Goodbye, sweet Berlin!

Today we leave Berlin. We managed to get our stuff packed into our luggages, including the extra shoes. We decided to wear our new shoes. I was thinking that it might be a good idea to lose a few things along the way, things that I was sure I won’t need or can be replaced easily. One thing in mind was towels. So, we checked out, got a taxi and were on our way to Berlin Hauptbonhof.





We arrived there early, got our tickets for the train rides in Czech Republic. Then Lisa came because she wanted to spend the last few minutes to have breakfast and chat with us. She was so nice to go out of her way to do that. We had curry wurst, a German special food. It was pretty good. So good that we nearly missed our train. It was only about 5 minutes when we started to head down. Luckily, the train itself hadn’t arrived yet. When it did, we said our goodbyes to Lisa, boarded, take pictures of her from inside and of us by her from outside. And of we went, to Prague, Czech Republic. This would be the first city where it would be just us, two newly weds in a foreign city. This would be quite exciting!

Berlin, more insides and outs

Even though we’ve set out to sleep early the previous night, we didn’t. And because we didn’t, we slept in this morning. But luckily we didn’t waste too much of the morning, and we managed to get going even before noon time.



We happened to meet up with Lisa in the S-bahn metro train when we happened to be in the same train. That was a nice coincidence, a bit like serendipity I suppose, since the first task was to find each other. With that out of the way, we headed to a local spot, Schwarze Cafe, that was established in the 80’s by students. It was a converted apartment that served originally to students. Now, over 20 years later students still recognize it as a hang out or meeting place. That was where we had our brunch. It was a good thing that we remained there as it started to rain a bit.





After everyone was full and ready to head out, we collected ourselves and started walking towards a shoe store called Snea Q. By this time the rain had stopped, although the streets were still wet. We spend quite a bit of time here, which ended with Diego, Sheilla and myself buying ourselves shoes. Aside from the nice collection they had, the prices were fair and relatively cheaper than other shoe stores.







So we headed out again, this time for sightseeing, for sure.







We came to a cathedral that was partly burned and destroyed during World War II. It had another church next to it that was functional. First we went into that one.



Then we went into the damaged church. The floor and ceiling were painted beautifully. Sometimes I just don’t understand why something so beautiful had to be destroyed. Oh well.







We headed out to a small shopping building just to see one thing: a liquid clock. Just see for yourself to know what I meant.





The day seemed to have gone by real quick by now, and it was time to walk quickly over to the next few places. We went through several streets, which I had no idea where in Berlin. However, we ended up at a Humboldt University. We went through it and got a little tour of it.













There was a large open area where in the middle we saw a glass looking into a room. The room had bookshelves with no books in them. The story was, during the Third Reich, Hitler and his regime declared all books that portrayed any threat to Fascism to be collected and burned. So the open area was used for these books to be gathered at and destroyed. The empty room represented that time as a memorial for lost great books.





We came across an area with three museum buildings. Two of which were identical, one being for the French and the other for the Germany. I wasn’t so sure how accurate this info was, as several people were giving slightly different variations. Here was also where we separated our group in half. Lisa, Diego, and his dad remained with us.







The remaining part of the group, which would be us, decided to check out the Checkpoint Charlie. In this area, it was once served as a checkpoint between the US and the Russian side when Berlin was occupied by them. Everyone who tried to go through from one side to the other had to have special pass, usually a visa. To commemorate, this gate was kept intact and remained a part of the tourist attraction.









For our last place to sightsee, we went to see the actual Berlin wall that still remained on its actual original position. This was called the East Side Gallery, which was considered the longest remaining wall of about 1.3 km.











Thus conclude the end of our sightseeing tour in Berlin. We headed back towards Alexanderplatz, where we were staying, taking a picture or two along the way.



We met up with Anna, a friend of Lisa’s that Sheilla met last year. We went to a chic Vietnamese restaurant, Monsieur Vuong, which surprisingly didn’t serve any Vietnamese food. There was only half a dozen items to choose from, which they changed daily. But the place was so crowded, and the taste of the food in addition to the ambiance were the proof.












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Berlin, Inside-Out

Because of staying up late to watch the Oscars the previous night, we woke up just past noon. Half of the day had past us, and it was quite a sunny day. That was a bit of a bum, but still the sun was out and we needed to enjoy it. We got ready and got out of the hotel.





