So, have you guessed what my second exciting event is yet? The title of today's blog is not in my customary French, but in German, and that's because I visited my uni friend Immy in Berlin this weekend!
I was super excited about going to Berlin. Literally everyone I know who has been there before had told me that it's a really amazing city, and so I have wanted to go there for quite a long time. So what better chance than on my year abroad when a friend of mine happens to be doing her year abroad there?
I'm splitting this blog post into two parts because it's promising to be just as long and photo heavy as my Strasbourg post (see 8/12) which I almost made two parts itself, and that was just for a one day trip! I arrived in Berlin late in Thursday night, and the air was absolutely thick with fog, which didn't bode very well weather wise, but thankfully we woke up on Friday morning to beautiful (if wintry) sunshine and crystal clear blue skies!
We got up and got going nice and early to fit in as much as we could. Berlin was the European Capital of Culture in 1988 - for good reason - and it has advanced so much in that time so there was an absolute ton that I wanted to fit into three days!
We started off by taking the U-Bahn to Alexanderplatz, which is a large public square practically in the middle of Berlin and close to pretty much everything, such as the Fernsehturm Berlin - a TV tower which at 368 metres is the tallest structure in all Germany, and was built by what was at the time, East Germany.
Walking away from Alexanderplatz, we passed Berlin Cathedral, on 'Museum Island'. It is pretty spectacular from the outside, and it seemed a shame not to explore a little more, so we decided to go inside and see what it was like.
For only €4 euros we got to explore most of the Cathedral - from the main section to the crypt, where lots of royalty are buried, and the large dome at the top, which was rebuilt after being bombed twice towards the end of World War Two - ...and wow, was it worth it! Berlin Cathedral is absolutely stunning inside - really, really beautiful. A bit like last weeks Strasbourg post, I shan't try to do it justice myself. As they say, a picture speaks a 1000 words.
Climbing up to the dome made me laugh, as it was the second cathedral I've climbed in a fortnight and anyone who's read my Strasbourg post will know how that turned out last time! Luckily, I didn't embarrass myself this time and made it to the top in one piece, which provided me with my first view over Berlin of the day [the second of which I'll come to later on...]
Once we were done at the Cathedral, we carried on meandering down the road, passing the Neue Wache (Central Memorial of the Federal Republic of Germany to the Victims of War and Tyranny) and Humboldt Univeristat, where Immy is studying this year (and whose building is also pretty spectacular, certainly in comparison to my own glass and chrome building back in Paris). Eventually we reached Berlin's famous landmark, the Brandenburg Gate.
For those who don't know is a former city gate, a triumphal arch, and the site of a lot of famous by US Presidents during the time of the East/West German split and the Berlin Wall.
Then we grabbed a coffee each (everybody should know the the Christmas Orange Mochas from Starbucks are amazing!) before heading for the site of my second view over Berlin.
The Reichstag building (history students will know that this is the one which famously caught fire in 1933) has a large glass dome at the top from which you can see most of Berlin, and which Immy booked for us and her friend Emma to go and see.
The dome has a giant ramp inside which takes you to the viewing platform at the top in a massive spiral and which, at certain points, automatically triggers a new commentary on the free audio guide that is available.
It explained a lot about what I was actually seeing of Berlin, and a little of it's history, which was interesting seeing as Berlin is absolutely rolling in it.
After we finished in the dome (and we sure took our time, because there was a lot to look at) we headed to the German Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe which is just a few seconds away from the Brandenburg Gate.
The memorial basically consists of 2711 concrete blocks of varying heights, which is supposed to (and again, this is all thanks to Wikipedia which I freely admit may be leading me up the garden path):
"produce an uneasy, confusing atmosphere... [and] represent a supposedly ordered system that has lost touch with human reason"
I personally found it a bit, well, random, and thought it looked a bit like a graveyard, but there we have it. Ours is not to question why.
After that we went back to Immy's flat to freshen up and grab some dinner, before we headed back out in the evening to meet with her friend Casey at Rosenthaler Platz. We walked from there to the Weinerei Forum, which was effectively a wine tasting bar.
Okay, so the photo isn't wonderful, but the inside of this bar was wonderfully quirky and, so I'm told, very 'Berlin'.
It's effectively a wine tasting bar. You pay €2 to get in and get a glass, and then you can try out and then drink as many of their different wines as you so choose, with helpful recommendations from the bar girl, before giving (at the end of the night) what you deem to be a fair price for the amount of wine that you've consumed while you're there.
Result: the most cost effective few glasses of wine I've had since hitting the continent back in September and a thoroughly enjoyable night out - and that was just Friday! There was a lot more to do in Berlin besides that which I have covered and I planned to do a lot more of that over the following two days...
On which note, the second part of this blog post (covering the said following two days) will be definitely go up by the end of the week, so keep an eye out for that, it will definitely be worth it!
Until then, tschüss!
Vicky xx
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