I’ve just spent two great days in Berlin and still think this is one of the nicest major cities in the world.

I realised today just how much I rely on my GPS. I went to find a new pair of goggles and was given direction to another shop the owner thought might have them. So off I went following these very easy directions after getting hopelessly lost I saw a post office so thought ‘great telephone book’, I’ll get the address of this other shop there since no one I asked had heard of it.

The post office assistant promptly gave me two huge cellophane wrapped books, the telephone book and yellow pages. I explained that I just wanted to look thought one. However he insisted that they were mine and I must take them home. So after throwing the phone book away and finding the shop I wanted in the yellow pages I headed off with telephone book in hand.

Now if you’ve ever seen very lost tourists with a map standing on a corner, imagine a very lost tourist walking down the road with the yellow pages, which is the size and weight of two bricks. After receiving a number of rather peculiar stares I decided I needed to tear out the pages I needed. I needed however about a quarter of the book which is the entire Berlin map section plus the index etc. So there I was standing on the street corner acting like an Amazonian body building trying to rip a telephone directory in half. I am sure there is some strong man completion in some part of the world which requires this task, I however did not look like any of those men. 5 mins later resigning myself to ripping single page by single page. Heading off again I finally found the shop only to discover it was about 200m behind me. From now on I will take my GPS, compass and own map on every expedition even those I undertake on foot. The bad news is the shop did not even have the goggles. ah well I did get to wander around half of Berlin and it is a cool place to wonder.

Off to Poland tomorrow where unlike Germany  I can’t even ask for directions as I don’t speak Polish