Sorry to keep you hanging about my Berlin trip since my last blog, I started my class last week and I’m trying to adjust to the schedule and having homework after not being a student for almost three years. It’s quite the adjustment, but I’m handling it well!
As I mentioned before, I was surprised with a trip to Berlin. I had no idea that I was going until the day of when I was presented with an overnight Megabus ticket and would be leaving that night. I packed just a few simple things with me such as my camera and a toothbrush, but that was about it. I boarded the 10:00 PM bus and was due to arrive in Berlin about 10 hours later. I had taken the Megabus once in the U.K., but never an overnight bus — it was definitely an interesting experience for sleeping to say the least. The bus wasn’t very crowded, so I didn’t have to have someone next to me, but being a tall guy it was very difficult to find a comfortable position for sleeping. I was surprised that I was able to sleep at all, but you basically are waking up every 30 minutes to an hour because you’re sore from the position that you’re laying in or the bus makes a pit stop or arrives at one of the destinations along the way. It was kind of annoying that they made so many stops, because technically we coul have gotten to Berlin in about half the time. I think they must be required by law to stop, but not only that, they have to keep the doors open in case people leave. It wasn’t so much an issue on the way there, but on the way back it was very cold outside and there was nothing we could do about it. I got maybe 4 hours of sleep but felt pretty fine after grabbing a coffee to-go at the bus station in Berlin.
Immediately we started our tour since we had about 11.5 hours in Berlin before we had to once again take another overnight bus back to Munich. The first stop was the Olympic Arena in which Berlin hosted the games in the summer of 1936. You may remember that this is where African-American athlete Jesse Owens won four gold medals in the sprint and long jump events and became the most successful athlete to compete in Berlin, while Jewish and Roma people had been banned from competing for Germany.
From there we headed to Alexanderplatz, which is basically the center of Berlin. You’ll find here the tall TV tower, major transportation hub, outdoor markets, various nightlife, the world clock and more! I had a large, wonderful breakfast for fairly cheap and in a very nice setting. Berlin is known to be very inexpensive, so if you’re looking for somewhere cheap to travel to, I would recommend Berlin for that reason.
Now, I had been to Berlin once before during my backpacking trip, but I feel like we didn’t get to see very much — at least outside the very city center. Berlin is very spread out and has many great neighborhoods, all with their own unique flair and character. I regret that the first time around I didn’t make it to all those places, because visiting Berlin was towards the very end of the trip and my friends and I were pretty exhausted. Not only that, in Berlin it’s customary to go out very late at night and sleep in most of the day. Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans do — when in Berlin, do as the Berliners do. It’s like when I visited Spain and found myself eating dinner at midnight my first night, these cultural things just happen when you’re trying to experience the culture of a new place. So while my friends and I did a three/four hour walking tour of Berlin the first time around, there is so much to see and so many places to visit outside of the center, that I was very grateful to be able to experience Berlin a second time.
Next was to visit the Old Town of Berlin, which is obviously reconstructed but it gives you an idea of what Berlin used to look like. I guess it goes without saying that Berlin was essentially completely destroyed after WWII, so they had to start back from scratch and didn’t so much reconstruct things to their original form like they did in Munich. Everywhere you go you see new construction sites. The construction never ends in Berlin, especially because many major construction projects are starting to take longer than expected and are running out of money. But hey, why worry when Bavaria is basically paying for it 😉
After exploring much of the city center, including some sites that I had already seen before such as the German Bundestag (the parliament building), Brandenburg Tor, The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, and Potsdamer Platz, it was time to head into one of Berlin’s great neighborhoods!
First was to visit where the Currywurst was invented, Konnopke´s Imbiss in Prenzlauer Berg. Since I’m a vegetarian, I was still able to have the veganne curry which was DELICIOUS! Curry and ketchup also go very well together for the fries.
There were so many great looking restaurants, cafés, bars and little parks in Prenzlauer Berg. So many of them were stating that they were vegetarian/vegan restaurants or at least had an array of options. Berlin is probably the capital of vegetarians in Germany. Even though German food culture is defined primarily by meat, the latest that I have read is that 10% of Germans of vegetarian, and many more than that are also what I’d call part-time vegetarians. Since meat is the greatest contributor to global warning and Germans being so energy conscious, many people are mindful of how much meat they are eating and make sure that they have a balanced diet. It’s also the new hipster thing to do, so you can imagine that Berliners are all over that. It was really nice to walk through the streets of this neighborhood and see the unique style of buildings. You can tell that the area is getting more and more gentrified. People especially from the Swabian region of southern Germany are moving to this area and the rent prices are going up. Berliners really are not fond of the Swabians because of this but if Berlin didn’t already have enough problems with people from the south.
