Berlin

After my last day of lectures I headed to the airport to fly to Berlin, Germany. I was excited for this 5 day trip, especially since I know how to speak a bit of German. I didn’t land til late so the first night I checked in to my hostel and then got a drink at a nearby bar. The beer was far cheaper than Dublin here.

The second day I took a free walking tour in the morning. We saw the Brandenburg Gate, Tiergarten, the Holocaust Memorial, the remnants of the Berlin wall, Checkpoint Charlie, and more. The city isn’t as pretty and picturesque as the others, and definitely doesn’t have as many tourist attractions, but has a lot of history and culture because of all that happened here.

After the tour I went with some of the other tourists to see a big flea market that takes place every Sunday in Mauerpark. It was a bit of a trek across the city to get there but well worth it. Thousands of people filled the park and it was much more than a market. Besides the market area there were a lot of food vendors, musicians, and performers. There were also people going around collecting bottles. In Berlin, bottles can be exchanged for 25 cents so a lot of people take bags and collect people’s bottles, whether from them directly, from trashcans, or litter. When you’re done with a bottle, you’re supposed to set it right next to a trash can so people can get it without having to dig through the trash. This policy seems to keep the city clean (considering how much drinking there in public there is) and probably keeps some people out of trouble and instead cleaning the community.

Speaking of drinking in public, it’s common at any time of the day to buy beer in a small shop and drink it while walking around. The shops even have bottle openers for you to use as soon as you buy the drink. You can have a cheap night out in Berlin by finding a shop that has a picnic table next to it and drinking there all night since these beers can cost less than 2 euro.

After being outside all day, I took a break and went back to my hostel before going out for the night. The next day I went on another tour with the same group, this one through alternative areas like Kreuzberg. We saw a lot of street art including the longest remaining section of the Berlin Wall which is now a huge mural.

After the tour we found a place for dinner at the train station. Even though it was an American-styled restaurant, we picked 3 of the common German dishes and split them so we could all try German food. We picked currywurst, German sausage in curry sauce, as well as a chicken dish and a cheesy soup for dipping bread in. All three were good, but currywurst was my favorite. It was basically like summer sausage we have in America but in a spicy sort of barbecue sauce.

The next day, after relaxing for a bit in my hostel room, I headed to Kreuzberg to see the technology museum. It was a huge museum that had all sorts of technology, mainly transportation. They also had a computer science section that I particularly enjoyed. The museum included an entire park with train tracks, windmills, and a historic brewery. A new wing featured hundreds of planes and ships.

After this museum I also saw a computer game museum that showed the history and progression of computer games throughout history. I then met up with some of the people from the tour and saw a huge park in Southern Berlin that used to be an East German airstrip.

The last day I took the time to walk by museum island (the first two pictures) and Tiergarten. Tiergarten park was really a forest, not what I expected in the city.

My flight was early the next day, so I tried a Doner Kebab for dinner and called it a night. Doner Kebabs are famous across Europe but originated her in Berlin.

Berlin might be my favorite city to spend time in. Other cities were prettier, but Berlin was by far the most fun. There was always stuff going on and the ease of drinking cheaply in public made it a great holiday. The public transport here was also cheap and efficient.

Now I have three exams and a few trips left. Crazy to think it’s almost over!