Portugal 2 - 3 Germany

Ah well, the dream finishes here for Portugal! Quite loud out tonight but nothing on the Turkish fans in Vienna the other night...that was something else entirely!

Been a busy day today, basically been strolling around Berlin looking at the sights. Been to some of the usual suspects - Brandenburger Tor (again), West Berlin which seemed to be a bit rubbish (mostly crowded shopping areas it seems), Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust memorial (which was pretty cool) and the Jewish Museum (which was OK but not massively interesting). Oh and I also visited the Bachaus Museum - this place kinda chronicled the Bachaus institute/college (think that was what it was called). Seems that some stuff we kinda take for granted now (like tubular steel framed furniture) was first thought up at this place. So that was kinda interesting. Oh and on a side note - if you visit Berlin and want to visit a lot of museums, I got a 3 day pass giving free access to loads (but not all) of them for 19 euros. Pretty bargainous really!

As for Berlin itself - I'm not really sold on it thus far. Perhaps it's like most capital cities - and I'm sure London is the same - it can leave you a bit cold just due to the size and indifference of it all. But I have another day tomorrow so we'll see if it can oust Munich as my favourite place so far!

Managed to find the "cool" area tonight - seems the Mitte area, and the stuff north of the river from there is the place to be. Although most places seem to be cafe/restaurant combos which are a bit crap for watching the footy it did seem there were a few bars and whatnot around. After I managed to finally get away from the restaurant I ate in (service was v.slow and v.bad) I hit an Irish pub called (strangely) Oscar Wilde. Was pretty nice to find a "normal" pub after 2 weeks of drinking in continental bars and the like. Wish I'd felt up for socialising more today (and yesterday) - have felt pretty exhausted (been walking around for around 10 hours today!) and I have a cold now so that probably doesn't help matters. But not long to go so sure I'll be fine for the remaining time!