We met up with Lisa at the world clock in the Alexanderplatz plaza. We took several pictures and noted the time in the US and Jakarta. Soon after, Lisa came and greeted us, and we were on our way to sightsee Berlin.

We went to the metro rail station and got our 2-day pass. It wasn’t really necessary to get this pass, as no one really checks when you use the rails and some buses. But the other buses do, and in case we should then we’re covered. And so, we were off on the S-bahn rail to have our brunch.





Lisa chose a little café shop called Barcomi’s in one of the “backyards”. We had sandwiches and coffees/cappuccino to get us going. The place was rather small, but it also had a real “local” feeling. I was sure that it wouldn’t be in any big-time tourist guides. This was one of the benefits of having a local tour guide, especially one as crazy and fun as Lisa.





After brunch, we walked towards an area where a Jewish synagogue was. The place was protected and watched over by police as to avoid vandalism, intrusion, and other bad stuff due to racism. It was possible that pro-Nazis might still linger around and target buildings and places such as this.





Then we walked over to Kunsthaus Tacheles building. We started over in its backyard. Tacheles was known as a place where people resided during and after World War II. Over time, the place had become a safe haven for artists. The building, both in and around it was marked by people’s art, either in paint or actual pieces of art. In the backyard, we saw these pieces of art. Some were made in steel. Others made out of trash. There was even an old hippie mobile littered with graffiti of messages and people’s marks. My favorite was a picture of a Brazilian soccer player with a writing “Joga Bonita”. Afterwards, we headed inside the building for more mind-blowing “art”.



Inside was even crazier than outside. It was mostly because of the graffiti, posters, and more on walls, doors, and other surfaces. There were a lot of controversial things that would horrify anyone who weren’t such extremists. They called them “art”. I would probably call them otherwise, but I did respect their way of expressing themselves. In fact, some of them were likeable in my own taste.








We got out and headed to other sites. We had to walk quickly as the sun began to set, since we started the day late. We walked over a bridge and posed for a picture. We also saw a Peugeot car dealership somewhere and decided to take pictures. I wanted to because of the sweet cars. Sheilla and Lisa wanted to because of the wooden cars. I guess this was where taste differ.







We got to a street called Unter Den Linden where Hitler had parades of his army and other important officials. In fact, the US embassy can be accessible from this street. On one end of the street was where Brandenburger Tor, or dubbed as “Brandy”, could be found. “Brandy” was a gate that separated the eastern and western parts of Berlin. Of course, back where there was the Berlin wall, the gate actually separated Berlin to create East Berlin and West Berlin. The statue at the top of “Brandy” faced the east, and controversies over that fact had troubled Berliners over so many years in the past.









Pass the gate, into the western Berlin, and towards the right side we found the city hall.





The left side, we found the Jewish memorial. This was quite interesting, actually. The memorial was mostly a bunch of blocks of different heights. The ground dipped and rose, which helped made the ground lower or higher. Towards the outer parts you can be seen. But as you go toward the center, you would be hidden amongst the blocks. There were young people playing hide-and-seek in there. In a way, we were playing too, accidently. I got lost, and Sheilla and Lisa were looking for me. It was dusk by that time, and with little light towards the middle, finding anyone in particular was very difficult. Nonetheless, the good ‘ol yell-out-his-name worked to seek me out, as I wanted to be sought out.









We headed out towards Potsdamer Platz, where modern buildings could be found. There was the Sony Center, where they just had a premiere for the “10,000 B.C.” movie recently. The area was full of modern restaurants and shopping plazas.



There was also an area with a few sections of the Berlin wall. We will see more of it intact and in its original position at the East Side Gallery tomorrow.







Lisa had asked us to have a dinner with some of her friends at an upscale place, which actually happened to be about a couple of blocks from our hotel. Her friend, Frigga, lived there. There was also Diego, whom we actually met on the first night in Berlin. His father, a pilot who has been living in Singapore also arrived. This dinner was partly because Diego was about to leave to Peru for several months. There was also Diego’s roommate, Phillip. We had what I conclude to be lasagna. The dinner was quite good, in fact. The view from the apartment was excellent. We stayed there till past midnight before we decided to call it a night. We had woken up late today, and we planned not to wake up late tomorrow again. There will be more to see, and we plan not to miss any of it.