Last year during Easter weekend, a friend and I decided to go on a road trip from Galway up to Donegal. Since it’s common to get a 4 day weekend for Easter in Ireland, I knew I needed to maximise this opportunity again! I think I need to make it an ongoing tradition to travel over Easter weekend.
I browsed my flight options on Skyscanner and decided to fulfill my dream of visiting Berlin, a city so steeped in layers of history I knew from the start I’d only be able to scratch the surface in my long weekend trip. And since I hadn’t been away on my own since Greece in June 2017, I knew I had to go it solo!
Day 1
I flew into Berlin Schönefeld Airport, which was my first introduction to the communist-era architecture that would become so familiar to me over the coming days. Imagine wide, expansive rooms and corridors and utilitarian design. Getting the train into the city was easy. You can follow the signs or follow the hoards of other people walking out of the airport and over to the train platform.
Because I booked a hostel in the Friedrichshain area of East Berlin, I decided to hop off at Alexanderplatz. Alexanderplatz is a major transportation and commercial hub in the East side of the city. It’s a massive pedestrianised area with shops and restaurants on all sides. You can catch several U-Bahn and S-Bahn lines from here to other parts of the city.
I was excited to see an Easter market set up for the weekend! There were loads of food stalls and stalls selling all sorts of trinkets from sweets, to handbags, to arts and crafty things. I hung out there for a while, wandering around, taking photos, and enjoying my first currywurst of trip.
I booked my hostel, U Inn Berlin, because of it’s proximity to the U-Bahn. As it turned out the U5 line was under construction while I was there. Eventually (after lots of walking around in circles) I figured out where to catch the replacement shuttle bus. It was a slight inconvenience to have to take the shuttle bus for 3 stops, then get out and go down to the metro for another stop. I was in and out of the city so many times over the coming days that I was an old pro by the end. But in their defence, I was never waiting more than 2 or 3 minutes for any shuttle or U-Bahn train. German efficiency at it’s finest!
I took it easy my first night and grabbed a quick dinner in Friedrichshain. The real sightseeing would start tomorrow!
Day 2
I spent the morning strolling around Friedrichshain. I wasn’t sure what to expect from it to be honest so I wanted to take a peek around the neighborhood. I had heard that it has a very trendy and hipstery underbelly. My impression was that the place must liven up at night, because in the morning the silence was deafening. Everything was closed up and there wasn’t much to see besides a bit of interesting street art and graffiti.
I booked a 1:30 PM walking tour of Berlin with Insider Tours, after reading several positive reviews. Their website lists several themed tours depending on what type of history you’re interested in (WWII, Cold War, Jewish History, etc.). As a history nerd myself I would have happily signed up for all of them! But since I was short on time, I opted for the ‘Famous Insider Walk’ which gives an overview of the highlights.
We had an excellent tour guide, who I believe was named Michael. He was an Englishman married to a German woman and had been living in Berlin for many years. He gave us this context to his personal life in order to give us his frame of reference for some of the history he was telling us. A highlight of the tour for me was when he was telling us how when his father was a little boy in England during WWII, he was nearly killed by a German bomb. Meanwhile, his now wife’s father was a young boy in Germany and was nearly killed by an English bomb. It was fascinating to hear his account of when he and his wife got together and decided to get married, how their parents reacted and came to accept someone once considered the ‘enemy’ as part of the family.
Berlin had such a huge role in shaping 20th century history. It’s still so fresh and personal to so many people in 2018. That’s the main thing I took out of my tour that day, and I think it’s and important thing to acknowledge as a tourist.
The tour hit all the highlights as promised as we got to see some things that I probably wouldn’t have known about on my own.
One place I had known about but didn’t realise we would be visiting was Hitler’s Bunker, or Führerbunker. It’s where Hitler eventually killed himself when the Allies where closing in and he knew he had lost the war.
I had read online before that it was paved over as a parking lot and not marked in any special way to avoid having people come to see it. That doesn’t seem to have worked as a couple other tour groups were there at the same time as we were. It was extremely ordinary-looking and it was difficult to visualise what was once there. Our tour guide explained how the bunker was laid out but it required a great deal of imagination.
A place I was especially keen to see was the famous Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. I expected it to be a solemn place of reflection, honouring the lives lost in the war. Unfortunately that was not my experience. The monument itself was visually striking. But the atmosphere was not what I expected.
