“Du siehst den Wald vor lauter Bäumen nicht.”
This German proverb literally translates to “You don’t see the forest for all the trees” which encompasses exactly how important in life it is to see the bigger picture. I’m truly aware of how lucky I was to experience interrailing, travelling Western Europe via train, before the Covid Pandemic. Now that the world has opened up and is welcoming travel again, I have decided to publish the experiences and travel tips I picked up from each destination. Welcome to my interrailing series and I hope you enjoy!
Day 1: I pulled into Berlin and got the U2 line tube to almost immediately in front of my hostel. Clearly well-connected, it is also so cosy and cool! The common areas boasted hammocks, beanbags, and a well-stocked shared kitchen; it is plenty spacious enough to kick-back and enjoy your own company with a book, or lounge with the locals instead!
After getting settled, I left for dinner which was a perfect submersion into the German capital and a great opportunity to chat in the language I’ve loved for years. I thought a simple and sweet memento of interrailing would be to collect a beer mat from each city, and what’s better than Berlin beer to start!
Day 2: I began the day with breakfast from a bakery adjacent to the hostel, before an all-day walking tour. Rick Steve’s Audioguide is a great free service to avoid the fees of guided tours around tourist traps; he has programmes for so many worldwide locations! I walked from the Reichstag Museum where the book burning occurred, to German and French cathedrals, to the Opera House, peace gardens, Checkpoint Charlie, Berlin Wall, and finally all the way to the Brandenburg Gate! The capital is so drenched in incredible and terrible history, making the day both enlightening and overwhelming.
The activities took a more relaxing direction after ice creams in the Tiergarten, a stunning zoological park. We leisurely made our way back through Berlin, stopping for food at a quaint bar set into an alleyway with provocative graffiti and bunting, and a happy crowd of stag-do-goers! A game of table-football welcomed us back to the hostel after a long day of exploring the city.
Day 3: Anticipating the thunderstorm that was forecasted all day, we had to abandon the plan of climbing the famous Berlin TV Tower, but I cannot recommend it enough for people wanting to see the sights of Berlin from its highest point! Instead, we visited Alexanderplatz and explored the markets there, full of local delights and trinkets. The storm had yet to hit so I bought an ice cream, only for the skies to open immediately and force me to sprint back to the hostel, soggy cone in hand! I ended the day reading my book, Der Besuch den alten Dame, swinging blissfully in a hammock watching the lightening flash across the tops of the trees.
Day 4: On the final day I was determined to visit the East Side Gallery, where the Berlin Wall wears a series of powerful graffiti art. The artwork and its incomprehensible number of interpretations was incredibly overwhelming. The history of the Wall is of course devastating, but that is what makes it so important to visit.
Afterwards, I walked through the funky suburb of Berlin called Kreuzberg, where I devoured the best meal that I’ve encountered whilst interrailing so far! Knofi is a Turkish restaurant and I had the Sultan Teller dish of vegetarian small-plates; this quality vegetarian food has been a rare find in Berlin so far! I have been determined to buy another novel in the language this trip, and I had a really interesting conversation with the bookseller here; a great opportunity to talk about German literature actually in German instead of just reading it! Before leaving the beautiful Berlin, I enjoyed a final delicious meal at Liebhaftig, a tapas and craft beer restaurant.
Berlin struck me as both blissful and bold. Visiting the Berlin Wall, war-built architecture, and Holocaust Memorial illustrated how it is a cosmopolitan city steeped in both sobering history and social progress. I refer back to my proverb at the beginning, one truly has to enjoy the beauty of Berlin with the burden of its bigger picture, and the context of its history on your back.
