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Published: December 25th 2007
Berliner Dom & TV Tower By Night
Berlin: A unique city with eventful past and an exciting future.The first time I was in Berlin last year for the football World Cup, I had to say that I wasn't that impressed. The city seemed too big, we didn't seem to have the best time there, and it seemed to lack the party atmosphere present at all the other World Cup host cities.
I didn't really spend quality time there though - it was mainly just a stop to watch football matches. Therefore this time, with four days up my sleeve here, I was determined to see the city properly and find out why it is regarded as one of the most fascinating cities in the world.
Back in Prague, we made full use of our generous check out time of 11am, before heading to the main train station to catch our train to Berlin. We couldn't find our platform however, and we then discovered that we were at the wrong train station and that we needed to be at Holesovice Train Station, a short(ish) metro ride away.
Our train was quite severely delayed, so in the meantime I had to get rid of 100CZK (roughly 4.50€), since it would be of more value here than in Germany. From
Brandenburg Gate
The Hoff once sang a concert in front of Berlin's most famous landmark. a small newstand, I managed to buy a hot dog, a sandwich, one litre of lemonade, four chocolate bars and a tube of Mentos. I had to keep adding stuff to my order in order to spend all the money! Gotta love the value in the Czech Republic.
Apart from the beautiful autumn countryside of the Czech Republic, the train ride was rather uneventful and before we knew it we had arrived in Berlin some four hours later.
The first thing to catch our attention was a HUGE hanging billboard inside the main train station, of who else but Dan Carter. It was really weird, as Germans don't play rugby, yet here was the best player in the game in all his glory flaunting nothing but a pair of white Jockeys.
We then took Berlin's magnificent U-Bahn system to the hostel that we had made an unconfirmed reservation at.
East 7 was funkily set up, with a real 70s-retro feel to it, and a chilled, laid-back vibe.
Unfortunately there wasn't a reservation for us, and we were turned away!
Fortunately though, the staff at East 7 were kind enough to reserve two beds at the Heart Of Gold Hostel
The Wall
Preserved part of the Berlin Wall in front of the Topography Of Terror near Checkpoint Charlie. for us.
Conveniently located in the main nightlife area of Oranienburger Tor, Heart Of Gold hostel was nice and new and had it's own bar. But having one toilet and one shower for an entire floor of males was poor planning once again.
Berlin is a unique and lively city, and there is certainly a lot to see and do.
Set against the backdrop of the wall and the two world wars, Berlin has a unique edge to it unlike anywhere else. A refreshingly progressive and cultured city, you get the feeling that Berlin is still a young place, trying to develop and establish itself - and with fascinating results.
Berlin has flowered beautifully into one of the most accepting, multicultural and forward-thinking cities in the world - a far cry from it's grim, oppressive past.
Not wasting anytime, once we had checked in to the hostel, we went straight out to the Jewish Museum.
With it's daring and jagged architecture, the museum chronicles the contributions and history of German Jews. Inside also, are large and respectfully silent areas of empty space which poignantly commemorate the horrors of the Holocaust.
Of particular interest, is The Holocaust Tower, a
"Fallen Leaves"
Exhibit inside the Jewish Museum symbolsing the pain and anguish suffered by the Jews in World War II. tall, empty room from which the only light inside is from a small gap at the top. There is also a room full of opened-mouthed faces carved from iron, which are scattered across the floor in a similarly dim room, eerily evoking the painful memories of the suffering of the Jews in the past. The chronological exhibits on the history of Jews was also very interesting.
It was a bit late for us to check out the nearby overcrowded Checkpoint Charlie museum, so we grabbed some very cheap Thai across the road from it - which brings me to my next topic.
Berlin is cheap for such a large city. The Thai meal was only 4€, and we managed to feed ourselves brunch the next morning for the same price.
After brunch the next day, it was back the Checkpoint Charlie museum.
Checkpoint Charlie of course, was the main gateway between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. In an adjacent building, is the museum which engagingly chronicles the period when the Berlin Wall was still up.
It was incredibly interesting, and we spent a solid two to three hours inside. I didn't have too much knowledge of
Checkpoint Charlie
The famous gate between socialism and democracy. the history of the Wall, but by the time I left, I was well enlightened. Of most interest though, was the documentation of the desperate but courageous and often ingenious escape attempts by East German citizens to get to the other side. Among the attempts, were several underground tunnels, home-made hot air balloons, hiding of people in secret compartments inside cars, home-made aeroplanes and even a one-man submarine. Of course there were also the moving tales of those that didn't make it, and the families torn apart by the wall. 125 people lost their lives trying to cross the wall, in the 28 years that it stood.
