CBS Berlin Trip

First Walk!

When I decided to come to Germany I told myself I would go to Berlin sometime. The first time I went was 12 years ago when my interchange program included a little trip to this city. I had bad luck that time because my camera fell and all the pictures I had from that trip disappeared. I had no memories of the city or the places we visited. That´s why II joined the trip the International Office organized for us. It would be only 2 days and I thought it would be enough to remember.

Meeting new people :)

I was a little bit nervous the day of the trip. I was the only master student and despite I already knew a few faces I could not help to feel like an intruder. Things changed once I started talking to some of them during lunch and little by little started talking to the other bachelor students. I have to say they were very nice with me; it was a nice, fun group.

Crossing Oberbaum Bridge

We arrived into the city but took us almost half an hour to get to the hostel. My first impression: “Berlin is huge!” In that sense it reminded me at my city, Lima, which is also really big. Another small thing that reminded me home: For the first time in months I was listening to horn sounds for more than 3 seconds. After visiting so many cities, I realized that the bigger the city is the noisier it gets.

We stayed in a hostel in Kreuzberg district. We were near a U-Bahn Station, supermarkets, restaurants, coffee shops and the majority of them belonged to Turkish people. We learnt later that we were staying in a multicultural district, lots of immigrants moved into that area many years ago and their businesses continued by the next generations.

View of the Wall fom the Bridge

I was very surprised when Annabel told us we would be had to split in 2 rooms of 16 and 1 room of 6. I’ve never been in a room with so many people I barely knew before. I have to say I am not a fan of hostels, but since we were a big group and were staying for only 2 nights in the end it did not really matter to me anymore.

One of my favorites

Right after we left our belongings in the rooms I joined a group that decided to go to the east part of the rest of the Berlin Wall. At first me and a girl looked at the map (a real one) to check the way, her intention was to walk around the city in the old fashion way, but after a few minutes technology was stronger and we began to use google maps to find our way. 30 minutes later we were at the East Side Gallery, looking all the paintings and making a lot of pictures (and selfies). Some paintings had short messages, others meaningful images, and also some abstract art. Incredible to think that, what once was the representation of division, pain and suffer, now is the largest outdoor art gallery

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Party! :)

After walking around the neighborhood for two or three hours, we returned to the hostel to change clothes because we wanted to go out. I went with a group to a club called Bohnengold that was in the neighborhood we were staying. They just checked our IDs at the entrance and there was no dress code which I found perfect, but once I enter the place at first I did not like it at all. It was old, looked kind of abandoned, dark, plenty of people and played only electronic music, which is ok for a while but not the whole time.

But I learned something during these years and that night I could prove it again, it depends in each of us to have a good time or a bad time even if the conditions are not the expected. We began to dance, every time more and more, we made a round and motivated each other to dance in the center of the circle. Some were more confident; others like me needed a little push. We all started to have fun and without notice, random people that saw us joined us and made funny and strange steps in the middle of our circle. At that point, we were having so much fun that in the end it did not matter the place or the negative circumstances I saw at the beginning.

Selfie with The Kiss

The plan for the next day was a city tour during the morning. We started crossing the Oberbaum Bridge which is an important symbol of Berlin´s unity as it links two neighborhoods that once were divided by the Berlin Wall.  We stopped at the East Side Gallery and had 15 minutes to make some pictures. Some of us were really glad we went the previous day, otherwise we would not have enough time to walk through all the paintings. It was difficult to imagine that in that exact place years ago there was not only that wall but watch towers, wire fences fortified with concrete, guard dogs, bunkers, anti-vehicle trenches,  guards that shot the people that tried to escape.

CBS in Berlin!!

We continued our tour passing by Alexanderplatz until the Bradenburg Gate which is an old entrance gate to the city and became one of the most famous attractions. The guide then took us to a Memorial I did not heard about before, the “Memorial to the Sinti and Roma Victims of National Socialism” It is a circular pool water with a triangular stone in the center. Every day a fresh flower is placed upon it as a symbol of life. This memorial commemorates victims that were persecuted and murdered under Nazi rule.

Afterwards we walked to the “Platz der Republik” to see the Parliament Building. It is located in a huge green field with trees around it. The weather was sunny that day and as it is already autumn it was nice to see the different leaf’s colors. That is something that I can’t see in my city as we practically only have summer and winter in Lima. I would have like to enter to the Parliament but there was not enough and as far as I know an advance registration was required.

The Parliament

The tour continued in the bus trough different streets and parts of Berlin. It was interesting to see the contrasts between old and modern buildings which sometimes you could see them one next to another. After the war some constructions were re-build in their original design. I was trying to remember something from my first trip but nothing seemed familiar. The only thing I could remember was the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church which we only could see from the bus. This church was badly damage in a bombing during the war and was not re-build to keep us a memorial of those days. Curios thing is that I remember the church but not the streets around the square. I imagine that after 12 years the city might change so much that I just can’t recognize it anymore.

Walking trough the slabs

After finishing the tour I joined a group to have lunch and walk to the “Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe” which is also known as the Holocaust Memorial. Is a site covered my 2711 concrete slabs. People can walk through the slabs and the intention of the project was to produce an awkward, confusing and uncomfortable atmosphere. It feels like a labyrinth when you walk through the slabs, you have the feeling you could get lost.

We continued our way to Alexanderplatz to explore a little bit more of the city. There was a big train station, shops everywhere and restaurants. As in other parts of the city, you could see modern and old building in a same street. We walked through a park, crossed a bridge until Lustgarten where we took a little break to make a group photoshoot with the Berliner Dom and the Altes Museum. That was our round trough Berlin.

The plan for the night was a dinner in Hofbräu München Berlin and a Pub Crawl Tour. The dinner at the Hofbräu was really good, we enjoyed the typical German food and our half or 1 Lt beer. After a while a group decided to go dancing with the band’s music. We made rounds, little tunnel and even the conga line for a few seconds.

At the Hofbräu

Around 10:30pm we started our pub crawl tour. We received a free shot for each drink we bought in every pub. Personally I liked the first and the last place we visited. The first one was “Alexoase” near Alexanderplatz which was a small spot with a nice atmosphere but we stayed there only for an hour to have time to visit the other places. We were not the only group making the tour that night, there was 1 or 2 other groups guided by other people and they took as all together. It was fun to walk around the city, getting in and out the u-bahn with so many people around. The other place I liked was actually the club where we ended the tour. The place was called “Matrix” which was located below a train station and is one of the biggest clubs in Berlin. The DJ played different kind of music but mostly electronic. Despite there was a lot of people and nearly no place to dance, all together had a lot of fun there.

During the Pub Crawl Tour

After a long day we went back to the hostel to rest. 8 hours of journey would wait for us the next day. As mentioned before, Berlin is a big city and 2 days is not enough to see all but it is ok to have an overall overview. I felt that everything I saw was new to me and I would definitely go back to continue exploring the city. I had a lot of fun, learned knew things and met new people, which are the three most important things you get to experience when you travel.

Thanks Annabel and Elisabeth for taking us there and thanks to my new International Friends I met in the trip. It was a pleasure to share this little adventure with you.