My Time as a Berliner Bear

In order to fully understand my trip to Berlin, you must first understand the story behind Friday night. Daniela turned 21 last week, and she wanted to go out on Friday to celebrate. This turned out to not only be a birthday celebration, but also an engagement celebration. Her boyfriend from the US arrived in Hamburg that morning with an engagement ring and proposal in tow. So, we went out, we celebrated, we came home, and we slept. Unfortunately, because we live so far from downtown, we had only had 3.5 hours of sleep before we had to head back into the city to catch our 8:30am train. So, we started off the weekend somewhat exhausted.

After a short two hour train ride, we arrived in Berlin (where we were greeted with crystal clear skies and temperatures in the mid 60s!). When we got to our hostel, we realized that we were both way too exhausted to lead our own sight seeing tour. So, we hopped on a free tour that left from our hostel. This was the first guided tour we've done since being in Europe, so I was a little worried. What if it was boring? Or what if we didn't get to see everything we wanted to? Turns out, my concerns were all for naught. We had this vivacious tour guide who was born and raised in (can you guess?) Boston! I never thought I'd talk to a fellow Bostonian in Germany. Anyways, she had a crazy personality and made sure the tour was low key and fun. Heck, at the beginning of the tour she brought us to a roadside stand for a "beer break." She told us a lot about the history of Berlin and introduced us to the more artsy, offbeat side of the city.

Our first stop on the tour was Museum Island, which is a cluster of 5 museums in Berlin. In front of Museum Island is a large open park known as Lustgarten. This area is famous because of the speeches Hitler gave here before WWII. It is also home to the Berliner Dom, which was once the royal courts church. Just to give you an idea of what our tour guide was like, she stopped us in a sandy area next to Lustgarten and drew a picture of Germany in the sand with a pen. This was her way of giving us background information on Germany before we started the tour. Sweet? I think so. Afterwards, we took a walk down Unter Dem Linden which is one of Berlin's most well-known street. It houses Humboldt University (famous for producing 29 Nobel Prize winners and having Albert Einstein as a professor), the Royal Palace, and a memorial in remembrance of the Nazi Book Burning. At the end of Unter Dem Linden is one of Berlin's most famous landmarks - The Brandenburger Tor.

Berliner Dom and Lustgarten - the site of many famous
speeches given by Hitler

Altes Museum - one of the five museums comprising
Museum Island. You can still see some of the damage
caused during WWII in the pillars. 

Humboldt University - home to 29 Nobel Prize Winners

Denkmal zur Erinnerung an die Bücherverbrennung - monument
commemorating the burning of 20,000 books on the night of
May 10, 1933. You can't see it in the picture, but below the
glass window is a room filled with empty bookshelves. 

Brandenburger Tor

Even though we saw a lot of historical buildings on the tour, our tour guide also kept things interesting by showing us the more random sights of Berlin. For example, apparently the city of Berlin numbers every single one of its trees. The tree and its associated number is then put into a Baumkataster (Tree Registry) and kept on record. So, of course, our quirky tour guide brought us to tree #1. She also brought us to her favorite chocolate store where they sold sample packs for 99 cent. Obviously, we all went in and got ourselves our very own sample pack! Each packet contained 8 pieces of chocolate with varying levels of cocoa. As expected, I greatly disliked the chocolates with higher cocoa levels. Dark Chocolate = Blah!

City Tree #1

A boiling chocolate lava cake

We also visited many WWII and Cold War historical sites. First up : Charlie Checkpoint. The Charlie Checkpoint was once the main gateway for Allies, non-Germans, and diplomats to cross between the Soviet sector and American sector of Berlin. [Side note : The Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961 to separate the members and beliefs of West Berlin from those of East Berlin and East Germany] Our visit to this site ended up being really hilarious. Our tour guide promptly informed us that the "guards" in front of the checkpoint were were actually male strippers hired as actors during the day. She also pointed out all of the inaccuracies surrounding the American soldier on the billboard. Apparently, he has multiple ranks in the military as well as metals from wars that had not been fought yet. Either way, it was painfully obvious that the checkpoint is just a place for tacky tourists such as myself to stop and take pictures. We also visited a section of the Berlin Wall, Hitler's Bunker, and Hitler's old office building. Hitler's old office was torn down after the war, and an apartment complex and Chinese restaurant now reside in the space. Hilarious, yeah?

Charlie Checkpoint - The most famous checkpoint between
East and West Berlin

Male strippers pose as guardes during the day

Part of the Berlin Wall

The location of Hitler's old office building. Anyone care for
some Chinese food?

At the end of the day, we visited the "Memorial to the Murdered European Jews" and the Reichstag, or Germany's parliament. Ordinarily, you can climb to the top of the Reichstag dome for free, but a large election was taking place in Berlin that weekend. Thus, the building was off limits to all visitors. That was kind disappointing, but I guess it gives me a reason to return! That night, we hung out with some fellow Americans we meet on the tour. We started the night by getting dinner at this really cool restaurant. When we walked in, we saw a ton of televisions with stock market figures flashing across the screen. Apparently, the price of beer and alcohol changed based upon what was being ordered at the bar. So, it was literally a stock market of alcohol. We weren't there when this happened, but the stock market can "crash," causing alcohol prices to plummet. Super random, but really cool. Afterwards, we went to an Irish pub in celebration of St. Patrick's Day. For the second night in a row, I got very little sleep. This time I think I punched in at about 1 hour of sleep. So, needless to say, I was dragging ass on Sunday.

Memorial to the Murdered European Jews - this memorial
was actually really controversial because people claimed it
only commemorated the Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Thus, the city promised to build other memorials for each of
the other groups affected.

Reichstag - German Parliament

On Sunday, Kaitlyn and I visited a few more touristy as well as non-touristy sights. We started the day by walking through this really old building that has been taken over by artists. Murals are all over the walls, and artists have free range to paint whatever they wish. Sadly, many believe that the building will be torn down within the year. Afterwards, we walked by the Fernsehturm (TV Tower), which is the tallest structure in Germany, en route to the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is the longest remaining stretch of the Berlin Wall. It stretches 1.3km (0.8 miles) and is an "open-air gallery." This means that artists from all over the world are allowed to come and draw on it.

A rundown building that has been turned into an artist's
paradise.

A view of the artwork inside the building.

A picture of myself with the Berliner Bear.
Each German city has a mascot. Berlin's
mascot happens to be a cute little bear!
The wait / walk signs on the stop lights
are even little miniature Berlin Bears. 

Fernsehturm (TV Tower)

World Clock in Alexanderplatz

Standing in front of East Side Gallery, the longest remaining
portion of the Berlin Wall.

The Bostonian in me had to take this picture.
 Dunkin' Donuts are all over Berlin. I couldn't
resist the temptation to get a Strawberry Coolatta
and Boston Creme Pie Donut. I know, judge away...

One thing that was painfully obvious after our trip to Berlin was just how much of the city got destroyed during WWII. Even today, large plots of land remain bare - concrete foundations are the only indication that a building once stood there. During WWII, Berlin alone was subject to 363 air raids that destroyed close to 70% of the city. Then, the construction of the Berlin Wall during the Cold War further destroyed the city. Today, you see new construction taking place all over the city. This lends hope to the belief that one day the city will be able to completely rebuild itself. Tschüss!