I wasn’t as nervous as the first one bus ride! I made my way down to the pick up hostel (Flying Pig UPTOWN) making sure I arrived at a reasonable time. There were a few people there already waiting this time thank goodness haha! A few more solo travellers this time as well! Our guide came and introduced herself and took us all up to the bus. We all got talking a little bit and then the bus driver and guide told everyone to get rid of any substances that may be illegal in other countries haha!!! As we were crossing the German border today, they sometimes do checks of our belongings because they know we’ve come from Amsterdam.
The day itself was a little uneventful, no optional stops on this leg, just a bunch of petrol station stops. We were able to form a nice little group on the bus though and I made friends with two other awesome solo travellers named Alice and Steff!
When we arrived in Berlin we all agreed to meet up back at the hostel lobby for the happy hour drinks and we’d wander out to find some food! So we all checked in and got settled. Everyone except for Alice was staying in the recommended pick up/drop off hostel called citystay (pretty terrible – I’ll give a review later). There were already two amazing girls checked into the hostel when I got there named Samara and Stephanie! Even though I didn’t really get much of a chance to properly hang out with them during my time in Berlin, I still saw them a lot in the hostel room and they’re still two of the nicest and more impressionable girls I met on my travels! It’s just crazy sometimes that the people you meet when travelling can have such an affect on you in such a short amount of time.
So I met up with the group again in the lobby that evening, we all had a few drinks, got to know each other. The boys got pretty rowdy on their cheap beers and we went out searching for some food. We didn’t get far until we found a weird take-away place that was probably the worst pace we could have chosen in the entire city but everyone thought it was hilarious and cheap enough to dine there haha! Got some pizza slices, burgers, chips etc. We then went back to the hostel to try and get some rest for a big day of adventuring tomorrow and a pub crawl for Alice and I.
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So my first day in Berlin started off with a good old fashioned walking tour that I’d booked through busabout with some other passengers.
They took us around to a lot of the main sights, with a lot of them being world war II history related. We went to museum island, the Berlin cathedral, the war memorial, the book burning memorial, past a few important and historical buildings including the catholic church built by the protestants to thank the catholics for building them their own church haha. Then we went over to check-point Charlie, the old remnants of the actual Berlin wall, “Hitler’s bunker,” the Holocaust memorial and the Brandenburg gate. The walking tour was probably one of the better ones I’d done in my travels and was certainly excellent to see a lot of things you normally wouldn’t and learn about their history and how it ties into the cities history. Unfortunately you just don’t get a chance for many good photos or to properly explore places without having to go back.
After the tour ended, Alice (another solo traveller from the bus) and I decided to venture down to the Eastside to check out the East Side Gallery, which is where artists have painted murals onto the “Berlin wall” – I can’t remember if it’s actually the wall or just a fake re-build for the gallery. Anyway it stretches along the river for a while and once it ends you can cross this huge beautiful bridge over the river. Over this side of the city you can really feel the communist culture, even in the architecture and people.
We crossed the river to check out this bar called white trash fast food on the recommendation of our busabout guide heading in. We got a drink and some chips but I think the place wasn’t as cool as it may be during the night when bands are playing and it looked a little run down even considering it’s meant to. Another recommendation was the try burgermeister which is a little burger bar that has been built inside a really old public toilet block and is notorious for having a 1-2 hour long wait time. Fortunately we must have come just between lunch and dinner (5pm) as in total we only had to wait 20 minutes for our burgers and holy shit I probably could have waited 2 hours and still been stoked with what I got. BEST BURGER EVER!!!!!!!! and I mean EVER!!!!!!!!!!! Every single element on that thing was treated with the utmost respect, cooked to perfection and assembled at the perfect ratio to the other ingredients. It was all so fresh and heavenly. I could go back to Berlin JUST for this burger. If you don’t make this place a PRIORITY visit and commit to waiting then honestly I feel like you were never even in Berlin at all.
Then we went back to the hostel to get ready for tonight as we were going on a pub crawl!! My first one in Europe :)! We unfortunately chose to go on a night that was different to everyone else on the bus so we didn’t get to hang out with them all but because Alice had a bus to catch and I had a train to catch to Hamburg we chose to go tonight so we could rest tomorrow. It was still a good night anyway as a whole topdeck bus was on the crawl and everyone was really nice and welcoming to us lone wolves. I don’t remember a whole lot from the evening haha, we did visit some really cool and quirky bars but I didn’t feel like we had enough time to enjoy them before having to leave for the next place. Didn’t get back until like 4am and hardly slept much or well before I was awake again and decided to try and make the most of my day.
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Day 2 was a complete struggle for me given my awful hangover. It was like the kind of hangover you get when you’re really scattered and can’t concentrate or contemplate anything haha.
I went to the Holocaust museum first and I walked all the way there, which was only half an hour, but it felt like 3 hours because of my condition hahah. Had to wait in a bit of a line to get into the actual museum which is under the memorial. It was a good experience but I wasn’t able to concentrate very well on what I was actually reading so it was hard to “enjoy” – if that’s even the word you would use to describe the experience.
Afterwards I went over to the Topography of Terror museum which is situated behind the original remnants of the Berlin wall. This was an even harder thing to concentrate on because there was SO MUCH READING. It basically details and I mean DETAILS the entire timeline of how Hitler began garnering support and power and then how the SS came to be and the awful things they did. I was SO scattered that when I tried thinking about how I would get back to the hostel, I became so overwhelmed that I started crying and had to sit down in the fetal position in the corner to get myself together and make my way over to a park bench outside to have a quick power nap. After my power nap I had enough energy to walk back to the hostel again because public transport is way too difficult in Berlin haha.
These two museums are really interesting though and in a better frame of mind I’d have gotten a lot out of them. There’s a lot of information in them and I’d honestly say the Holocaust museum did more for me than Anne Frank’s House. Berlin has so many museums both art and historical wise it’s hard to choose which ones to visit and some are better than others. Our walking tour guide did say that these two were the better of the war museums.
After I had a solid 2 hour nap at the hostel I went back out again to explore inside and climb the dome of the Berlin Cathedral. The cathedral itself was incredibly beautiful inside, with lots of pink marble and gold everywhere. The view from the dome was SPECTACULAR. Only like 8 euros to go inside and climb the dome so I would highly recommend this experience!
After this I went to Alexanderplatz square to do a little bit of shopping and wandering around. Got some little sweet treats and a multi-usb charger, which is something I would definitely recommend putting high up on your list of things to bring with you.
I had a kebab for dinner from the markets and food square close to the hostel, which was really delicious! Berlin is known to have great kebab shops. Had a quiet night tonight given my state and I had to be up quite early to get a cross country train to Hamburg.
Next up is day 3 which takes me to Hamburg and day 4, back in Berlin but going out to Potsdam.
Lydia Wilson 