This blog post was very hard for me to start writing. Not because I didn’t enjoy our trip, but because I LOVED our time in Berlin! For a week after getting back all we could talk about was how great the food was, how beautiful the monuments are, how green the trees, and yes… how much we loved being able to go to Starbucks four days in a row. So once the Berlin magic spell finally wore off, I needed some time before I could reflect back on everything. It was like salt in a fresh wound having to come back to brown farm-land Sicily and the real world and I just wasn’t ready to bring up all of those Germany wanderlust feelings just yet! But as we sit now, two weeks since our Berlin expedition, I have wonderful company staying at my home for two weeks to spend some time with and an exciting week in Ireland less than a month out! With those exciting things to keep me happy, I’m ready to share some Berlin imagery and stories with you all.
I’ll be honest with you guys… at first I wasn’t totally sure about going to Berlin! It wasn’t really one of the big ones on my travel wish list, I didn’t know much about it and honestly was thinking we’d need to go farther north if we wanted to escape the summer heat! Well when we decided that we needed to make the most of the Fourth of July weekend and get out of town, Tony pulled up skyscanner.com and searched for any flights out of Catania (our nearest airport). He filtered those by price and then called me and simply said “Pick a number between one and ten.” I said six. I didn’t know it, but six correlated to Germany… the sixth cheapest country that we can fly to from home. Next he said “Pick a number between one and five.” I said three and just like that we were going to Berlin, the third cheapest city to fly to in the sixth cheapest country on that particular weekend. We booked the trip and began researching what to do, where to stay and what to photograph. My first thought of course was the Berlin Wall, because aside from that I really didn’t know much about this city. So why not start there in todays blog….
The 96 mile Berlin wall was officially torn down in 1989 to reunite East and West Berlin, but many portions of the wall are still intact today. At some places around the city you will find large portions of the wall with informational boards explaining the struggle that residents of Berlin endured for so long. At others, parts of the wall are simply knocked over, but left in one piece. Throughout the city, you will see a two brick wide line running where the wall used to stand. It was amazing how many times during the day we would pass from East to West Berlin carefree as if it was nothing… something impossible to do just 25 years ago. 
The Reichstag building. This is where Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag has sat since 1999. The building sits at the edge of the Tiergarten, a nearly 2 square mile park that is Berlin’s equivalent of NYC’s Central Park. Not only is the building absolutely beautiful, but the views from the roof are pretty awesome too! To visit inside of the Reichstag and ascend to the roof, you need to go online and register for the specific time and date that you would like to come. The process is simple and check in is a breeze (German organization for the win!). Once on top of the Reichstag you can stay as long as you’d like. Pick up a free audio tour when you reach the roof (by elevator) and then begin your gradual climb up the spiral path that brings you to the top of the glass dome. During your trip up, be sure to look back down at the very center of the room where you can actually view the Bundestag when they are in session! Our audio-guide informed us that the reason for the clear glass dome is transparency. They want their government to always be transparent with the people and never be holding any secrets behind closed doors… a thought that I really loved!
My absolute favorite thing in Berlin is their cute little photo booths! The city has these at various spots all around the city available for public use at just 2 Euro per film strip. The booths date back to the 1960s and are way too much fun. Tony and I throughly enjoyed this as a way to add to our ever-growing quirky souvenir shelf!
The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. 2711 concrete slabs of varying sizes spanning four acres make up this memorial in the center of Berlin. The harsh stone lines were a fun challenge for Tony and I to try and photograph in a new way while we watching people jump from slab to slab.
A harsh contrast to these stone slabs was all of the lush greenery we found around the city! From the beautiful Tiergarten to other smaller parks, we had a great time just hanging out in a field of green grass sitting under a great big tree!
One of the coolest things we did in the Tiergarten was on our first night in the city. Germany was playing in a World Cup match and the game was being broadcast live onto a big screen in the middle of the park for all of us to enjoy! Vendors were out selling traditional German food, plenty of beer and fan gear. We loved being able to experience Germanys WIN and celebrate with die hard German fans in the nations capital!
Some other great architecture we were able to take in was the Bode Museum, Berlin’s Cathedral – Berliner Dom, Brandenburg Gate and Humboldt University where Einstein taught!
Another thing I really loved about Berlin was how easy to use their metro is! Not to mention clean, efficient, and kind of fun with the variety of train cars they use. A metro pass is fairly expensive in Berlin, but I found it to be well worth it since it saved us so much time and got us very close to most of our destinations! A single trip ticket is 2,60 Euro, a day pass is around 7 Euro and a 3-day Berlin Welcome card is 25,50. The welcome card also grants you discounts at various attractions and a few other perks so weigh the options and see if you think that will be worth it to you or if you’d rather buy day/single trip tickets.
Tony and I had a blast on Sunday, our final full day in Berlin when we went for a nine mile run through the City. We stopped a few times to take selfies with the monuments we saw and truly loved being able to run under the shade of the trees in the Tiergaten and along the river Spree.
While we’re on the subject of silly pictures, here are these gems…. you’re welcome.
