My travel advice for Berlin is pretty limited, since I had less than 24 hours there. But looking back, I’d still like to share the few things I did, and the things I wished I would have had the time for.
Must do’s in Berlin:
- Berlin Wall (And Checkpoint Charlie Museum)
- Brandenburg Gate
- Reichstag Building
- From what I can read it’s tricky to get tickets at all, but I remember we showed up pretty early in the morning, talked to like 5 different people and managed to get tickets for like 7:00 pm the same day. I think we were really lucky, but I definitely recommend booking in advance if at all possible. Things should be a whole lot easier now that cell phone data works throughout the EU. It was a lot harder when we were living in the stone age hopping from café wifi to café wifi.
- Shopping in a flea market/Christmas market
- Berliners LOVE flea markets and there are lots of them!
- Eat a currywurst and a doner kebab (they were invented here!)
I didn’t get a chance to see it, but I wish I had:
- Holocaust Memorial
- I can’t believe I didn’t get to see it. It was such a whirlwind of a day, I just forgot that it was in Berlin.
- Berlin Cathedral
- It looks beautiful, I just didn’t happen upon it, so I didn’t get the chance to go in!
- Spree park
- Abandoned amusement parks are such a draw for me, but they’re usually trying their hardest to keep people out, not letting them buy tickets to go look around!
- Weissensee Abandoned Children’s Hospital
- Technically you aren’t “supposed” to go here, but if I had known about it when I went, I absolutely would have tried.
- Museum Island- There are so many museums that Museums Island has been dedicated as a UNESCO world heritage site, but I just didn’t have the time. 😦
- (As always, when in Europe, make sure to bring your student ID!)
Oddities I loved:
- DDR Museum
- This museum is very carefully curated, and they have a lot of cool, modern exhibits, like a little Trabant that you can drive! (I am utterly obsessed with Trabants, so this was a must do for me.) It has tons of easy to digest information about what life was like in East Germany before the wall came down.
On the topic of oddities, Berlin is a city overrun with hipsters, so there are TONS of wacky little things hidden throughout, if you know where to look, and the best resource to find them is Atlas Obscura. Definitely check out the page on Berlin: https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/berlin-germany/places?page=1
Finding Eden 