Ahh Berlin. Lovely Berlin. Visiting you in 2010 would have been ace, but for Captain Bastard and the Lost Passport.
However, visiting Berlin in 2013 as a footloose and fancy-free twenty-something was even better. I completely fell for the city. The art, architecture, food, general friendliness of the people and the lovely, lovely U-Bahn system. All of it.
So much so that I basically lost my mind on the first day and tried to see EVERYTHING because it was all there and OMG I was finally in Berlin. The place is dangerous, you can have instant Tourist-Meltdown if you're not careful!
Anyway, getting ahead of myself. After leaving Cassia's, I got a lovely quick train to Berlin, found the appropriate U-Bahn line, and then managed to not understand Berlin's house numbering system and managed to walk half a mile in the wrong direction, then back in the search for my hostel. The hostel is literally feet from the ruddy stop, but I managed to miss it. Whatever, I found it in the end. The place was the Baxpax Kreuzberg and I would definitely recommend it. Clean, reasonably quiet, good transport links and the area itself is up-and-coming without being horribly expensive or gentrified. Lovely place.
In the space of the first couple of hours (after having lunch, of course) I managed to visit the Tiergarten, Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Gate.
Tiny paper boats in a pond with large sculptures. This may have been when I was temporarily misplaced.
The Holocaust Memorial is an incredible place. I'm not usually taken with modern sculpture, especially when it's so brutalist, but this is different to anything else I've seen. I think a lot of it had to do with the people visiting. Some folk were wandering quietly, some were moved to tears, but wee kids were also running around playing hide and seek. All of the reactions seemed appropriate, in my opinion. It is a place of memorial, but also a place to reflect on the strides that we've made as a species since the horrors of the war. You may disagree.
After a lot of walking (it was sunny and clear, as with most of my holiday, so ideal weather), I decided to take the weight off my feet and go to the pictures. Cassia had given me a wee free voucher for a cinema chain that had just closed in Hamburg that was running out that night, so I went to see The World's End at last. I don't have anything to say about dinner, because I simply gorged myself on popcorn. The joys of going to the pictures solo!
Another lovely day in Berlin started off with what was supposed to be yoghurt and museli, but turned out to be something called Quark. Which was actually very nice, but it meant that what I actually had for breakfast was vanilla custard and yoghurt...
After that, I wandered off in the direction of the Museum Island, which is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a beautiful collection of buildings, and is truly lovely for a simple walk. I decided to pop into the Berliner Dom for a nosy, which is Berlin's Protestant cathedral. It's gorgeous inside, and contains some amazing wee models of the original designs for the place.
Your ticket includes a tour of the whole building, including around the dome and the basement crypt! So in an amazing triple whammy, I dealt with a fear of heights, spiral/wobbly stairs and creepy crypts. Bam!
The view from the top is astonishing. The weather was crystal clear and I could see all the way across the city, definitely worth the adrenaline coursing through my veins after the vertiginous climb up there. I'm not ashamed to admit I was a bit wobbly when I got down.
And grew...
And grew until I had a wee posse of the things all around me. It got to the stage where they were taking the bits out of my hands, gallus wee creatures!
Berlin's Reichstag is definitely worth a look. It's free to visit, but you need to book in advance on the Bundestag website, which is actually pretty cool. You get your name down on a list that they tick off at an official booth after your bags are checked and hairbrushes examined. Turns out my hairbrush has a bunch of metal in it, who knew?
Anyway, the place is very, very Norman Foster. Lots of glass and shiny metal, and the whole thing is pretty fantastic.
I walked over to the Topography of Terror, which was a difficult place to go. There's a timeline of the Nazi atrocities in an outdoor gallery, and inside there are photos and documents from the various places the Nazi's took over. It's not somewhere to take a wee stroll through, and I did find myself in tears at a few points.
After that I walked down to Checkpoint Charlie, and took the long, long way home via a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant. The food was amazing and I genuinely had to ask the waitress if the bill was correct, because a drink and two courses came to less than €9.
After all the walking and food, it was probably bedtime, but I was talked into going for a couple of pints at a local punk bar which had this glorious pinball machine in the corner!
Seeing this was a definite highlight. I'm not ashamed to say I left nose-prints on the glass. This is one of the most complete specimens of Archaeopteryx to be found, and it was like being stared at by evolution.
However, visiting Berlin in 2013 as a footloose and fancy-free twenty-something was even better. I completely fell for the city. The art, architecture, food, general friendliness of the people and the lovely, lovely U-Bahn system. All of it.
So much so that I basically lost my mind on the first day and tried to see EVERYTHING because it was all there and OMG I was finally in Berlin. The place is dangerous, you can have instant Tourist-Meltdown if you're not careful!
Anyway, getting ahead of myself. After leaving Cassia's, I got a lovely quick train to Berlin, found the appropriate U-Bahn line, and then managed to not understand Berlin's house numbering system and managed to walk half a mile in the wrong direction, then back in the search for my hostel. The hostel is literally feet from the ruddy stop, but I managed to miss it. Whatever, I found it in the end. The place was the Baxpax Kreuzberg and I would definitely recommend it. Clean, reasonably quiet, good transport links and the area itself is up-and-coming without being horribly expensive or gentrified. Lovely place.
In the space of the first couple of hours (after having lunch, of course) I managed to visit the Tiergarten, Holocaust Memorial and Brandenburg Gate.
Tiny paper boats in a pond with large sculptures. This may have been when I was temporarily misplaced.
