Squats, Concentration Camps and 1 Euro Wine....

Drag my weary carcass out of bed not-so-early and head down to Alexanderplatz to take and alternative walking tour....pretty self-explanatory; it takes in the alternative East Berlin sites; squats, the best street art, the East Side Gallery and the YAAM (Young African Art Movement) Beach Bar. Saw some unbelievably inspiring murals, tags and though-provoking political graffiti. This stuff really is echelons above and beyond the type of street art I have seen in any other city - "yer maw" scratched in to the side of a Glasgow bus stop really has nothing on this!

The tour took in one of the last working artists squats in Berlin, Tacheles. Set in an old ramshackle-looking house, Tacheles quite simply exudes character and cool. Reeking of the heady mix of incense and urine, it is quite simply COVERED in graffiti, and has loads of studio space, where up-and-coming and established artists can exhibit their work. Could have easily spent hours there.

After a few hours walking, we finish up at the beach bar; a really chilled out space right next to the East Side Gallery. A great way to spend a hot afternoon!

Head back to the hostel early evening for another uninspiring dinner of cheese, bread and salami. Living the dream! Head up to Prenzlauer Berg in the evening, to a little internet cafe, where I sort of my plans for moving on - Prague tomorrow evening!

Manage an alcohol free night so I can get up early in the morning and go to Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp in Oranienburg, about 45 minutes north of Berlin.

The camp itself is a very intense place, loaded with history. Set in sprawling grounds, preceded by the ominous "Arbeit Macht Frei", there are execution trenches, medical experimentation labs, gas chambers, gallows and cells. It's a very quiet, eerie site, and while I am thinking about how much death and torture and misery the perimeter walls have seen, I find one solitary red flower growing. It's ironic and totally paradoxical that that something so beautiful could ever grow in such a hostile environment.

Back at Alexanderplatz, I collect my backpack and head to ye-olde Netto to get a bottle of 1 Euro red wine for my train journey to Prague. It's the very least I need after a heavy day! So I'm sitting at Berlin Hautbanhof, people watching, waiting for my train to Praha. Yet again though, it will be dark by the time I get there. I just hope it's easier to negotiate than Amsterdam.....