Berlin is a complex city with many layers of history, all of which are very present for the traveller. Out of respect and as a trigger warning for people who may find it difficult to read about the heavier topics, everything relating to World War II, the Holocaust, the Cold War, and the Berlin Wall/Divided Germany will be dealt with in depth in a separate post, although mention may be made here for chronology sake. Both posts will follow the same chronology.
With exams over and done with (more on that later), I had a few days to take another trip. Berlin had been on my list of places I had to get to while in Europe anyway, but the fact that a friend of mine was going to be heading to the city at a time when I was free sealed the deal. Thursday morning, I left Maastricht on an 8:28 train, connecting in Amsterdam. The total journey time was around 8 hours, but I didn't mind so much: Germany's countryside, with it's pretty houses, made for a good backdrop.
The first real sign of crossing the border, and one theme permeating Berlin, was the graffiti. I'm not sure quite how they manage to keep it just within Germany, but it was a pretty effective method of knowing right where the country started. Berlin is actually known for its graffiti, which definitely challenges the boundaries between vandalism and art (sometimes swaying more in one direction or the other). Graffiti is only one of the ways in which Berlin is, apparent almost immediately, very hip and urban. More on that below.
Arriving in Berlin around 5:30, I headed straight for my hostel, in the East side of the city. The hostel came with extremely high ratings, and really didn't disappoint: it was clean, with a very hip design and good location. For those who like the hostel vibe (I'm, admittedly, more into the cheap prices than the backpacker scene), there were plenty of activities. I started by joining one, a quick guided trip to a local market, after which I bailed and headed out on my own, with the goal of catching sight of a few monuments (see: second post). One of my first observations was that Berlin seems to close up early: by 7:30 or 8:00 PM there wasn't much going on in a lot of the streets (though this was not the case Friday night), and so I wound up turning in early.
Not being a believer in sleeping in while travelling (there's too much Berlin to be seen!), I woke up early Friday and was out by 8:00 AM. My first stop was a bakery I had read about online. Remember how, as a kid, people used to tell you that, no, not even adults get to just eat junk food all the time? Well, that's a lie, since I started my day off with an assortment of baked goods washed down with an orange flavoured Pepsi (which turned out to be disgusting. I know, I'm probably the only one shocked). From the bakery, I headed out to the town of Oranianberg, to visit a nearby site (see: second post), and grabbed a quick doner (Berlin's take on kebab/shwarma/donair) before heading back into the City.
Back in Berlin, I gave some use to the Museum card I had purchased. While it was a good deal, at only €12 for three days (student rate), it turned out not to let me into most of the museums I was looking for. In the end, I only visited two with the card: the Homosexuality Museum (which was really more of an art gallery of sorts), and the Pergamon Museum, which hosts multiple large-scale relics from the Near-East (and, being under construction in some parts, took only about an hour to complete). After three straight museums, I needed a quick break before heading for a fourth, so I stopped to grab a pretzel (and an apple flavoured soda, which is also quite popular in Berlin, and is actually very nice), and sat below the Fernsehturm (Berlin's most recognizable tower), taking in the crowds around. After hitting up one last museum (See: second post) and checking out some of the shops in Alexanderplatz, I went and grabbed some schnitzel for dinner, at a cool and hip little restaurant near my hostel (complete with graffiti all over the walls and hip hop music playing).
It was on my second full day in Berlin that I met up with my friends, who were visiting from various parts of Europe, where they were studying. The morning actually went quite off the rails-while we were sitting and eating breakfast, my friend's bag was snatched, resulting in a morning spent at the police station, filling out the necessary paperwork. Thankfully, my friend had quite a positive outlook, and this didn't stop us from taking advantage of the afternoon, the highlight of which was stopping for a piece of cake after lunch. In the evening, we met up again in front of a venue which we had been told was a beer garden, but actually turned out to be a ballroom dancing location. Not so interested in that, we wandered over to a more touristy area to grab some dinner, and some more pretzels (which we got to go, quite to the amusement of the restaurant where we ordered them).
On my final day, I checked out early and walked along the river towards the centre of the city, stopping for a coffee and breakfast and taking in the river, the changing leaves, and the city scenery. My first stop was the German History Museum. I was a little unsure if I wanted to visit this museum, which would cost me money, over one of the ones accepting my museum card (which got so little usage), but I'm glad I did. The German History Museum is honestly one of the best museums I've ever visited. It thoroughly and thoughtfully explained German history, starting around the year 800 and connecting the dots all the way up to the end of the Cold War. Displays were well designed, with just enough detail to let me know where in history I was, and the option to read more in depth on items that interested me (of which many did). I was really grateful for the opportunity to fill some gaps in my knowledge of the history of Germany and of Europe, and to see some important items (including a Code Napoleon and original works from Martin Luther). The special exhibitions-one on Europe after the War and a second on Homosexualities- were also excellently designed (see my second post for more on both).
This being my last day, I had things planned out (almost to the minute, though this wasn't exactly on purpose) fairly well. The next stop after the German History Museum was the Jewish Museum, where I was to meet my friends at 1 PM. Around 12:45, a few blocks away, I noticed a growing number of police cars. Soon, I was asked to evacuate the area: apparently, an unexploded bomb from World War II had been found (this actually happens on occasion in Europe). This is where my plans got permanently derailed: it turned out that the bomb was located near the Jewish Museum, making me unable to meet up with my friends. After trying with no luck to find wifi, and with no money on my phone, I gave up on finding them and walked back towards the Reichstag (German Parliament), to take a few pictures, before heading back to the train station to await my train.
The train journey is a story in itself: five different trains, including one connection of 6 minutes, for which my arriving train was 7 minutes late (such a rush!), and a bus which the NS (national railway here in the Netherlands) never informed me I would need to take at the moment I booked my ticket. It was a small miracle I made it back to Maastricht that night-I came within seconds of having to find somewhere to sleep in some suburban German city.
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