10(ish) reasons why I ♥ Berlin

 

And Part 2 of Berlin adventures. I think it is some sort of unwitten rule thar every blog needs some sort of cheeay list post at some point. So voila...10 reasons why Berlin grew on me so fast after quite a rocky start. 

#1 - They Speak ENGLISH!!!!

Unlike their next door neighbors Le Francais. Most Germans that we encountered (albeit in the tourist sectors) speak English very well and furthermore are happy to do so. In the Mediterranean part of France between the older generation who don't speak English and those who know English but are too scared/unwilling to use it, English speakers are a rare treat in my life these days. It was kind of fun being in a role reversal with my host family as I was the one who they were relying on to go ask questions or to order food at restaurants. Although this did backfire on me one day where at like 3:00 pm we finally found a restaurant for lunch and I ordered for everyone. While I was in the bathroom the waiter came back with a question and not fully understanding they some how managed to cancel my order accidentally. So when the food arrived nothing came for me and I had to re-order and wait. At the time i was starving and cranky but looking back I love that for once it was not me buggering up something in another language.  I did feel kind of bad because most of the museums and exhibits were in German and English, making it hard for my host family to understand a lot of the time. However I was impressed as Herve, was very stubborn and would read every single exhibit in English because he wanted to understand even if it took him 4 hours per museum (which it did).

German and ENGLISH captions at the Topography of Terror Museum  explaining this guy facing trial at the Nurembourg trials for the murder of 90,000 Jews. 

#2 - The weather

Don't get me wrong I am NOT complaining about the 25-30 degree sunny weather that is the norm in Montpellier, but the crisp sunny days and the gloomy overcast days in Berlin were a nice change. They made me nostalgic for Vancouver autumn days and gave me a chance to wear something other than a tank top and shorts.  Plus there were so many more green lawns and green trees than you find in Montpellier and Palm trees don't exactly shed fall coloured leaves everywhere. It was amazing to walk through the trails and find piles of maple leaves on the ground and to be able to sit on nice green  grass and enjoy a picnic lunch.  I thoroughly enjoyed the change for a week and embraced being a little chilly from time to time... My host family.... not so much. lol

They were not impressed with the cold. 

Although Mathis enjoyed chasing squirrels as he had never seen them before

#3 - The Wall

Berlin divided

I don't even know how to describe the Berlin wall. It is utterly amazing, both in the art work that creates tangible messages about the history and spirit of the Berlin people contained within it and in what the wall represents about that time in history. It blows my mind that it stood for almost 30 years separating grand ideologies at the expense of individual families and friends. We explored a museum that depicts all the desperate measures people took to  break through the wall, tunnel under the wall or sneak through checkpoints concealed in suitcases, ovens, oil drums etc. One person even built a raft out of hockey sticks.  I could not stop taking pictures of all the different images so I apologize for photo overload. 

Wall showing damage caused by people eager to tear down the wall when the restrictions were finally lifted

Herve

#4 - The traffic lights

On the lighter side of things I, and it seems every other tourist, was charmed by the figures on the traffic lights for pedestrians. Where many cities just have boring green light/red lights or simple figurines, Berlin has the "amplemann" aka a red guy with his arms outstretched and a green guy with a hat walking. I googled the history and apparently they were designed by a psychologist to make them appealing and therefore to make pedestrians obey them. I dunno if that is true but they certainly are popular with the tourists and there are numerous stores selling "ampelmann" souvenirs. Mathis was enthralled with the "petit bonhomme" and we must have gone into four or five different ampelmann stores sometimes more than once. I may have added a souvenir or two to my already very heavy bag. 

The inventor of the Ampelmann

# 5 - The History

Berlin has an incredibly diverse and and intriguing history.  However there are probably some parts they would like to erase or at least dissociate themselves from their involvement in. But the city does an amazing job of acknowledging past mistakes and tragedies while maintaining a sense of pride in their change and their goals for the future. You can learn and appreciate the history while at the same time easily recognize that the Berlin you are in today is not the same Berlin it was back then.

