Berlin: Un Cuento de Dos Ciudades

We spent the most time in Berlin; a complete week.  At first glance, it was a great amount of time where we could relax and get to know the city.  Compared to all of the other cities, however, it was a long period of time for sight seeing.  We were located in a great location as we were near Checkpoint Charlie: a border crossing between East and West Germany.  Although the countries weren't actually in power, the two countries had it manned until 1989 when the wall fell.

On our first day, we went and bought essentials: food (as to not spend too much money), shaving cream and a razor (because I had a beard or as close as I had ever gotten to having one), and we did laundry.  On the second day, we decided to do another walking tour of Berlin.  It was a tour that was supposed to last 3 hours that ended up taking 5.  We walked all over Berlin, which is a big city, and learned so much history about the Prussian Kingdom and, obviously, about World War II.  Berlin has an incredible history in such a short period of time and we didn't even mind that the tour ended late; it was free!  We even continued afterwards.

Our tour guide asked if anyone wanted to get beers after the tour and most of us said yes and we grabbed beers and headed towards the river right in front of the giant cathedral.  Our tour guide even called it the real Berlin experience because it is a common activity for young people and we were participating in it.  We found out that Berlin is an extremely international city.  Our tour guide was Irish and we met an Australian, another American, a Canadian, and two actual Germans.  It was an incredible night and a great way to start to our week.

The next night, we participated in a bar crawl after we climbed the Radisson Hotel to get the best view of the city.  This recommendation was actually made by our tour guide because you see all of the monuments for 10€ less than the famous Televison Tower and the TV Tower even shows in the pictures.  We timed it perfectly as when we were leaving the top it started to downpour and we ran to the metro.  By the time that we exited the metro, it had stopped raining and we made it back to our hostel to prepare for the bar crawl.  We stayed out until 4 AM which was late for some of us, but we had a blast.  It was incredible because while we were walking back to the hostel, the sun was coming out and we took a picture at Checkpoint Charlie with the lilac sky in the background.

We didn't think that we would want to do anything the next day, but we went walking by a strip of the Berlin wall that gave you an insight for Jews before and during the war and then the Berliners after the war.  It's incredible what other humans do to each other and this was in the 20th Century!

Now, if you haven't traveled with me, you might not know that I love castles and palaces.  I guess I just see them as potential future houses.  It turns out that a 40 minute train ride from Berlin is a town that has a garden of palaces that were either used by the royalty or used as summer homes.  We spent the majority of the day there seeing the gardens and the palaces, but we only went in one of them: the New Palace.  This was the last residence of the Prussian Kings before they were exiled to the Netherlands.  It reminded me a lot of Versaille and the Vienna Palace meaning that there was a clear sense of luxury and money put into the design.  It would make a great second house.

After the palaces, we decided to get dinner at the best kebab place in Berlin at a restaurant called Mustafa's.  It's lest of a restaurant and more of a stand and we're not talking about shish kebob, we're talking about pita bread full of shaved meat, lettuce, and sauces.  Well, in this particular stand, you bring your 3€ and not only do they include the original ingredients, they stuff it with peppers, eggplant, and add a spicy sauce.  It was one of the best kebabs I've had in my life and I ate them a lot in Spain.

Sometimes surprises happen and you just have to go with it.  This instance happened our last full day in Berlin.  We had climbed the Reichstag (German Parliament) and didn't know what we were going to do for dinner.  As luck would have it, one of the directors of my study abroad program saw that I was in Berlin and she invited us to Spanish tapas for dinner.  Obviously, I was over the moon.  This was an authentic Spanish experience where all of the employees are natives.  The food was magnificent and cheap.  It brought back memories of Spain and for a second I forgot in what country I was.  I even got to practice my Spanish although only sentences here and there as Emma doesn't know the language. I was in heaven.

REflecting back on Berlin, it was definitely a livable city as in I could see myself living there.  It would come in a close second to Spain as a place where I could see myself.  Maybe if they had more authentice Spanish tapas...