When we woke up this morning it was pouring rain. Prague was obviously sad that we were leaving…and so were we! It was also Adams last day with us, he had to get to the airport around noon and our bus to Berlin wasn’t until 6pm so we stored our bags at the hostel and decided to hit up the Tim Burton exhibit in Old Town Square before we parted ways. Aside from the rather rude lady at the counter, and the fact we couldn’t take any photos (but you know we snuck one anyway), the exhibit itself was awesome. It showcased quite a large amount of “behind the scenes” of Tim Burtons work. If you haven’t guessed by now, we’re both into the dark and twisty stuff, so it should be no surprise that Tim Burton is one of our absolute favorites. He certainly lived up to our expectations too, there were literally hundreds of sketches drawn with different mediums on everything from easel paper to cocktail napkins, each one a masterpiece of it’s own. There were quick concepts, storyboards, and even a personal letter to Johnny Depp about certain lines in one of the movies! It was absolutely worth every penny.
After that it was time for Adam to leave, so we went back, grabbed our bags and said our goodbyes. We were able to kill a couple of hours with the free WIFI at Starbucks before making our way to the bus station for our bus to Berlin! We travelled through the company Eurolines; it was really cheap and it was really nice! Plenty of leg room, outlets and free water/crackers! I fell asleep pretty shorty after leaving (if that tells you anything about the comfort level) but apparently it was a pretty cool ride with lots to see (hey when you need sleep, you sleep right?). The whole journey took less than 5 hours, which was nice, and we somehow navigated our way through the German Metro (with the help of google maps) to our hostel: St. Christopher’s. We checked in around 11:30pm and were greeted with a large and bustling bar and restaurant located right downstairs, this is definitely a handy amenity.
We were hoping that the rain would stop by the time we woke up in the morning, but sadly it was just as miserable. Not wanting to waste the day, we made a couple friends (shoutout to Mary and Cesar from Argentina and James from Seattle) during breakfast and all braved the rain together to walk down to the Pergamon Museum on “Museum Island” –a place where several different museums each with their own themes are located. As always, there was some seriously amazing architecture and we were able to see a lot of artifacts from the Byzantine Empire and Ancient Greece, which was pretty cool. I even found a statue of Artemis (which, for those who don’t know me, is who I named my cat after: Artemis the Greek Goddess of the Hunt) After we became museum-ed out, trust me, it’s a thing, we grabbed lunch at the hostel’s restaurant and braved the rain yet again to run to the mall for a few essentials. By that evening everyone kind of realized the weather wasn’t getting any better, so the downstairs bar was pretty hoppin. We met an awesome duo (hey Sev and Travis!) who were doing the opposite trip we were…we had a great night which even included a very late night run to the Doner Kebob place down the street for our very first…and very last currywurst experience. Apparently it’s a thing here in Germany, essentially a hotdog covered in ketchup and curry. Needless to say, it’s not really our thing….but at least we tried, right?
The next day Steph wasn’t feeling that well, so while she rested, I left with my friend Mike to do some Berlin exploring. He has been here before, so luckily it was like having a personal tour guide. We first headed to the famous Brandenburg Gates, or the ” gates to Berlin” and right around the corner was the Jewish Holocaust Memorial and Museum which we entered. The memorial consisted of 2000+ large grey blocks, each one slightly different. Some were the height of a coffee table and some towered 5 feet above our heads, all laid out in a grid like pattern, meant to remember and recognize all the individual victims of that horrible time. The museum, located underneath the memorial was also quite well done. The designers split it into several rooms, each with a theme. They had one room where they laid out several letters and notes from some of the victims, some of which were thrown outside of the transport trains. Another room focused on a number of specific families, and described what happened to each member of the family, which emphasized how families were torn apart, it was heartbreaking to read. The last room was meant to be a powerful one. It was just a black room where every 10 seconds or so, a single name would show up on the wall and a recording played a sentence or two telling who they were and what happened to them. A small sign in the corner of the room indicated that it would take over 7 years to hear all the names listed.
