Berlin 27-28 July 2010

Berlin 27-28 July 2010

On first impression Berlin seemed a bit bland. The post war reconstruction gave the city a uniform look that had no resemblance to Prague, Vienna and Budapest. Although knackered I forced myself to go straight out sightseeing once I arrived in the early afternoon. Went down to the Brandenburg gate and sat outside the Reichstag for a while….pretty sweet had been wanting to go there for ages. The holocaust memorial was one of the cooler things ive seen on the trip. A grid of different size concrete blocks forming an endless maze. It somehow seemed to sum up the magnitude of the horrors of the event, although most people there were using it as a playground and playing hide and seek…oh well everyone greaves in there own way I guess.

Then decided to walk to 2km or so through the park to the Siegessule. It was hard work and my reward for my efforts was a monument entirely covered in scaffolding…..gutted Went to take a photo then decided it was pointless…Spent the rest of the evening wandering around town near the hostel and looking for a supermarket to by a few cheap beers…

That night got chatting to some girls from the uk and Us in the hostel bar, and got some good tips on things to see the next day. Had an earlyish night….. the hostel bar was dead and no one seemed to want to go out.

Next day started at checkpoint Charlie and saw a moving free exhibition on the Berlin wall that lined the streets there. Following that I wandered around town and then spent the afternoon in the German History Museum, located on the impressive museum island. A really cool summary of the history of Germany from Celtic times up to reunification. The area around the museum had survived the bombing and you could get an idea of the former grandeur of the city.

That evening met a cool guy from Amsterdam by way of Sarajevo called Zlatan, who was staying in my room. He had been to Berlin many times before and upon discovering we had similarly eclectic music tastes, he recommended a few things to check out that night. We went to an artists squat/studio/bar that made tactile bosche/chappybar look like Owens’s after school art club. A really cool place…… Next stop was a folk gig where we met some girls from the hostel… when the DJ played Pavement after the performance finished knew I was in a good place!!….After a few more beers headed to a Minimalist Techno club to finish the night….. A cool little grimy smokey place a cab ride away. Interesting club with good music. Ended up meeting a nice German girl called Alex and her friends and had a good chat about life as the sun rose over the Club which continued to pump out the beats well into the morning ….turned into a gud’un…..didn’t get back to the hostel till 15mins before check out the next day after trying not to get caught riding the tubes without a ticket…

All and all a cracking time in Berlin…was interesting to be in a place that has had so much history in the last 70 years. The night out was one of the best of the trip in terms of the variety and met some cool locals who insisted I had to come back again for longer. Got the impression I had just scratched the surface of what Berlin had to offer but it was time to press on to Amsterdam…………..