Ladies and gentlemen, we have now arrived at Berlin Schoenefeld.
This was my second time in Berlin. The first was last March, with my dad. We stayed on the west side and didn’t know what to expect. This time I went with my boyfriend and we stayed in the centre, near the Brandenburg Gate. When we disembarked from the plane, it was drizzling, cloudy; it felt almost like a British summertime, except for the biting cold.
I have never quite felt right in cities. I have always felt like they’re populated with ghosts, like everyone is a mere shadow of a person, not wholly present. Everything seems like it’s too much – too bright, too fast, too crowded. In Berlin, I feel safe. I feel present, I feel real. Everything is medium and right. It feels more like home than London does, the city where I was born and lived until I was 21.
On our first day, we slept for hours. It seems wasteful perhaps, but we’d been travelling for over 12 hours and hadn’t slept in over 24. When we awoke from our nap, it was dark outside, but the headlights of cars passing along Friedrichstrasse reflected in the puddles and made everything sparkle. We went to a nearby ‘traditional German’ restaurant for dinner, where we marvelled at the hundreds of ways one can make unusual meat and pickled cabbage dishes all sound different from each other.
On our second day, we walked for miles. We walked by the Memorials to the Murdered Jews of Europe, the Murdered Homosexuals and the Murdered Roma, all laid with roses for Holocaust Day. We passed the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag, Tiergarten and climbed the Victory Column. Bradley had the brilliant idea of climbing to the top of the Victory Column even after all this walking. After an exhausting climb up what felt like millions of tight spiral steps, we finally reached the top of the column! And I must say, it is definitely the best view of the city you’ll find. Looking back down Strasse de 17 Juni towards the East Side, you can see the radio tower, Brandenburg Gate, cathedral and the Reichstag building in the distance over a sea of beautiful autumnal treetops. If you don’t believe me, just look at the featured image of this post.
We caught the U-Bahn to the Charlottenburg Palace. The palace was once the summer home of a much beloved Prussian princess. Once, she hosted parties of artists, poets and musicians in its rooms. Much of it was destroyed by bombs during the war, but it has been carefully, lovingly restored, and is now one of the most opulent buildings in the city. I twirled through the ballroom, pretending to be a courtier in many-layered petticoats and gowns, pretending that I could one day own a ballroom as beautiful as this one.
Our third day was Bradley’s birthday. We decided to forgo the basic hotel breakfast and try a cute little cafe I’d seen on Instagram, called the House of Small Wonder. It’s a Japanese infusion brunch cafe originally founded in Brooklyn, New York, an interesting combination of cuisines and origins to say the least, but it did live up to its Instagrammable name. The entrance alone was enough to convince me that this cafe was worth it, and the food turned out to be pretty good too!
After we ate, we headed for the East Side Gallery to see the parts of the Berlin Wall that still remain. It is covered in art from over 100 artists, and stretches for 1.3km along the River Spree. It was frustratingly busy; trying to get a picture of any segment of the wall, particularly of the famous ‘Fraternal Kiss’, proved awkward, irritating and punctuated with a lot of sorrys and excuse mes. The most fascinating part, though, was that the wall was neither very tall or very thick, and didn’t seem like much of an ‘Iron Curtain’ type barrier. The difference between the East and West sides of the city, however, was stark – and the East Side is by far the more interesting half.
We got the train back to the city centre and headed to Museum Island. We didn’t actually go in any museums, but I put on my best tour guide voice and tried to tell Bradley what I remembered from the walking tour I did the year before, which was not much! Just our luck, the cathedral was covered in scaffolding, as pretty much every building we visit seems to be these days! It’s like they sense I’m coming and specifically put it up to ruin my pictures. From there, we headed back towards the Brandenburg Gate and stopped by the Neue Wache, the memorial for victims of war and tyranny. All it contains is a statue of a mother cradling her dead son, and it moves me every time I see it. The whole city is a reminder of the two deadliest wars in human history, but this statue for me is the most poignant. Across from the Neue Wache is Bebel Platz, the site of the Nazis first book burning after their rise to power, an event which features in Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief.
Our last day mostly involved waiting to leave for our flight and reflecting on our trip. We both loved the city, and want to go back there again very soon. We’d also really like to visit other parts of Germany, particularly Bavaria to see all the fairytale castles (a la Chitty Chitty Bang Bang). Berlin, we love you, and we’ll be back soon – and who knows, we might find ourselves back for more than just a few days!
