Last weekend, I was a Berliner

Okay, three weekends ago now. Also, a warning for those afraid of wikipedia holes: This post is a wikipedia vortex. Enjoy.

It was more than a weekend, actually, we were there for four days. And boy, did we do tourism. I mean it. We spent every morning (including the day we arrived) taking advantage of the hostel’s free and strong wifi signal and actually worked. Once that was done, though, we were motivated tourists full of hustle and curiosity.

Things we saw: Checkpoint Charlie, the Brandenburg Gate, bits of the Wall, the Sony Center, the Reichtag, the East Side Gallery, TV Tower, Berliner Dom, the Book Burning Memorial, the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Jewish Museum, the Bauhaus museum, the Memorial for Victims of War and Tyranny, the New Synagogue, Hitler’s bunker, the old SS Headquarters, and of course tons of squares, churches, and other beautifully rebuilt buildings.

A quick plug: We did two walking tours with NewEurope, one free and one paid. I also did one of their walking tours in Ireland in February. Seriously, seriously, if you are ever in a city where they are operating, DO IT. The tour guides are consistently entertaining, knowledgeable, and the tours are really complete and fascinating. I’m going to try to squeeze in one or two in Edinburgh before my time there is up, and hopefully several more on the continent. /commercial break.

So, what did I think of Berlin? Well, the honest truth is that the first few hours we spent walking around the city, I really didn’t love it. It was my first trip to Eastern Europe and I guess I hadn’t really thought too much about what to expect. The architecture was so remarkably stark, the buildings might as well have had huge neon hammer and sickle logos on them. There was unkempt parkland, dirty streets, and a feeling of unclaimed urban-ness.

But that was just the first few hours. Pretty soon, we started to see some really cool things. Then the things got cooler and older. Then we started to learn some things, and then we drank some beer. Needless to say, by the end of the weekend my opinion of Berlin had completely turned around. For the record, Paul liked it from the start. He has a thing about post-communist places.

Other things that we loved were the hostel that was actually a boat in the river, the church that didn’t get rebuilt, and the neighborhood crepe restaurant near where Pat was staying. More soon!