Kobi & Brian: Europe 2013-2014: Berlin

We made it to Berlin, even though we almost missed our flight because we were eating McDonalds. I think it might be time to admit we may have a problem.

Berlin is awesome. In one word, it's just cool. I actually felt very uncool in Berlin. Everyone who lives here is very alternative, and just manages to look cool all the time. But you can't try and look cool. The thing about Berlin is no one tries, that's uncool. So I can't win really. I just look like a dork. I even saw a dog that was cooler than me - he was wearing hipster glasses.

Regardless, we've had a great time here. Our first two days were very relaxed as we recovered properly from Contiki. Which was made easy by the fact that our hostel (The Circus) is one of the nicest hostels in Europe (the internets words, not just ours!) We're in a private room with a shared bathroom, and everything is just so nice and new. Other good things about the hostel? Ridiculously cheap meals and drinks, and free dinner at 7pm until it runs out. So at 6:55 every night we join the stampede of other starving backpackers and spend our food money on wine instead. It's been a great way to meet people!

We've explored Berlin pretty thoroughly now, thanks to several walking tours, our own day trips, and Brian's understanding of all the maps and public transport systems. And our verdict? You can tell that Berlin has a pretty dark history, from its involvement in WWI, the rise of Hitler in WW2 and then the Berlin Wall dramas that spanned decades. And while they don't try and hide any of that history (in fact there's 187 different museums dedicated to it!) they're obviously keen on creating their own identity separate from all of that. Now they're considered the artistic and cultural capital of Europe, and that's part of what has made it such an interesting city to spend time in.

Things we've loved about Berlin:

People watching. Everyone here is dressed crazily, with strange hair and a funny dog. Sitting out on the sidewalk with a coffee has never been so entertaining.

Our hostel. Aside from the shrine to David Hasselhoff (they're obsessed in Berlin!) it's been a great place to eat, sleep and meet people. Many nights we didn't even leave the hostel bar because we were having so much fun with new friends.

Our 6 hour Best of Berlin walking tour. We are now full bottle on Berlin's history, which includes more craziness and evil than we ever thought possible. We even saw the place where Hitler committed suicide when he realised he was going to lose WWII. It was so good to see that they have just turned the site into the worlds most boring and average car park. No recognition, and no opportunity for a shrine of any kind. Exactly what he deserved.

Our 3 hour Alternative walking tour. This gave us an insight into Berlin's famous street art, graffiti, squats and other areas off the beaten track. There are so many pieces of art on buildings, walls etc, that without a guide to explain their meaning or their context in terms of Berlin's political landscape, you'd just think they were scribble. After WWII, Berlin had been bombed heavily and large chunks of the CBD were completely gone. This left a lot of exposed building facades, and the city began to allow artists to decorate those spaces to help fill in the gaps around the City. We loved this tour and even got to tag a section of the remaining Berlin Wall.

The beer. I even drank my first whole beer, and it was a dunkel (dark beer)!!

Though it sounds morbid, we actually had an incredible time at Sachenhousen Concentration Camp. Huge effort has gone into restoring the camp and turning it into a beautiful museum. I know we didn't fully understand everything we had been told about the camps until we were actually there. It was a huge camp, and some of the original barracks have been restored as part of the museum, as have the gallows and crematoria. Much of the grounds remain the way they were left in 1945, and in a way it's almost hauntingly beautiful there; behind the walls and barbed wire is a huge forrest, with lots of green lawn and flowers. Despite walking out of there with little faith in humanity and wondering how humans could treat each other that way, we were glad we went. I think you only ever need to see one concentration camp though. One is more than enough.

The Berlin Zoo was a happier place for me than Disneyland was. It's one of the worlds biggest zoos, and it has the worlds most successful breeding program. So there are babies everywhere! Almost every animal exhibit had a baby in it. After so much gloom and doom in learning about Berlin's history, it was so nice to go somewhere where we were surrounded by life and ridiculously cute monkey babies. And one seriously cranky silverback gorilla who punched the glass when a camera flash went off.

The only disappointment? I had been told I HAD to try pork knuckle, a Bavarian staple. So we headed off to a traditional beer house and ordered one. It was so, so gross. It was basically a plate of gelatinous fat, and neither of us could eat it. I would not recommend it.

Today in Berlin is May Day, also known as Riot Day. Formerly it was the equivalent of Labor Day, however years ago the celebrations turned into a big riot with police, ending in businesses being trashed, cars set alight etc. So now, on May 1st every year, the streets fill up with food, performers and bars during the day, and turn into massive riots with the police at night. So we headed down this afternoon to people watch and listen to the bands, and made sure we were safely tucked up and blogging away by nighttime.

We're training it to Prague tomorrow, ready for some goulash!

Love,
Kobi & Brian