As I enter the last month of my time here in Hamburg this blog takes a look back at what I managed to see and do in June. The highlight of last month was Pfingstferien (Pentecost holiday), which meant a week off uni and the oppurtunity to see some more of Germany. The start of the holiday saw a day trip over to Bremen, a small city with a very attractive “Old Town” made up of numerous old buildings. There were also plenty of statues around, including one of the Bremen Town musicians, which is a popular fairytale here in Germany.
Bremen is also interesting, for me at least, in that it is (along with Bremerhaven) one of only three city-states in Germany, the others being Hamburg and Berlin, which leads me onto the rest of the holiday.
The day after getting back from Bremen saw another early start as we caught the coach to take us over to Berlin. After reaching the capital we then had to travel pretty much the whole way across the city to reach the hostel, which took even longer than expected after some very poor navigating. During the time in Berlin we saw pretty much every tourist site that there is, from The Wall to the TV-Tower and the Brandenburg Gate to Checkpoint Charlie. 
Compared to Hamburg the city has, perhaps unsurprisingly, a lot more foreign tourists, particularly from English speaking countries. This meant that it was actually a pleasant surprise to hear a German voice. We also managed to time our arrival during a mini heatwave, and you know the weather is probably a decent temperature when the person you’re travelling with is from Brazil, and they say that it is pretty warm. The atmosphere in Berlin is also noticeably different to Hamburg. Despite being told this before we left, I’d just assumed it was like when people say the next village over is a bit odd, but when you arrive it’s perfectly normal. Between Hamburg and Berlin there is however definitely a difference, but I have to say I would pick Hamburg any day.
June also saw the start of the world cup, and it has been a great experience to be out here in such a football mad country. World cup fever pretty much took over, with flags being flown from cars, pretty much every item in the supermarket having a world cup theme and the screens on the S- and U-Bahn platforms showing the start times and results of Germany’s fixtures. Public viewing is massive in Germany, and even if its not in the ‘Kia Fan Arena’ most pubs have a TV on the outside wall, and benches set up to make a mini viewing area on the pavement.