Exploring Germany: Berlin

For Berlin I had some big expectations. I had heard zoo many good things about the city, the atmosphere and everything you can do there. I even dedicated basically three days of my trip for the city, so I stayed there for two nights. I arrived there on Tuesday afternoon after my train being late and also not finding my seat on the train(it turned out the carriage I was supposed to be in, did not even exist??). Once again, I headed over to the tourist information where I met the most rude customer service ever. Eventually I manage to get a city map and some flyers on what to do. I also bought a subway ticket that I did not know how to use. I was planning on taking the underground to my hostel, but surprise surprise the one line that I was supposed to use was out of order. Tired and frustrated I went to find wifi and navigated myself there. On the way I also saw some parts of the city so it was a nice walk, even though my bag was getting to get kind of heavy from my shoppings. But hey, I am a gutsy Finn what couldn't I do?

walking and sightseeing

Finally checked in to the Hostel, Hotel M68 (45€ per night) which was pretty good from what I was expecting. It was located in a very nice place, right next to some museum and near to checkpoint charlie and other sightseeing places in the southern part of the city center. My room was also suuper spacious so I was happy with that, even though I had to share the bathroom and toilet.

When I had settled in, it was getting kind of late and I decided to hit the town for a little evening walk and maybe plan some things for the next day like what should I do and see. I walked to the Dom, found a 24/7 supermarket, bought some food and then walked back. It was Tuesday night, so there was not so many people out. Also I noticed that half of the city was under construction? When returning back to the hostel I realized that my room's window was an old display window, good thing it was not located in a red light district :-D

my window on the right (second floor)

The next day I slept in as I was already pretty tired from all the traveling and endless walking, so I had tons of energy for the upcoming day. First I wanted to get some breakfast and managed to find a cute little cafe. Then I headed over to checkpoint charlie, my first tourist-sightseeing place of the day. When I was doing some research on what to see in Berlin, it seemed that everything was kind of separated from each other all around the city so I figured it would be most reasonable to buy a ticket for a hop-on-hop-off sightseeing bus, and so I did (that cute ticket seller might have helped the situation a little bit - i bet that is their trick to maximize revenue, only hire cute guys ;-). In the end it paid off quite well I think. I saw the biggest "must-see" places without having to spent hours on just getting from one place to another by walking too much as that I had done a lot already. 

Being a full-on-tourist, and not feeling sorry about it!

The bus took me to another "center" in the western part of Berlin, where the biggest department store KaDeWe and other great shopping places were. I don't know if I had even went there without the sightseeing bus. On the bus there was a loudspeaker system telling some interesting facts about the landmarks too. 

A little Häagen-Dazs moment

Basically I spent the whole day sightseeing and walking around randomly, while enjoying the local treats of course. I also went to the Dali-museum/exhibition and after that enjoyed a 360' view platform at Panoramapunkt where I witnessed the amazing view over Berlin and a gorgeous sunset, combined with an experience of the fastest elevator in Europe(8,5m/s). Later I decided to try out my underground ticket and did a little subway-travelling. In my "home" station, I found this little food booth that sold some kind of wraps in the style of Subway. You could choose your fillings and sauces etc. And let me tell ya - it was yummy stuff for four euros!

The next day(Thursday) I had plans to leave early for my next destination, but the connection weren't that great. So I dropped off my bag to the train station, bought a seat ticket for an afternoon train and strolled around the city for a little while. In the northern part of the city there is this place called Hackescher Markt where you can find all sorts of shops, cafes and art places. Previous night I spotted the cutest little vegan cafe called Gün-Ohr and I had to return there. They sold the yummiest cupcakes and for sure the best vegan candy I have ever tasted! There was also a market sale thingy going on in the neighborhood and amazingly good smelling food for sale. I lost track of time while walking around so in the end I was kind of in a hurry to catch my train(which, of course, ended up being 15 minutes late). At the train station I also got lost and forgot where I left my bags, as there were luggage holds in every floor in two places.

Ready for the next destination!

Healthy breakfast

Preparing myself for the 4,5 hour train ride

Just a normal H&M??

Some ideas for overall badges(Finnish student thing)

Happily I made it to my train and it was time to say goodbye to Berlin. 

As a summary I have to say that Berlin was not that great that I had imagined. Maybe I would have to go there with someone who knows the town better to really see some authentic places rather than the tourist ones. Now I basically just saw a lot of tourists and the town it self did not seem that exciting. I will probably in some point give Berlin another shot, but for now I am ready to explore other places.