B61: Europe by Rail (Part 2 of 5)

Our European backpacking adventure in Sept 1991​ -
​Part 2 of 5: Brussels - Berlin - Prague

So this week’s blog continues with the second leg of my 1991 European Interrailing/ backpacking trip.  If you haven’t read the first leg covering Dublin to Paris to Brussels you can catch it here.  The second leg covers Brussels to Berlin to Prague.  The late 1980s and early 1990s was a time of great change in Europe – the Berlin Wall had only come down less than two years before our trip, there was an end to communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe, an end to the Cold War, and the removal of the Iron Curtain between Eastern and Western Europe.  The war in the Balkans was starting and the former Yugoslavia was breaking up.

Against this backdrop, Trish, Martina and I were eager to visit some of the countries which “Westerners” up to then had difficulty in visiting.  Berlin and East Germany looked an interesting place to visit from our chats with fellow backpackers so we decided to go there next after Brussels.  1991 was also the first year that the Inter-rail ticket was valid for Czechoslovakia…it too would split into two independent states, the Czech Republic and Slovakia just over a year later on January 1, 1993.  So we also decided to go to Prague after Berlin.
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This is how we got on …with excerpts from our diaries as before.  Enjoy!

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Bahnhoffzoo Station, Berlin

Day 4 – Thursday 12 Sept 1991

“I slept OK on the overnight train (from Brussels) but I was frozen solid when I woke up cos we had stupidly left the window open.  At 6am the steward knocked at our door to give us back our passports and to tell us that the train would be arriving in Berlin in 20 minutes.  I had real problems getting up and down from the bunk as it was very high.  I felt sorry for little people.  Patricia gave me a leg up each time.  We found out today that there are ladders outside each door!”
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Trish’s extract: “We arrived in Berlin at 6:45 am and went across the road from the Bahnhofzoo for breakfast of croissants and coffee – very welcome after the cold night and the equally cold morning.  It was cold for most of the day in Berlin although the sun was shining and it was the first day that we didn’t wear shorts.  We stayed in the café until 8am and then went to the foreign exchange to get money”

TV Tower Berlin 4 Sept 1991: (Left) From the outside. (Right) View of East Berlin from the TV Tower.

Mary’s extract: “We changed some money (into Deutschmarks) and locked our luggage in the lockers at the station.  At the Tourist Office we got info. about accommodation, maps etc.  A really nice guy told us of a youth hostel on Koloniestrasse which had places available.  The cheapest hostel was 30 DM (IR£12) and IR£1.40 for sheets etc.  We came out on the U-Bahn.  After each station the driver closes the door while a female voice announces “Nexte Bahnhoff xyz” (This was a bit of a novelty as in Ireland at that stage no announcements were made before stops….you just had to keep your eyes peeled for stop signs!)

“The hostel room is the best we have had so far with two bunkbeds, a table and chairs and a washbasin.  It’s built behind an old folk’s home which we walked into accidentally.  The shower is outside our room and shared with one other room.  We are on the fifth floor just off a very drab street with loads of graffiti.  The guy at the “reception”(!) is very unfriendly.”
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“We then did some sightseeing.  Took the U-Bahn to the TV Tower and went up in the lift.  From it you can see East and West Berlin and where the Wall used to be.  It came down less than two years ago.”

Trish with a Trabant, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

​“We then went to Alexander Square and saw the Nicholaikirke, Rathaus and the Neptune Fountain.  (I remember we were amused that the townhall is known as the Rathaus and joked that it was apt as at home that is how some people regarded local politicians).”

Nikolaikirche, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

​“We visited Unter den Linden in East Berlin and then went onto Checkpoint Charlie where traders were selling old East German army gear, badges, postcards and brightly coloured pieces of the Wall in various sized pieces” (I bought a piece which I still have!)

Me at Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

My piece of the Berlin Wall which I bought at Checkpoint Charlie - 12 Sept 1991

“At Checkpoint Charlie they also sold Russian dolls (matriushka) and dolls of President Gorbachov complete with birth mark on his head."

Gorbachov Dolls (complete with birthmark), Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

“Just a short distance from the Checkpoint is the Wall Museum (now here) which is full of objects used in escapes over/under the Wall as well as official documents, paintings and other information about civil rights.  We spent over two hours in the Museum and at about 4:30 pm we returned to the Ku’damm which is the busiest shopping centre in Berlin.  We had something to eat in a burger joint and then wandered out into the surrounding streets.”

