Berlin Calling

I knew I had to get back here because the last time I didn't have a chance to check out the nightlife. This was in 2008 and I left with a bad impression of the city. But I knew there had to be more.

Reichstag

Berlin is a huge city in terms of area and is made up of a bunch of different neighborhoods. I was staying in Charlottenburg with my cousin's friend. He made it up with a few friends of his for the weekend.

I really noticed this time how Berlin has chosen to make its past very noticeable everywhere you go throughout the city. There is a constant reminder what happened here.

I took a little walk through the main sites to start before stopping off at the Topography of Terror. This is a free museum documenting WWII next to a stretch of the Berlin Wall. Highly recommended that is if the place isn't closed temporarily for a fire alarm like it was for me.

Berlin Wall with Potsdamer Platz

I met up with the guys to get the evening started. Always have to eat a döner while in Berlin as it definitely is a different style here than the rest of the country. And three sauces to choose from on homemade bread. A döner by the way is a sandwich introduced by the Turkish to Berlin a number of years ago. Berlin has the largest Turkish population outside of Turkey. Seriously someone needs to introduce these to the US.

Next we stopped in a micro brewery called Eschenbräu. I really hope the IPA craze doesn't take off here because this was the first place I had been to that had one. Doppelhopf.

Time to go to the club. Came home around 4 drenched from the downpour of rain.

I headed to Ku'damm the next day to look around at some shops. Didn't have that much time before meeting up with the guys at Brandenburger Tor for the light festival. Unfortunately it started to rain and kind of halted our festival fun. But we did see the only lightning of the night hit the TV Tower. Kind of weird.

We headed for Kreuzberg the real gritty area of town with many bars. Had an awesome burger that always seems to have a wait of 15 minutes no matter what time of day it is. Had a few drinks back at a friends place before heading out at 1 am.

Burger under the tracks

We wanted to go to this place called Berghaim because it has awesome music. But the line was as long as a line at an amusement park. So we headed down the street to another place. Left around 6 to try Berghaim. But the line was still the same. I think this place closes down for an hour before opening up again. It basically never shuts down.

So three of us left while the other two decided to wait. They came back the next day around 11 am saying they waited two hours and got rejected at the door. Can you imagine that?!

I meet so many people who say they've traveled Europe but have never been to Germany. Amsterdam, Paris, Rome, London. I say you haven't really been then. And when people come to Germany they usually head to Munich. Great town but Berlin is just as deserving a place to go. They both offer experiences you can't get anywhere else as far as I am concerned. I still feel as if I have yet to see all of Berlin. It's like when people come to New York for a few days. You haven't seen everything unless you stay at least a week.

Seriously go here. The place was the focal point of the world for almost 60 years. It doesn't look anything like it did 20 years ago. It's ever changing more so than New York.