Berlin was never really high on my list of cities to see in Europe, and few “best of” or “must see” books insist travellers stop by. I am glad we went though – it was an interesting city that appears to be composed almost entirely of museums, Holocaust Memorials, and an amazing S-Bahn/U-Bahn system.
For those of you new to European public transit, U-bahns (in German speaking countries) or U-trains, are city metros, like the underground Muni. It connects almost all major downtown attractions, and the lines stop every 3 or 4 blocks. S-bahns, or S-trains, connect the city to the suburbs, and although they have downtown stops they stop less often so they are faster, and often nicer, than U-bahns. In every major city we've been to, bus tickets are the same as U-Bahn tickets are the same as S-bahn tickets, so we usually buy a pass for a day or 3 days or however long we plan to be there, and ride the U-bahns everywhere, with occasional bus and S-bahn adventures.
Anyway, Berlin had a fantastic S/U-bahn system, and we used it every day to get everywhere – this was especially nice since Germany was going through an awful heat wave it and it was 100+ degrees every day, and we wanted to keep our walking across town to a minimum.
The first day in Berlin, we planned to leave Nick's house early, get to Berlin early, stash our bags at the train station, and catch another train to neighboring Potsdam because we wanted to see the castle there. Kim's guidebook warned that the castle only sells a certain number of entrance tickets per day, so we should get there by 2:30 at the latest to be sure we got in. Unfortunately, we both had colds and Kim and I decided before going to bed Saturday that we would rather sleep in and take our time getting to Berlin, instead of rushing to get to Potsdam by 2:30. It was probably lucky that we decided not to get up early, because trains to Berlin were delayed anyway, because of construction on the tracks, and our train was almost an hour late.
Once in Berlin, we caught a bus to our hostel, which was surprisingly close and with a convenient U-bahn station outside! We checked in, studied some maps, and took off for some sightseeing! The first and most important sight was lunch, followed by wandering about downtown. We found Hitler's bunker, or rather where Hitler's bunker used to be – it is now a parking lot for an apartment complex:
The bunker is not open to the public, and is in fact sealed off and not marked by anything but a small billboard with a brief history of its uses and a diagram. There is no fanfare about the bunker because the German government wants to discourage neonazis from having cult meetings or something. Good goal, if you ask me.
Second sight was the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. It was a chunk of land, about the size of a small park, covered in giant concrete rectangles (rectangular prisms?). They all look about the same height from the street, but what you don't realize is that the floor dips. As you wander through the memorial the blocks seem to get taller and taller, until they are 10 feet tall in every direction. The blocks are in a grid pattern, so it is easy to find your way out again, but it is still very eerie.
Afterwards, we went into the museum under the memorial. There were 2 major reasons for this decision: a) it was free b) it was air conditioned. They had a timeline of Holocaust events, and various personal narratives and accounts, about which I won't go into detail.
After that, we headed over the Brandenburg Gate, one of the most famous landmarks in Berlin.
After seeing the gate, we briefly considered watching the World Cup, but since Germany wasn't in it, we didn't bother. Instead, we went back to our hostel for our much-anticipated shower. After wrestling with our frame packs in 100 degree heat that morning, and walking around Berlin landmarks in 100 degree heat that afternoon, all we wanted to do was stand under some cold running water. We grabbed our toiletries and headed to the two showers on our floor to find that the showers didn't allow us to control the temperature – instead, there was just a single push-button, that would give us water for about 30 seconds, then it would need to be pushed again – like those annoying sinks in public restrooms. We figured we'd settle for warm showers with this pre-set temperature control, but what we didn't expect was that THE TEMPERATURE WOULD BE STUCK ON SCALDING HOT. We took the most painful and least refreshing showers of our lives, and were just as disgusting after as we were before. We complained at the front desk, and the receptionist said she knew, but couldn't do anything about it until tomorrow. ! Severely disappointing.
Hostel review:
Mittes Backpacker Hostel was located very close to the train station, just 1 or 2 stops by bus, and next to a U-bahn station that was 1 stop to Friedrichstrasse, which is a giant U-bahn/S-bahn hub from which we got anywhere we wanted to go. So, the location was really ieal. The wifi was free, which is always good, but it was broken one night – although that is extremely common in hostels, so I can't fault them too much. The rooms were way too hot, which is mostly because Berlin was having a heat wave, but also partly the hostel's fault since the windows could only open a crack. Also, no breakfast included, which is always disappointing. The most disappointing thing was the shower, which was fixed by the next morning. But, for the location and the cheap price (only like 15 euro a night, if I remember correctly, which is about as cheap as they get) I'd stay there again.
Ah, Berlin. I think the holocaust (shoah) memorial is one of my favorites of all time. It's so simple, but it's also very effective. <3
ReplyDeleteAlso, I'm pretty sure the "U" in U-Bahn stands for "Ünter," or under. So it's the under-train :D.