We went to countless different memorials/monuments/museums in the five days and only scratched the surface. And the best part was that at most of the museums children under 18 were free with their parents. So I just pretended to be the third Marechal child and probably saved 30 euros or so throughout the week. Looking young for the win!

Monuments for German Soldiers/Members of parliament  


Topography of Terror Exhibition focusing on the rise of Hitler and the inner workings of the Third Reich (ie. SS, Gestapo, propoganda etc.). I love this picture with everybody hailing the Furor and one guy not buying it. 

Memorial to Jewish victims of the holocaust. The pictures don't do it justice. It took up an entire block (a Vegas size block) with cement blocks of varying sizes. As you walked in the middle the blocks got progressively higher and higher and it got darker and darker. Ironically the memorial was built on the land that used to contain the offices of the Reich Minister of Propaganda, Joseph Goebbels, the man who spear headed the campaign to justify action against non Aryans.
 

Mathis and Chloe

Checkpoint Charlie museum and exhibition.

Mathis with the fake american soldiers

This is one of the universities in Berlin. There are many different vendors selling books here because this is the site where the Nazi's burnt all "non-german" literature in 1933 upon coming into power.

The Neue Jewish synagogue was partially ransacked during Kristallnact but was one of the few Jewish Synagogues to survive the pogrom. Interestingly a German police officer actually stepped in and stopped the SS from completely destroying it. Shortly after the synagogue was no longer allowed to serve as a place of worship for the German Jewish community and the doors were shut for many years. During the war the Neue Synagogue was heavily damaged by allied bombings with the main worship area being completely demolished. Only the front facade remains today however in spite of this many articles have been recovered from the synagogue including these wall hangings  with torah verses and the eternal light. Also recovered was the registry of Jewish families which sadly was taken by the Nazi's and used to track Jewish families.

I'm cool like that w/ my audio guide 

Berlin also has an abundance of non-war related museums. In fact they have an entire island of museums... aka Museum Island. We only scratched the surface of this going to a museum focused on the near east ie. ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and such. Not exactly my cup of tea but it related to coursework at Mathis' school. 

Ancient gate of some marketplace, of some ancient civilization that I forget

Museum Island

#6 The Food

There is really not much that needs to be said here. Berlin food is soooooo good. Snitzel... Curry Wurst... Spatzel...So much to try so little time. Plus the availability of the food and the low prices make it a very appealing city for a budget minded tourist like myself. You can find travelling Bratwurst and Currywurst vendors on all the street corners with a Bratwurst for only 1.5E. 

Even just a simple Tea was awesome coming with fancy sugar and a mini gelato

#7 The Beer

I feel like this probably goes with out saying. You can't really top a city where buying a LITRE of beer is cheaper than a bottle of water. Or where there are countless restaurants that offer over 100 different types of beer. I am not really a huge beer drinker however I enjoy some of the interesting hybrid beers they have - i.e. beer plus lemonade. And this time I tried some Berlinweise. Which is a red or green beer, aka flavored with raspberry or woodruff syrup, and is quite unique and enjoyable. 

#8 - The construction

I have never seen so much construction occurring in one city at one time. We walked for about 10-15 minutes down one street and I swear every building on both sides was under construction. It does detract a bit from the scenery as your views and pictures have cranes and scaffolding in them. However I loved the desire to improve that you could sense as a result. Despite being a massive city Berlin still has lots of infrastructure to be built/repaired because a lot of things were decimated after the war and the bombing of Berlin.  And after the second world war development was further stunted by the division of East and West Germany. Now it is very hard to tell what used to be East verses what used to be West Germany. Berliners are busy making up for lost time and it seems the entire city is under construction. However in their haste to build and upgrade they still preserve vital parts of history for example buildings that survived the war- no matter how damaged are carefully preserved and built around. 

Cranes, Cranes, and more Cranes

New modern cube built on top of old brick building

Church damaged by the bombings but the main facade was salvaged and a new church built next to it.

