Sadly for those who like to laugh at JFK's stupidity, that phrase actually means "I am a Berliner" and has nothing to do with jelly doughnuts.

Anyway, I just spent five nights in Berlin. An awesome city. Great bars and nightlife, superb public transport, and a good number of sights and museums.

The trip over was uneventful except for reading a half page newspaper article on the premiere of Roger Waters' opera Ca Ira. I've been waiting for that to come out for about 5 years, so it's nice to be in a society where the important things are promoted in a popular news source.

I hit the jackpot with my Hostel. It describes itself as an art hostel, and has themed rooms. Mine had poetry all over the walls. E.g.

A man and a woman
Are one.
A man and a woman and a blackbird
Are one.

Deep.

'Twas all very interesting after 24 hours of flying with a few hours sleep.

There I met Dan, the crazy 39 year old German speaking punk rocker American. We went out to some punk rock bars, and I didn't get to sleep until the early afternoon, after getting my visa and visiting a film museum.

The next night we went to a bar called Wild at Heart, which is one of my favourite bars ever. Good live music and a friendly if rather rough looking clientelle. It was packed full of hell's angels by the end of the night. Certainly a place to keep your wits about you, but good times if you're careful.

After two nights going fairly hard and getting very little sleep it all caught up with me about 5am, and I hit the wall. I managed to fall asleep on the U-Bahn and travel the length of a line not once, but three times. It took me a good few hours to get home. Then I lost a day of sight-seeing to sleep.

On my last night I went out for some post vetinary science exam drinks with Daphne, her Australian friend Helen, and a Bavarian girl who managed an A+ in her exam because it had a lot to do with sausages. It was a relatively reserved night with christmas markets, gluhwein (hot spiced wine - a christmas markets specialty) and a few beers, but due to my early flight was my third all nighter of the trip.

Some observations:

• Drinking is quite cheap in Berlin, particularly if your friend chats up the owner of a bar and scores some free shots. Also if you go on an 8 euro pub crawl with unlimited shots.
• The boxing kangaroo was a film shown at the first ever public film showing, which was in Germany. I guess that makes the boxing kangaroo kind of unaustralian.
• A real Turkish kebab is actually pretty healthy.
• There are a lot of very cool bars in (what was) East Berlin.

Anyway, here I am in freezing cold Estonia. I'm about to brave the weather in search for some warmer clothes, and to reduce the chance that I get force fed by Millerine's mum.

Enjoy summer if you're in that part of the world.

Wally