Almost ironically. the spot were Hitler died was about 50 feet from the memorial location. It used to be a barracks where Hitler retreated to when he figured out he was going to lose, but since that time it was sealed, collapsed, and instead is nothing but an ordinary parking lot, only indicated by a sign in the corner.
Across the street was an entrance to Berlin’s version of Central Park, so we walked through it, stopping at various monuments and statues until we reached the Victory Column. Once we realized that you could climb up to the top, you bet your butt we climbed all 282 steps to the very top (yes, I did count every step) and had an awesome birds eye view of Berlin. I HIGHLY recommend it! By the time we made it down, it was getting late, and pretty cold so we met up with Steph and indulged ourselves in a very famous Beergarden: the Hofbrauhaus where they serve beer by the liter. yes. that’s correct. I had a liter-sized mug of beer, along with perhaps the single best sirloin steak we’ve EVER had, no exaggeration. It was also the biggest restaurant I’ve ever been to, and our waiter informed us at capacity it sits 1400–and this one is about 1/3 the size of the original Hofbrau located in Munich! I can’t even imagine what the chefs and bartenders have to deal with….but we had a great time. Definitely worth every penny.
We got back late, met more friends (whaddup Colin and Tom?!) because what else do you do at hostels, and decided to all hit the town together the next night! Woohoo!
We got up fairly early the next morning so we could take Steph to he gates and the memorial before we all went on the “Third Reich Tour” which was a 3+ hour walking tour that brought us through the history of the Third Reich as it relates to Berlin. It was extremely informative and it was also an awesome way to see Berlin! We saw the foundation of the SS and Gestapo headquarters, fragments of the Berlin Wall and many war memorials along with walking the city streets. Our tour guide was an awesome guy who never made you feel overwhelmed with the amount of information we were receiving.
After the tour we made a BADLY NEEDED trip to the laundromat. Our clothes could have probably walked themselves there at that point, so it was pretty bad. Oh the joys of backpacking 🙂
CLEAN CLOTHES ARE SUCH A NICE LUXURY
We got back with enough time to grab a quick bite, change and meet our friends downstairs to hit the town! Steph ended up opting out so me and the four boys headed out, attempting to walk to the “it club” Tressor. After getting lost and waiting in a very long line, we ended up getting denied. Well, I didn’t get denied, but the boys did because they were boys and I was NOT about to go in without them, so all they way back we went. What a bust. #denied…
guess there’s a first for everything!
Because we can’t have anything go completely smoothly, there was a rather unfortunate computing error that double booked our beds so we ended up having to change rooms the next morning. If you’ve ever backpacked before, you know how annoying it is to pack up your bag, so we got pretty frustrated. They ended up compig our rooms though, so I guess it worked itself out. It was also our last full day in Berlin and we wanted to see separate things, so we split. Steph walked the city streets and found a TON of awesome cafés and markets, while James, Mike and I headed to the East Side Gallery to check out the artwork painted on the Berlin Wall. While there, we noticed a sign for a craft brew festival that happened to be going on that day so after asking about 20 different people, finally managed to locate it! What could be better than attending a Craft Beer Festival In Germany?! I was pretty excited to say the least. We wandered through the tents and tried as many as we possibly
could, from whites to wheats, lagers to ales, and even some high percentage IPAs. My favorite was called the “Holy Shit Ale” boasting a rockin 10.2%, which is more than Heady Topper (go Vermont!)! The hot sun wasn’t helping with the fact that we were sampling a significant amount of craft beers, so after a couple hours we decided we had better get home while we still had some sense about us, smart, eh? don’t worry, we made it back without any trouble, met back up with steph, grabbed some dinner and headed off to bed since we have an 8am bus to catch.
We are all in agreement, Berlin is definitely one of our favorite spots!
Pardon, J'suis American.. 