#9 - The Zoo

the only other Armadillo I've seen was
on  an Alabama roadkill tour

Yes I am a sucker for animals. That goes with out saying. So I was easily impressed by the Berlin zoo as it is massive and had many incredible different species of animals that I have never seen before. They are the most popular zoo in Europe and one of the most popular in the world. We were  keen to go see the Giant Panda as these are a rarity in zoos and Bao Bao is the longest surviving Panda outside of a zoo in Asia. Unfortunately the sign I read that off was a little dated and needs to be updated as Bao Bao WAS the longest surviving Panda having died last year. :(  Ah well it was still a nice light change after lots of museums with heavy subject matter.   

Don't know why it was so entertaining for him but he kept doing it. 

I can almost get past my fear of bears when they are cute and cuddling with a log

Cant wait to see some of these in Thailand

Just chilling

#10 - The Beautiful Architecture

And finally like most cities Berlin has some awe inspiring churches, monuments and buildings. But I  think what I really liked about Berlin was how some of the most beautiful churches or buildings were set apart from the rest of the city. Like the city was built around them while keeping a respectful distance.

Ok so not really the end because I can't help but mention this... #11

#11 - The shopping

My host family introduced me to this thoroughly evil european store called Primark. I usually find European stores much more expensive than at home. Whether this is because they are designer stores or just because they are the same prices as home but in Euros. Not this store though. Everything was soooooo cheap. 95% of things were under 10 euros. I think the most expensive thing I saw was 22 euros. There were shirts for 2 euros, pants for 5 euros, and numerous accessories for 1 Euro. After living out of a suitcase (ok... 2 suitcases) for a month buying some new clothes was just too tempting to pass up. Before I knew it I had a large bag with numerous shirts, socks, a sweater, hair elastics, a pair of pants, a pair of shoes and more all for under 30 Euros. This store was great for my budget but terrible for my already too large carry on bag. I wish it existed in Canada but apparently there is one in Paris so I may have to visit there with Mom and Grandma at Christmas time. 

Ok so maybe 10 was a little overly optimistic, but this is the last one I promise!

#12 - No distracted driving laws

I should probably clarify this. Because I actually do like that our police enforce distracted driving laws (ie. no using a cell phone) as I hope it reduces the amount of people doing stupid shit while driving. And I don't actually know if Germany does or does not have the same policy but I did find it hilarious in Germany as I saw numerous horse drawn carriages being driven by drivers glued to their cell phones. I guess we are trusting the horses to pay attention?

Questionable airport security and preppy pickpockets, Guten Tag Berlin

My host family was nice enough to invite me to go along with them for their family vacation to Berlin. I wasn't really planning on going to Germany on this trip but couldn't turn down a pre-planned partially subsidized vacation. It was nice to just be able to go along for the ride and not have to be the one reading all the travel blogs and figuring out accommodation and transportation. Having not put a lot of effort into researching or planning I really didn't have that high expectations but it seemed that everyone I talked to raved about Berlin so I was willing to give it a shot. The plus side of going back to Germany was that I would be reunited with some of the drinks I discovered the last time in Munich. I do love me some German Radler (aka beer brewed with lemonade).

We drove a couple hours to Nice to take an easy jet flight to Berlin. I can see why Nice is ridiculously expensive. It looked amazing as we drove through and the airport was wedged in a harbour of the beautiful Mediterranean sea with runways launching you over the Alps. We found our gate, snuck my oversized "carry on" bag past the inspection and boarded the plane where we sat, and sat and sat, long past the time we were supposed to depart for Berlin. Suddenly a couple of  armed airport security officers marched on the plane, casually strolled down the isle and grabbed a guy a couple of rows behind us. They made him get up, grab his stuff and marched him on a long embarrassing trip down the aisle and out of the plane with them. There was a long awkward silence followed by the flight attendant making an announcement that there had been a security incident (no shit!) and that in the interest of security post 9/11 all passengers in the rows around his old seat would have to identify their bags. There were several problems with this strategy in my mind. Firstly they announced solely in English, on a plane full of French and German people. So more than half the plane didn't understand the instructions including my host family who I had to attempt  to translate for. Additionally for those who did understand them, referencing 9/11 was not exactly the best way to calm a plane full of anxious passengers. And finally in my mind at least if they legitimately had a security concern with this gentleman and they had allowed him on the plane by mistake I don't think having  a few rows of people point to their bags was a sufficient strategy to safeguard the plane. What if he had stowed a bomb or something in a different overhead cabin or under his seat. I was quite surprised and a little uncomfortable with the fact they let the plane take off with out some sort of additional security sweep. I think we all would have been willing to be delayed and inconvenienced a bit more in the name of safety. But maybe I am just a little paranoid, after all I am here writing this so clearly we made it :)

