, my (Dan) favourite place from my last trip to Europe. It was nice to be back, to return to some of my favourite places and see lots of new ones too. Luckily this visit did not feature any middle of the night meetings with dodgy police like my first one did.

It was only a half day drive from Budapest (about 5 hours) so after a short walking tour of the city and orientating ourselves a little, we had dinner with the group and hit a couple of bars for some drinks and a boogie. I couldn’t remember where the bars were I visited last time and hadn’t seen any sex shops or bars to pick up a local ‘gay guide’ but I came up with an idea.

Posing as a guest of the Prague Four Seasons, I paid a visit to the concierge who looked it up and provided me with a map of it. Ever so helpful. Off to the bar we had been looking for, only to find that it was karaoke night and only had about a dozen people there. Oh well, we were at least able to get a guide and then went to the club I wanted to go to. It was closed. After a few more attempts and finding somewhere open and worth staying at, we finally found somewhere, got down to some Britney and Kylie (who else?) and dragged ourselves home for some sleep.

The hotel had free wifi access (albeit it only available in the lobby) which was the first time in a few weeks so we were determined to get the most out of it and spent the next morning doing some housekeeping; washing in the bathtub, paying some bills (they don’t stop when you’re on holiday unfortunately!) and catching up on things online. As the bus is feels rather cramped at times and some of the beds have been a tad soft, I made time for a Thai massage which I’d been thinking about since missing out a couple of days earlier at the spa. Having never had one before I didn’t know what to expect and although there were moments of pain as she dug into my back and shoulders with her elbows, forearms and feet, I left feeling recharged (albeit sore) and ready to go!

G, Nicky and Jess, the girls we’ve been hanging out with, wanted to see St Vitus’ cathedral (its stained glass windows are renowned) and the changing of the guard so we slapped on the sunscreen and joined the heaving throngs of tourists.

Food has never been far from our minds on this tour so when we spotted a restaurant/bar called Cowboys with a rooftop terrace, we aimed straight for it. After eating European cuisine for the last few weeks (lots of pizza, pasta and thick goulashes and creamy sauces) we were all hanging for some meat. A couple of steaks and cocktails later, we were fully satisfied.

Afterwards we visited Prague castle and parts of the old town, climbed the astronomical tower and then popped back to the hotel for a shower and nap, returning to the city for a couple of drinks in one of the bars we’d been at the previous night.

The next stop on the tour had us returning to Germany with a 3 night stop in Berlin. The timing was great as it turned out to be the nicest hotel, modern with great furniture and rooms with free wi-fi available in every room so we were very happy… it really is the simple things for us at this point of the trip.

Learnings:

• There seems to be a strange connection between the weight of our packs and the amount of weight we gain. In spite of doing loads of shopping, our packs seem to be getting lighter each time. Perhaps I am eating clothes in my sleep as I have lost a couple of items... this would account for my expanded waistline. Sadly, the totally HOT new jeans and T shirt I bought in London will have to wait a couple of months till I can wear them comfortably again.


• Straws in Prague are really, really long!

Berlin is a great city, one that we will return to it which is more than I can say about some of the places we’ve been to. The combination of the Nazi regime and years of occupation and oppression make it a fascinating spot, rich in history, beautiful architecture and people with interesting stories to tell.

A tour with a local guide was fantastic as we got lots of anecdotes and personal insights as we saw the sights; Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, remaining sections of the Berlin Wall, and various monuments to victims of the holocaust.

We heard some fascinating stories of how people’s lives were changed by the wall. It appeared without warning on a Sunday, separating families and people from their homes and jobs. If you had happened to stay on the opposite side that Saturday night, you were stuck and weren’t allowed back. It started off as big rolls of razor wire and the wall was built progressively by prisoners over the following 12 months. I never knew why it was built in the first place so was amazed to find out that it was created to stop East Berliners from fleeing to the west. At the time it was under Russian occupation and the people had been leaving steadily to escape the oppression and create better lives for themselves which was having a negative effect on the economy. The government saw this as a way to prevent it getting any worse and to stop people from leaving and further.

The next morning we were up bright and early and caught the train to a concentration camp outside of Berlin called Sachenhausen (pron. Sack-zen-how-zen). Most of the camp and the surrounding town was destroyed by bombing during WWII but it had been rebuilt as it was, using photos and former prisoners’ recollections.

It was largely used as a labour camp during WWII and only had a fairly small population of Jews, in comparison to some of the bigger camps. A lot of the people were persecuted there because of their political views and many because they were gay. It was a huge place and it was a very hot day (32c) so after a couple of hours there we were over it and headed back to Berlin to see some of the memorials up close.

A brand new one had been opened several days earlier - the Memorial to the Homosexuals Persecuted under the Socialist Regime.

In 1935, the National Socialists issued an order making all male homosexuality a crime and the provisions governing homosexual behaviour in Section 175 of the Criminal Code were significantly expanded and made stricter. A kiss was enough reason to persecute and there were more than 50,000 convictions. Under Section 175, the punishment was imprisonment; in some cases, convicted offenders were castrated. Thousands of men were sent to concentration camps for being gay and many of them died there from hunger, disease and abuse or were the victims of targeted killings. Although we still have a long way to go in terms of acceptance in the eyes of the government, seeing things like this does make you realise how lucky we really have it both as gay men, and as Australians.

After a pretty intense morning we took ourselves to the Reichstad (German parliament) for coffee and cake. We had a heads up that to get to the top book a table in the restaurant and you go in the disabled/handicap rear entrance and bypass the hour plus queue. (I can hear you now, handicapped rear entrance - minds out of the gutter please). You dont have to actually eat you can just not go to your booking but we did and had a great coffee. The views from the top are amazing.

That night we went bar hopping and met a really interesting East Berliner. He looked like Hedwig from Hedwig and the Angry Inch, complete with long peroxided hair, thick eyeliner and black fingernail polish. Especially funny because when I mentioned the movie to him he’d never heard of it but that’s not the interesting part. It turned out that his Grandfather had died in Sachenhausen and that after growing up in East Berlin, he wanted to have a better life when he was 25. He was then caught trying to escape over the wall and was actually in prison when the wall came down. They weren’t allowed radio, tv or newspapers so he didn’t even know about the wall coming down until he was released. Talk about things changing while you’re away huh?

The next day we visited Checkpoint Charlie museum and the Holocaust museum which was also very informative and moving; lots of different stories about people escaping and people being murdered in the camps etc.

It was all very heavy really so after those we spent the rest of the day shopping, saw some markets and ended the day with a visit to a great tapas restaurant to rival Encasa in Sydney!!

We also realised that day that we were only a few days away from the end of the tour and that it would all be over after our next city, Amsterdam.

Learnings:

• Gay guide descriptions are often lost in translation. One 'club' marked on the map was actually a hairdressing salon with a club membership. Funny it wasn't open at 11pm at night when we were looking for it...


• Bars and clubs are not the same thing


• If a place doesn't have a 'No Dogs' sign in the window - it is OK for dogs to go inside. We have seen dogs in a bar, on public transport and sitting on top of a subwoofer/speaker in a club!


• 'Goya' is not gay, even though listed in the Gay guide