Berlin – “Hey, we could live here one day.”
Between celebrating birthdays, Shan getting bronchitis, a reunion with Anthony’s long lost Peruvian cousin, seeing Shan’s favorite Latin pop star in concert, hanging out with new friends and friends from home, and (of course!) the World Cup, our time in Berlin was jam-packed and flew by like a whirlwind but not without making a lasting impression on us.
Without our new friends Andrea and Matthias, our time in Berlin would not have been nearly as enjoyable nor memorable. We met Andrea – a really fun, interesting, and energetic young American who’d been in Germany 4 years – while traveling in Croatia and followed up on her offer to crash at her apartment in Berlin. She was an incredible host and along with her German boyfriend Matthias – also a super person to get to know and spend time with – did everything in their powers to make sure we made the most of our time in Berlin…..and we did everything we could to thwart them, though not intentionally of course.
We had had ambitious plans when we arrived in Berlin as there is an overwhelming amount of things to see and do. We first visited Checkpoint Charlie and its museum, the old crossing between East and West Berlin, where you can still see the zig-zagged line on the street where the wall used to run. The museum is filled with artifacts and accounts of many who were able to sneak thru the borders (some of which were very creative)and some who weren’t. Though the area and museum are teeming with tourists, and the only remaining artifact is a small and dinky wooden guard post, you are still very aware how important and monumental this place is in modern history. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it much further than Checkpoint Charlie as Shan came down with bronchitis which left her miserable and bed-ridden just in time for her birthday. Lucky for Shan that Matthias had a copy of the second season of Lost which Shan is shamelessly obsessed with and addicted to!!! So instead of enjoying Berlin we instead enjoyed nearly 10 hours of Lost episodes from the comforts of Andrea’s apartment.
Shan did manage to make it out for Andrea’s BBQ birthday party at a nearby park (we’ve never seen so many kinds of pork on one grill), a bus tour of the highlights of former West and East Berlins, and one of the most exciting World Cup games we watched on TV – Germany v Argentina. Matthias took us and some other friends to an old indoor swimming pool that had been coverted into a nightclub and was now set up with a huge screen to broadcast the matches. Shan did the best she could to stay alive with all the smoke in the air but her bronchitis got the best of her so we had to leave just a few minutes before the match ended. We went out to the street and lucky for us someone had setup a TV on a milk crate on the street corner so we watched the final minutes of the match and the ensuing penalty kicks with the most motley assortment of people we could ever have imagined. It turned out in our favor because when Germany made the winning penalty kick the street erupted into pandimonium and we got to be a part of it all. The night ended on an even higher note as we were able to meet up for dinner with Anthony’s Peruvian cousin (who had moved to East Germany many years ago and they hadn’t seen each other in over 20 years) AND Andrea and Matthias surprised Shan with a Bday cake!
Though we saw very few of the major sights, we completely fell in love with Berlin and agreed it was one city we absolutely had to visit again and would be excited about living in someday. So, a week later we came back.
Since Shan spent her 30th birthday in bed watching Lost reruns (not a bad thing mind you), we decided that we had to do something a little more exciting to celebrate so we bought 2 tickets to see Juanes, her favorite Latin pop star, in Berlin a week later and made plans to come back and see Andrea and Matthius again. We also made plans to meet up with 4 of our friends from home who were going to be in Berlin as it would also be the weekend of the World Cup final taking place in Berlin. We caught a train to Munich knowing we would be back…..
One week later… we arrived back in Berlin the day before the World Cup final and the city was exploding with energy. We got to the Juanes concert early and managed to stand so close to the stage that we got a picture of Shan so close it seems like he is singing to her (Shan: He WAS singing to ME!!!!!). After, we randomly bumped into our friends on the Berlin fan mile right in the middle of the Germany v Portugal 3rd place match. There had to be some divine intervention on this one because there were only about 600,000 OTHER PEOPLE THERE! And we closed out our time in Berlin with Andrea and Matthius at another park party and watching the France v Italy final game at an outdoor bar.
Berlin is easily now at the top of our list of favorite cities visiting on this trip and we do hope to make it back there sometime soon to actually see the things you’re supposed to see as a tourist.
– Anthony and Shan
Tags: Berlin, Europe, Germany, Travel
Shan