From there we ventured to Charlottenburg where we finally rested after hours of walking to enjoy a glass of beer of Berlin — a green beer nonetheless! Berlin really is not known for beer, but it still beats American beer by far. It was a very nice street café and even had a little dose of Berlin street life when a group of alternative looking girls started doing this interpretive dance and singing in order to spread awareness about something happening in South America and rasing money for the cause, I wasn’t too sure what their message was, but it sort of reminded me of something that you’d see in NYC and definitely shows how Berliners are always cultivating their art.
Afterwards there was a little Pride street festival going on and walked through a little bit. I love how German cities are always providing so many festivals and things to do, especially on the weekends. It got very crowded so we ventured back to the center of town and met up with Martin’s friend from London who is living in Berlin. We found one of the most noteworthy cafés for some coffee and cake, and it was still very reasonably priced for being a little more upscale and where it was located — still cheaper than Munich standards. His friend mentioned that you can get long drinks in Berlin for about 4-5 euros, where in Munich they’d be more likely to be 8-12 euros depending on where you’re going. Once again, Berlin is the best place for cheap food and drink! After great conversation and finally stopping for some pizza, it was time to venture back to the bus station to head back to Munich. After another 10+ hour overnight trip to Munich, we arrived at about 6:30 AM and went back home to crash. It was so nice to have a real bed and I snuggled up like none other after a very cold bus ride. Little did I know that I’d be doing the same thing again the next weekend when venturing on yet another surprise trip to Cologne.
All-in-all, I had a great time in Berlin and I was honestly shocked at how well I handled the little sleep the nigh before. We essentially walked around all day and saw as much as possible. I saw many more things than I originally had my first trip to Berlin, but I also got a lot more insight to the culture and flair of Berlin. Berlin is very large and spread out, and has some of the best museums in the world, but you do sort of miss out on the traditional flair of Munich. Berlin also has the complicated history with the communism regime of East Germany and the saga of the Berlin Wall, so many of the buildings were built during the soviet era and aren’t exactly as nice as they could be, but most of the neighborhoods have wonderful, colorful buildings, very large and green side walks, and graffiti and street art everywhere around you. Berlin truly embraces artists from all walks of life, even if those people aren’t necessarily working professionally as artists. You don’t have to have a paycheck or a contract to be an artist. Berlin s definitely defined by going out late and staying out late, with most people not coming home well until the sun has already come up. Don’t you dare thing about going out in Berlin before 11PM, but 1AM is probably the better choice. There are even some 24-hour weekend clubs. Most famous is Berghain where it opens on Friday night and closes on Monday morning without closing at all during that time-period. Some people are even known to stay in there for the entire weekend without leaving. This party lifestyle developed originally during the golden age at the turn of the century and into the 20’s, but it truly evolved to the way it is now in the modern club era from when the Berlin Wall was up. I had talked to a woman from Berlin a few years back and she explained to me how basically the club scene developed because there wasn’t much else to do in East Germany except party, and party all night. Berlin is home to some of the top rated clubs in the world, and their bars are known to be small and smokey. This definitely isn’t for everyone, but it’s fun to experience a little glimpse of it.
If you want to try somewhere new, I would definitely recommend Berlin, even if you aren’t into the party scene. The Museum Island is a World Heritage Site, and one of the museums contains a wall from the era of King Nebuchadnezzar II of Babylon constructed in 575 B.C. As I mentioned, Berlin is very inexpensive and won’t break your bank. There is also really great Turkish food everywhere due to the high population of Turks that live there, they even speak their own dialect of German! You can even have a pee at one of the city’s many street Pissoirs, convientantly located for those times you’re walking around and suddenly need the toilet — something that NYC desperately needs! Venture through the various neighborhoods, parks and even score some great finds at the many second-hand stores scattered around. If you do want to party, then Berlin is the capital of Europe when it comes to that — just make sure you give yourself some time to see some sights instead of sleeping all day. I had a great 11.5 hours in Berlin and still want to come back soon because there is still yet so much to see.
I am a speck of dust...the world was created for me. 