Berlin.. just wow. It was different to what we expected (not sure what we expected actually, but that wasn’t it) and it is also surprisingly different from anywhere we have been. It’s grungy, if I had to describe it. Some parts real grungy, others slightly less so. The feel of the place is one of ‘we’ve been through hell, so now we are going to do whatever the hell feels good’ which seems pretty much mimicked by the government and law enforcement too.
We didn’t know much about Berlin’s history until we got there. We had no idea that the Berlin Wall only came down in 1989, and that most of the city was destroyed during the various wars that it always seems to find itself in the middle of. Today, well it’s kinda like someone got a mixing bowl and added a handful of rubble, squirted a bunch of spray paint in, churned it for a while then poured it over a scale model of a nice new city.
There are reminders of the horrific past everywhere, from the sections of wall, watch towers and checkpoints, but there is also a lot of new life flourishing amongst it, like the trendy cafes and clubs filling entire suburbs, and the weird cutting edge architecture used in the newly rebuilt areas.
Oh one thing – clubs are so weird here! We didn’t go clubbing cause we don’t really swing that way anymore, but it’s the done thing to go out at 9am on a Sunday morning and start getting trashed! Big drug culture too, but you'll find that in most big European cities I think.
The people living in Berlin are hugely diverse; there are a lot of punks and hipsters, and a lot people we passed weren’t speaking English or German. There is litter and graffiti carpeting most areas, and every third person is drinking alcohol openly in the streets and on the trains. There also isn’t any English around on signs which is slightly alarming for the ignorant traveler.
Admittedly, if we’d arrived here and didn’t know anyone we would have been pretty standoffish and reluctant to venture out. However if you can get past that initial feeling of ‘AHHH!’ it’s actually a pretty harmless and relaxing place. We are so so lucky that we have our really good friend Ben living here. He met us at the airport, helped us buy train tickets (then got accosted by a bunch of other tourists who needed help), took us to our apartment, ordered coffee for us, played tour guide, helped us with everything…we would have been so lost without him.
Ben, seriously, thank you for making this edgy place warm for us. If we could speak German we’d seriously love to live here for a while. I feel the language is a real barrier, but maybe it’s not as bad as we think because we never really had to try too hard since we let Ben hold our hands. Oh and food & booze is cheap. Living in general is pretty cheap but so are the rates of pay.
One night we decided to check our finances. A bad idea to begin with. Our findings – even worse. The panic set in – we needed a host, like, right now, because we couldn’t support ourselves for another week. We had 3 nights in Paris booked, but apart from that we were on our asses.
Surprisingly however, the universe took care of us and we found a host in France who wanted us straight away. Staying in France meant saving a packet on flights, so it all seemed logical.
We could breath again, and enjoy our 1 euro litre of beer.
