InterRailing: Berlin

This is going to be the first of a few posts about our InterRailing trip this summer, each one focusing on one major city or a few smaller stops. It's going to be in English in case anyone happens to stumble upon this blog as I did whilst googling 'inter railing tips' during the planning stages.

The trip begins in Birmingham, UK at the delightful Birmingham International airport. This is Sam on 'Beard Day 0'. He shaved before leaving and then proceeded to not shave for a further month (that's another two weeks after we got back); there was no real reason to do this except we thought it might be funny to take pictures every day, and we're both fans of that 'caveman' look.

The hostel we stayed in is called Pangea People; it was actually quite central, somewhere in the middle of a triangle formed by the districts of Mitte, Friedrichshain and Prenzlauer-Berg. It was right near the Alexanderplatx U-Bahn stop which proved to be useful both in terms of transport and finding ourselves on the map. We caught a bus from the airport which was pretty self explanatory and not too expensive.

It has actually only occurred to me in the last 30 seconds or so that the name of the hostel was somewhat related to its interior decor; after some googling I have been reminded that Pangaea was the supercontinent, and in fact each of the hostel's six floors was a 'continent' that came from it, with each door being a place on that continent. I think we were on floor four or five (Australia) and our room of 10 beds was Tasmania.

The hostel was pretty nice, good bathroom facilities, friendly guests and staff (despite the guy at the desk trying to short change us and probably succeeding) and reasonable prices. The bar was also pretty cool but nothing special and busy with larger groups of foreigners the few times we went up. The only really annoying thing about the hostel was that the room got a little warm, but the window was right above a major road and tramline, near to the over-ground U-bahn line; hopefully I've implied it was freaking noisy.

Here are a few shots from the bus and then the area around the hostel on the evening we arrived; contrary to expectation it was raining, but that soon cleared up:

Salami on rye sandwich, mini chocolate bundt cake and Berliner bear courtesy of Lufthansa!



A thought provoking apartment block

Some kind of protest

The Fernsehrturm behind one of many 'inspiring' Marlboro adverts.

Quite fancy department store (delicious food section) and the tower.

Taking cover in the underpassage of the big department store in Alexanderplatz.

Inside the department store

Sam got annoyed at me taking pictures of the same thing, so I took another. Also, BIG HOTEL.

This one is more picturesque! A church in the Alexanderplatz area.

Alexanderplatz station.

U-Bahn tracks after the storm.

Cream cheese filled pretzel- part of our supermarket dinner

The hostel captured from the tram which ran past it.



We found this chain of places called 'The Pub' which exists all over Eastern Europe, mostly popular because you pour your own beer from the taps at your table. Very cute idea, not to mention every table had a little screen from which you could view the jukebox play queue and add a song, and also order food and other drink.







Bad technique



Good technique



Day 1: Somehow we were tired before we even started this trip, which didn't make our first day of walking under the hot sun any easier, but we still managed to see quite a bit.

Sam on 'beard day 1'

A catering to very large Germans

A statue of Marx and Engels on Karl-Liebknecht Strasse

Das Berliner Dom

The Humboldt Box... we never figured out what it was

One of the museums on Museum Island

Brandenburger Tor

Das Berliner Bear!

The amazing pretzel man

Part of the act...?

Deutscher Bundestag (Old Parliament)

It was free to go up, we queued for 20 minutes to reserve a spot and came back later...

...hence the inconsistent weather in these photos

Nice flag on the ground floor

A little earlier... monument on Strasse des 17 Juni (in Russian)

Looking towards Unter den Linden and the gate

The big Tiergarten

Interesting "hope" stone

Potsdamer Platz

Still standing... a piece of the Berlin Wall



Berlin's very own 'Boulevard of Stars'

Standing in the East with my shadow in the West!

Serious map work executed by yours truly

Very large volleyball players



A picture with Clara's name in it, therefore worthy of a picture...

 

Topographie des Terrors- a really interesting and above all informing tourist stop; considering I knew little to nothing about WW2, this was an easy introduction, the info points being well broken up (with pictures, yay). Unfortunately the heat was a little too much so I rushed through the end to find water, but overall a must-see in Berlin.



Loved this thing...

Berlin during the Occupation

Sam and a bit of the wall

So true...

The pictures we took of the monument to the Jewish people tormented during WW2 look a little like we were playing in a maze, and actually this is what everyone doing; One look at this does tells you that the designers/concept artists took no consideration of the fact that children would want to climb all over it, or that it really does just look like a maze. In conclusion I decided it was ok to take silly pictures- not my fault they came up with something which looks like a playground...



Bears!



 



Nap time!

Our first Wurst!

In the evening we decided yet again to follow the suggestions of our free tourist map (The Pub was also the result of this the previous night) and we went to Monsieur Vuong, a very hip and also popular Vietnamese restaurant on Alte Schonhauser Strasse, near to our hostel. It was super busy, and for good reason. After struggling to read the menu from a distant blackboard, we ordered haphazardly and hoped for the best. I had prawn spring rolls and the famous Vietnamese Pho soup. Sam had some sort of noodle dish with a really familiar taste I couldn't pin down- looking at the menu's ingredients I could only conclude it was coconut milk and some other citrus fruit like essence, it was very troubling for my palate. Conclusions: I recommend picking up one of those free tourist maps the second you arrive (the airport stocked them) and then trying this restaurant¬

We sat right beneath the counter! Very exciting yet still not close enough to always get the waiter's attention...

Then we took a little walk and found all sorts of strangely lit buildings...

Day Two: Started out at Checkpoint Charlie- another really informative and interesting stop for tourists (and Berliners too I guess), the day then mostly consisted of walking around Kreuzberg, in some random park, then crossing over to Friedrichshain and walking along the East Side Gallery. This song came to mind a few times ... Bloc Party do pick good song topics. Ended the day by riding the S-Bahn (I think...) to almost the end of the line.

Another glorious day in Berlin

Men in uniform

"We don't want a piece of cake, we want the whole bakery"- I didn't quite get why, but I loved it anyway

Walking through Kreuzberg park

Sam's excellent photography makes a come back...

Always when I'm talking...

Slightly racist portrayal of a Chinese fellow

'Beard day 3'

Discovering macro...concerned Sam

On a nice train back to the hostel

Third dinner in Berlin: Currywurst Express.

A boxed salad topped with a few tasty things from the deli counter...potatoes, beans, some other ingredients i don't remember and a pretzel.

Riding my favourite form of transport: the tram.

Discovery of the day: some kind of water tower? in the quiet suburbs of North East Berlin

Playing with my camera...

The worst watermelon I've ever tasted- but I haggled for it so it's OK.

Night time near the hostel

Day Four: leaving Berlin. I attempted to direct us to an internet cafe which I had found on google maps, so we could book a hostel in Vienna. Unfortunately this led to us becoming very hot and tired very early on in the day. We had breakfast and made our way to the station, only to find we still had quite some time left. Starbucks free wifi saved the day, and we were en route to Prague!

Eating breakfast with the birdies

'Beard day 4'