The Holocaust Memorial is an incredible place. I'm not usually taken with modern sculpture, especially when it's so brutalist, but this is different to anything else I've seen. I think a lot of it had to do with the people visiting. Some folk were wandering quietly, some were moved to tears, but wee kids were also running around playing hide and seek. All of the reactions seemed appropriate, in my opinion. It is a place of memorial, but also a place to reflect on the strides that we've made as a species since the horrors of the war. You may disagree.
After a lot of walking (it was sunny and clear, as with most of my holiday, so ideal weather), I decided to take the weight off my feet and go to the pictures. Cassia had given me a wee free voucher for a cinema chain that had just closed in Hamburg that was running out that night, so I went to see The World's End at last. I don't have anything to say about dinner, because I simply gorged myself on popcorn. The joys of going to the pictures solo!
Another lovely day in Berlin started off with what was supposed to be yoghurt and museli, but turned out to be something called Quark. Which was actually very nice, but it meant that what I actually had for breakfast was vanilla custard and yoghurt...
After that, I wandered off in the direction of the Museum Island, which is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a beautiful collection of buildings, and is truly lovely for a simple walk. I decided to pop into the Berliner Dom for a nosy, which is Berlin's Protestant cathedral. It's gorgeous inside, and contains some amazing wee models of the original designs for the place.
Your ticket includes a tour of the whole building, including around the dome and the basement crypt! So in an amazing triple whammy, I dealt with a fear of heights, spiral/wobbly stairs and creepy crypts. Bam!
The view from the top is astonishing. The weather was crystal clear and I could see all the way across the city, definitely worth the adrenaline coursing through my veins after the vertiginous climb up there. I'm not ashamed to admit I was a bit wobbly when I got down.
I briefly turned into the Bird Whisperer after sitting down to eat my elevenses. These wee sparrows (?) took a liking to the crumbs I dropped and gradually their numbers grew...
And grew...
And grew until I had a wee posse of the things all around me. It got to the stage where they were taking the bits out of my hands, gallus wee creatures!
Berlin's Reichstag is definitely worth a look. It's free to visit, but you need to book in advance on the Bundestag website, which is actually pretty cool. You get your name down on a list that they tick off at an official booth after your bags are checked and hairbrushes examined. Turns out my hairbrush has a bunch of metal in it, who knew?
Anyway, the place is very, very Norman Foster. Lots of glass and shiny metal, and the whole thing is pretty fantastic.
I walked over to the Topography of Terror, which was a difficult place to go. There's a timeline of the Nazi atrocities in an outdoor gallery, and inside there are photos and documents from the various places the Nazi's took over. It's not somewhere to take a wee stroll through, and I did find myself in tears at a few points.
After that I walked down to Checkpoint Charlie, and took the long, long way home via a fantastic Vietnamese restaurant. The food was amazing and I genuinely had to ask the waitress if the bill was correct, because a drink and two courses came to less than €9.
After all the walking and food, it was probably bedtime, but I was talked into going for a couple of pints at a local punk bar which had this glorious pinball machine in the corner!
As if all of that wasn't enough, I still had another two days in Berlin, so Wednesday was a wee bit more slowly paced. I started off in the amazing and very hip Salon Schmuck for some brekkie, and a much needed cup of tea, which was described as "very Englis" on the menu and showed up as PG Tips in a Bailey's hot chocolate cup with no milk. Very Englis, I don't think.
A lot has been made of the East Side Gallery, one of the few areas with a huge,still intact, stretch of the Wall. It was very interesting to see, but felt oddly Disney-fied, which was a shame. There were places to get your passport stamped and the like, which wasn't exactly authentic! But still, it was a glorious day (again!) and the walk along the Spree turned up lots of interesting sights.
I was very much looking forward to seeing the Jewish Museum, as it's a faith and history that, aside from the history of intolerance against them, I don't know much about. Sadly I didn't get to see much of it due to a wildly disorganised fire alarm and a lot of standing about in the cold. By the time we were able to go back in, I was in a bit of a dreadful mood and wasn't sure how many more atrocities I could take. So I took the decision to head up to the Museum of Natural History to look at the dinosaurs, because I'm an adult and can be as childish as I want.
Seeing this was a definite highlight. I'm not ashamed to say I left nose-prints on the glass. This is one of the most complete specimens of Archaeopteryx to be found, and it was like being stared at by evolution.
Some of the folk at the hostel had pre-arranged to head out for a few drinks and a boogie, so I went to a different Vietnamese place for an enormous bowl of soup and dumplings, then we headed to the punk bar, and then off to a seedy but very, very fun little bar in Kreuzberg where we made a very international little group. We had a Scot, an Irish chap, a Canadian-Irish guy, a girl from the Basque country, a chap from San Francisco and a dude from the Galapagos. The GALAPAGOS! I didn't even realise people could be from there.
Lots of good chat and silliness and dancing to Motown happened, then we piled back to the hostel for falafel, more beer and then some folk decided to carry on the evening. I decided to go to bed!
After the fun of the night before I had a lovely long lie-in. It was much, much needed! Breakfast at Schmuck again, then I used the guidebook to see a lot of Old Berlin, had lunch at Hacksher Markt and generally dossed about. It genuinely was exactly what I needed, and sitting in the sunshine on the steps of various grand buildings was a wonderful way to enjoy the city.
Yes, I had more Vietnamese food for dinner, but given how cold it was, something laced with lots of chilli was exactly what I needed! One more drink at the punk bar rounded off my time in Berlin, because on Friday I had an early, early train to Prague to catch and a Mindy to meet up with. More on that, I dunno, sometime in the future!
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