I’d personally been very excited for Berlin since we started planning the trip. I’d heard wonderful things about the city from so many people at this point, that I came in with higher expectations than I probably should have. It didn’t disappoint.
It was good to be back in Germany. I’ve heard multiple people say that northern Germans especially keep to themselves, but on the tram ride from the train station to our apartment there were three different people who all gave us city tour recommendations, knowing we were tourists. We arrived at our apartment as the sun set down the street.
We set out for dinner and a night out once we’d settled into our apartment.
The days were short in Berlin, with the light fading around 10pm and the morning light appearing around 3:30am
My friend Jack had reached out to two of his friends, Roman and Anca, in Berlin when he heard about my trip.
This is all of us together 🙂
We met Roman at noon as it started to rain, and we walked along the Berlin Wall memorial, and then through various parts of the city. We grabbed coffee and then tea at a Tajikistan tea room.
Vodka with tea, a natural pairing
We sat on cushions, drank tea concentrate with hot water, and ate biscuits and jam. I can’t think of many better ways to spend a rainy day. Roman grew up in Central Asia (Uzbekistan, I believe), and told us stories of his family back in Russia and the both the similar and different ways of life there.
We spent a couple hours at the tea house until the rain died down and we continued on our walking exploration of the city, eventually passing by the Reichstag building.
Unfortunately tickets book up fast and we weren’t able to get inside, but it was still impressive from the exterior
After lunch/dinner we headed up north to the Wedding neighborhood to watch the Champions League final between Real Madrid and Juventus with some of Roman’s friends in an Irish bar.
I think I avoided taking a picture of the proper bar to avoid looking like a tourist, but it was packed.
Juventus seemed to be the crowd favorite, despite the well-liked German midfielder Tony Kroos playing for Real Madrid.
After the game we chatted some more with the folks at the pub before heading home.
The rain continued on day three in Berlin. Roman and Anca were kind enough to invite us to a brunch with some of their friends, most of whom were expats. Joe and I picked up some provisions and we met Roman and Anca for a subway ride south. As Anca pointed out, a lot of the people on the train were just coming home from going out. The club culture is intense in Berlin, and Sunday afternoon of all times is often when people will be coming home or just going out. It’s around the clock on weekends.
The brunch was in a really beautiful apartment. High ceilings, plants, even a sauna (of all things), in the living room. Space in apartments seems generally abundant in Berlin. It’s one of the few major cities in the world where population has declined since the end of WWII.
After a few hours of brunching, Roman and Anca headed off for a day trip and we gave them our many thanks for their hospitality. I don’t know many people who would spend so much of their weekend touring around two people they don’t know, but we were very grateful that they did, and gained two friends as a result. Getting to talk with locals or expats was something definitely missing from the previous cities we went to. It can be hard to meet regular people when visiting foreign cities, so getting to talk with locals was a huge upside of our time in Berlin.
Honestly it was kind of a weird parade
We stopped by a street festival on the way back to our apartment, and took it pretty easy when the rain really started coming down. By evening it had cleared up and we feasted on some cheap Italian food before doing a lap of the neighborhood to walk it off.
