Berlin is awesome. It is full of culture and history and was my first stop in Europe. Actually Paris was but that was only a lay over. My route to Berlin was Denver to Minneapolis to Paris to Berlin. My flight out of Denver was delayed about two hours so it delayed all of my connecting flights. The airline rebooked me and I was scheduled to be taking a later flight out of Paris that would get me into Berlin only five hours later than planned, bummer but that is life. When I landed in Charles de Gaulle and tried to get my boarding pass the gate agent said my listing had been canceled and the airlines hadn’t rebooked me so now the flights were oversold and I could only get on the later flight that wouldn’t get me in till 9 pm. Not cool. I expressed my frustration since I had a ticket that showed I was confirmed on the earlier flight so I didn’t understand where the problem was. The gate agent was très agréable and tried to help me in any way. She couldn’t get me a ticket for the earlier flight but she was able to get me a 8 € meal voucher. Since I am familiar and comfortable with standby travel I asked if I could at least standby for the earlier flight since I would be here anyways. She said if I went up to customer service in the gate area they could help me. So I grabbed my bags and migrated that way. They let me on the list though they said the flight was full. I enjoyed a cappuccino and a cheese and butter baguette with my meal voucher (Thanks Delta) and then to my surprise got a seat on the earlier flight! Not just a seat but first class!
Tip of the post: DO be nice to gate agents you never know what they will give you. DO try to be standby. If you are going to wait around anyways you might as well see if you can get on. People miss connections all the time.
Now back to Berlin…
Checking out museum island.
Things to Eat
I started my first night with beer and German food! We ate at Die Berliner Republick on the Berlin-Spandau Ship Canal right by our hostel. I had the curry wurst and my friend (Shanna) got the kohlrouladen which is a German cabbage roll. I loved the classic curry wurst but my friends cabbage roll took the cake. It has minced meat inside and that made the texture and consistency so light and tasted like biting into meat clouds. It also had a dark sauce on it that was rich like a red wine beef reduction that paired perfectly. I finished her plate.
Things to See
Shanna and I were lucky enough that the Berlin Gay parade was happening during our visit so that was quite the event one day. We watched the parade then followed the festivities down into Tiergarten. Here we saw the Victory column and then walked through to the Brandenburg Gate. They had a huge screen put up for the Germany verus Ghana game. It started pouring and we ended up going home to get warmer clothes so we ended up watching the game at another outdoor area we found by the metro. That is the great thing about being in Europe during the world cup, you can find a ton of places to watch the game.
To make sure we didn’t miss anything we decided to do a walking tour. We did a free one from Sandeman’s and this was my first free walking tour experience. It was awesome. I felt I learned so much and saw a lot too. The quality was great even though it was free so I highly suggest them from here on out. We tipped 10 € for the both of us; we saw a lot, learned a lot, but didn’t spend a lot.
Mauerpark Flohmarkt
Starting our waking tour!
Holocaust Memorial
Berlin Wall remains
Below is my favorite picture. That is the Detlev-Rohwedder-Haus in the background and during the division of East and West Germany it was the House of Ministries, which was basically East Berlin’s government building.
Hanging with check point Charlie
Beblplatz Square – Dancing in front of the State Opera House
Liberal Memorial for the 20,000 books burned by the Nazis on May 10, 1933. There are enough shelves for the 20,000 books. There is a plaque next to the memorial that says “Das war ein Vorspiel nur, dort wo man Bücher verbrennt, verbrennt man am Ende auch Menschen,” from Meinrich Hein’s play Almansor which was written in 1821. Which translates to “Where they burn books, they will in the end also burn people.
Where to stay
We stayed at Bax Pax Hostel in Mitte. It was a great location; close to the metro system (so easy and cheap to get to and from the airport; bus to undergroud) and easy to walk to places. We stayed in one of the 30 bed rooms. It wasn’t bad and it was an experience. When in Berlin might as well push yourself.
Follow me on Twitter @Pilots_Daughter