Berlin in Summer 2012

Berlin. Oh, notice the green traffic man. 

So I've got to say, Oli's job is pretty cool. Sometimes. Like when he gets sent to places for conference. And the cooler thing is his trip is usually paid for. But the coolest among all is I get to tag along. Sometimes. Like Hanoi but not Bielefeld, Germany (not that I care) or Berlin but not Barcelona (Okay, I really wanted to go to Barcelona but his accommodation was in Campus and truthfully, I couldn't miss any more German classes). Anyways, I thought I write about Berlin because it is a cool big city and I really had a good time just exploring Berlin. The things I enjoy about my days in Berlin, well, a plenty. First, it was so easy to get around in Berlin. And the accommodation that we chose helped because it had good train and bus connections just around the corner and very close to Kunfusterdam shopping street. Oh, and I have to say, I had Curry wurst from different places almost everyday I was in Berlin (that is 7 days) and the best curry wurst for me was the one located beside KADEWE shopping mall. Straight off the pan (which what makes it good and fresh), it was crisp from the outside and juicy inside. I'm salivating just thinking about it.

Curry Wurst. Cheap, tasty not so healthy.

The long queue into Pergamon Museum.

We visited the usual tourist spots; from Brandenburger Tor, Holocaust Museum, Jewish Memorial Site, and Jewish Museum to Checkpoint Charlie and whats left of the Berlin wall scattered around the city. We also went up to Bundestag Dome, Pergamon Museum (well only visited the special exhibition which was pretty fascinating) and after a bit of persuasion from Oli, Berlin Aquarium. I only agreed because Oliver said, there was whale but when we got there, none. Nada. I love him. Other days, when Oliver was cooped up in conference, I wandered on my own to the less touristy part of Berlin, which was pretty cool you know, slower paced and I guess, I'm pretty proud of myself. Having learn that much German (still learning) and being able to get around with much ease.

Bundestag (Berlin Parliament)

Loud, drunk, shirtless men.

Behind us are Berlin Dome and TV Tower

At Checkpoint Charlie. When East and West Berlin were separated by the wall, they had to go through several checkpoints to cross over to each side. Checkpoint Charlie was one of them and somehow, the popular one.

Pretty synagogue.

Us at Brandenburger Tor at night.

So yes, Berlin is a great city to visit. I've always vaguely known about Hitler, the Holocaust, World War 2, Jewish etc. And my visit to Berlin had really opened my eyes to the things that had happened in the past and how it shaped the things as of current. I learnt a great amount of history in Berlin, in a good way. One of the profound moments I had was when I visited the Holocaust Museum. The museum had different partitions or rooms and they were arranged in such a way that visitors will walk through rooms in chronological order depicting events in pictures and captions. In one of the rooms, it was set in dark, no light except the light coming from the previous room. There were a few blocks for people to sit. So I sat in one of the blocks. And in all four walls of the room, a name was projected. Every 20 seconds, it changed to another name. And another. Each names was narrated from a speaker. Those names were victims of Holocaust. Since the room was opened to public a few years back, it has been projecting names of the victims and up till today, they never repeated a name twice. There were just too many. Over 6 millions.

History, no doubt is one of the reasons you must visit Berlin. Even for someone like me who is not into history. Otherwise, there is the little interesting things that catch your fancies. Oh and of course, curry wurst.