4 DAYS IN BERLIN

If you are doing your Erasmus at the University in Bremen, there is a programme which organises different activities for Erasmus students; and one of the activities that they organised was a trip to Berlin. The trip cost 80 euros all together with accommodation included. However, given the demand for the trip, they had to do a lucky dip to decide who could go and who couldn't.

So when my friends and I received the email, we signed ourselves up without thinking twice. I am someone who isn't very lucky, as they didn't choose me; and this wasn't the worst thing, because I was the only person in my group who wasn't picked. Thank goodness there was someone from our group who didn't go to the same university as us who also wanted to go to Berlin. So we decided to get accommodation and transport ourselves, and then go to the same activities as them. Honestly, the difference between what we paid and what they paid was not greater than 15 euros, so we didn't do too badly.

We were in the German capital for four days, and I want to tell you about my experience there, as well as the places that we visited.

Accommodation

Later, I am going to tell you about the two hostels that my classmates and I stayed in. The one that my friends stayed in was called Industrie Palast Hostel Berlin, and to be honest, it seemed to be more a hotel than a hostel. On the contrary, ours was Hostel StayComfort Kreuzberg. We wanted to look at the availability for the one that my friends were staying in so that we could stay with them, but when we looked all of the rooms were fully-booked. The truth is that for the look of the hotel, it didn't seem very cheap; however, the one that my friend and I stayed in was quite cheap for Berlin, as we paid 10 euros per night for a room shared with 10 people. As a piece of advice, I would say that you should bring quite a lot of money in cash to Berlin; because in a lot of places they won't let you pay with card, as was the case in our hostel. Neither of us bought enough money with us in cash to pay for things in the hostel, so we didn't have any other choice but to withdraw some cash. The negative thing was that the nearest cash point to us charged 4 euros commission for each transaction, it was painful, but in the end, my friend made the sacrifice and took out money to pay for what we owed.

Day 1

The first day, my friends left at around 7 am from Bremen on a direct bus to Berlin, whilst we had to go to Hamburg and get it from there (it worked out a lot cheaper doing it like that).

Before 1 pm, we arrived in the city; and as the others hadn't arrived yet, my friend and I went to see the Berlin mural which was only a few minutes away from the hostel. I have to say that I was expecting more people to be there than there were, it is true that when you want to take a photo, there was the problem of people going past and being in the middle of the photograph, but to be honest, it wasn't very busy.

They arrived at around 1. 30 pm; left their suitcases and the rest of their stuff, and we met up with them to see the Fernsehturm, a really practical point of reference in case you get lost. In this case, my friend and I weren't too lucky as we couldn't go up with the others to see it from the top, but we stayed having a hot chocolate in a nearby cafe so we weren't too worried.

After we went to the hotel and once we were ready, we wanted to go around the city during the evening.

Day 2

In the morning, my friends went to do a bus tour of the city; my friend and I weren't convinced so we decided to go on a Free Tour. If I remember rightly, we met at 10 am in Marketplatz in front of Primark. I have to say that it was the best Free Tour that I have done to this date, and it is because the tour lasted for almost four hours and the boy who guided us did it incredibly.

The tour started at Museum Island, as the meeting point was packed with tourists. As its name implies, it is a kind of island where there are several museums, like, for example: The Old and New Museums. Here, he told us the history of Germany, from when there was still the King of Prussia and later the Republic of Weimar and who were the predecessors of the fatal German history that we all know.

This was followed my the Imperial Palace which unfortunately was under renovation when we went; something interesting about it is that it seemed as if it had been kept without a budget to continue with the renovations; so they thought of an alternative: anyone can buy a brick and write their name, and this will be used for its construction. The truth is that I didn't do such a thing, but it seemed quite an ingenious idea. Later, we saw the Protestant Cathedral a building which fascinates me. Also, the guide told us that it is really worth going to the top of the cathedral to see the sunset, even though we didn't do that.

We walked along Unter den Linden and we finished off looking at the oldest university in Berlin, the Humboldt University. A fact that the guide told us really surprised us; which was that the cost of university tuition was so low, that it was hard for us Spanish to digest it. In front of the university, you will find the Bebelplatz square, the square where the book burning took place.

Later, he showed us Gendarmenmarkt, where you can find the twin churches and the Luftwaffe Ministery. In reality, they aren't twin churches as, due to a rivalry between religions, one is a tiny bit taller than the other.

Then we went through the bunker where Hitler killed himself; nowadays it is a car park and the reason that they built it was for a way to avoid it becoming a place of pilgrimage. We continued with the Memorial in memory of the assassinated Jews this was the part that made me the angriest in terms of the tourists; it is because you could see children and not children going from one side to the other of the memorial itself and this demonstrated a lack of respect and awareness that I just couldn't understand at that time.

To finish off the tour, he showed us the Brandenburg Bridge.

To end off the day, we visited the Bundestag or Parliament; my friend and I didn't have the option to go inside, unlike the others who were able to see the inside.

Day 3

This day we dedicated, or should I say, they dedicated, to museums; and they visited the Blindenwerkstatt Otto Weidt, a museum where they tell the story of a man who they named the museum after, who hired various death and blind Jews to work for his company. Later we walked through Kurfurstendamm, another one of the main streets in the city.

On the other hand, our friends also visited the Berlin History Museum. As we didn't visit any of these two museums, we went to look for vintage shops; we found two that we liked quite a lot: one Blank's Vintage where you can find 5 euro sweatshirts and Levi's trousers for 10, and the other Humana a quite well-known chain where you can find really cheap clothes. All the shops were located really close to the hostels, so if you are also staying in them and you are a lover of vintage clothes, I recommend that you pay them a visit.

We also visited Checkpoint Charlie, but we were disappointed to find out that it was simply a recreation and not the original.

Finally, my friend and I visited the The Pergamon Museum where there are areas dedicated to the oldest and most powerful empires throughout time.

To finish off the day, we went out to a club called Matrix; it honestly really surprised me. It is because I thought that they were only going to play electronic music, but the truth was that we found a room with a DJ that we loved: he played reggaeton as well as hits from the 2000s.

Day 4:

This day, we only took advantage of the morning and we visited an artisan and vintage clothes market in Berlin called Mauerflohmarkt; I honestly loved this market and I didn't have enough time to visit each one of the little stalls. I have to say that the sellers were quite nice even though the prices were quite inflated (everything was artisan). They sold things ranging from jewellery, diamonds, wooden games... to clothes from the 80s.

Around 1 pm, we got on the bus and we went back to Bremen again.

Would you recommend Berlin? There are lots of people who have not liked Berlin at all, but I loved it; it is true that it is a bit grey, but the buildings that I have been talking to you about are beautiful, not to mention the climate it breathes. Well, I hope my experience has been beneficial to hear about, and that it helps you if you are thinking about visiting Berlin.