After 3 days in Amsterdam, Nisha, Sujay, Priscilla, Kenny, and myself boarded a 2pm direct train bound for Berlin. It was a 7.5-hour journey that gave us just enough time to reflect on our weekend in Tomorrowland, sorta reset our circadian rhythms, and brace ourselves for the next chapter: none of us have ever been to Berlin before.
We pulled into Berlin Hauptbahnhof/Central Train Station around 9:30pm and Ubered to Generator Hostel Mitte (“mitte” meaning “center” in German), where we checked in and kept it low-key with a few drinks at the bar before turning in for the night.
The next morning we joined a 10am walking tour of East Berlin, starting in front of drab, Brutalist-era buildings left over from the GDR days, like this old laundry building turned historical relic:
2 metro stops later, we emerged at a quiet park that once straddled the Berlin Wall. It now doubles as a dog run, with memorials and plaques marking the human stories behind this once fraught and very controversially painful border.
In Berlin, a double line of bricks on the sidewalk marks where the wall once stood:
We continued on to the Conrad Schumann memorial, commemorating the East German border guard who famously leapt from communism into freedom.
We then continued onto the Berlin Wall Memorial Park:
We stood over concrete slabs marking where tunnels had once been dug by desperate East Berliners hoping to escape, and where East German soldiers had tried to intercept them with their very long, obnoxious diagonal hypotenuse (when was the last time you heard that word?) wall.
Preserved sections of the wall and a watchtower still stand beside the serene St. Elisabeth Cemetery.
From atop the watchtower above the document center museum, we got a panoramic look at the entire site:
After a sobering morning, we returned to our hostel with a coffee stop at The Barn and rainy lunch along the way; Sujay and I peeled off for vegan, while the rest got Taiwanese beef noodles.
That evening we met up for dinner at No Bananas with longtime monsooner Daniela and Gabe; local friends I’d promised I’d visit in Berlin: I always keep my promises!
While the rest of the crew checked out Berlin nightlife at Berghain and Sisyphos, Sujay and I bowed out and crashed early, still catching up on sleep.
Next morning, I woke up first and treated myself to a solo brunch at Factory Girl before Sujay joined a few hours later. He had booked us a 2pm walking tour covering West Berlin, starting at Brandenburg Gate.
Then came the Reichstag, the seat of German parliament…
…and then a few paces over, the Tiergarten memorial, which was constructed as the first Red Army memorial on the orders of the Soviet Union shortly after the end of World War II.
We then passed by a view of the Victory Column…
…and walked through the haunting Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe:
It was designed so that you can walk the undulating hills within the memorial, taking symbolic note of the people around you appearing and disappearing amidst the the concrete slabs.
Nearby, we sat by the nondescript spot of the Führerbunker, where Hitler made his last stand and killed himself as the Soviet army approached.
Today, it’s marked only by a set of apartment complexes … and a bubble tea shop.
From there we walked to another preserved stretch of the Berlin Wall that runs along the Topography of Terror exhibit:
We then finished our walking tour at Checkpoint Charlie, featuring staged portraits of anonymous soldiers: one American facing East Berlin standing guard, one Soviet soldier facing West Berlin standing guard, and neither of whom at the time knew they’d become part of this symbolic photo-op:
After wrapping up our walk through Berlin’s turbulent 20th century, Sujay and I grabbed some thrift store finds to level up our outfits for another shot at Berlin nightlife, detoured for the exhibits at the free Topography of Terror museum (which documents the brutality, and both rise and fall of the Nazi regime), ordered some caffeine for Sujay at Five Elephants, before finally meeting Kenny for a low-key Vietnamese vegan dinner.
We all then returned to the hostel to take it easy until 4:30am in the morning . . . yes, 4:30am . . . where we regrouped to test our luck at Berghain.
Once we got there by Uber, each of us headed one by one where I watched friend after friend get turned away by the bouncers; as I walked up last to head in, I then decided last minute where I wouldn’t party alone wherever I ended up.
So I walked off the line and grabbed an Uber to Sisyphos, the backup plan we had all agreed on in case Berghain didn’t work out. Daniela and Gabe texted me that they already there, and I figured I’d be the first to link up. I paid the 25 euro cover, wandered a bit, and just as I was about to settle in, I got a message that the group had headed to another club, Renate, instead.
I rerouted: Hopped in another Uber, pulled up to Renate, only to learn Sujay and Kenny were just denied at the door and were now heading to, where else: Sisyphos.
At that point the sun was rising on my Uber driver and I was exhausted after taking my first all nighter in over 10 months when I was denied boarding in Toronto (oh yeah, I still remember that!). And to be clear, not with them, just with the whole night where it had been one reroute too many. I felt it was more a sign than a test, called it early, and returned back to the hostel for some much-needed rest.
The next morning, on sadly only five and a half hours of sleep, I woke up and headed to Mauerpark to meet Daniela and Gabe for a morning debrief and stroll. This park is etched in my memory as the final scene in Berlin, I Love You, and walking it in real life felt like tracing the edge of a film reel in reverse.
Screengrab from the movie:
The scene itself:
Real Life:
After a slow morning walk and some much-needed nostalgia, I jumped in a bus and said goodbye to Daniela and Gabe as I returned to the hostel. By now, Nisha, Kenny, and I were scrambling for last-minute tickets for a 3pm train to Frankfurt were jumping in price by the hour. With barely enough time to pack, we said our goodbyes in the hostel lobby.
And then, one last twist of fate!
After boarding the train and going up and down end to end of the train looking for open seating, and then getting kicked out seat after seat by people who had booked earlier and reserved their spots — even almost settling for getting separated in single open seats instead — I then walked by a family car that had just emptied out at the next stop (yeah we took that long moving around looking for seats). There was only one guy inside. I asked for permission if we could join and within minutes that guy, Simon, whose family train car we inadvertently took over, turned out to be a fellow Tomorrowlander!
What are the odds? We traded stories and laughs, and suddenly the four-hour train ride to Frankfurt passed in a wink of an eye.
- At time of posting in Berlin, it was 18 °C - Humidity: 68% | Wind Speed: 8km/hr | Cloud Cover: drizzling, and then sunny, and then drizzling again
