Berlin

Berlin! As soon as we stepped off the train, we were overwhelmed. This was a city. We had thought Munich was a city, but in comparison to Berlin…it might as well just be a town.

There were so many people rushing here and there, more ethnicities than we had seen over the last two weeks. The train station itself was impressive, a massive glass structure incorporating the long distance trains, the subways, the trams, and a three storied mall.

We hurriedly stored our luggage into lockers before walking to the Reichstag, the German parliament building where I had reserved our viewing some months ago. They were very specific in allowing only visitors come in who reserved for a specific timeslot.

We were only allowed to tour the glass dome structure and the roof up top but this already gave us one of the better views of the city. Audio guides explained the buildings we saw as we walked up the spiral path inside the dome.

The Brandenburg gate was close by so we walked here too.

Brandenburg Tor

Walking in Berlin is kind of interesting. There don’t seem to be any designated bike lanes so bikes speed past you and dodge between pedestrians all the time. Intersections don’t have traffic lights or stop signs all the time (not sure I’ve even a stop sign here!) so you engage in a silent match with them in determining who is going when.

We walked to Potsdamer Platz too, based just on the street signs, before it became an allowable time to check in.

Sections of the Berlin Wall

No lie, we got a little lost using the various S bahns and U bahns (subway and trams) to get to our hostel so it took us much longer than we thought it would. The signage on the stations were supremely unhelpful and the transport lines squiggled around, refusing to be in straight lines.

At the hostel, our host sat us down with a map of Berlin and pointed out stuff to do, and gave an overview of the different districts in Berlin. Berlin ESS big enough that each district was like a village of its own.

We were in Kreuzberg, the grittier part of East Berlin which therefore featured some of the smaller independent shops and cafes, according to our host.

By the time we were checked in, we were starving as it was approaching 2pm. Based on his suggestion, we went to a Laos restaurant and both had some yellow curry.

We walked around the famous Hackeschen Höfen, which today are centers of luxury shopping. This was a welcome respite because there was some shade and covering from the hot hot sun which beat down on us.

It was incredibly hot outside and the heat drained us of any energy so we headed back to the hostel to rest before setting out that evening to hear a piano concert at a piano factory. I had reserved us seats months before on a German website.

To put it plainly, it was AMAZING. Easily the best concert we had seen. Although all the others advertised professional musicians, this ead just on another level. Fingers flew over the grand piano, and the notes were all deliberate and rich in sound.

By the time the concert finished, it was 11pm. Still, as we headed back, there seemed to be a whole lot of people who were up and about, having a good time sitting outside with a beer, smoking, or eating currywurst – the local fast food specialty, German sausage in curry and tomato sauce. The number of people who were still out and the number of food places that were still open at this hour of the night was astounding. And so I ordered a currywurst too to munch on as we walked back to our hostel and it was yummy.