Berlin | Little Swan, Big World

I got to return to my favorite country thus far!! It must be that inner (very very miniscule portion) of German in me. This weekend marked my first overnight train. It wasn’t terrible… Unfortunately, I made my reservation too late and had to sleep in a reclined chair instead of a couchette, what the French call sleeper cabins. This made for not a very restful night, but it was at least better than sleeping on a real train.

What the seats look like… they recline at least 45º backwards

We arrived in Berlin at around 7:00 am… very early! My friend from my program, Renata is German and previously did a summer program in Berlin. We met up with her friend at the train station and then headed to our airbnb for the weekend.

(Side note: airbnb.com is a great tool to use to find a place to stay. Locals open up their home to you for varying prices. These tend to be cleaner, nicer, more central and sometimes even cheaper than hostels. Furthermore, you can really feel like you’re living in that place for a couple of days.)

We really lucked out with our airbnb this time. We were staying in the top floor of the apartment building really close to all of the sites.

Beautiful views from our airbnb

Another view where you can see the top of the Berliner Dom Cathedral

After quickly dropping off our bags, we headed out to eat the most amazing German breakfast. We walked through the Tiergarten Park to a little restaurant situated along the river. Our delicious breakfast consisted of chai tea lattes, cheeses, cold cuts, quark (German yogurt), assorted fruit, breads, assorted jams, hard boiled eggs and many other delicious things I’m forgetting. It was the perfect meal after a long overnight train.

Breakfast heaven ❤

After breakfast, we headed to Museum Island to check out some of the museums and sites. We saw the Berliner Dom and went the the DDR Museum. The DDR museum is an interactive museum showing what daily life was like in communist East Germany. It was pretty cool but smaller than I thought it would be. However, I didn’t know very much about the history of East Germany, so I learned a lot in this museum.

Berliner Dom

“Driving” the car inside the DDR Museum

After a long day, we had delicious Ramen for dinner and then went on the Alternative pub crawl in Berlin. This involved going to strange, different bars throughout the city. We started at a hippie bar and then went to a goth bar, absinthe bar, rock music club and then finally a club in the basement of a furniture store. It was definitely different to say the least… not entirely my cup of tea but it was still fun.

To start of the next day we went to the KaDeVe for some scrumptious food. There is a gourmet food court in this giant department store where you can try lots of yummy German food. I obviously had some Bratwurst and delicious crepes for desert. on a free walking tour throughout Berlin. Free walking tours are a great way for people with a budget to be able to see a city and learn about it’s history. We started at the Brandenburger Tor and visited many other sites throughout Berlin.

Brandenburger Tor

We went to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This was a very interesting site with many different interpretations of its meaning, as our guide told us. At first glance it looks like a lot of coffins of similar height. However, the ground that these coffins stand on is actually very hilly and all of the “coffins” are different heights. These “coffins” vary between around 8″ and 15’9″. Other interpretations are that the dazed and confused feeling you experience in the depth of the memorial is representative of the illusion of order and the confusion felt by the Jewish people during this time. Others claim that it is representative of the Old Jewish Cemetery in Prague. This was the only place that Jewish people were able to be buried during the Holocaust, and this cemetery quickly ran out of space. Thus, Jewish people were forced to be buried on top of one another with the headstones declaring all the names of the people in that space.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

Me in the memorial

After this, we went to the site of Hitler’s bunker. This is a very different picture. It is simply an apartment building and parking lot. In fact, our tour guide showed us where Hitler’s body was burned by pointing to a “P” parking sign. For a while, there was no sign marking the site because the German government didn’t want this to become a memorial or shrine to Hitler. However, before the FIFA tournament in 2006, they finally decided to add an information panel to the site.

We then visited Luftwaffe HQ, which is the only Nazi building to survive the bombings for unknown reasons. Today, it houses the German Federal Ministry of Finance aka the tax building. Very close to that building is part of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. Finally, we visited Checkpoint Charlie, which actually has nothing to do with anyone named Charlie. It is simply Checkpoint C or the third Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin during the Cold War. A picture of an American soldier marks the spot because American soldiers guarded this gate. There are many funny stories of things that people did to sneak through this gate.

Section of the Berlin Wall

After the walking tour, we headed to the East Side Gallery. This is the most famous section of the Berlin Wall that is still standing. Many artists were commissioned to paint images of change, hope and freedom. It is really very beautiful. However, there is lots of vandalism and graffiti all over the wall, which makes me very upset. These artists were selected to paint beautiful images that other lesser artists decided to deface. Most importantly, I am amazed by the fact that the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred only 25 years ago. That was almost in my lifetime. A period of so much inequality and lack of freedom was in my parents lifetime, and almost mine. In fact, the 25th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall occurred while I was in Europe. (Funny story, German trains were supposed to be on strike that weekend, but decided to call it off the days surrounding this anniversary.)

Most famous part of the East Side Gallery

Me with a section of the gallery

Graffiti on the wall 😦

After a long day, my friend Nathan and I had delicious Wienerschnitzel and Berliner Weisse for dinner. Weinerschnitzel is delicious deep fried veal and the Berliner Weisse is beer that is sweetened with red raspberry syrup. This was originally founded by the French when they invaded Germany because they didn’t like the bitter taste of beer.

Wienerschnitzel and Berliner Weisse

To end an amazing weekend in Berlin, we partied the night away at the Berghain. Berlin is the capital of techno mysic and now has some of the coolest clubs in the world. The Berghain is the most infamous of all clubs in Berlin. It is housed in an old power plant. People wait in line for 3 hours or more to get in to this club and do tons of research about how to get in. The very scary bouncer, Sven decides who gets in and who goes based on how cool you look or how much you fit their vibe. One of my favorite articles about how to get in is this one http://www.ota-berlin.de/blog/10/18/clubbing-berlin-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98berghain%E2%80%99-door-policy-how-to-get-in-%E2%80%93-%E2%80%98ota-berlin-constituency-blog%E2%80%99-contributor-evo-lucien-tells-you-how/ Basically, there are no rules about how you get in. Sven just decides your fate. Rumor has it, Brittany Spears was denied access to this club. My friend Nathan and I decided to give it a shot early on in the night and then go somewhere else in the probable occurrence that we wouldn’t get in. We waited in line for about an hour and watched Sven shake his head and nod his head to all different sorts of people. Let’s just say there were a lot more shakes than nods. We finally got to the front of the line and waited back our turn. The bouncer asked us how many we were and we responded in German “Wir sind zwie (We are two)”. They want mainly German natives in their club as opposed to tourists. We then waited for what seemed like eternity (probably 30 seconds) while Sven was deciding whether or not to let us in. We kept our mouths shut and stayed quiet. He then nodded is head!!!!! Nathan and I were freaking out, but we couldn’t freak out yet. If you do that, you can get kicked out before you make it all the way in. We went through security and they put stickers over our phone cameras so we couldn’t take and pictures. We then danced the night away… well until 4:30 am when we made the sad decision to go home. We wanted to stay later because it was starting to get really fun, but decided to be responsibly because of an early train in the morning.