Jet Lagged Gianna

My poor Dubrovnik experience turned around the second I got on the plane. Theres nothing like having an entire row to yourself to lift your spirits.

Going into Germany, I knew one thing about Berlin: people either love it or hate it. I’m happy to report that I love it. Berlin has everything. Art, history, nightlife, great food, fashion, culture. It is a city of freedom and progression, and yet a city of remembrance.

From the airport, I took a train to a metro station, and then a metro to my hostel. The underground system was one of the easiest I encountered on my travels. The city is enormous, and you can feel it the second you hit the sidewalk.

I stayed at the Wombats City Hostel. It was by far one of the best hostels I’ve stayed in (it would be the best if it had air conditioning). The hostel is huge. It has a kitchen, a laundromat, and a rooftop bar. They even offer rooftop yoga in the early evening. It was a bit pricier than the other hostel options, but I was drawn to the rooftop and I’m glad I spent the extra money.

I arrived late, so I made a quick dinner in the communal kitchen before heading up to the bar. I used my free drink ticket to order a glass of white wine (I know, I should have ordered beer in Germany, but I just don’t particularly enjoy beer) and then joined a group of people playing giant Jenga. The hostel makes it really easy to socialize. I felt comfortable within minutes.

The next morning, I started my day at the Berlin Wall Memorial. I walked about twenty minutes to get there. The wall stood out like a sore thumb amongst the modern graffitied buildings. The great stone barrier emulated impending doom. I couldn’t imagine living in Berlin during the Soviet Era.

Next to the wall is a free Berlin Wall Museum. I spent some time there, wandering through the different levels and learning more about Berlin’s dense history.

When I’d tired myself out, I decided to lift my spirits with a burger. I headed to a popular vegan restaurant called Swing Kitchen. I got the Swing burger with a side of fries. I literally devoured the entire thing in seconds. Either I was really hungry or Germans just know how to do a good veggie burger.

Berlin has been dubbed the vegan capital of Europe. Walking through the streets, you can totally see why. There isn’t a restaurant without a sign in the window displaying the words “vegan options available.”

After lunch, I jumped on the metro and headed to the East Side Gallery, which is essentially a stretch of the Berlin Wall that has been painted over.

The gallery seems to go on forever down the street. Each section of the wall is more interesting than the next.

• 

• 

• 

• 

My next destination was perhaps my favorite spot in all of Berlin: Veganz (an all vegan grocery store). I spent more time wandering around that store than anywhere else. They had every vegan food item you could imagine: cheeses, sauces, fake meats, pizza, ice cream.

• 

• 

I settled on a mushroom ravioli with pesto sauce and parmesan cheese. I walked 45 minutes back to the hostel to work up an appetite. The food was amazing of course and only took me 10 minutes to make.

I made my way to the hostel bar once again and ordered my usual glass of white wine. I noticed a young guy sitting alone a few seats down from me. He had that “hipster” sort of look that is so popular among solo travelers.

“Are you here alone too?” I asked him.

“Uh, yes I am,” he said shyly.

“I’m Gianna.”

“I’m Kai,” he told me.

Thus began our friendship. Kai was a soft-spoken 20 year old college student from Maryland. He was super into hallucinogenics and EDM clubs, which was why he was in Berlin. He wanted to try to get into all the exclusive clubs.

I, personally, am not into drugs or clubbing. But somehow, it worked. That night we stuck together, meeting other people and playing pool until around 2 in the morning when he left to try to get into some exclusive club where you have to wear all black. I stayed in the hostel bar with a group until 3.

We met back up around lunchtime. We’d both woken up late (Kai apparently didn’t get back to the hostel until 7 am).

I want to note that I kept planning to do the hostel’s free walking tour. Every day, I would set an alarm, but then sleep through it. It’s hard to prioritize a walking tour when you stay up drinking until 3 am. Berlin was the only city where I partied every night. And I wouldn’t really call hanging out with people in a hostel bar until late “partying.” It was still so much fun.

I never got up early enough to do the tour unfortunately, but I would still recommend it because Berlin has some crazy, interesting history.

