Berlin - Something For Everyone

Whether or not it was a good idea to go on a 4-night holiday to Berlin bang in the middle of exams remains to be seen but the verdict from my two flat mates and myself is overwhelmingly positive either way.

Unfortunately our first experience of Berlin was a stressful one, finding our way from the airport to our hostel proved to be quite the challenge. The stress of travelling for 10 hours (and the threatening ash cloud of doom) meant we headed to bed as soon as we got to the hostel; a red brick building named the “Three Little Pigs Hostel”. Yes, it was chosen largely for the name though it is rated highly on security, price and location. Though we weren’t prepared for groups of school kids who like to scream down the corridors at midnight. Also the showers offered little privacy; flimsy shower curtains did not conceal everything effectively, which made our trips to the shower very rapid.

However, we did not choose Berlin for the accommodation; we chose it for the culture and history. Our first taste of it came from Checkpoint Charlie, the most famous sector between the divisions made by the Berlin Wall between East and West Germany. I fulfilled my tourist duty by purchasing a piece of the wall from the nearby museum and we moved on to the Topography of Terrors, a free museum beside a large section of the original wall that still remains. It is quite a haunting area as graffiti scrawled across the wall asks “WHY?” and other sections simply have “MADNESS” sprayed onto it. This was only a small portion of the writing that we could decipher, most of it obviously being in German and having faded away. The museum itself tells of the SS headquarters that existed where we were standing and, of course, gives details of the suffering experienced by many people and displays much of this in photo form to really bring the message home.

To continue with our more “touristy” ventures we went to see the Brandenburg Gate, a must see. A spectacular sight, which soon became the symbol of freedom and unification after the wall fell, it stands near the Reichstag, a similarly epic construction. It is possible to enter the Reichstag for free though we unfortunately left it too late in the day but still enjoyed the view of the sun setting against the building.

Modernity has spread through Berlin and the Fernsehturm, the TV Tower, shows this. At a height of 1,207 ft, it is the tallest building in Berlin and offers the chance to photograph the city from this great height, which is a wondrous sight, especially at night. However, at a price of €10 and the very long queues, it probably was not worth the price and wait, though there is a bar and a revolving restaurant on the level above the viewing floor if you have extra money to burn!

Other areas of interest that are free include the Tacheles area, an alternative side of Berlin that encourages graffiti, is populated by what looks like people stuck in the 60s and art made out of scrap metal, the German Resistance Museum that tells the personal accounts of those who stood up against Hitler’s regime and the Kaiser Wilhelm Church that was bombed but left in its state of ruin as a memorial. A must see that is also free is the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp though it is around an hour on the train from the centre of Berlin. It is a massive area with individual buildings full of information of the cruelty that was experienced on that very land with genuine items that were found to be possessions of the prisoners. A very sobering but essential experience.

Grand palaces litter Berlin, including Charlottenburg and Sanssouci, both of which have massive, grand rooms that are linked to King Friedrich I. Charlottenburg was €10 to access just about all areas with an audio companion that explained the rococo and baroque decoration styles and the history behind each room. If this doesn’t appeal, however, the beautifully blooming garden is free to enter and a lovely area for a little rest for lunch. Sanssouci has a similar format though it is a much larger area with many palaces to explore, we paid €5 to see the New Palace that had similar styles to the Charlottenburg palace. The beauty of Sanssouci is however, again, in the gardens, which are on many levels with fountains and teeming wildlife, a truly peaceful area and lots to see.

I feel slightly ashamed to say I did not gather up the courage to experience the local currywurst, the German equivalent to the kebab, a “reliable” hangover cure/prevention, but the pure curry power sprinkled on yellow sausage did not immediately appeal, though sausage really does come in all forms! We instead experienced the Italian and Indian food cultures, which were perfectly tasty, but I cannot say they will reflect the food culture of Berlin. We were just playing it safe with the foods we knew! Similarly, not one drop of alcohol was touched due to our busy schedule of seeing all we could (we also wanted to remember our holiday) though Germany is definitely the home of beer, cheap prices, great variety, it would be great for a night out after all knowledge was absorbed from the education palace tours!

A highly recommended location for any kind of tourist, one looking for culture or one looking for a night out on the lash, (plenty of British stag parties were spotted) a good few days should be spent when holidaying in Berlin to really absorb all it has to offer.

Laura Jones