Berlin - 2010

Somehow I had never managed to visit Berlin before the summer of 2010 - I had just briefly visited Hannover a long time ago. After reading a story in the local newspaper about the communist and 2nd world war era sights I realized that Berlin would actually be a very interesting city. Fascinating sights, relaxed atmosphere, good public transportation and a wide variety of cheap food and beer - what else would you need?

That proved out to be very much true and I can honestly say that Berlin is one of my favourite European destinations now! I did not write very detailed diary this time, just some short notes about the places I visited and food I had.

I stayed at the brand new EasyHotel Berlin that was an excellent value for money - 30 euros for a decent room is not much! 

Check out the photo gallery.

24.6.2010
I took the Air Baltic flight via Riga to Tegel. It was quite late when I arrived so I did not do much except for watching football world championships in a local bar. And had a very good döner kebab in some local place.

25.6.2010
First day of sightseeing. I moved around with U and S bahns - public transportation works very well indeed. As usually I spent the first day in a destination just by doing random walks without that much planning. I managed to cover quite a few of the key spots anyway.

Sights / places visited:

• Aleksanderplatz area
• Tv tower - interesting 70s style monument with great views
• Potzdamer platz
• Dali Exhibition - bit of disappointment - not as extensive compared to the exhibition I visited in London
• Holocaust Memorial
• Brandenburger Gate
• Reichstag
• Hamburger Bahnhof
• Museum of Modern Art (Hamburger Bahnhof Museum) - huge place with some really weird stuff
• 'Beach' near the railway station (watching Portugal-Brazil game, had some banana beer from an African stall) - Germans seem to like these artificial beaches - all you need is some white sand and open air bars

Food

• Currywurst and potatoes for lunch
• Some sushi for afternoon snack
• Vietnamese food for dinner

26.6.2010
This day was dedicated for 2nd world war and cold war related sights. After a long day I spent the evening again watching football (USA - Ghana). I also managed to do some shopping in the Aleksanderplatz area (shirts and shorts).

Sights / places visited:

• Mauerpark
• Checkpoint Charlie - the museum is very interesting, especially all the stories / exhibits about escaping from East Berlin
• Stasi Prison - this was an interesting guided tour, took some effort and a lengthy tram ride to find the place
• Stasi Museum - unfortunately not that much in English. Anyway the spying department is interesting and funny - all that 70s James Bond equipment is so cool

Food

• Takeaway breakfast from some local store
• Sandwich from Lidl (it was almost the same as in Finland)
• Burger King (Double Whopper time - of course!)
• Bratwurst and potato salad while watching the game

27.6.2010
The final day of this short visit. Managed to watch the Germany - England game before rushing to the airport. As you might guess the atmosphere was a bit better than in the games of the Finnish national football team!

 

Sights / places visited:

• East Side Gallery - it is just amazing! I took photos of almost every piece of art
• Spree river bar (cannot remember the name)- one of the numerous places along the river
• Sandsation 2010 - accidentally spotted this area with really cool sand sculptures
• DDR Museum - this is a very funny museum, actually a lot of the 70s DDR stuff reminded me of my childhood in Finland!
• Pergamonmuseum - not as impressive as I thought
• Medizinhistorisches Museum - this is an interesting place, somewhat similar to Kunstkamera in St Petersburg (malformed babies in glass jars - additionally there are human organs to be seen). Not for the faint hearted

Food

• Squid and salmon sandwich from some takeaway place at the railway station
• Noodles with curry and sushi from some asian place