Berlin!

Well, first off, when doing research on the cheapest way to get to Berlin I knew it would be impossible for me to fly there direct with RyanAir (the low budget airline I have used for most of my trips thus far) and the only place that I could fly to from Marseille that would allow me to get a connecting flight to Berlin was London. A bit out of the way, yes, but the flights were cheap! So I flew into London Thursday night and spend the night in the airport – goodtimes. (Luckily there was a 24 hour café open so I got a comfy spot and managed to sleep for a few hours) Caught the flight to Berlin at 6 the next morning, and got into Berlin with no problems. There was a train going directly into town from the airport so I got that and met Jean (who had already been in Berlin one night) at the hostel at around 11. Now, our hostel was kind of epic (yes Jean, EPIC) it was called “Generator” (no “The”, just “Generator”) and the best way I can describe it is to compare it to a psychiatric hospital (from the outside anyway). It was HUGE and just really crazy looking; however the inside was really nice, spacious rooms and really big bathrooms. Anyway, met up with Jean and we headed off to do the free walking tour (again with New Europe Tours – this was my 4th free walking tour with this company) which was really good! Our guide was actually American but he was a good speaker and knew a lot. We saw:
- the Bradenburger Tor (the really famous gates)
- the Holocaust memorial (about 2000 different shaped 3D cement rectangles – kind of hard to picture if you haven’t seen it – this was kind of neat because the architect left its meaning open to interpretation, there isn’t necessarily a right or wrong meaning)
- the place where Hitler’s underground bunker used to be (it’s now a parking lot!)
- part of the Berlin wall
- Checkpoint Charlie (this used to be the only point where you could cross between East and West Berlin, when the city was divided between Soviet/USA controlled territory)
- Humboldt University (from where a bunch of teachers and students burned all the library books written by Jews)
- also we had lunch at a little café called “Aroma” that made the BEST sandwiches – SO good!
That night we had dinner at a Mexican restaurant near our hostel and then walked to Alexanderplatz, a main square/shopping area and just had a look around. The next day we got up early to go to the Reichstag (the German parliament building). On top of the building (which has very classic architecture) there is a very modern glass dome. This was added to symbolize the transparency of the German government – below the dome is where the parliament sessions are held, so if the politicians look up they can “see” the people, and if the people look down they can “see” the politicians – kind of a cool idea! And you get a cool view of the city from the top of the dome. We had to wait in kind of a long line but it was totally worth it! After seeing the Reichstag, we went back to Aroma for another delicious sandwich, and then back to the Holocaust memorial to visit the museum that’s built underneath. It was really interesting and had lots of real letters written by Jewish people being deported to concentration camps. After that we went to an outdoor exhibit, “Topography of Terror”, which had very moving photos and details about the Nazi regime. That night we had a really good Italian dinner at a restaurant Jean had gone to when she was there the night before I arrived – we had the same waiter as she’d had the other night she’d gone and he remembered her very clearly… there was a parsley-heart on her plate when her food came out! Very funny. also made an idiot of myself because, since we were planning out going out that night, I’d bought a bottle of wine, which I assumed needed an to be opened with a wine bottle opener, and I didn’t have one with me. So, I brought it to the restaurant, thinking we could ask them to open it for us as we were leaving. Well, they did – but turns out it had been a twist off the whole time! Bit embarrassing. Anyways, later on went out – or, we attempted to! The club we had planned on going to didn’t let me in because you had to be 21 (apparently being 20 ½ isn’t good enough?) so we went somewhere else, but they turned out to have live music which is sooo not what we had in mind – anyway we didn’t stay there too long and headed back to the hostel shortly after. We didn’t do much the next day (which may or may not have been due to the amount of alcohol consumed the night before) but we did have a delicious Italian lunch at a little restaurant ATTACHED to the metro station by our hostel – not somewhere you’d expect to have a good meal but it was so good! We also ventured out to see the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, which was very impressive, and unique because the top of it had been bombed but it was never fully reconstructed. We had meant to go to a Vietnamese restaurant that night but since we’d had such a late lunch we weren’t hungry and decided to go to bed early and start up early the next day since we kind of wasted most of that day. So on our last day, we got up and headed out to the East Side Gallery, a section of the Berlin wall where artists from all over the world painted murals. This was probably my favorite thing I saw in Berlin, it was so cool! After that we headed over to the Hackescher Market area (not actually a market) which was a really area with good shopping. We had a REALLY yummy lunch of bagels with cream cheese and smoothies… I hadn’t had a bagel since I left home! This provoked a discussion between Jean and I about our frustration at the lack of “café” type food options in France, like to have pre-made goods or cold food, etc. So it was nice to be in Germany and be able to enjoy the kind of café-eating we like so much! After lunch we did a bit of shopping at H+M it was time for Jean to go. I still had a few hours until my flight and, since it was such a nice day (literally, gorgeous outside) I just walked around the city a bit, then headed to the airport (had to go through London again, but at least I didn’t have to sleep in the airport again!) Berlin definitely wasn’t what I’d been expecting – except for a few areas, it’s a relatively ugly city (due to the fact that it was under a repressive Soviet regime for so long) especially in comparison to all the beautiful European cities I’ve seen, but it grew on me as the weekend went on. The city, albeit urban and industrial, ends up being quite charming in its own unique way. It’s definitely funky and has a cool vibe. And Germany is a really refreshing change from France, which at times I find to be a bit too “stuck up” – I find more aspects of life to be more relaxed, from everything from people’s clothing attire to food options – but it’s still super cultured at the same time. Doesn’t hurt that it’s a million times cheaper than France as well! Anyways it was a really good weekend and so good to see Jean.
As for upcoming travel plans, we’ve got some good trips coming up over Easter break:
- Czech Republic (March 31 – April 6)
- Austria (April 7 – 9)
- Nice (April 10 – 11)
- Back in Aix (April 12 – 13)
- Morocco (April 14 – 20)
…WOOO!