Go North, Young Woman: Berlin, Take One

Although I had planned to go on the school's study trip to Berlin and Potsdam in between our academic sessions, I was convinced by two other Americans to go to Berlin this weekend too. I figured the city would have enough history for a nerd like me to enjoy it both times. Here is my first experience with Germany's capital.

Friday:
Travel Tip: Check out the Berlinlinien Bus if you're traveling to/from Berlin. I got an 18 E ticket, ROUNDTRIP, even though I booked a few weeks after my companions that found the deal. I can't guarantee that it'll always be that cheap, but it's worth a look. It's only for certain times, but this worked in my favor. The 9 am bus (both ways, for me) was not too crowded that I could have both seats in the row to myself, lay down, and sleep. It's a 3 hour ish trip, which made for a nice little nap.

We got in around noon and checked into the hostel. We stayed at the Generator, which was very clean and the sheets were already on the bed, which seems obvious but is not necessarily so. The neon lights and decor seemed to be aimed at a slightly younger crowd, but at the same time, there were a number of older women staying there while we were there. We were sharing a room with four other women, which was a little weird, but not too bad.

We ate lunch at a cheap but delicious Mediterranean place near the hostel, then headed into the city. We tried to make the 4 pm walking tour but there was apparently not one that day, as we waited around the Starbucks with a number of other confused looking tourists. Travel Tip #2: When someone approaches you to say that the tour you're waiting for is leaving later, but there will be another, smaller tour leaving right at 4, check his nametag for his tour group affiliation. The guy that came up to us was clearly with a different company, and it is entirely possible he kidnapped our actual tour guide in order to make some tips for himself. We made the (probably smart) decision not to follow him and instead walked around for a bit on our own.

There was a German Reunification Celebration right behind the iconic Brandenburg gate, so we walked around that for a bit. There was a band, a ferris wheel, and a bunch of food stands. We got some mulled wine (I think we brought the chilly Hamburg weather with us) and moved on.

Next, we hit up the Ritter Sport chocolate factory and museum. You can make your own "schokokreation" there, and while it chills, they have an exhibit on how chocolate is made and a store. We may have done some damage in the store, but tasty damage. My custom-made chocolate is amazing, too. I finished the milk chocolate-strawberry-banana-yogurt bar very quickly, and am working on the dark chocolate-chili-raspberry-caramelized almonds bar. It takes longer to eat bc of the chili powder, but is still fantastic.

For dinner, we tried to find some places that were recommended in my guidebooks, but per usual, they were hard to find/closed/impossible to get into. One place we found may have been the one that was mentioned but the name was slightly different, so it was hard to tell. It was packed, so we kept moving down the street it was on. The street had all these cute/romantic little cafes that, while high on atmosphere, were also high on price. They would have been great date places, but for three girls, not ideal.

We finally found a German place with rather affordable places (Fritz's or something like that?) and a good-looking menu. This proved a bad choice, however. When we got inside, they only had a reduced Oktoberfest menu, and literally would not serve us. They sat us at a table close to the door, which was cold, so we changed to one further back. We eventually got someone to bring us water (remember, this almost always costs money in Germany) but he said "the woman" would be our server. We kept trying to get one of the two female servers' attention, but one was incredibly busy (the place was not that crowded) and the other literally shook her head no when we caught her eye. So we put some euros on the table for the water and left. Travel tip: don't go to Fritz's.

Luckily, we found a much better place to eat. It was called Nolle, was in the old train station, and was all art-deco'd out. The food was delicious and the service was MUCH better. We, being old souls, decided to have a few drinks there and go home instead of going out anywhere else.

Friday Pictures:

We travel well together because we all value food very highly

View from the hostel

Us in front of the Brandenburg Gate

Close up

The band playing at the festival

Ferris wheel and food booths

WWII Monument?

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe

It was supposed to be more disorienting the further you went in, representing a seemingly-ordered system that went horribly wrong

On a lighter note, chocolate!

Ferris Wheel at night through the Brandenburg Gate

Cool bridge, with lovers locks on it

Nolle decor

Saturday:
Because I'm a crazy person, I decided to get up Saturday morning and go for a run. While it was mostly miserable, I did get to see some of the parts around the hostel. The city is supposed to be very distinguishable from east to west, and I think I got a better sense of that from the run.

Then due to a slight miscommunication with my companions, I got to the walking tour (which actually worked out this time) a bit late. I did find them though, and got 3/4 of the tour. I do recommend this, if you don't mind a ton of walking. Sandeman's New Europe has walking tours for free in a bunch of European cities, and a few pub crawls as well. It's 3 1/2 hours so I still got plenty of time for my money....er, tip. Our tour guide covered most of the historical sights and had some good stories to go along with the sights. I will get another dose of this next trip, but probably more in detail in certain places so it's fine.

We then went to the Pergammon museum, which is supposed to be a must-see on Berlin's museum island. It may have been a bit of a rip off (tip: the panorama is not as cool as it sounds), but it was still pretty cool. The bottom floor was the near-East collection, with the Pergammon altar (hence the museum name) and the reconstructed Ishtar Gate. The top floor was all Islamic art.

For dinner, we found this place from my guidebook (finally!) that was a department store/gourmet supermarket. They had all kinds of different sausages, cheese, pastries, fish, and a few sit-down restaurants. We had sushi, for the first time since I left the U.S. It's usually crazy expensive, but by splitting a combo meal, it was pretty well priced at this place.

I then split from the group and went to go see the local basketball team, Alba Berlin, play the Dallas Mavericks. It was a part of the NBA's European preseason. With Dirk Nowitzki on the Mavs, all the Germans were uber excited. It was sold out, but I scalped a pretty good ticket on the lower level. I probably overpaid, but thinking about what I would have paid for that ticket in Dallas, maybe not.

Alba Berlin has a former Tar Heel and the Mavericks have two, so I was excited to see all of them play. Deon Thompson, the Berlin player, was my year in college (as was one of the Mavs) and absolutely lit it up in this game. He was the leading scorer for AB and kept Nowitzki from scoring more than once. I tried to stay after to say hi to him or get another picture with Vince Carter, since I have one when I was little and he was in college outside Ye Olde Waffle Shoppe, but no one came out :(

It was pretty late when I got back to the hostel, so after this I called it a night. I am definitely looking forward to my next trip to Berlin. I want to get more in detail at some of the sights we visited only briefly, as well as seeing some of the places that we missed this trip.

Saturday Pictures:

Courtyard of the Soviet something building (I missed the beginning of the intro to this). Valkyrie was apparently partially filmed here

An old part of the wall - the stuff on the top replaced the barbed wire to make it harder to get a grip on anything in order to escape by climbing over

On the left, a hot air balloon. Die Welt is a newspaper, founded by Gert Bucerius whose money also founded the law school at which I'm studying In the middle, a sign that Berlin loves me --> that reminded me of Philly.

That's what the gate area looked like right after reunification

Old pieces of the wall

One of the two identical churches in the plaza - they built one Catholic and one Protestant, when Frederick invited the expelled Catholics from somewhere