Berlin weekend
Last weekend we went on a weekend trip to Berlin. Living close to the German capital, and yet have never visited the city, it was time to explore the former DDR.
Last weekend we went on a weekend trip to Berlin. Living close to the German capital, and yet have never visited the city, I was time to explore the former enclave in the former DDR. Some of the images that came to mind, as the plane touched down at the Tempelhof airport in Berlin were the stories of my highschool classmates, having visited the DDR on a field trip back in the 1980's when the iron-curtain was very much a reality and the DDR wasn't exactly a happy place of fun and smiling faces.
The stories I was told of busses being ripped apart in order to find possible fugitives; mirrors being rolled under the busses to see if any hitched a ride under it; guides being appointed to follow the group around telling how great place DDR was; not to mention the marvellous weather - grey, overcast, rainy. All that didn't sound like a funky place I just had to visit before it was all gone. And as I sat there I wished I had - I was in my time and I could have, but somehow I chose not to.
Everywhere there are left-overs from the past "greatness" of DDR: streetnames, the weather, the grey buildings and a rusty piece of the wall close to the place big A. called home. Having never been there it is hard to say what DDR was like. Our guide told us, even though the city is changing rapidly, old buildings beeing torn down and replaced with new and shiny ones of concrete, steel and glass, there is still a lot of DDR left in the mind of people.
Now Berlin is attracting a lot of tourists, wanting to see the places previously seen on tv - Checkpoint Charlie; the TV-tower; the Brandenburger Gate etc. - also much of the reason why we choose to visit Berlin. Somehow I will never experience what it was like living in DDR and the vestern part of Berlin during the cold war. Now there are loads of stuff to see and do in Berlin - we definitely will come back, to visit some of the places we didn't get a chance to see this time.
We had 3 days - Friday to Saturday. Arriving with Sterling in Tempelhof on Friday morning left us with plenty of time to explore the city. We stayed at the Holliday Inn on Prenzlauer Alle 169 - nice hotel, standard american, somewhat affordable - and close to the Tram (M2-line) towards city. When you go to Berlin, please take the guided tour with Nigel Dunkley from Insidertour, it is a brilliant way to get a feel of the citys history. It'll cost you 12 euro and I promise you they will be well spent, Nigel is a hell of the storyteller, making the history feel alive and you wont be bored for a second. We took the history tour of Berlin, and there are 3 other tours from the same company.
Places to hang out: Prenzlauer Berg and Friedrichhain are really nice places, just remember most Germans go out for dinner late in the evening - just so you don't wonder where everybody are around 19 o'clock.
Places to eat: all over the place are small coffee shops serving great coffee and great breakfast. Forget about the breakfast at the hotel and grab some on the way. It is fairly cheap, and definitely recommendable, however it can be difficult to choose from the different menus.
Things to see next time:
How to prepare:
- Rent the movie "Godbye Lenin", and buy some Becks
- Watch ADF on television and brush up on the German grammar
Things not to do: stay at the hotel.
My recommendation of Berlin: ***** and thumbs up.
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