I spent four days in Berlin, and admittedly it was not my favorite. I don’t know if it was because I was just coming off of a great few days with some friends in a city I really enjoyed (Copenhagen) or something else, but I did not fall in love with Berlin.

I arrived at my hostel later in the day and used the afternoon to catch up on some sleep and go grocery shopping so I could cook my own food while I was there. I bought eggs, toast, and stuff to make a spinach salad. It was nice to take a break from eating almost every meal out and make some yummy, healthy food. After putting my food away I went on a nice 7 mile run to Tiergarten, which is a 520 acre park in the middle of Berlin. Although I was enjoying my run, I decided to turn around once I hit an area where about 100 older men were sunbathing naked.

The next day I slept in a bit and then decided to meet up with my friend, Joanna, who I had met in Copenhagen. She was at the Berlin Gay Pride parade, so I took the metro to Tiergarten and fought my way through the crowd to find them. It was awesome to be in Berlin for the parade. Everyone was so nice and happy to be there.

One of the buses in the parade

After Pride I went home and made a spinach salad in the communal kitchen and met an Australian girl. Her dad was an Australian ambassador so she had moved 15 times in her life. Crazy! After dinner we went up to the rooftop bar for a drink.

My third day in Berlin started at the East Side Gallery, which is an open air gallery made from the Berlin wall and is over one kilometer long. In addition to the street art on the walls, there was an exhibition on the war in Syria, which was excellent, but also devastating to read about. I definitely got emotional reading about the injuries innocent children and citizens face from the bombings and shootings in the war.

Berlin Wall

Close up of some of the street art on the Berlin Wall

After a quick rest back in the hostel, I went out to meet Jack Montgomery for dinner. Funnily enough, the day before I had received a Facebook notification that “Jack is also traveling in Berlin” so I decided to reach out to see if he was free to catch up! Luckily he was and after not seeing each other for a couple of years, we made it happen across the globe in Berlin. I had so much fun seeing him, and hearing all about what he had been up to. He brought his girlfriend, who was awesome, and we managed to spend 5 hours at the restaurant before they finally said, “we are closing, but feel free to stay sitting at the tables outside.” We decided it might be time to call it a night.

With Jack after dinner

My last full day in Berlin was filled primarily with a free walking tour. Once again, it was a great way to see a lot of the important sites in a major city. While I had been to a lot of the places we went on the tour, it was nice to hear the historical significance of each place. Also, I met an awesome girl from Texas, Leighton, who I spent most of the tour with. Always fun to experience a tour with someone. On the tour we went to the Holocaust memorial and the place where Hitler got married, and then 24 hours later committed suicide. It was surreal to be right where so much horrific history took place.

Victory Column Siegessäule

Berliner Com, 1800’s cathedral

Reichstagsgebäude, a parliament building

After the tour, Leighton and I decided to meet up later and make dinner together! We were both craving some healthy home-cooked food. It was delicious.

Chicken, peach, & avocado, spinach and peach salad.

After we went up the rooftop bar and met two Aussie guys (AUSTRALIANS ARE EVERYWHERE) and had a relaxing evening just hanging and talking with them. Knowing I had an early train the next morning I called it a night and say goodbye to them.

With Leighton up at the bar

Overall, while I can see why so many people like Berlin, I didn’t end up liking it all that much. It was so big and it felt like a hassle to go any where. I’ve decided I like smaller, more manageable cities like Amsterdam and Copenhagen.

Now off to Prague to meet up with Sabrina!!