Berlin will never be Berlin

I’m back - did you miss me?

Here we are in Berlin, which is actually our third time in Germany and I tell you – the more we see of this country the more we love it. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the Germans are so efficient – everything is great, the food, the beer, the buildings... I love Germany! We’re staying at Circus hostel and like the name suggests, it is circus-themed with each room more bright and beautiful than the last. We’re in a four bedroom hostel but thankfully we don’t see our roommate very much – she’s a bit nocturnal which suits us fine as we don’t have to make small talk and can take over the room at night.

Berlin is out of this world and offers so many different experiences – there really is something for everyone and I could spend weeks here exploring the different nooks and crannies (I hate this saying with a passion which just goes to show how much I love Berlin, if I’m willing to use a repulsive sentence like this to demonstrate my feelings). For example, you have possibly the richest and most interesting history of any nation on this planet, combined with the funkiest alternative scene, as well as the world’s best food, combined with Germany’s efficiency – I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again – I LOVE Germany! If I could speak German and if I could get over the careless attitude cyclist’s have to road safety here (not a helmet in sight), I’d be a Berliner for sure.

After checking in to our hostel last night, we took a wander through a small section of the very large inner city, taking some pretty photos, watching some street performers and picking up a small piece of the Berlin wall as a souvenir for our shelf, before heading to our local restaurant, Fleischerei (German for butcher, which is aptly named as it used to be a renowned butchers back in the day) for some currywurst and pommes frites. Currywurst would be your favourite food Dad and is essentially a huge delicious sausage, with curry sauce and a sprinkling of curry powder – if I could package one up and send it home to you, I’d do so in a second – it’d knock you for six! We had a bit of an early night on account of our 4am bed time the night prior and slept for almost 12 hours solid! It seems sitting on a train all day stuffing our faces really seems to tire oneself!

This morning we practically jumped out of bed on account of our lengthy sleep, where we hit the pavement, anxious not to miss the start of the 11am walking tour. Unfortunately we weren’t so lucky and after stopping for a bagel, there was no way we were going to make it in time, so we decided to walk across town to West Berlin to join the West Berlin walking tour which started an hour and a half later. After walking for an hour through a huge beautiful park in the centre of Berlin, we eventually ended up at the West Berlin walking tour start point, only to be told by the guide that there was no such thing as a West Berlin tour – rather this was just a meeting point where she would take us to the East Berlin tour... So after all that walking, we ended up right back where we had come from – not that I’m complaining as it was a lovely walk, and when you’re eating as much currywurst as we are, a bit of exercise never goes astray!

After the fabulous experiences we have had so far on every single walking tour we have done, I was knocked for six when we met who I thought was going to be our guide for the tour – a budding comedian from the US, who was essentially a female version of Jim Carrey, with even her eyebrows bearing an uncanny similarity to Mr Carrey. I generally like most people (except for little Miss Eyes for Christmas perve at Miss Sophie’s!) so my instant dislike of this tour guide was most surprising, but the thought of spending three hours pretending to smile at jokes which made my toes curl and staring at the ground to avoid making eye contact, almost had me running back into West Berlin, throwing the idea of a walking tour to the wind. Thankfully the group was split up and we managed to luck out with an Italian-Londoner named Leo – he was a real gem and as a result, we experienced the best walking tour yet.

Berlin is the most interesting place we have been and historically speaking so much has happened there. We learnt about everything from the holocaust and the Nazis rise to power, to the Berlin wall – definitely the most interesting tour. A particular highlight for me was visiting the Holocaust memorial which was built in 2005 and cost €25 million. Essentially it is 2711 huge concrete rectangles which have been out at varying heights over roughly 100 metres squared. Despite being very abstract with little explanation around what it’s supposed to represent, it is strangely moving and I found myself feeling quite reflective as we explored it. Compare this huge and eye-catching memorial with the site of Hitler’s bunker, which is literally a car park. The Germans have given no significance to the site whatsoever, nor have they put up any plaque as they in no way want to commemorate or reference his life. To this day you can be charged €5000 for referencing Hitler in any way which may be seen as idolising. Hitler isn’t as so much mentioned over there and is still a very much taboo sort of subject. Just this week a Hitler exhibition opened at the German History Museum which is very much the first of its kind and has been receiving all sorts of media attention. I wanted to check it out, but there was just so much to see and do and far too little time – we’ll be back to Berlin for sure!

Another interesting fact for you – Hugo Boss designed the uniforms of the SS guards and Nazis, which is something that we felt wasn’t as acknowledged as it should be. Upon learning this fact, Cara and I agreed that we now think a little less of Hugo Boss as a designer, to which Brad replied: “I don’t – if it was good enough for Hitler, its good enough for me. I mean he was a fussy, fussy man!”

Another interesting fact for you – Berlin as it is today is only 20 years old, on account of the Berlin Wall which divided the country for 28 years, and is a city which is famous for embracing change. It’s constantly changing, meaning the Berlin we visited was very different five years ago, and will be even more so in another five years. There’s a famous quote which demonstrates this: “Paris will always be Paris, but Berlin will never be Berlin.” It really is an amazing city and certainly the most interesting so far.

After the walking tour we headed to the Pergammon which is a famous museum which houses the Babylonian Gates – that’s right, one of the ancient wonders of the world was seen firsthand by yours truly. It very nearly didn’t happen actually, as after deciding to splash out on the €10 ticket with only an hour before closing we were running around like headless chooks trying to find the gates, only to be told by one of the curators that we had the wrong museum! Thankfully the nice guard at the neighbouring museum let us in just after the cut off time and we were able to see the gates in all their glory!

After our day of museum hopping we were ravenous – being so intellectual and cultural really takes it out of you – so we headed back to the hospital to look up a few suggested restaurants, where we managed to hit gold on a little place called ‘White Trash Fast Food’ – so funky and so Berlin. Just writing about it makes my mouth water and we had the biggest, most delicious burgers we’ve ever tasted, followed by a desert the size of a newborn baby! Right up my street! The only fly in the ointment was that we were seated beside a German family, who had the most disgustingly fat child we have ever seen. We named him Augustus as he bore an uncanny resemblance to the greedy chub in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and just watching him devour his mountain of food was enough to curb the appetites of even the hungriest of African children!

After our long and leisurely dinner we headed back to spend some valuable time blogging (see even in the most exciting of cities, you’re all always top of mind) and reading our books.

Aren’t we lovely?

xx