After that excitement on the plane we landed in Berlin and hopped on the S-Bahn and then U-bahn trains to make it to our hotel.  The S-bahn is the mostly above ground regional train system and the U-bahn is the German equivalent of the metro.

As we traveled there was a nice looking, well dressed guy in a preppy button up sweater who changed compartments on the train and came to stand next to me. This was weird as there were available seats and plenty of space in the compartment he left.  He then proceeded to lean closer and closer to me while looking out the window behind me. This made me uncomfortable so I moved away but didn't really think too much of it and stopped paying attention to him.  Clearly I should have thought more about it as he then proceeded to move towards the door, near Chloe, and when the metro stopped he grabbed her cellphone out of her hand and ran off the train. This is unfortunately common practice in most trams/metros across Europe. It is really quite smart. Why learn pick pocketing skills and risk being noticed when they can just grab a $600 phone out of someone's hand while they scroll through facebook or Huffingtonpost.They usually time it really well too, waiting until the doors are just about to shut so that by the time you  react the the doors have shut, the train is moving, and your phone is long gone.  The same thing happened to a girl in my french class last week on the trams in Montpellier. Luckily for Chloe this guy didn't time it well and as he dashed away he ran into a crowd of people just outside the train one of whom heard her scream and blocked the theif's path. He panicked and threw the phone away before making a break for it. Chloe was able to grab her phone and get back on the train before it left. No harm done except a scratch on her phone and another ominous introduction to Berlin.

Laurence, Chloe, Herve and Mathis on the U-Bahn

The bad luck continued at the hotel where the machines would not accept any one's credit card meaning we had to stand at reception with all our luggage creating a massive line trying and retrying card after card. Embarrassing and time consuming but we managed in the end and FINALLY got into our hotel room. I was exhausted and miserable after the long day and the beginning of a cold that I had been feeling for a couple days chose this day to turn into a full on nose dripping, sinus aching, sneeze inducing germfest. But after dropping our stuff off we headed out to eat and clutching our purses and phones tightly we took the U-bahn to Potzdamer platz.

We came up out of the metro and walked out into the square to find all the buildings and all the streets illuminated with bright colourful lights and beautiful intricate patterns that changed and moved. We were lucky enough to have arrived during the festival of lights and all the different districts of the city were illuminated like this. It was breathtaking and there was such a fun atmosphere as tourists and Berliners alike sat and watched these patterns move across the buildings and listened to music.

Sony Center

Inside the Sony Center

  Just like the fountains at the Bellagio in Vegas I could have sat and watched it for the rest of the night.  But stomachs grumbling we found a nearby restaurant  and sat down to enjoy our first German  meal and first German beer.


The festive atmosphere combined with my Radler was enough to make me forget the day's drama and get excited about the coming days in Berlin. And in the following 5 days Berlin would continue to amaze and make me fall in love with it. Surprisingly I think it ranks up there as one of my favorite cities and there was still lots more to see and do. I will have to follow up with a second blog post tomorrow as there are just too many amazing Berlin sights and experiences to pack into one blog. I am continually surprised with the number of people that seem to be following along (surprisingly not just my parents) and I wouldn't want to push my luck with a 6000 word essay.

We <3 Berlin