Our Burger King Receipt, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

“A music festival was going on in Berlin and several musicians, portrait painters, street traders etc. were performing in the square outside the Europa Centre.  The group from South America which we had seen in Paris were there.  We stayed in the square listening to the music for a good while and also visited part of the Europa Centre which is a massive shopping and office complex of 20 floors and where we found an Irish Pub.”

Trish photographing the Irish Pub, Berlin - 12 Sept 1991

“We left the square at about 7pm and went back to visit the Brandenburg Gate.  Here we found a group of people who were keeping a vigil in memory of the people who had died in Croatia (the breakaway republic in Yugoslavia) and had set out wreaths and candles in an area before the Gates. (This was the first time we became really aware of what was happening in the Balkans which soon would be all over our news channels.)  We left the Gate and walked for ages, got lost and finally found a U-Bahn station.  We returned to our hostel at about 10pm and discovered that several other sets of luggage had been left in our room and it was overbooked.  Only one girl arrived to claim the 4th bed so we waited for the confusion to start.  The girl is English and is called Celia.  She recommends Prague as a worthwhile place to go.  Maybe we will head there tomorrow or the day after."

Brandenburg Gate, Berlin

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Day 5 Friday 13 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract: “Got up at 7:30am.  We couldn’t get the showers to work because there was a disc system with instructions in German.  We had the best hostel breakfast so far with cereal, apples and juice and there was also lots of meats and cheese.  Nobody on the staff speaks a word of English.  After breakfast, we took the U-Bahn to the Olympic Stadium where the 1936 Olympics were held.  It is a huge place with a capacity for equally big crowds."

Martina (black top) & Trish (red top) entering the Olympic Stadium, Berlin - 13 Sept 1991

Mary’s extract: “After visiting here we went to the Egyptian Museum which Martina visited.  Patricia and I went shopping and ended up with postcards and wrote them outside the Europa Centre.  We then visited Berlin Zoo which is said to have more species than any other.  It was great and I loved the monkeys as usual.  We spent about three hours there.  At about 7pm we decided to go to the Irish pub in the Europa Centre.  There was already a good crowd there at that time.  The prices were expensive (about IR£2 for ¾ pint of Guinness. IR£1.20 for mineral water.)  They sold Irish Whiskey, Bailey’s and Kilkenny Irish Beer?” (…we learnt later that this is what they call Smithwicks) as well as German beer.”
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“At about 9 the place started to crowd and at 9:30 a band played some 60s/70s music.  We met a boar/bore from Silesia who had been reared in Germany.  He didn’t like Germans, Romanians, Turks or career women whom he said were “bad in bed because always zay are zinking about ze career”.  We sat opposite two German girls whom the whole pub seemed to be trying to pick-up.  We left at 10:30 and were in bed by 12”.

Irish Pub, Berlin

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Day 6 Saturday 14 Sept 1991

“Today we decided to take the overnight train to Prague so we packed up all our luggage and headed to Lichtenberg station in East Berlin to put our luggage in storage there.  We then went to Teufelsberg, a hill made of rubble from bombed Berlin after WW2.  From here people paraglide, fly kites and sunbathe.  They also ski on roller-skies.  There is a fab view from the top of it across the Berlin skyline.  The Berliners were out with children and dogs – loads of dogs.  There are special tickets for dogs on the U-Bahn.  The families were out today as it doesn’t appear to be a working day. We phoned home (from a call-box) on the way back.  The lines were crystal clear. “

Trish & Martina on Teufelsberg, Berlin - 14 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract: “Today was the hottest day we had in Berlin.  Arriving back in the Bahnhofzoo area, we wandered around the shops and went for some food.  Half way through our meal we decided from the timetable that we had read our departure time (for Prague) wrong and that we were leaving at 8: 50pm instead of 9:50pm.  We hopped up very quickly and headed out to Lichtenberg Station only to find on the way that we had read the timetable wrong again and the train leaving at 8:50pm was arriving in Prague at 3am instead of 6am as we had thought.  This meant that we had to take a later train to avoid arriving when nothing is open so we had a 3 hour wait at Lichtenberg Station until the 11pm train."

Lichtenberg Station, East Berlin

Mary’s extract: “The wait at the station wasn’t too bad as we were glad of the chance to sit down and read some magazines.  This is the first year that an Inter-rail ticket extends to Czechoslovakia.  Therefore not many tourists travelled with us.  On the train we decided not to take a couchette.  We had an 8-seater compartment all to ourselves.   Patricia was on the floor and Martina and I took a couch each.  There are no locks on the train doors in Czechoslovakia.  There are no curtains or blinds either!"

