Day 4 in Berlin took me out to Potsdam on another optional activity I booked through busabout. I’d met two other lovely girls who were travelling on busabout too but came in on the bus after me and were doing the Potsdam tour as well! Then there were two other girls again that were taking the tour too that were on busabout so we had a nice little group going for the day.
Potsdam is where the old royal history of Germany lies as well as a bit of communist history after Germany was split up. We got to see a few castles and the bridge of spies. It was really interesting actually to hear how the monarchy came to disintegrate in Germany after world war 1, laying path for Hitler to come and bring on world war 2, then the communist era. Germany sure has been through alot and I felt like Potsdam was at the heart of it all.
The tour was actually one of the best ones I’d done in Europe because it was slow enough paced that you had a chance to explore and take photos but you also covered a lot of ground and learnt so much. There’s even a funny story about King Frederick II. He is known as the potato king because he tricked the local people into eating and enjoying potatoes during a famine by making them think they were eating his sacred royal food. People even put potatoes on his grave at his palace!
After the tour finished I did a mad rush over to museum Island to see if I could punch out a few museums in an hour and a half (I know, I’m insane). I just didn’t have time to see any of them on the other days and I was a bit disappointed about that considering Germany is meant to have a lot of excellent pieces from the war. I asked for a ticket for the whole island which is something you can get and visit all of the museums in the area. The man got angry at me and said you know they close in an hour!?!?! Why get a pass for all?!?!?!?! And I was like you don’t know me old man haha. I visited Pergamonmuseum, Neues Museum and Alte Nationalgalerie within the hour and a half and I could have done Altes Museum as well but they stop letting you in 15 minutes before closing. If I could do my time again I would do Altes museum instead of the others as I’m not that crash hot on the old Egyptian stuff. The art gallery was BEAUTIFUL though!!
I met up with all the other girls from the Potsdam tour for a nice dinner at one of those tourist trap places. The food was okay but nothing to rave home about. I just got a pepperoni pizza. When I got back to the hostel there was another girl who had just arrived on the busabout bus named Sarah. All of us girls in the hostel room (6 of us now) stayed up so late just laughing and chatting it was so nice! Sarah was catching the bus with me in the morning along with a girl from the Potsdam tour and also Steff from the bus on the way into Berlin as she went too hard at the pub crawl and missed the bus she was meant to catch that left 2 days beforehand!! But that’s okay because it meant our schedules lined up a little bit more and I got to hang out with her in some places!
To wrap up Berlin I have to say that despite its rich history and unusual vibe it probably isn’t somewhere I would go back to (only for burgermeister). I know this is an unpopular opinion because everyone I meet LOVES Berlin and don’t get me wrong I enjoyed every aspect of my time here and I would highly recommend visiting as it’s super great but I just didn’t fall in love with it like I did other places. Maybe I’m more drawn to architecture and unfortunately the war kind of destroyed most of Berlin’s buildings. But I had a wonderful time, there’s a quirky vibe here that’s between modern, hip and old fashioned and I learnt so much more about history.
Alright my next post will be my bus trip to PRAGUE!!! – Spoiler alert – MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN EUROPE! I’m thinking to fill it up a little more I might make a list of the hostels I stayed at and my reviews of them. I know I mentioned earlier that this one in Berlin was the worst I stayed at so I’ll tell you why in there.
Lydia Wilson 