It’s a travel post! To keep my sanity, I’ll be posting once per location instead of once per day. Off we go to our first destination, Berlin! We spent just over six days in the city, including New Year’s Eve. On the whole, I found Berlin to be an exceptionally international city; We were able to get around in english without any trouble whatsoever. The city is constantly mixing ancient history, recent conflict, and the search for a modern identity. Berlin is many things to many people and exploring it was a blast.
Our main order of business when we deplaned in Berlin was to stay awake. To these ends, we filled our first two days with tours. First, a general “Berlin History” tour that focused mainly on the 20th century, then second a more targeted tour about Holocaust resistance in Berlin. Both were great fun, though there was some overlap in content between the two. I was surprised that I already knew many of the broad strokes, given that the last time I formally studied Berlin in any capacity was in AP European History some 13 years ago. Once you learn about the Holy Roman Empire it sticks with you, apparently.
Both tours noted Berlin’s centrality as an artistic hotbed, but the constant street art, graffiti, and general “use of wall-space for artistic expression” really sold the point. Some images were historical, others simply beautiful and abstract, and still others were sarcastically witty. For example:
Throughout both tours and the entirety of our trip, I was constantly reminded how recent Berlin’s history is. It is tempting to think of “history” as sterile and dead; laid bare on a medical table for examination. Simply existing in Berlin challenges that notion. Every time you cross a line of cobblestone bricks the in middle of a paved street it reminds you: These were two different countries. A war was fought across these few feet. People spent their lives trying to cross these few feet.. sometimes literally. And now they are only marked by a zig-zagging cobblestone line, frequently ignored by tourists and locals alike as they go about their business. It gives me hope that other seemingly all-encompassing conflicts could be similarly laid to rest, one day, if only the will for peace outweighs the will for domination.
But, let’s say you visit Berlin and don’t spot the cobblestone line in the pavement. Or, lets say you are too far from the dividing line. How can you know if a particular corner once belonged to East or West Berlin? Simple: Follow the Ampelmännchen!
The Ampelmännchen (literally, “little traffic light man”), shown above on the right, was the symbol shown on traffic light signals in East Germany during the Cold War. (On the left is my girlfriend Amy, doing her very best Ampelmännchen impression. Hi Amy!) The west, in contrast, had a pair of regular old stopped stick figure / walking stick figure symbols, similar to the US and many other cities. When the halves of the city reunified after the wall fell, the Ampelmännchen was one of the few characteristics of East Berlin to stick around. If you walk around Berlin today, some walk signs will use the Ampelmännchen, while others still have the boring stick figure pair, neither of which have a very cute hat. Our understanding is that the intersections with the Ampelmännchen were once East Berlin and the others were once West Berlin, but it’s unclear if this is 100% true. After all, the Ampelmännchen has become such a hit with Berliners and beyond that there are multiple Ampelmännchen souvenir stores, featuring Ampelmännchen shirts, Ampelmännchen mugs, and even Ampelmännchen gummy candy. I’d hazard a guess that if a non-Ampelmännchen intersection broke down and needed repairing, the Berlin civil engineers might jump at the opportunity to sneak in just one more copy of the beloved little guy.
Now on to my favorite part of every travel destination: The food! While I’m not sure exactly what I expected from Berlin’s cuisine, I was definitely happily surprised. Berlin’s cultural scene is so dramatically international that it was almost hard to identify and track down distinctly German food. Even still, we ate like kings over the last week. Pho warmed us up on cold nights and Schnitzel over Fries filled rumbling bellies. Generally speaking, whenever we found ourselves in a line filled with people speaking German, we knew we were in for a treat. The easy winner, however, was Katz Orange, a lovely restaurant located in a former munitions factory. Every single item we ordered was fantastic, from the roasted cauliflower to the Flank Steak Tagliata to the “Candy on the Bone” Lamb. Best of all, food in Berlin is cheap, (compared both to food in other countries as well as other categories of expenditures in Berlin), so the meal felt like a steal. We would eagerly visit again, possibly even multiple times if time permitted. A big thank you to my dad for suggesting Katz Orange! We wouldn’t have had this fantastic experience without your suggestion or your very, very, very frequent reminders to make a reservation.
On top of all the lovely food, we got to share some of our meals with some lovely people! Amy has old friends in Berlin who were kind enough to entertain a pair of American tourists bumbling our way through the city. Through these friends we got to see Berlin through a Berliner’s eyes, a view of the city that is often hard to find as a tourist and a foreigner. We heard from one how the Berlin train system isn’t actually that great (sorry Saskia, it seemed pretty darn good to me…) and how it’s impossible to find a good apartment to rent for the location you want and the money you have (that one sounds familiar). We got to take a moment outside of the normal tourist track and hang out with a very fluffy dog, who, despite ignoring his owner and almost running into mud multiple times, was a very very good boy. In many small ways, we were included in the zeitgeist of Berlin, which is very big thing indeed.
Our biggest struggle during our stay was, somewhat ironically, New Year’s Eve. When our German friends warned us that Berlin goes a little crazy with fireworks every year, we brushed them off. After all, they’re just fireworks. They’re loud and they light up the sky, but there are surely worse things, no?
Here’s what we misunderstood: The fireworks were not always operated safely. Or in specifically designated areas. Or even consistently pointed upwards. Every third person we passed on the street seemed to have a pocket full of gunpowder and a head full of bad ideas. While no one specifically wished us harm, we frequently had to cross the street to walk around clouds of sparks, horizontally angled plumes of smoke, and shattered glass windows. One group of unsupervised teens even through a small bag at our feet which promptly erupted into flame, causing Amy to erupt into loud expletives and me to steer her away from them as quickly as possible. Our short journey from our dinner restaurant to the NYE club was, to say the very least, not fun. We now fully understand why other Berliners avoid the city each year; If I lived here, I would too.
Once we finally got to the club and away from the active explosives, we were able to relax and enjoy the party. The club we found was ideal for New Year’s Eve: Multiple dance floors, multiple bars, and extremely efficient bathroom lines. Berlin’s view of pop music is delightfully delayed, allowing us to jam to classic hits like Wannabe (1996) and Everybody [Backstreet’s Back] (1997). When the clock struck midnight we cheered, drained the remainder of our drinks, and kept right on grooving into 2024.
Nursing hangovers and lack of sleep, we spent our final two days in Berlin tying up loose ends and preparing for our next stop. Mostly, we spent four hours fighting with a laundry machine and begging it to actually dry our clothes. As a final postscript, I managed to track down Currywurst in the main Berlin train station. The ubiquitous dish is a fast and easy combination of chopped sausage and french fries, topped with ketchup and/or mayo, plus signature curry powder. The result is a tangy and salty combo served in a matter of seconds that hit just the spot before our long ride to Munich. So long Berlin!
It's Just A Game 