The REAL Berlin

During the summer months I naïvely decided that, for the February break, I would do nothing in order to save money. I figured, this will be easy – everywhere is cold and/or rainy and/or snowy in February (see Lisbon post from last February’s “vacation”), so I will take this time to catch up on some reading and just enjoy some relaxation. Then November rolled around. Just how, may I ask, is one supposed to say no to a variety of intriguing holiday plans offered by an assortment of her lovely friends? This is, of course, a rhetorical question.

I suddenly had some serious choices to make: Sarah and Kari were off to Turkey, Munich, and Poland, and Britny and Laura were heading to Berlin with Britny’s cousin who was coming from Canada. Both trips sounded fantastic to me but I had to think economically, since my original plan was to do nothing, and considering Sarah and Kari’s trip was a week long with several flights involved, I opted for the three-day trip to Berlin so I would save money. I had been to Munich in the summer and really enjoyed it (especially the food) and I had heard great things about Berlin from several people, so I thought, why not explore another part of Germany? Yes, another rhetorical question.

Our flight left for Berlin very early on the Monday morning of our holiday. It was nice having the weekend beforehand to organize and relax before the trip; I have never before had that time, always leaving for my trips right away and not returning until the day before work begins again.

We arrived in Berlin at about 10am and, though it took us a while to figure how on earth to get to our hostel, we managed with the help of a lovely German lady who spoke fluent English and was happy to show us the way.

Although we were pretty tired, arriving so early was a great idea; we had the whole day to explore Berlin and thought it best to start off with the free walking tour so we could get our bearings. Before we left our hostel, though (which, by the way, was actually one of the best hostels I’ve ever stayed in – I totally recommend BaxPax if you’re ever in Berlin), we bundled up in about three layers of clothing in a failed attempt to keep warm in the -10 degree weather. I know that doesn’t sound too bad to all you Canadians reading this, but it was incredibly windy as well which made it worse; plus, living in England for a year and a half has definitely lowered my tolerance for cold weather.

We met the tour at Brandenburg Gate, a former city gate in West Berlin (and the only remaining gate of a series through which Berlin was once entered), and got a chai latte (the first of many) to warm us up while we waited for the tour to begin. Our tour guide’s name was Leo and he was very enthusiastic, engaging and informative about the history of Berlin. The first thing he pointed out to us was the hotel opposite the meeting point; the very hotel in which Michael Jackson held his baby off the balcony. The oohs, aahs, and gasps from everyone in the tour as we hurriedly got our cameras to snap photos of the infamous hotel were enough to get a laugh from Leo; apparently this hotel gets one of the best reactions of the entire tour.

Leo then took us to the Holocaust Memorial (Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe), an enormous site complete with 2,711 concrete slabs of different sizes. The architect, Peter Eisenman, designed the slabs to create a feeling of unease and confusion; an atmosphere that represents a "supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason." Nearby the memorial site was the location of Hitler’s bunker which is currently fifteen feet underground a parking lot.

Next up was the Berlin Wall, or what’s left of it, which is pretty much nothing. I have to admit, I was expecting something much bigger and more exciting, more along the lines of the Great Wall of China or something. It was still really interesting though; I knew next to nothing about the separation of Berlin so I was intrigued to hear the history behind it. I also had no idea the wall came down so recently; the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the subsequent reunification of Germany, happened only twenty two years ago.

Next up were Checkpoint Charlie, the crossing point between West and East Berlin; Gendarmenmarkt, the location of a concert hall and a couple cathedrals, one French, one German; Bebelplatz, a public square which is home to Hombolt University and a Memorial to all the book burnings during the war (an underground room with a window on the ground looking down at a load of empty bookshelves); and Museum Island, a vast area that houses six different museums. The tour ended here and, shivering and tired, we made our way back to our hostel to warm up before dinner.

