Guten Tag Berlin!
We arrived in Berlin at the ripe hour of 8:00am and, after a brief moment of panic at the sight of airport signs in German, proceeded to the passport check line. When the nice German officer opened my passport, he smiled and chuckled at the huge smile I’m sporting in my passport photo. “Very nice!” he said upon looking up to find the same smile on my face. What a nice welcome to Germany :) We headed straight for the underground and, thankfully, the ticket machines were multi-lingual. Finding the right train was another story, but we eventually found the S9 and hopped on in pursuit of the BaxPax Hostel - where we had booked beds in a 32-bed dorm room. Needless to say, we were a little anxious to see what we had gotten ourselves into. To our surprise, we were sharing a room with only 12 other people and the cheap, cheerful, colorful little hostel was well worth the risk! Just another opportunity for Beth and me to congratulate ourselves on our expert travel-planning skills :) By this point we were two very hungry travellers, so we set off on a walk around the neighborhood and happened on an adorable two-table creperie just up the road. We were greeted in German by a lovely lady who helped us struggle through the menu and served us delicious crepes filled with, our favorite, nutella…if you have not discovered this delectable chocolaty-hazelnut spread then you are in for a treat! We parted with an Auf Wiedersehen and a promise to return for some more delicious crepes - what a treat! We stopped in a market to pick up some fruit and a veggie to cook up with our rice later for dinner, then spent the rest of the afternoon in the Jewish Museum. Wow! What a haven of cultural history. My favorite display was an audio room full of pictures and headphones where you could listen to clips of works by Jewish authors and autobiographers. There was a section of the museum dedicated to the Holocaust, but most of the displays were unique peeks into the daily lives of European Jews throughout history.
The next day we set off to explore the city and happened on some brilliant buildings along the river. We didn’t have much of an agenda, so we took our time ducking in shops and taking in the sites of museum island and the main streets of Berlin. We snapped a few pictures at the Brandenburger Tor, an enormous arch that was built in line with the Berlin Wall, and caught the view from atop the Reichstag, Germany’s central government building that once housed some of the horrible names that we all associate with the second World War. Next, we hunted down a street vendor and got some traditional German Brats…yum! We ate as we walked to Postdamer Platz, a thriving square in central Berlin with pieces of the Berlin Wall scattered throughout its sidewalks. Berlin has so much history to offer! When we had read all the history we could read, we headed to the cinema in search of a lighter mood. We saw “The Yes Man” because we figured we would still know when to laugh at Jim Carey, even though the words were in German, ha! It was great to just sit and laugh for awhile, and the movie seats were super comfy!
Berlin was definitely a unique experience. I don’t think I would have visited it if Beth hadn’t suggested it. It didn’t seem particularly appealing - I always pictured it to be a little dreary, maybe because of the unfortunate history - but I’m so glad we spent a few days there! It’s really a charming city. It was a bit damp and drab, but it felt like there were attempts at every turn to add color to the bleak cityscape….colorful subway cars, fantastic graffiti adorned buildings, and multi-story colorful adverts in the squares. There was a great big Converse advert behind the Berlin Wall display in Potsdamer Platz :) I think Berlin has a lot to offer, it’s just still figuring out how to emerge from its hiding place…