There were also some brilliant artistic pieces in the museum in the form of paintings, sculptures and other similar exhibits. After the museum visit, I have to say that it certainly put Berlin in a whole new perspective.
We then went to the Topography Of Terror, an outdoor museum set behind a preserved section of the Berlin Wall, which chronicles the reign of the Nazi party. All the information was chronologically presented on boards which also displayed relevant pictures of the times. Although the exhibits were extremely interesting, the temperature was hovering around
Pergamon Museum
This is the entire 120m long altar excavated from the ancient city of Pergamon, in modern day Turkey - amazing. 5 degrees so it was extremely cold, and after a while I just couldn't stand outside any longer, and so our history lesson was cut short as we walked back to "Foodpoint Charlie" for another cheap feed.
Being a Thursday, most of Berlin's museums are free in the evening. So despite having spent the whole day at museums, we decided that we might as well use this opportunity while we could.
At the end of Unter Den Linden, Berlin's most famous and sight-packed boulevard, is "Museumsinsel", literally "Museum Island", and on this small island on the Spree River where Berlin's settlement began in the Middle Ages, is a cluster of Berlin's famous and critically-acclaimed museums including the national gallery, and the Altes Museum. Our museum of choice for the night, was the Pergamon Museum, which houses Classical Greek, Babylonian, Roman, Islamic and Middle Eastern art and architecture. As you enter the museum you see the complete, ancient Pergamon Altar, which was dug up in Turkey in 1904. Seeing the 120m-long structure in its entirety is quite simply amazing. Also breathtaking, is the Ishtar Gate from Babylon and walls from the ancient Arabic Palace of Mshatta. Some of the other structures
The Reichstag
Germany's parliament. and exhibits were also very interesting.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day, we were well and truly museumed-out.
The next day, we decided to retrace my steps from last year's visit and take the walk from the Friedrichstrasse station along the Spree to the Reichstag (German Parliament). The walk definitely brought a smile to my face, as this was the first time I had revisited a place that I have such vivid memories of here in Berlin. As the magnificently grand building came into view, I saw the large empty field in front of it and the memories came flooding back of the mini-stadium that stood there as well as the 5-a-side football pitches that were part of this temporary fan complex.
We then lined up to go the top of the Reichstag, where it's famous huge glass dome sits. It was quite a queue to get in and we were lucky we got in when we did, as the rain started to pour the minute we got in. As this is the German parliament, security was understandably very tight, but once we got to the top, I was most impressed by the
Top Of The Reichstag
Impressive mirrored column that dominates the inside of the dome on top of the Reichstag glass and metal structure that stood before me. The winding ramps that lead to the top are very well designed, so that different ramps are used to ascend and descend without you noticing that you have indeed used different ramps! The view across Berlin is a nice one, although good pictures are impossible to take with glass and metal bars (and people) obstructing every shot.
Once back on the ground, we then walked over to Strasse des 17 Juni, where last year's fan fest was held, and where there was a big screen mounted upon the Brandenburg Gate, arguably Berlin's most famous sight.
We then walked over to the Holocaust Memorial, which was about a block away from the Brandenburg Gate. The memorial is a vast grid of concrete blocks, all of various heights, where you can jump from block to block on the short ones, and become completely lost within the maze of taller ones.
We then took a walk down Unter Den Linden where we passed the famous Humboldt University where Albert Einstein once studied, as well as Bebelplatz, the site of the first large official Nazi book-burnings in 1933. The event is commemorated by a poignant below-ground
Inside The Holocaust Memorial
Lost in the maze that is the Holocaust Memorial. memorial of empty bookshelves in the middle of the square. We then passed the pink baroque Zeughaus, which houses the German Historical Museum, before crossing the mini-Charles Bridge-esque Schlossbrucke, where Berlin's other most famous sight resides - the Berliner Dom. In front of the church is the Lustgarten, a large grassy square which has several sculptures of generously-proportioned figures that are part of an open air exhibition by Colombian artist Fernando Botero.
Davies had decided he'd done enough walking for one day and headed back to the hostel, while I continued on to the elegant square of Gendarmenmarkt, where the twin churches of Deutscher Dom and Franzosischer Dom combine excellently with the Konzerthaus in a wonderfully pretty setting.
