Berlin Blues

We took a couple days off last week in an effort to get one last break before the next academic session starts. In theory a long weekend in Berlin was a wonderful idea, but it didn't turn out quite the way we'd expected.

Reichstag- German Parliament Building

What was great about our trip was Berlin itself- the sights, the atmosphere, the food, etc... Since I had never been to the city, we spent a bit of time exploring the main tourist sites around Potsdamer Platz on our first day, including the Reichstag, the Tiergarten, and Brandenburg Gate. Outside the rail/underground station at Potsdamer Platz, you can see actual pieces of the Berlin Wall (covered in gum and graffiti) and throughout the city they have marked out the path of the old wall in colored stones on the pavement. I was amazed to see how close it came to the Reichstag building itself. There was no need for travel guides because Ross can tell you pretty much anything you would want to know about the Wall and East/West Berlin.

Ross and the Brandenburg Gate

We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, which was full of tourists and tour buses. The museum at Checkpoint Charlie, which displays artifacts and stories from the division of the city and fall of Wall, was definitely worth the visit. Being married to Ross, I've read so much about the Wall and the GDR, but seeing photos of the people and protests and reading their individual experiences gave me a deeper understanding of Berlin's scars.

The holocaust memorial and museum, near Potsdamer Platz, was also well worth the visit. Having studied Jewish History, I've been to my fair share of Holocaust memorials and museums, but I like how unique each one is in presentation and design.

Cathedral and TV Tower

My personal tour guide, Ross, showed me around Wedding, the area he lived in while he was in Berlin for his postdoctoral scholarship. (It is an increasingly Turkish area, and we were excited to hear from a couple doing ministry to Turkish immigrants in that neighborhood when we visited Ross' old church on Sunday.) And on our last day we went up into the old GDR TV Tower, for an awesome view of the whole city. This was one of the few things Ross had never done and I'm glad we saved this for last, because after walking all over, I actually had some frame of reference for what I was viewing from above.

In between sightseeing, we took advantage of the various restaurants, bakeries and cafes- eating bratwurst, soft pretzels, kebabs, some awesome dinners, and, of course, apple strudel.

What wasn't so great about our trip?- First, I ended up sick with a cold and some stomach problems before we left, so I wasn't feeling great to start out with. Unfortunately these problems just got worse as the weekend continued- at one point I ended up nearly passing out in the street from severe stomach cramps. Despite being exhausted, I don't think I slept more than a hour or two each night, instead spending hours in the hallway bathroom (which I am pretty sure was just a closet they converted to a bathroom by installing a toilet). Being sick, meant my energy levels were nothing close to normal, so we often had to end our days early so I could rest.

Ross had booked the 'hotel'. When he said we were staying at a hotel, I envisaged something along the lines of the Holiday Inn. Instead we arrived to find a remnant from the 1960's, complete with separate twin beds, mildew smelling sheets, a shower in the bedroom (with a broken shower head that we had to hold up with one hand the whole time we were showering) and a shared toilet in the hallway. The breakfast included warm milk, stall cereal and partially boiled eggs (I say partially because when I opened mine only part of the white was cooked). I thought it was a joke when she first showed us our room.

We were both less than impressed, but after the Russian lady running the place had helped bandage Ross' finger on the first night (he managed to cut his finger pretty deeply and we couldn't stop the bleeding) we didn't have the heart to go somewhere else. She also helpfully suggested that we could push the two beds together if we wished (we did try, but the shape of the bed frame meant that even pushed together there was a gap between the beds of more than an inch).

We managed to have a laugh about it all, but by the time we got back to our flat on Sunday, we were both thankful to be home. I would definitely like to visit Berlin again, but minus the health and accommodation issues!