Berlin, Germany — Gerald J Fisher

Hey cool people,

Lydia and I spent three nights recently in Berlin, which is definitely not enough time, but it was absolutely amazing. There is so much history in this city and it incredible to see how it has changed over the last 50+ years. Here is what we did:

Day 38 Thursday June 25th - Lydia and I arrived in Berlin after a long bus ride from Amsterdam. Most of the day was spent on the bus traveling, so there isn’t much to report about today. Our hostel in Berlin was located in a pretty nice spot. It was located right next to the old TV tower, in what used to be East Berlin. It was interesting to still see signs of the old Soviet, communist-style block buildings everywhere.

After Lydia and I checked-in to our rooms, we met a few people that were on the bus with us for a beer at the hostel bar before walking to find some street food nearby. We stopped at a vendor selling Currywurst, which apparently is a really popular dish in Berlin because over the next couple of days I saw vendors selling it everywhere. After enjoying our Currywurst, about five of us stopped at a local pub for a drink before calling it an early night and heading to bed.

A giant blue and gold flag hanging at Charlie's checkpoint in Berlin.

Day 39 Friday, June 26th - Today Lydia and I decided to take a free walking tour of Berlin, with our new friend Kate we met our last day in Amsterdam. The tour was pretty interesting. Since our group was smaller, our guide was able to spend more time telling stories of German history and the sites we were seeing. Some of the sites we saw include the Berliner Dome, the War Memorial, Museum island (I think that’s what it was called), Charlie’s Checkpoint, the Berlin Wall, the location of Hitler’s bunker (it is now just a car park), the Holocaust Memorial, Brandenburg gate and a few other places. Berlin is so fascinating and we only saw a small chunk of it on this walking tour.

After our walking tour we stopped at a small restaurant for some schnitzel and beer. Lydia, Kate and I each got a 1.5 L glass of beer. Prost! Shortly after, we ran into a couple of our hostel roommates, who broke the news that the US had legalized gay marriage across all 50 states, which was super exciting, so we had a drink to celebrate. It was pretty cool because the US Embassy had a rainbow flag in the window after the announcement. Also the next day (Saturday the 27th) was Berlin's Christopher Street Day or Berlin Pride, so we were all excited to go check that out.

That night we were planning on going out. We were meeting everyone in the hostel bar for happy-hour and then, from there, go to a club. In Berlin, most people don’t go out until around 1 am. Well, we never made it to the club that night; we partied in the hostel till about 4:30 am enjoying our 2 euro beers and 2.50 euro shots of tequila. It was an extremely fun night, despite never leaving to really experience Berlin nightlife.

Berlin Victory Column during Berlin Pride

Day 40 Saturday, June 27th - Since we partied hard the night before, no one in our room woke up before noon. We were all a bit hungover, but we all got ready and made our way over to Berlin Pride. It was pretty cool; set up more like a street festival, but a lot of fun. It was about 6 of us that went to the pride event and since we were all still hungover we food and drinks right away; a little hair of the dog to get us going again. We found a spot to watch the parade. The parade was a bit long, but full of energy. There was even an American #50StatesOfGay float, which was really cool to see.

After the parade Lydia and Kate went to go check out a church that was bombed during WWII, but was left unfixed after the war and the East Side Gallery. My friends Joy, Sam, Michelle and I stayed to party some more. We danced a little bit and listened to some music. I found it a little interesting that the performers mostly sang American songs. It would be about 5 songs in English and 1 in German. Anyway, we danced a bit until it started to rain then made our way back to the hostel.

The East side gallery at the Berlin wall

Once we got back to the hostel, I changed and met up with a friend, Kristin. Both of us left to go see the East side gallery and try a popular street food place called Burgermeister. It was a really neat experience. We each got burgers, split some chilly fries and since beer was the same price as a soda or water, got a couple of beers. After dinner the two of us walked around and stopped at a bar in an old shed for a beer; had to try a Berliner before leaving Berlin. It was pretty good. After our beer we walked back to the hostel. I quickly repacked and went to bed since I had to wake up early to catch a bus to Prague in the morning.