I then took a bit of a hike to Alexanderplatz where Berlin's conspicuous TV Tower stands. Around Alexanderplatz was a worryingly large congregation of emos....
Near Alexanderplatz is the town hall and Neptune fountain, as well as the twee Nikolaiviertel, a recreated medieval maze of cobblestoned alleys similar to Der Schnoor in Bremen.
With the sun setting, it was then time to head back to the hostel.
After immersing ourselves in Berlin's rather sombre past, we thought that since it's a
Berliner Dom, Lustgarten & TV Tower
Berlin's most famous and grandiose church with the Lustgarten in front of it. The rather conspicuous TV Tower lurks in the background behind the church. Friday night, it was time to let our hair down and go on a pub crawl. Quite a crowd of mainly males had gathered outside the meeting point at the Hakescher Markt U-Bahn station, where our guide took us to the first bar, which was beneath a railway bridge. I don't remember the name of the place, but the bar had a cool former GDR nostalgic theme to it, with posters of old East German government-produced products such as Spreewaldgurken gherkins, Sprachlo cigarettes and Schwalbe mopeds plastered all over the walls, as well as the odd piece of good old-fashioned communist propaganda. "Ostalgie" has really taken off over here as people somewhat ironically reminisce about the life and times in the former East Germany. The beers here were relatively cheap too. We also got talking to an Aussie/Canadian chick called Kate who had just moved to Berlin to study. Her German was pretty good!
The next place we hit was a rather swanky looking cocktail bar, where Davies got us each a Berliner Red. To my horror, I discovered that the "red" was a "splash" of raspberry. I didn't know if it was the manly thing to do or not,
Force-Fed Jaegermeifter
The crawl guides were ruthless. but I was polite enough to make sure I finished it. Davies cheated and got Kate to drink half of his for him - even she thought it was disgusting!
Next stop was a more traditional pub where for the second time in a few days I met a dude that I had met before somewhere else in Europe. On our pub crawl in Amsterdam we met a guy from Wellington and his Asian girlfriend. Here in Berlin, we had randomly crossed paths again, except he had gone to London before coming out here and we had kept travelling. An amazing coincidence, just like the
reunion with Alex and Ricki in Prague.
The next pub was upstairs in a derelict looking building that was absolutely smothered in graffiti and old posters - unless you knew about it, you wouldn't think that there was a bar here at all! It was a really cool bar too, which maintained it's underground theme inside as well.
What was left of the pub crawl then gathered outside bar afterwards for the routine free shot of Jaegermeifter that was generously force-fed to everyone by the crawl guides after each bar. Some local rascals not on the crawl tried to get in
Entrance To Underground Bar
This is not your typical entrance to a swanky bar - but this is Berlin. In photo: Davies and Kate. on the act, but our female host was having none of it and gave them the old "f*ck off" in German. Amazingly, the young kids tried to start a fight with her - Davies, being the gentlemen he is, immediately leapt to her defence along with the thirty other guys on the crawl. Fortunately, the young idiots were smart enough not to take us all on, and gave us all a few verbals before getting on their way.
Eventually, we all made it to the final stop on the crawl, an RnB club, of which I have grown rather fond of on this trip. The club had a real abandoned warehouse feel to it, and once inside, we continued the Jaegermeifter trend by ordering more Jaeger bombs. Definitely have to say that German chicks are underrated - and this place merely proved my point. Although it wasn't quite like it was in Helsinki or Copenhagen, I certainly wasn't complaining ;-)
When we had finished bouncing to the DJ's phat beats it was time to head back to the hostel but not before grabbing some fries and spring rolls from a food stand for a measly 2€.
Berlin's U-Bahn also kicks
Potsdamer Platz
The symbol of Berlin's forward-moving ambition. arse because it goes all night ;-)
So while the Berlin pub crawl wasn't as great a night as some of the others we had been on, we still had a good time - and I reckon that if you know where to go, then Berlin's nightlife is as unique and cutting-edge as the city itself.
The next day, Davies had decided that he had had enough of Berlin, and took a train to Mainz, where he would enjoy a river cruise up the Rhine to Cologne the next day. I would see him again after the river cruise in Brussels, Belgium.
I however, decided to stay in Berlin to see my friend Jan who I met last year during the World Cup. To cut a very long story short, I basically met Jan on a train from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg last year where he was kind enough to let a complete stranger stay at his flat in Marburg, an hour out of Frankfurt when all accomodation in the whole of Germany seemed to be completely full.
