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Berlin

  • Writer: Connie Mott
    Connie Mott
  • Jun 5, 2017
  • 5 min read

Berlin is my favorite city I've ever been to. Hands down. Let me tell you about my week and why it made its way into my heart.

I took a trip to Berlin with a group I'm part of in Paris (read my posts about Paris and Berlin to learn about it!) During the week, we were lucky enough to stay with friends living in Berlin and having the cost of our meals covered as well!

Let me start with the day I left. My flight left Paris at 6:10, which of course means that you have to arrive at the airport an hour early, and means I have to leave my house an hour earlier than that, which means I have to wake up an hour earlier than that. You get the picture. Needless to say I was exhausted by the time I got to my gate. The flight had been overbooked and for whatever remarkable reason, I was lucky enough to be moved up to Business Class. I had an aisle seat in row one with a clear view to the cockpit. What a great start, right? I was trying to convince the people around me that I belonged in Business class but then we were served a beautiful breakfast and I broke my cool to take a picture. They knew.

After a brief connection, I arrived in Berlin! (Paris to Berlin is a two-hour flight so I have no idea why they needed a connection) Tegel Airport is so unique because it's actually in the city of Berlin. It took me fifteen minutes by bus to get to the center of the city. This was extremely fortunate for me because my flight landed at 10:15 and there was an event at the Brandenburg Tor at 11:00. I ended up making it just minutes before it started.

Every year Germany celebrates the Evangelical church establishment with a weekend of festivities. Every year the city changes and this year it just so happened to be in Berlin. On the weekend I was visiting. They have concerts and events throughout the city all weekend but the one I really wanted to see was the interview with Obama and Merkel. Obama is, of course, the former president of the US and Merkel is the current chancellor of defense of Germany. The focus of the talk was meant to reach out to the young generation (my generation) and encourage political involvement. Although a lot of what was said was encouraging everyone to treat all human beings with respect.

You can see the Brandenburg Tor in the back there. The Brandenburger Tor is probably the most symbolic part of this city. It served as the entrance to old Berlin and later served as part of the wall between the East and West. The statue on top also has a fun history. It used to point toward the East as a sign of peace but was later turned (by Hitler) to face the West as a symbol of his thirst for power and conquest.

Right next to this gate is the Reichstag, which is the house of parliament. Fun fact. The German flag in front of this building is called The Flag of Unity, which is a symbol of the reunification of East and West Germany. Across the park, there’s the Chancellery also known as the washing machine. Because it looks like a huge washing machine. This serves as the head executive office of the Chancellor of Germany. It’s function is similar to that of the White house but Fun fact! This is bigger than the US White House.

As I said we were here with a group and next we went to meet up with them. Their office/workshop was in a really cool part of town and we spent a lot of our time here. This is the amazing street it was located on.

So the big Berlin tourist area is Alexanderplatz. The train station is very central and you can find a large shopping area and the radio tower. The radio tower. Let me tell you about this ugly thing. It was built in 1969 and is apparently the tallest tower in Europe. “Taller than the Eiffel tower?” Apparently! We had the opportunity to view this thing from almost every angle and a good view of it does not exist. Another fun fact: at the base of the tower, there is a museum called Menschen Museum where they use real animals to demonstrate different muscles and bones and other anatomical things. It’s basically a museum of your university anatomy class. Another cool piece of art (?) is the world clock. This has the major cities (of the time it was built in 1989) and tells you what time it is there. Comparatively. It’s actually an astronomical clock and the planets (on top) constantly rotate to move the clock forward. It’s a cool piece and apparently only tourists take photos of it. See below my tourist photo! Another noteworthy piece of tourism is Checkpoint Charlie. Everyone was so excited to take the American to see Checkpoint Charlie, and to be fair I was actually really eager to see it.

I have a terrible quality group selfie in front of the actual checkpoint but unfortunately this is the better quality.

Berlin is super interesting because of its complicated history. It's so complex because nobody knows whether to keep or destroy the symbols of hate and division. It’s an old town but so much of it is modern and still under construction! Apparently it’s always under construction. Obviously during the war, so many of the old buildings were destroyed. You could see a huge and modern street and then you’ll see one building that’s really old and holds a huge historical significance. For example, this is the New Synagogue and it holds a huge history. It was set fire during the Kristallnacht and faced many occupations and bombings, which left the building badly damaged but not destroyed. After everything, only the façade remained. A new synagogue was built with the remaining front wall and a reconstructed dome.

The week we came, the weather was absolutely perfect. Sunday morning, we spent the morning at the lake for some swimming and relaxing. I didn’t bring a suit but we were told (literally as we were walking to the lake) that this was a nudist park. I still didn’t want to swim nearly that badly so I spent the morning reading.

We had such an array of food in Berlin which I assume is symbolic for how diverse the city is. We had indian, falafel, thai, kebab, and even the Bavarian food we had was considered foreign. Now let’s talk about drinks… The beer is amazing, of course. There’s something called Raddler. This is beer mixed with lemonade and for some reason people love it. It’s not that great. Or at least I don’t care for it. Another drink we have to talk about is Mate. This is a Berlin favorite and again, for some reason people love it. The first time you try Mate, it tastes a bit like feet mixed with vinegar… It absolutely grows on you though. I left after my week in berlin obsessed with it. It’s so refreshing and gives a huge kick of caffeine. “The coke of Berlin.” Direct quote from a native Berliner so take that how you will.


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