That night we went to a Russian restaurant; although the service was poor the food (and more importantly the wine) was good; Laura and I shared a Russian platter as a starter which was really tasty, although I have no idea what any of the food was or is called, and I had Russian dumplings as my main course. We headed back to the hostel afterwards as it was late and we (me especially) were exhausted and needed to recharge our batteries for day two. It was on our walk home that we noticed all (or most) of the street names end in a word that closely resembles ‘burger.’ “Eureka!” we thought: a simple way for us to recognize and remember where we are going and how to get back. Every street thereafter became something-burger. There was Orangeburger, Turkeyburger, Dickburger, Tofuburger…the list goes on and on. It sounds ridiculous but it made us laugh, and at least we now knew where we were going!

We began our second day in Berlin with a delicious and plentiful breakfast at our hostel and started off towards Alexanderplatz, one of the busiest squares in Berlin, stopping for a photo shoot in front of the Bode Museum on the other side of Museum Island, and a chai latte, of course.

We attempted to do some shopping but couldn’t really find anything worth spending our money on. One thing we really wanted to do was go to the top of the dome at Reichstag. When in the dome you can look down through the glass floor and see all the politicians hard at work. It also offers the best view in Berlin. Unfortunately, however, this house of German parliament has been under terrorist threats so the tours were very limited and you had to book in advance.

We decided to make our way there to see if we could go up, and by this point we were freezing cold and a little bored. Time for some entertainment, we thought, and thus began our REAL Berlin tour; a tour directed by yours truly and friends, complete with utterly ridiculous and one-hundred percent true (*cough cough*) historical facts about Berlin. There was the Fountain of Whatever You Want; the Java Pit that was once a corn field, that was once a drug plantation but was destroyed by bombs during the war; the Bowl of Knowledge; the Frame of Famous Faces (we obviously took our picture in this); and, the final stop at the Reichstag, the Politician’s Shards of Torture. By this point we were in much better spirits, and although the dome was closed when we got there so we couldn’t go in, we wandered back to our hostel, stopping for wine and snacks on the way, and had a little warm up in our room before dinner.

For dinner that evening we chose a random pub called Gambrinus not too far from our hostel which ended up being one of the best decisions we made the entire trip. If you are ever in Berlin you must eat here! The food was absolutely to die for! Now, I realize I write this for nearly every country I visit, but honestly, we were so excited about the food that I’m sure the waitress must have thought we hadn’t eaten in days. Britny had this superb sausage stew; Laura this amazing spaghetti dish with some kind of sweet-tasting meat; Melanie a German sausage with roasted potatoes and sauerkraut; and myself, an orgasmic mound of mashed potatoes topped with either lamb or pork (this was great debate among friends that evening) and a delicious gravy. The portions were huge, and the meals even came with starter salads. I’m telling you, traditional German food is unbelievably good.

We left that pub with huge smiles on our faces and ready to drink!  Oscar Wilde pub was our next stop. Jager-bombs all around, except for me since Red Bull tends to make me ill (vodka it was!), and shortly thereafter I was pleasantly intoxicated and, yet again, ready for bed.

The next day Britny, Laura and I took a day trip to Potsdam, the capital city of Brandenburg, which is about an hour and a half on the train outside of Berlin. Melanie couldn’t make it as she was too hung over from the night before (she and Laura went out until about 3am), so it was just the three of us. Potsdam, also known as The City of Emperors (as well as for the location of the Potsdam conference) was the residence of the Prussian kings until the early 1900s and so has lots of beautiful palaces all around it. It is a really cute town decorated with several parks (most notably Sanssouci World Heritage Site) and would be absolutely beautiful in the spring and summer months when everything is green and colourful instead of grey and dull.

We met up with Melanie at the hostel that evening and had dinner at an Italian restaurant which was also fantastic (although the pizza is better in Italy). I did some reading that night and went to bed early as we had another early morning flight and had to wake up at 4am.
I am really glad that I decided to abandon my no-trip-in-February idea; I had a great time despite the cold, and spent just shy of £300.00 - not bad if I do say so myself!