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While I originally set up my blog to keep track of my travels across South America, writing the entries was something I enjoyed so why not include an entry or two for my trip to the European mainland! Along with the photo's, the blogs are nice to look back on in years to come and they can also be a source of inspiration for people when they're deciding on a travel itinerary for a particular place. I read six or seven different travel blogs before this trip. Travel writers can sometimes push an agenda (better reviews for places that gave them free/discounted), so it can be interesting to hear the stories of your everyday backpacker or holiday goer.
Berlin was the first stop for myself and Mags of a two city tour. We stayed in the Neukolln district in East Berlin in a nice apartment we had come across on AirBnb (big fan of this website, nice alternative to hotel or hostel and obviously a lot more authentic). First impressions included my surprise at the amount of people walking around drinking a bottle of beer no matter what time of day, how people always wait for a green
man before crossing the road even if there isn't a car for miles and how food/transport etc was about half the price of that in Ireland... sweet!
We kicked off our sightseeing with a four hour walking tour of the city with Insider Berlin. As we were preparing to set off, we overheard our guide speaking... Myself and Mags looked at each other.. definitely Irish! We both reckoned his accent sounded a bit Dublin so imagine my surprise five minutes later when he announced he was from the sunny southeast itself, Wexford town! Over the next few hours we visited Berlin cathedral, the museum island, the Jewish book burning memorial, the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, Brandenburg Gate and the site of Hitler's bunker where he died. Berlin has a fascinating history and it 1933-45 in particular has had a massive effect on the people. Germany are the current soccer world champions but looking around, you wouldn't be able to tell. Any other country in the world and the flags and banners would still be flowing years and years afterwards. One amusing moment (at least for me) was a guy part of a stag party deciding to whip out his
knob for any walking tour that passed by... reminded me of one of the lads who had a tendency to do the same thing on nights out back in the day ! After the tour we went to the Topography of Terror which focuses in detail on that 1933-45 period in Berlin and the work of the Gestapo and SS. Some of the stories and photo's were chilling and once the Nazis forced their way into power, any dissenting voices were quickly crushed. What happened was a massive lesson not only for the German people but also the rest of the world particularly around free speech, equality and that in war there are no winners
Keeping with the WW2 theme, we caught a train out to Sachsenhausen concentration camp the following day again with IB. The camp itself was one of the most important with alot of political prisoners detained there including Joseph Stalin's son. 30,000 people died there over the course of the war. Pretty shocking place to visit but well worth it also. To try cheer ourselves afterwards, a small group consisting of Canadians, Australians, Irish and South Africans went to a sunny beer garden near the
city centre. It was good fun and I enjoyed hearing about other peoples countries. During a lull in the conversation, Mags turned to me and said 'What was your favourite part of the day?' I just looked at her in shock, "Mags we've just come back from a concentration camp, how do you expect me to answer that?!!" :D
Berlin day three, we visited the home of the German parliament the Reichstag, one of Berlin's most famous buildings. I strongly recommend you book this at least two weeks in advance at https://visite.bundestag.de/BAPWeb/pages/createBookingRequest.jsf?lang=en as it's free and well worth a visit. The dome at the top which has been built mainly with glass and mirrors offers perfect 360 degree views of the city. Berlin itself is a very green city with lots of park areas and green spaces and the multi cultural element that now exists in the city means the buildings are of all shapes, sizes and designs. The audioguide explains exactly what you're looking at as you climb up the dome. For the afternoon we decided to head for one of the oldest and largest zoos in the world which is located in Berlin's Tiergarten. Being your typical
zoo the pictures do most of the talking, however I highly recommend checking the animal feeding times and going if you can. We went to see the orangutans getting their daily fruit and veg then over to the hippo enclosure for same. For some reason, deer were in the same enclosure and there was a bit of an incident when one of the male hippo decided to attack a stag who had come sniffing closeby for food. I genuinely thought the hippo was going to break the stag's neck but the deer managed to sidestep it's way out of trouble and leap over a fallen tree trunk to safety !
BERLIN TIPS:
- Maybe slightly biased since he's a fellow countyman but a walking tour with Barry from Insider Tours will be the best nine euro you spend all trip! Walking tours are always a good starting point whenever you arrive into a new city.
- The public transport in Berlin is so good, there's no need to take a taxi anywhere. You can buy a three day ticket in the airport for 16e that covers bus, tram and underground. You only need to swipe
at the start of the three days and you're trusted afterwards that you have a valid ticket.
- There are cheap supermarkets around to get snacks to keep you going for the day.
- Book the Reichstag well in advance (three weeks) Places are limited!
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