Irish pub times and a very quiet town

Tuesday 3rd August

On the ICE train from Hannover to Berlin now, one and a half hours in a lovely big, comfy seat.  We're going quite slowly at the moment - hopefully we'll pick up speed soon.  Oldenburg was great; quaint and quiet - though this was mainly due to everything being closed on Sundays and the castle being shut on Monday.  Veronika met us off the train and we went to her apartment.  After getting settled we went to the Irish pub where Veronika works for her friends' leaving drinks.  The whole of the pub was completely covered in Irish posters, banners and memorabilia.  Irish songs were playing and the drinks were cheap.

(We are now travelling at 191 km/h - goodtimes)

We didn't stay too long in the pub as everyone was either tired or hungover from the night before.  Sven, the guy who was leaving, was very chatty and very drunk, and everyone else was really nice too.  One older man was a bit creepy - he was a pub regular that everyone else warned us against.  He showed us photos of his 'best, best, best friends' from Manchester and told Veronika he was looking for a daughter-in-law.  Needless to say we made excuses and got away from his drunkeness.

Yesterday we had a lie in and then went into the city centre.  We wandered around the shops, saw the castle and walked through the gardens.  All the buildings were painted in pastel colours which made the town look really pretty.  The buildings all had amazing roofs and gables, all different shapes and decorations.
In the evening we went to a cocktail bar where drinks were €4, and had a couple while talking and planning for Veronika to come visit us in England.

This morning we just got up and went to the station.  We said goodbye to Veronika and got into the most packed carriage in the history of train travel.  Luckily most people got off after half an hour so the rest of the journey was fine.
The train we're on now should get to Berlin about 3:30pm then we need to find the S-Bahn to get to our hostel.  The hostel website said it's cocktail night tonight, which could be fun.

Stride like the rooster!