Berlin: Part I

Arriving in Berlin, my first thought was, “What the hell was I thinking coming to Berlin in February?”  As I stepped out of the airplane onto the tarmac, a few snowflakes fell from the gray, overcast sky and were blown around by a cruelly stinging wind.

I have to confess…I wasn’t immediately wowed by the city.  The first order of business was to find my hostel, which is located in Mitte, an area of East Berlin.  Despite the fact that Mitte is said to be the new “hipster” area of Berlin, adjectives like “artsy” and “youthful” weren’t coming to mind during the walk to the hostel.  The area felt a bit empty and lifeless.  Instead of the cobbled, pedestrian-friendly streets of France (to which I have grown quite accustomed), the area’s broad, treeless sidewalks are traversed by tram tracks.  Instead of the curving lines of the Eiffel Tower emerging out of the tree line, a spire-like television tower juts out above a scattering of severe-looking buildings.  The sphere at the top of the tower made me think of a gigantic eye harshly surveying the city, reminiscent of something from 1984.

But I tried to keep an open mind.  My travel buddy, Colbern, and I decided to venture out that night and try to find the Friedrichshain neighborhood, an area reported to have quite a few good bars and cafes.  We decided to walk there from our hostel, with the hopes that we might happen upon something interesting along the way. No dice. The 40+ minute walk was along a wide, almost highway-like road that was heavy on cars and short on people.  It wasn’t looking promising…

But finally we made it there, and finally Berlin started to win me over.  The area was lively, bustling with young folks, and lined with an eclectic mix of bars & cafes.  After strolling around for a while, we finally settled on stopping in at Feuermelder, a bar my guidebook mentioned.  The place was like a materialization of my preconceived notions of Berlin…it was perfectly grungy, with a heavily-pierced staff, smoky air, and a décor theme that looked like it could have been pulled from Tim Burton film.  Just being in the place was enough to make you feel a little more like a badass.

The next day, we embarked on a lengthy but free tour of the city.  It was pretty exhausting, but a great way to cram a huge amount of sightseeing & learning into a relatively short amount of time.  Stops along the way included some of the more visually-pleasing parts of Berlin (Brandenburg Gate, Pariser Platz, & Museum Island), as well as historically significant sites like Bebelplatz (site of a 1933 Nazi-organized book burning), Checkpoint Charlie, one of the few remaining portions of the Berlin Wall, and the thought-provoking Holocaust Memorial.  The more I saw, the more I warmed up to Berlin.  It is a city that is still in an observable state of flux, a city that is still trying to move on from a very difficult part of its history.  And I think this has given the city an impressive resilience, visible in everything from the buildings marked with bullet holes to Berliners’ punk rock street fashion.

I’m still (and probably always will be) a Paris-lover at heart.  I’m not sure I’m quite tough enough to be a perfect match for Berlin ….as Colbern explained it, “Paris is for daintier people.”  But I do have a sudden urge to go buy some vintage combat boots…