Germany In the Berlink of an Eye

 Berlin, Germany

After coming from Scandanavia, Berlin was our savior. We arrived in the city, knowing no German and without plans or accommodation. But within a half hour, we’d found a hostel, had our first taste of Berlin food, and we were navigating the S-Bahn to downtown.

The food was delicious. We don’t know if it was the relief of finally being able to afford true portions, or if it was truly good. Berlin has its own culinary specialty, currywurst, which is basically a sliced fried hot dog doused in tons of ketchup and curry powder. It’s at least 3 times more delicious than it sounds. We scarfed down two at the airport before moving on to EastSeven, our favorite hostel of our trip. It sold half liter bottles of good German beer for only a euro, and most restaurant’s draughts were only marginally more. They also had free (tips for the chef) dinner twice a week!

We took some time to gather our thoughts our first day in Berlin and waited till the next morning to take in the sights. It was surprising to realize how little we knew about the city besides it being in Germany. We did the tourist thing and took a free walking tour with Brewer’s Berlin, which was far better than the New Europe tours that are in every city. We did learn that most “free tour” guides actually have to pay about 3euro per head that goes on their tour, so if you tip them less than that they’re actually losing money on you.

Art at the East Side Gallery on the Berlin Wall

Being in Berlin is kind of a unique experience because it’s a city with a long and complex history and hardly any architecture to show for it because of Hitler’s reconstruction under the Nazi party and World War II’s toll on the city to get rid of the party.

Their original palace is completely gone because of bombs, but they have done an excellent job of restoring other buildings and monuments on the old main street, Unter den Linden (meaning under the linden trees….Hitler had all of the 200 year old linden trees removed and replaced with flag poles when he came into power, but the trees are back). We saw Humbolt University and of course, the Brandenburg Gate. Plus a fine view of the hotel where Michael Jackson held Blanket out the window. The parliament building on the other side of the Brandenburg Gate was one of the best sights.

The tourism generated from such a sad history is somewhat perplexing. Nearly every sight is linked in some way to war. A lot of the monuments are deeply depressing, but many of the attractions aim to be fun. You can buy postcards with actual pieces of the Berlin Wall. At Checkpoint Charlie, the former entrance to East Berlin during US Occupation, you can take a photo with a German guy pretending to be a US Soldier for just a couple Euro.

Today the city feels über-modern and friendlier and than we had heard it described. Portions of where the Berlin Wall used to stand has now been filled in with extremely expensive shopping districts. Many of the open areas created from the war and the wall has allowed a lot of really beautiful memorials and new buildings to be constructed.

We followed the college backpacker’s route one night and signed up for a pub crawl across the city. We visited a couple interesting themed bars, an underground ping-pong club (everyone in the room grabs a paddle and rotates around a table until only two people are left), and ended in a night club which was an old bombed-out U-Bahn station. Our time in Berlin felt like it was constantly reminding us of its past.

We had just started warming up to Berlin when we had to move on because of how much we’d save by leaving a day early.

Best eats:

Currywurst at the airport: Our very first meal turned out to be one of our best at a small kitschy diner immediately outside the airport exit. A currywurst, a Berliner Lager and some fries for under $5. Deal.

Fassbender and Rauche Chocolatier: http://www.fassbender-rausch.de/ This chocolate shop has replicas of famous German landmarks, the titanic, Elvis, farm animals, amongst other things made to scale completely out of chocolate. Our lackluster pasta was nicely complemented by a mocha, a hot chocolate and a delicious tiramisu.

Russian “Blitze”: A 1920s-era Russian restaurant

Best times:

We happened to find an old bar outside the city's center. We sang oldies with the bar tender and the locals, they all didn't know the words. We laughed and danced until they closed at 9.

Leaving to go to a night club 45 minutes away at 1 in the morning and leaving when they closed at 2:30…after the U-Bahn entrance had shut down, and then navigating our way back to our hostel.

Best Sights:

The Parliament Building. Using the shell of the original building (badly damaged in the war), the building has a modern addition of a large glass dome.
You can see the whole city from inside, as well as down into the actual government rooms. The idea is that their government is now totally transparent. It’s very cool.

Memorial of the Murdered Jews of Europe: Obviously a very heavy sight, but definitely a must-see. The abstract memorial takes up a city block and is gripping at all hours of the day, and the museum underneath is very

Best Tips:

Parliament Building Reservations – It must be a recent thing because no tourbooks mention it, but you need to go online and get a reservation to go up into the dome of the Parliament Building. We tried once we arrived but they were booked for at least three days, so get it ahead of time!