But before meeting him at Hakescher Markt in the afternoon, I decided to check out another of Berlin's many sights at Potsdamer
Sony Centre
Ultra-modern entertainment extravaganza in Potsdamer Platz. Platz.
While most of the focus of my visit had been spent appreciating Berlin's past, Potsdamer Platz is perhaps the epitomy of the opposite, a showcase of Berlin's fantastically modern progression into the future.
The first sight to greet me as I stepped out of the U-Bahn was the Sony Centre - a classy, glassy modern monstrosity with a dramatic tent-like glass roof that hovers over a pleasant hang-out area complete with fountains. Within this complex lies two IMAX cinemas a couple of nightclubs and a plethora of shops - entertainment central.
Across the road is the equally modern DaimlerCity which houses a huge shopping mall and a contemporary art museum.
Then it was off to Hakescher Markt to check out the Hakesche Hof - a block of eight interconnected courtyards, each with their own style and character, all laced with cafes, galleries and boutique shops.
At 4pm, I then made the short walk to the Hakescher Markt U-Bahn station to meet Jan, who was showing his mother and godmother around Berlin. Both ladies were lovely and spoke a little bit of English, and we all enjoyed a coffee while I caught up with Jan, which was great.
We then
Hakescher Hof
One of eight interconnected courtyards all with their own character. This is the art-nouveau "Hof 1". went back to the Reichstag - Jan had managed to hook all of us up with a free tour of the German parliament!
One thing you have to know about Jan is that he is completely obsessed with photographs - it seems every waking moment needs to be captured, every event, every memory. I had forgotten this, as I lent him my camera...
The tour was cool - and I felt privileged to be walking through the hallowed halls of such an important building. However the guide went on a forty minute talk about the parliament's history - in German - so I didn't have a clue what was being said. Jan in the meantime, was busy snapping everything and anything - the tour guide had to tell him to stop!
Jan's mum was then so kind as to invite me out to dinner with them out in Spandau before we watched Germany qualify for the 2008 European Football Championships with a 0-0 draw against Ireland on the telly.
I hadn't booked another night at the hostel, as Jan had agreed to put me up at his medical student accomodation in the beautifully leafy suburb of Schoeneburg. Getting out there
Inside The German Government
The parliamentary debating chamber inside the Reichstag. was a bit of a mission though, and it was terribly cold, the coldest temperatures I have encountered - again. Needless to say I was well knackered by the time I went to bed.
Unfortunately, I didn't have a chance to sleep in - I had agreed to attend a church service with Jan, his mum, and his godmother at 9am. So while groggily trudging through the four-degree cold, I had just about had it with Jan's picture taking - he's nuts!
The church service did give me a chance to to see the wonderful interior of the Berliner Dom though, where the service was - a bishop had come especially to give the sermon too. I couldn't take any pictures though - Jan had used up my camera battery!
Perhaps fortunately, I had to catch a train to Cologne which meant I had to leave the service early - and doing so as quietly and as politely as one can leave a church service, whilst hauling a backpack down the aisle at the same time...
I was appreciating the ironic parallels of my time with Jan last year with the time I was spending with him now -
Looking Up
Glass roof above the debating chamber in the Reichstag, looking up in to the dome at the top of the building. a mammoth journey to his house, leaving my bag unattended in a church, carrying my backpack everywhere we went and having to haul ass to only just catch my train - all while constantly being delayed by Jan's snaps. This continued right up until I jumped on the train. Amazingly, he was getting in the way of other late passengers trying to get onto the train just so he could get some final snaps of me - he must've taken about 20 in one hit as the train doors finally closed. Once the train pulled away, I could see Jan's crazed expression as his index finger worked overtime on his camera - a little scary to say the least. I was just relieved to had finally escaped the my personal paparazzi. Thank god he's not on Facebook!
I can't hate too much on Jan though, he's a great guy who helped me out when I really needed it last year and I will be forever grateful for his help and generosity.
So what was a relatively relaxing time in Berlin came to a manic conclusion. On this visit though, I can definitely say that I have done Berlin properly
Dinner With The Family
From left: Myself, Jan's Godmother, Jan's Mum, Jan. now and say that is indeed a must-visit on any European itinerary - there's just no place like it, especially with the history still scattered across the city. And although Berlin has had a painful past, it is great to see that it is embracing it - for it is what makes this city what it is.
In terms of my trip, the end is nigh, and I am starting to get a bit travel weary - but I wouldn't have it any other way ;-)
Next stop - Brussels.
Delek-Delek
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