Berlin!
This past “weekend” (Wednesday to Saturday- oh Norway) three of my friends and I took a nice little trip down to Berlin because the flight was $60 round trip and hey, why not, right? We found a super great hostel right in the heart of Alexanderplatz, a relatively trendy and fun area. Bonus: 10€ a night for some super stellar accommodations. Yay college budget. In short, Berlin is awesome. I never honestly had the desire to go but am soooo happy I did. In my mind, Berlin has always been the seedy underbelly-ish of Germany, I do’t know why. I just always associate it with super sketch techno clubs and scariness:p
Happily, this is not the case. We explored Alexanderplatz a decent amount right off the bat, mainly because we couldn’t find our hostel, so we ended up just circling around for a bit :] We picked up a brochure at the airport for a tour of the Ritter Sport chocolate factory, and, since I’m quite a fan of chocolate factory tours, we decided we should probably go the second we arrived at our hostel. Lucky for us, Ritter Sport was 10 minutes away and the place was heaven. The walls were covered in rows of colorful chocolates of every flavor and filling; literally the most beautiful thing ever. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to tour the actual factory part (apparently we’re too old?) but the experience of the rest of Ritter Sport was still pretty neato.
Next day, we saw a bunch of stuff. Visited the KaDeWe, which has everything ever; went to the Olympic Stadium, saw the Brandenburg Gate, checkpoint Charlie, the DDR museum, Schloss Bellevue, etc etc.
Best thing? THE FOOD. Döner Kebab has been one of my favorite foods since living in Italy, and Berlin is basically Döner central. YUM. Turkish pizza is also pretty delicious, as were all of the tasty noodle boxes and various street food items I was constantly stuffing into my mouth (I don’t think I ever really stopped eating on this trip). Tied for best food was the putenschnitzel we ate at this super adorable restaurant on our first night. I don’t eat pork, so turkey schnitzel is my fave meat dish when it comes to Germany. And this place did it right: giant slab o’ turkey, pounded down and breaded, covered with tons of mushrooms. A cute little salad on the side convinced me that what I was eating was entirely healthy. Underneath this massive cutlet, a treasure trove of super yum fried, spicy, awesome potatoes were waiting for me. Seriously, there was a little pile next to it, but as I ate away it was like I was unwrapping turkey wrapping paper to find a giant gift of potatoes beneath. What a great surprise.
All in all, Berlin was super cool. the last day, my friends went on a tour, but I get a bit bored with tours, so I just got lost in the city. I pointed myself in a direction we hadn’t walked and started walking. Ended up finding some super neat shops, a really strange birthday card with a troll on it for my little brother, and “the best kebab stand in Berlin” (which, when my friends and I returned later in the day to try it, was in the middle of being demolished. No joke. Saddest moment of my life).
Oh yea and .65 pretzels. Thanks Berlin. You’re great.