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Day 7 Sunday 15 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract: “At 1:40 am the Czechoslovakian border guard woke us up to check and stamp our passports.  The girls were on the seats and I was on the floor.  All three of us were equally uncomfortable. At 3:30 am another inspector woke us up to check our tickets and at 5:10 he came back to tell us the train had arrived in Prague and we had to get off.”
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Mary’s extract: “We bundled together our bags and baggage and struggled down the platform in the dark.  Inside the station everything was written in Czech so we understood nothing.  It is a filthy, dirty station with lots of people sleeping on benches and big black flies all over the place.  We sat there stupefied for a while.  A few people approached us to offer accommodation but we politely declined.  Martina managed to get a map and change some money.  Everything was very cheap. It cost 8p to travel for one hour on the newly built metro or 50p for a 24 hour pass”

Prague Underground - 17 Sept 1991

“As it was still very early we sat for an hour among the various bodies on benches.  We decided to go to the Cedok office in the city centre which opened at 8am.  I went to the loo and got a square of toilet paper (!) form a men inside the door.  We got the metro to the city centre.  This is fast, clean and efficient and consists of 3 lines – A, B and C.  At 7:30 we were sitting on street benches while church bells rang.  The streets were deserted apart from 5 street sweepers cleaning up cigarette butts with brooms.”

Early Sunday morning street bench - Prague 15 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract: “We went for breakfast while we waited.   This consisted of 3 coffees and six pieces of bread/cake which came to a total of 80p.  When Cedok opened the woman was very unhelpful and said that all she had left were luxury hotels in the city centre for IR£25 each.  At his stage we were severely exhausted from the lack of sleep as well as the weight of the rucksacks and in desperation rooted out the phone number that Celia in Berlin had given us. 

​The woman agreed to meet us at the main station at half past 12 to show us where to go for accommodation @ 10 DM (IR£4).  We trudged to the station and arriving at about 9:30 am we decided to avail of any opportunities that came our way by 12:30 pm.  We discovered that we could get a 3 bedded room in a hotel out of the city for 210 krowns each (IR£4.20) so we happily got on the metro again and went in search of this.  Alas, poor woman at 12:30 we were not there when she came.  She probably cursed us but we had already been awake for 26 of the last 28 hours."

Me on Charles Bridge, Prague - Sept 1991

Mary’s extract: “We found the “hotel” fairly quickly as it is near the last metro stop.  It is very dusty and smells of soot but the sheets are clean and the water is hot.  We had a major washing session as we had not had a shower in a few days.  After this we were ready to go again and headed back to the city centre.  It was time for more food.  We discovered we could have hamburgers for about 30p, however, we decided to treat ourselves to a 4-course dinner in a Grade-A hotel (this cost about IR£6 each).  After being well fed we wandered around the shops.  Although most of them had been closed earlier, many were now open and big crowds had begun to gather in the streets.  The biggest crowd of all were gathered around 2 preachers who were declaring that “Jesus loves us all” in several different languages.  It was hard to believe that only a short while ago this wouldn’t have been allowed!”​

My Ticket for the Mozart Ballet, Prague - 15 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract:  “The shops were selling lots of crystal.  Apparently this is where much of the Waterford crystal now comes from.  The prices were of course much lower.  On our travels we spotted several posters for The Mozart Festival which is currently going on, so we decided to book (ballet) tickets for this (IR£3 each!!)  We had to take the metro and a tram to get to the ballet.  Unfortunately, I advised an exit from the tram too early and we ended up on the top of a dark, lonely hill with nobody in sight.  However, our intrepid heroines had a map and were able to get back on the next tram and make the ballet with 20 minutes to spare.”

Trish & Martina admiring the horses in the Old Town Square, Prague - Sept 1991

Mary’s extract: “[the ballet] was held in the open air in an enclosed courtyard and was highly entertaining.  We returned by tram and this time managed to get off at all the right places.  On our short tour around the city before this we discovered several lovely old streets with cobble stones and lovely buildings.  In one square were about 20 pairs of horses drawing carriages to give tourists a trip around the city.  They (the horses) had special shoes to stop them slipping on the cobbles.”

