The brevity of this suggests that I was knackered. Also, boy did I ever undersell Eisenach here. One of the nicest places I went to – beautiful surroundings, and the Wartberg Castle was something else.

Hey folks.

Slightly less dramatic entry this time, although you do have the result of the Choose Your Own Joshventure to look forward to at the end – no skipping forward!

So the time since the last email has been spen in Eisenach and Berlin. Eisenach was a pretty town, with a big castle and a lot of history – Martin Luthor retreated there after the Emperor, Charles II, retracted his support, and spent nine months there translating the Old Testament into German. His cell in the castle (complete with a whalebone-vertibra footstool!) has been a draw for pilgrims for centuries. Reading the graffitti is always interesting, but in this place Franciscan monks had been carving their names into the walls since 1750, so there was a real sense of antiquity.

The town was on the edges of the Thungrian forest, so I got some hiking done as well. I did, however, suffer for not having a stick. Conventional logic would suggest that they’re everywhere, and that finding one of suitable walking length would be childishly simple, but it appears almost not to be the case. Perhaps they’ve all been stolen by unscrupulous walking-stick salesmen! A conspiracy looms.

Based on the looming termination of my interrail ticket, I cut short my meander through the rubbish little towns in Germany and headed straight for Berlin. Man, have I missed city living! I wouldn’t want to be stuck here for more than four or five days, but it’s been great just to be able to find someone to talk to every night. I’ve met a whole host of interesting people. The first couple of nights I spent with a pair of Americans called Joe and Elena, a brother-and-sister pair who were travelling for the laters birthday. After they left for Poland, I hooked up with a pair of English guys called Trevor and Owen, then last night I went out to a club with two Israeli girls (Keren and Rotem), two other English guys (Ian and Andy), and a girl who’s just from everywhere (half Brazilian, half Italian, living in France, fluent in Greek and Russian, called Maria). So my evenings have been occupied once again. Over-occupied, in fact; I got back to the hostel from last night about three hours ago. I’m mainly writing this as an excuse not to have to do anything meaningful.

The days have been pretty well spent as well. Berlin is pretty much a building site; it has developed uniquely of all Europe’s major cities, for all the obvious reasons. It does contain a stupid amount of history and culture, though, and there is a certain enrgy about it that was entirely missing from Paris. Standing in Berlin gives one hope for the future of Germany. Of all the cities I’ve been to, there are very few with as charged an atmosphere.

Anyway. Tomorrow I’m going to the North German coast for a few days, then, in accordance with the majority vote, heading towards Denmark and the North. As things stand, I’m redrawing the route to avoid anything west of Prague; I’m planing to see Estonia and Lithuania, then Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia etc, then Croatia, Greece and Turkey, before hopefully heading into Israel and the Middle East. I don’t yet know if I’ll head into Russia, simply because visa proceedings are going to be tricky to arrange, although I would love to go to St Petersberg and Moscow – Moscow has always been a dream to me. I may miss it this time, however, simply because I want to give Russia the attention it deserves at some point; get the Trans-Siberian railway and taking the whole sweep. We shall see.

Anyway – I think I may shamble back to bed. Hope you’re all well.