Everyone raves about Berlin and rightly so! It’s such a multicultural city, it hardly felt German (not that there’s anything wrong with Germanic places!). Among the many cultures, Turkish people make up a large percentage so the abundance of Turkish food was definitely a bonus!
So as usual we arrived in the night time and didn’t see all that much, just where we stayed which was a big factory converted in to a hotel! It was comfortable and clean, but it kind of felt like we were sleeping in a big storage room because the walls were plain white and giant pipes protruded from the ceiling.
Morning time and we ventured over to a cafe where Kaushik had read that they served good coffee, which they certainly did. Then down to the metro where we bought an all day transport card (that’s metro, trains and buses) for a measly 6 euros each. Bargain!
Arrived at Ostbahnhof station where the East side gallery of the Berlin wall is situated and walked along pretty much the whole length of this particular section of the wall.
It was quite humbling to be viewing such a pivotal part of Berlin’s history, I almost felt a bit guilty adding my own small piece of graffiti. But then again, this wall and the art painted on it represents liberation (post 1989 of when the wall was brought down of course!) and freedom to express oneself, which I whole heartedly did!
Me vandalising
What I left behind
After spending a decent amount of time at the wall, we caught the subway to Oranienburger Strasse where there are lots of nice cafe’s and restaurants. There was also this art space called Galerie Tacheles which was formally a shopping mall in what was a predominantly Jewish district in the early 1900’s, it was then taken over due to bankruptcy and used to display electrical goods for a company called Haus der Technik in 1928.
In World War II the building was again taken over and used by the Nazi Party for administration purposes and even detained French prisoners. It was then damaged between 1943 and 1945 by allied air raids but is still standing to this day thanks to a group of artists who in the early 90’s took a liking to the building and transformed it in to an art space instead of it being demolished by the government.
Galerie Tacheles - you can see where it was bombed, except they have restored a lot of the building to prevent it from caving in!
Being at Galerie Tacheles made us feel like we came across a hippy commune in the desert! Artists have their own little cabins and caravans spread throughout the sandy grounds where they sculpt and paint. This place also converts in to a bar during the night time which I wish we had witnessed but unfortunately didn’t.
Galerie Tacheles
Outside Galerie Tacheles
I think that kids in Berlin are incredibly lucky. Why? Because on nearly every street you walk down you will come across some kind of park with hard core play equipment! Coming from Sydney, due to councils crapping their pants at the thought of possible law suits, any form of fun play equipment (ie merry-go rounds, flying foxes, long chained swings etc) have been replaced with boring, sterile contraptions which make me pity the children of today.
So yes, lucky Berlin kids, lucky me and unlucky Kaushik who soon tired of me getting excited about this particular play ground we came across! I even made an animated gif of the fun we had:
All that goofing around made us hungry (what doesn’t?) so we found a hidden away Japanese restraunt for lunch and then walked around the city a little more until we came to the Holocaust memorial. I would like to say it had a deep impact on me, but it didn’t. With people running around laughing, screaming and jumping from pillar to pillar, it was hard to get a feel for the memorial as it was intended. When I saw it from a little further away, it did however take my breath away. The number of these pillars, all different heights and angles really did represent the large scale and diversity of people who had their lives stolen from them.
Walking further down a street near by took us to what was Hitler’s bunker where he finally died (why was he born at all?). It made me laugh because now, it is simply a car park! The final resting place of evil: now a banal every day occurrence where people curse under their breaths at the lack of spaces or quietly cheer at the triumph of finding a spot to park. All that gives away this historical place is a small sign, explaining the history of the bunker. If there were anything more, say a monument, Neo Nazi’s would probably crowd around to mourn, undoubtedly causing trouble and fear for the locals (thanks Alison for that last tid-bit of info!).
Formally Hitler's bunker where he died...now a car park!
We decided it was time to head back to our hotel to change in to something a little nicer for dinner and drinks, but we stopped at the beautiful Brandenburg Gate on the way.
Brandenburg Gate, began being built in 1788
A better view of Brandenburg Gate, minus our heads
Fresh and clean after a costume change, we headed over to a ‘floating bar’. On the way we saw some incredible graffiti:
This was HUGE!
Ok back to the floating bar, it’s actually this place with a DJ and bar (on solid ground) but the catch is you can sit on a floating dock which pretty much rocks and moves around unsteadily if someone gets up to walk around or tries to clumsily climb on board like we did!
Floating bar fun!
Dinner was calling and it had a Turkish accent, so we caught the U bahn (metro) over to Kreuzberg which is a predominantly Turkish community. One of the first things I saw after exiting the U bahn was one of those old photo machines! In Sydney, these will generally set you back about $6 or if you’re in a slightly pretentious bar with one of these inside then you’d better have $8 ready! This one in Kreuzberg (which I later discovered are everywhere in Berlin) was only 2 euros!
It smelled like wet carpet and booze, but I didn't care
From the 2 euro photo machine
Still on the way to dinner, we came across the perfect place for desert: an entire shop full of baklava!
*inaudible drooling noises*
The sad news is that it was shut when we walked past after dinner, so we drowned our sorrows at a Tiki themed bar with cocktails which tasted like pure gasoline. Then we made our way to a club called “White Trash Fast Food” which is a popular Indie type of night. When we arrived there were girls dressed as flirty sailors sitting in the windows, using their hands like telescopes and waving people to come inside, so we did! It had 3 levels and felt like you were inside a cave or something equally claustrophobically cool. We had ourselves a great time, the DJ played a few questionable numbers but generally pleased the crowd with 90’s rock anthems and electro hits.
When we went outside to leave for our hotel, the sky decided to open up it’s bladder on us! It was the heaviest rain we had seen for a long time, so we decided to get a taxi home. Our driver was so sweet, he asked “Are you hungry?” and Kaushik and I looked equally confused while suspiciously replying “Yes” and then he pulled out a container full of biscuits with a smile “My wife, she make these, please have some!”, so we did and they went down a treat and he of course received a tip.
On to day two of Berlin which was more of a monument viewing day. We saw:
The Berlin Victory Column
Reichstag Building - This building was set on fire in 1933, arguably by Hitler who wished to cause mass confusion about the current government, thus bringing people to his side
Checkpoint Charlie - the most famous Berlin Wall crossing between East and West Germany during the Cold War. This is not the original however, and the poster of a soldier on each side is now just for show.
We also checked out an antique market before we had to head back to the airport, there I saw an intriguing dog!
So this draws an end to an extremely long post. Sorry, I can’t help it! Berlin was fantastic! Cheap transport and food, beautiful architecture, a young and fresh vibe, scars from a not so distant past; pieces of land still yet to be fixed up from the war, people from all over the world setting up home in what was once an incredibly racially dangerous place to be.