Kai and I got lunch at a Vietnamese restaurant across the street. Berlin has a huge Vietnamese population, so the food is amazing.

We ran into Chris, another guy from our hostel, on our way to Alexanderplatz. Chris was from Texas. He loved guns and freedom and ‘Murica. I’m not sure what made our group work, but it just did.

We debated whether or not to spend the $20 to ride up the Berliner Fernsehturm, eventually deciding against it. $20 for a nice view is steep.

Instead, we went across the street to the Berlin Cathedral Church. It only cost $5 for students to enter. We walked around the church and then climbed to the top of the dome.

The view was amazing, and the fact that it cost $15 less than our original plan made it even better.

A heat wave was upon us. Berlin isn’t known for having particularly brutal summers, but the 3 days I was there were some of the hottest I’ve ever experienced. We needed to escape the heat, and fast.

We decided an art museum would be the perfect place to enjoy both air conditioning and German culture. We spent a few hours wandering around the Alte Nationalgalerie, posing like the paintings for pictures. See below.

• 

• 

Kai was still slightly high on LSD from the night before. His commentary on the paintings made the museum even more interesting. He was seeing such interesting aspects of the art that I didn’t even notice at first.

After working up an apatite, we went a park for some drinks and snacks. Kai and I shared fried potatoes. Chris ordered a giant curry bratwurst. We sat under an umbrella and sipped our iced drinks, desperate for any relief from the heat. Afterwords, Chris went back to the hostel for a nap and Kai and I decided to continue our adventure around Berlin.

I said earlier in this post that Berlin is a city of remembrance. The Holocaust is still incredibly present throughout the city. Visiting the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was a sobering experience.

I spent about a week and a half in Germany and Poland. The entire time, I was very aware of the atrocities of the Holocaust that took place in the very cities in which I was staying. I want to try to address my experiences as delicately and respectfully as I can. If you travel to these countries, please take the time to learn about the past. It is difficult and sad, but so so important.

The memorial is somber and quiet. Underneath is an incredible museum that details the history of the Holocaust in Germany. I felt like I couldn’t breath for the entire hour we spent there. But I’m so glad I experienced it. It is so important to remember the atrocities of our past so as not to repeat them. If you are going to see anything in Berlin, see this.

We walked back to the hostel without speaking, still deep in thought about what we had witnessed in the museum. We decided cheap ramen with bok choy would be an easy, quick dinner.

After dinner, we met up with some other travelers on the rooftop for another drink. We needed to socialize to lift our spirits.

As usual, Kai left me halfway through the night for the clubs and I spent the rest of my time playing cards with some Aussies.

The next day was the worst the heatwave ever got. The hostel didn’t have AC and it was brutal. I had to check out by 11 am, but I was able to keep my bags in a storage room for the rest of the day.

Kai and I walked to a vegan burger shop. We ordered burgers and fries, but the restaurant sadly didn’t have AC. We sat outside eating under an umbrella.

We went to the DDR Museum, hoping for AC. It was slightly better, but the amount of people crowded inside didn’t help alleviate our sweating. The museum was incredibly interesting. It documents everyday life in pre-unified Germany.

Finally, we wandered back to the hostel, desperate to stay out of the blazing sun. We managed to find some shade in the hostel’s backyard. We spent the rest of the evening hanging out with some other travelers from Brazil, listening to music and talking about the meaning of life (I’m 100% serious, our conversation got deep).

I was running low on time. In just a few hours, I would be taking my first ever overnight bus to Poland. We went across the street for another amazing Vietnamese meal. Towards the end, I started to get anxious about missing my bus. This was the least amount of time I’d ever left myself to make a bus. It was so easy to loose track of time with this group of people. Everyone was so interesting.

Thank gosh for German efficiency. I hopped on the metro that went right to my bus station and made it with 5 minutes to spare (I know, I cut it pretty close).

The bus has two floors. I chose a seat at the top and prayed no one would sit next to me. Of course, someone did. The bus was completely full by the time we left. I had 11 hours to go in a tiny, cramped seat that only went back about 2 inches. I was in for a long night.

Up Next –> Eating My Way Through Krakow, Poland

Subscribe to get alerts when I post!