Roughing it in Berlin

I just got back from a wonderful weekend in Berlin. I stayed with my friend Mohit who is studying there for the semester and living with a lovely German family. The title of this blog is meant to be sarcastic, I don't think I could have had a more easy or comfortable time in Berlin.

I arrived in Berlin Saturday around 1:30pm. I met up with Mohit at a metro stop and went directly to his favorite bar to catch the second half of the Manchester United match. After the match--and a 2euro beer which never happens in Paris--we left my bag in the luggage room at the bar (which awesomely has a hostel on top) and went to the East Side Gallery.



For those who aren't familiar with Berlin, since I was not until just this past weekend :), the East Side Gallery is basically a strip of the Berlin Wall that is still standing and covered in awesome graffiti art done by artists from all over the world. I probably could have taken pictures of every painting, but that would have been a bit ridiculous :)



After walking along the wall, Mohit took me to get hamburgers at a place called Burgermeister--and no, not the American chain.



This place actually is in what use to be a public restroom now turned burger joint--hence the sign for "Manner," meaning men.



My hamburger was delicious--got a spicy one with jalapenos and a delicious pepper sauce (thought of you Jenny) and the patty had a really unique flavor--needless to say I enjoyed it :)



After dinner, we stopped by a Turkish bakery in the neighborhood for some yummy pastries before heading back to the bar to pick up my bag.



When we arrived, the world cup championship for cricket was still on. Mohit, who grew up in India, naturally wanted to stay to watch India compete. It was the first time I actually stood and watched a cricket match and I am happy to say that I actually now understand the game. It was also just an awesome experience because the bar was packed and went crazy when India won.

That night, Mohit showed me around the Berlin historical center so I could get a view of the major sites by night--I am an advocate for seeing famous things in both the night and day, it's important haha.



We then met up with some of his friends at a random bar which was a funny experience. After talking to some locals while waiting 10 plus minutes to order drinks, we learned that the man who owns the bar also owns half the street it's on. He opens the bar for fun and is also one of the few people in Berlin licensed to make and sell his own liquor. Unfortunately this description doesn't do it justice, but just imagine a quite large disinterested German bartender blasting random American music, chugging his own liquor, and spending more time getting one beer off tap for customers than seems physically possible haha.

The next morning, we were up and out of the house around 10am with a full day of sightseeing ahead of us. The city of Berlin is beautiful in a very grungy, unique, and real way.






There is just ridiculous amounts of history and significance to everything in the city. One of my favorite things is that where the wall once stood is marked with tiles through the whole city.



I am also very lucky I had Mohit to guide me because Berlin is HUGE. In addition, he managed to get me a free metro pass to use which saved me a ton of cash (metro in Berlin is a bit pricey) and tons of time that would have been spent walking between areas.

Mohit continued to make sure I was well-fed with Berlin's best. For lunch, we had amazing doners at a really popular shack called Mustafa's.



Best doner I've had...ever haha. After lunch, we continued exploring the city for a few more hours. Mohit, being a little crazy if you ask me, still had an entire paper to write that was due the next day. He was too good of a friend and stayed with me almost the entire day. We finally parted around 5 so he could go begin his work, but only after going up a building in the buisness center that had awesome views of Berlin.



I continued exploring the city for a bit and went to a museum, but made sure to be back at Mohit's by 7 for one of the best treats of the weekend, dinner with his host family. Mohit's German family was really lovely, intellectual, and incredibly welcoming to me. Not only did they let me stay in the house and feed me a delicious dinner on Sunday night, they offered me breakfast and engaged me in conversation all weekend. I must admit, I left the weekend jealous of Mohit's living situation and also understanding why he rarely misses a dinner at home :)

After dinner, I, exhausted from walking, crashed while Mohit, who had to have also been tired, embarked on an all-nighter to finish his essay for the next day. When my alarm went off at 8am the next morning, he had just completed his paper haha. Mohit took off for class and I embarked on a full day of museums and site-seeing on my own.

I started at an interesting museum called Checkpoint Charlie. The museum actually opened shortly after the wall first went up in the 60s. Today, it still documents the development of the wall, as well as some of the most entertaining and impressive stories of people successfully making their escape to the west.

I next embarked on a necessary food adventure, currywurst. On the walk to the restaurant, I let myself wander a little aimlessly through the streets and came across this adorable park with amazing art--there is simply cool stuff everywhere you turn in Berlin.



The currywurst was quite satisfying--basically just smothered in a yummy ketchupy sauce--apparently its a very popular after drinking food in Berlin :)



After lunch, I walked to a beautiful park in the neighborhood I was in that had great views of the city. What I love about Berlin parks is that they are basically forests. Unlike Paris, there isn't much attempt to manicure or control the nature.



After the park, I made my way to the Tempelhof Airport, which is where the US executed airlifts of food and other essential supplies to people trapped in East Berlin following the construction of the wall. I thought the monument in the park directly outside the airport was really well-done.



For the rest of the afternoon, I, with Mohit to thank, was able to Museum hop the state museums for free with a year pass borrowed from his friend. Berlin has many rivers that cut through the city and, like Paris, has an "island" in the middle.




In Berlin, this area is actually called Museum Island because it houses five museums--makes sense :). I was able to go to three of them before becoming too exhausted to continue. I headed back to Mohit's house, where he had just beaten me home from classes.

To kill some time before dinner, we stopped by Kaufhaus des Westens, which literally means store of the west.



This place is MASSIVE, and became a symbol is west Berlin of "supremacy" of the west. Going through the store actually felt a lot like home haha. They also had some of the most ridiculous things. For example, in Berlin the "walk" "dont walk" symbols on their street signs are these really cool looking figures which Berlin has turned into a brilliant marketing scheme....



I mean really pasta? They also had bibs...and more haha. I also found a 4500euro bottle of wine that should be arriving at my parents door anyyyy day now haha.

After walking around the store for a bit, we headed to dinner. We met Mohit's friend at a great find of a restaurant that serves delicious traditional German food. The two boys had Schnitzel, which is basically slab of deliciously deep fried pork (that basically took up an entire massive plate haha. I got Weiswurst, which is a white sausage, served with a pretzel, sauerkraut, and a really yummy sweet mustard sauce. Definitely has to go down as one of my favorite meals yet in Europe!



After a little break for some digestion, we headed to a popular bar in Berlin that has over 100 choices of beer. Though my indecisiveness almost got the best of me, I decided on a mango beer--of course it was delicious as well (deliciousness was definitely a trend of my time in Berlin haha).



And the trend didn't stop on my last night, Tuesday morning, Mohit and I went to a bakery to have coffee and cake which is a semi-traditional practice in Berlin apparently. I choose a rather amazing apricot tart :)



We then had just a little time before my flight, so we headed back to the Tempelhof Airport so I could actually see the runway before I left.



Even though I had visited the airport the day before when I saw the monument, I completely failed in my navigation to the actual runway where the airlifts took place haha. After that, it was unfortunately time to head to the airport.

Just a few hours later, I was back in Paris, which is still hard for me to wrap my head around. Even though I have now done quite a few trips, it still amazes me how close all these amazing, and quite different, places are! It is now back to school mode, which is about to get a little more stressful. I just had a French test yesterday, and have 6 presentations and one massive paper to complete in the next month. However, I'm pretty confident I will prevail over my work. Besides, one of my closest friends from high school, Amy, and her family are coming to Paris next week, which is much more important than any work :)