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Day 8 Monday 16 Sept 1991

Trish’s extract: “We took our promised lie-in and got up around 9:30 am.  We spent a good part of the morning trying to figure out the best way to go to Italy through Austria without having to take an overnight train.  In the end we discovered that this means leaving Prague tomorrow at 7:13 for Munich.  Our wonderful Grade A dinner yesterday has left us this morning with a slight medical problem i.e. “the runs”.  Luckily, Mary had tablets which cured this quickly.”
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Mary’s extract: “Today we ate only bananas and ice-cream.  Bananas are expensive here; by Prague standards they cost about the same as at home.  Tights must also be expensive as we see very few women in them; instead with bare legs even though it is Sept.  Ice-cream is cheap; it costs 16p for the equivalent of a cornetto.  As we were late getting organised, we decided to go shopping first and then sightseeing in case the shops were closed later.  The best bargains seem to be sets of crystal glasses which look like Waterford for IR£8-12.  Martina bought a 15-piece coffee pot a cups set for IR£32.  It is well wrapped up at present so hopefully will reach Mullingar intact!”

Czech Porcelain Coffee Set

Trish’s extract: “By about 5:00 pm we had done enough shopping.  It had started to rain for the first time since we left home, but it cleared again quickly.  As we wanted to be back early to get to bed for our early start tomorrow, we decided to limit the sightseeing and go to the Charles Bridge.  This is a very beautiful bridge with statues along its sides and was well worth going to see”

Statue Silhouettes on the Charles Bridge, Prague - 16 Sept 1991

Mary’s extract: “It (the Charles Bridge) is pedestrianised and all along it, traders were selling postcards, jewellery and other souvenirs.  A couple also put on a puppetry display which was good.  We had walked a good bit away from the city centre at this stage so took a tram back.  The clothes and make-up that the girls wear here are about 10-15 years behind what similar Irish girls would have.”
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Trish’s extract: “Stone-washed jeans are currently very fashionable here.  Most of the girls have dyed hair…..We are now back at the (sooty) hotel and are going to bed.  It is only 9:00 but we have to be up @ 5:30 am.  Who said this was a holiday?"

Puppeteers on the Charles Bridge, Prague - 16 Sept 1991

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Day 9 Tuesday 17 Sept 1991

Mary’s extract: “We got up at 5:30 am and left our “hotel” by 6am.  The metro was busier at that time of the morning than it has been at any other time we travelled on it.  Some of the travellers had a distinctly alcoholic smell about them and all of them looked depressed and had dark shadows under their eyes.  (We probably looked the same!) "

Zdice Station - 17 Sept 1991

“At the main Prague railway station, there was no platform number opposite our train, only a message in Czech.  We set about trying to find out what this meant which was a bit difficult as nobody spoke English.  With about 10 minutes to go, we discovered that the train did not leave from that station at all and we were herded onto a bus and had to travel for about an hour to get to the train. This took us through the countryside to another station in the middle of nowhere.  There were no platforms – everyone just walked across the tracks until they got to their train.  Eventually, we found our train to Munich with the help of our reservation ticket which showed the train, carriage and seat numbers.” (Although at the time we were nervous that we were being sold into white slavery 😊 we later found out we were brought to a place called Zdice where the Munich train left from and it was all legit.)

Trish’s extract: “At the stations there is a diagram of each train, giving each carriage a number.  On very long journeys, some of the carriages are disconnected enroute, so it is very important to sit in the right part of the train; otherwise you can get left behind along the way.”
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TO BE CONTINUED…

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Bucket List Items Ticked Off in the above Blog 61

Number 7 - Backpack around Europe
​Number 57 - Travel - 7 Continents

• Europe

Number 58 - Travel - 80 Countries

• Germany
• Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia)

​​​Number 60 - Travel - 80 Cities/Towns

• Berlin, Germany
• Prague, Czech Republic (then Czechoslovakia)

​​​Number 64 - Travel - Epic Train Journeys

• Inter-railing -  Brussels to Berlin to Prague - 1991

 Number 76 - Experiences - 80 UNESCO World Heritage Sites

• Historic Centre of Prague, Czech Republic

 Number 80 - Experiences - 80 Tall Vantage Points

• TV Tower, Berlin, Germany

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​Other Blog Posts
Blog 11 - Sydney, Australia
Blog 12 - Hong Kong, China
Blog 17 - Beijing, Xi'an & Shanghai, China
Blog 19 - California, USA
Blog 27 - Scotland
Blog 28 - Barbados
Blog 29 - Canada
Blog 30 - Alaska
Blog 31 - Everglades, Florida

Have you ever inter-railed in mainland Europe?  Tell me about your experience in the comments section below.
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