The monument itself is located in a busy area, surrounded on all four sides by traffic, tour buses, and other tourist sites not far away. And on top of that, the monument wasn’t respected nearly as much as I had expected. There were many children running around the stone blocks, chasing each other and playing hide-and-seek. There were screams of laughter and delight. Kids will be kids, sure. I swear I’m not a total scrooge. But I didn’t see any parents trying to reign the children in or try to explain what the monument was about. Many adults were sitting out on the stone blocks having their picnic lunches. A couple people were doing photo shoots of themselves for Instagram. I found the whole thing disappointing.
Overall though I really enjoyed my walking tour! It was a great introduction to the city and all the layers of history from its founding to present day.
After the tour it was time for a cold German bier. I found a nice outdoor restaurant on the river just opposite Berlin Cathedral. It was a nice day so the tables were mobbed.
Solo travel perk: There was only one available table that no one was using because all the chairs except one had been taken and used by other groups. I waltzed right in and got my spot on the river!
DAY 3
The weather was wet and miserable on Saturday morning so I decided it would be my museum day. I love museums and try to visit at least one museum wherever I’m traveling.
I headed off to the German Historical Museum which I had heard was very good. It goes through German history from it’s ancient and medieval roots all the way through present day.
I’m a slow museum visitor. I like to read everything. So for that reason I was there for several hours, completed absorbed by all the exhibits. Someone else might go through much quicker!
That evening, I treated myself to a trip to the cinema! I had been a quiet trip thus far and hadn’t met anyone that I’d want to meet up with in the evenings. I never want to go out to bars alone so it’s always nice to have backup activities for the evenings. Luckily I found a kino that showed movies in their original languages with German subtitles. I chose to see ‘The Shape of Water.’ I’m not sure how I felt about the film itself but it was a lovely solo outing in a gorgeous old building.
DAY 4
It was Easter Sunday and I feared many attractions would be closed. So I decided to book an activity that I could rely on. I came across a food tour company called Bite Berlin. Again, they offer different tours for different food experiences. I found the price to be affordable compared to other food tours I’d considered so I booked their ‘Original Food Tour.’
This was a much smaller group tour than my Insider Tour so I was able to chat and get to know the other people a bit more. Our tour guide Karo was really kind and informative. The weather was cold and a little snowy but it was a fantastic experience.
One of the first stops was at Curry 61, one of the most well known currywurst spots in the city. I loved this mural on the wall!
Some of the other spots included pretzels, pastries, Vietnamese food, among a few other nice surprises. Food is such an important part of any culture so we naturally learned a lot of history through the food.
Our guide took us to this former squat in a rapidly gentrifying area. Note the sleek new building on the left in comparison. She explained some of the politics and current issues regarding places like this and Berlin’s squat culture vs. rapidly rising rent prices.
Day 5
On my last day, my flight wasn’t until the late afternoon. I had two goals for the day: visit the Stasi Museum, which wasn’t far from where I was staying in Friedrichshain. And of course, no trip to Berlin is complete without a visit to the East Side Gallery! I planned everything out and woke up early to make sure I had enough time. I double checked that the Stasi Museum was open and off I went!
Turns out, the Stasi Museum was not open. I got all the way there to find the doors locked. I was so interested in learning more about the Stasi so I was devastated. Even though I didn’t get inside the museum the desolate buildings around that area where their headquarters were gave me the creeps. So I kind of feel like I got a bit of the Stasi Museum experience.
Anyway, I lucked out with a beautiful sunny day for the East Side Gallery!
Some of the murals I recognised from pop culture and other peoples’ photos but I was impressed with how many I had never seen before. There were some really interesting and thought-provoking ones, and so many gorgeous colours! Of course I’d always wanted a photo with this one:
When I had finished up at the East Side Gallery, I was resigned to the fact that I had to head back to the hostel to collect my bag and head to the airport.
I decided since it was nice outside and I had some extra time to kill since I didn’t get to the Stasi Museum, that I would walk backinstead of taking a tram. By chance I stumbled upon an outdoor flea market. There were load of stalls selling all sorts of trinkets, much of it from the DDR era. I was in heaven! I poked around for nearly an hour, trying to decide if I should buy anything. In the end I found a box of DDR coins for €2 apiece. It was a perfect souvenir that wouldn’t take up any space in my luggage!
My solo weekend in Berlin was such a success. I couldn’t believe how much I fit into just a few days. But as I said I only scratched the surface of this interesting city! I’d love to go back in the summer to take advantage of the parks and rooftop bars. And of course I’ll need to go try to the Stasi Museum again. There are just so many things to see and never enough time!