Berlin
Welcome to beer heaven!
After a month in France, Spain, and Portugal, where all we drank was wine and sangria, Cardin was more than ready for the land of beer.
Before heading to the nearest beer garden, we wanted to check into our Airbnb. A few days earlier, our host informed us that she would be out of town and that we would pick up the keys to the apartment from the shop below.
As we walked up to the building, we realized that there was no shop below and that the only place on the street was a sketchy convenience store. Like the kind that’s slightly bigger than a closet and looks like it hasn’t been cleaned since the 90’s. To add to the joint’s seedy appearance, two men smoking cigarettes blocked the doorway as they watched people pass.
Surely that can’t be the “shop” our host was referring to…
We were about to message the girl when one of the men called out to us. Cardin and I quickly shared a glance before approaching the store. In very broken English, the guy attempted to ask if we were staying in the apartment and pointed towards our Airbnb. We said yes, and he went back behind the cash register to retrieve a small, white envelope.
After he silently handed it to us, we thanked him and quickly headed outside. Honestly, the transaction felt a bit like a drug deal, but thankfully the envelope did, in fact, contain our keys!
Once we successfully dropped our bags off at our home for the next few days, we headed to a nearby beer garden.
Below is a picture of Cardin before having his first REAL German beer:
And below is Cardin’s impression of his first REAL German beer:
I think it’s safe to assume he enjoyed it!!
Our new friend Megan, who we had just visited in Denmark (which you can read about here), happened to be in Berlin for a conference at the same time. So, of course, we had to meet up with her!
We started at the TV Tower and spent the next few hours hitting all of the nearby historic sites—which isn’t an easy feat since just about every corner holds either a beautiful building or monument.
As we were leaving the TV tower, the Google maps camera guy passed us! I haven’t checked if we made it onto the street view for it yet, but I bet we did!
That day also happened to be May 17th, which is World Neurofibromatosis Day!
The Neuro Foundation in London (the same people who gave us a GoPro so we could start making videos) also sent us these great shirts. So, we figured what better way to help spread awareness than wear our new gear as we explored Berlin!
A lady even asked us about our shirts after we took her picture for her. We ended up talking to her for the next 20 minutes about my disorder and our traveling. She lives in the UK and wants us to visit her on our next trip!
We were so excited that one more person knows about neurofibromatosis now just because we wore matching shirts for a day! It’s amazing the kind of impact you can have (no matter how small) and the people you can connect with even with something as simple as wearing a shirt.
For lunch, we decided to try out a local favorite: Currywurst.
Pork sausage covered in curry ketchup and sprinkled with curry powder are what makes this dish so delicious and unique! Cardin even ordered his made with ostrich sausage, which was surprisingly good!
You can find currywurst stands all over Berlin, so we ended up eating a few different versions of it. Plus it’s a cheap, quick dish and goes great with beer, of course!
After lunch, we headed to the Holocaust Memorial, also known as the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe.
Representing around 3 million Jewish Holocaust victims, this memorial is one of the most powerful tributes I’ve ever visited. You can’t help but feel the enormity of what happened during the Holocaust as you walk through the endless rows of casket-like statues.
The Brandenburg Gate (pictured above) is a quick walk from the Holocaust Memorial and is one of the most well-known landmarks in Germany. It’s also where we met that woman from the UK who asked us about our t-shirts!
Our last stop of the day was Berlin’s famous Museum Island. It consists of five incredible museums, so even though Cardin and I aren’t huge museum fans, we decided we needed to check out at least one.
We settled on the Neues Museum. It’s a collection of Egyptian art and is so interesting—even for us!
We passed a Tex-Mex restaurant on our way home that evening. Since we’re originally from Texas, I couldn’t help but take a picture! We opted to not eat there after looking at the menu and realizing how different their interpretation of “Tex-Mex” is from ours, but we were still excited to see it!
The first stop of our next day was East Side Gallery (also pictured in the feature photo of both this and my “Learning to Appreciate Sound“ post). It’s one of the longest remaining stretches of the Berlin Wall and was turned into an open-air art gallery in 1990. Most of the artworks are political statements or pleas for peace. It’s almost a mile long and so interesting to walk past!
It’s a bit far from all of the other tourist sites, but definitely worth the visit!
Another popular spot to visit in Berlin is Checkpoint Charlie (pictured above). It felt very touristy, especially since women were lined up to take pictures with the guards, but it was still cool to see it.
A few blocks away we found what I called a German version of Luby’s. And if you’re not familiar with Luby’s, it’s a cafeteria type restaurant. I’m a fan of places like this because I’m such a visual person and like to be able to see my food before I order it! The food there was delicious, but ended up being SO filling. We had to sit for about thirty minutes to digest once we finished before moving on.
Once we finished digesting, we visited the Jewish Museum. It was another incredibly powerful and moving experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Berlin.
Below is a picture of an interactive sculpture where you walk across clinking metal faces. It’s very eerie and one of the most memorable artworks we’ve ever seen.
The Typography of Terror is a free outdoor and indoor museum dedicated to the history of repression experienced under the Nazi regime. It’s located on the site of what used to be one of the Nazi headquarters and includes a large section of the Berlin Wall.
We had a wonderful few days in Berlin and learned so much about Germany’s history and how the country has recovered and honored such a devastating period of their past.
Click here to watch our Germany video along with our other vlogs!
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