How We Spent Two Full Days in Berlin
With the flightpath taking us via Berlin on our way to Singapore, we thought it’d be rude not to spend a couple of days exploring a new city.
When it comes to a city break, you tend to pack in as much sightseeing as possible, visit all the museums and galleries the city has to offer, and sample their local cuisine. However, as this was our last stop before hitting Asia and starting our unknown-length-of-time trip, we decided to take a more laid back approach. Minus the getting there late on day one, and leaving early on day four, here’s how we spent our two full days in the wonderful city that is Berlin.
Despite not wanting to do ALL the cultural things the city has to offer, it was important to us to visit one of the main ones, the Berlin Wall. We started off the day with a visit to the Berlin Wall Memorial. It was savage. There was a display showing photographs of all the people who fell victim to this awful ruling, and sadly lost their lives. This included men, women and children. Oddly people were taking selfies in front of it and smiling, displaying total desensitisation and lack of understanding of what these people went through - seeing it as nothing more than a touristic landmark. As harrowing as it was, it was interesting to read about, and get a better understanding of, what the Berlin Wall was all about and what it meant for the people living in Berlin at that time.
After the Berlin Wall Memorial, we headed out in search of some food. Berlin has a huuuuge vegan scene, so it was the perfect place to choose a fully vegan restaurant and indulge in whatever we wanted from the menu, rather than the two or three vegan options we usually have to choose from. We went to Vegang. A pan-Asian vegan restaurant and we were not disappointed. The way the menu was written alone, was brilliant, never mind the food; so many puns! We ordered a few bits of tapas so we could maximise on the variety of dishes the place offered. We had scallops (grilled mushroom medallions, spring onions and sesami–unagi glaze), Duckin’ Good (crispy seitan duck, seasonal veggies, roasted onions and red curry-coconut sauce), vegetable dumplings and Vietnamese summer rolls. Each bite was a flavour sensation, and I’d highly recommend this place for anyone visiting Berlin, not just vegans! The staff were lovely and friendly, and the location was a perfect people-watching spot.
We went for a walk around the neighbourhood to burn off some of the calories we’d just consumed, before landing at Prater Beer Garden to consume them all over again. Prater Beer Garden is Berlin’s oldest beer garden, opening its gates in 1837! It’s a massive garden full of chestnut trees and picnic tables that can hold around 600 people. It was the perfect place for us to have some downtime away from the bustling city, and chill out.
The beer garden set us up nicely for a little exploration of some craft beer places to finish the evening. The first one we went to was Manifest Taproom. This was just across the road from Vegang, so if you’re thinking of having a good bite to eat after a few delicious pints, then this is the perfect combo! Again, it was an excellent people-watching spot and had a lot of different beers on tap. We enjoyed a few of their IPAs and pale ales then headed off to our next pub; Mikkeller Berlin!
Tora is a big fan of Mikkeller so it was ideal that they had their own bar just down the road from our hotel - making it a perfect place to end the night and collapse in bed. During our time in Mikkeller, we got a bit peckish and noticed that the kebab place (Kebap with Attitude) Tora wanted to go to was closing in about half an hour but we’d just ordered another two pints - the dilemma! I ended up heading out in search of these much-anticipated vegan kebabs and came back armed ready for us to finish those beers, go back to the hotel and dive into our delicious dinner. Delicious, it was not. Unbeknown to us, they were mock-chicken kebabs rather than fake Doner meat… And the chicken was quite tough and pretty basic. Never mind, ey.
We wanted to see more of the Berlin Wall before departing, and see some of the amazing street art that was on it, hoping for a lighter view of the wall than we’d had the day prior. First stop, though: Viet Village for some authentic Vietnamese cuisine to strengthen our bodies up for the day ahead. We had a noodle broth each and headed out to find the Easy Side Gallery.
On the way, we came across a cute little spot called Holzmarkt. It was a quirky urban village consisting of various food and drinks stalls, art galleries, a children’s park, apartments and pop-up bars in corrugated iron container-type buildings! We sat with a drink sheltering from the rain, and just taking in all the art that was on display there. There were things to see hidden everywhere, including an interesting shrine-type thing with a doll in what looked like a jail… I have no idea what that was about and I’ve searched online to no avail.
We got to Mühlenstraße where the East Side Gallery is located and WOW, it was so incredible. To me, the beauty of the wall today demonstrates a huge middle finger to those who enforced this in the first place, and separated the east from the west. All the hate and destruction the wall caused, is now an exquisite display of talent from artists who’ve come from all over the world to paint their masterpieces on it. Some paintings were very potent in remembering the lives of those lost during that time, such as ‘Curriculum Vitae’ which has each year listed from 1961 to 1989 and has 136 roses painted, representing each person that died in this period. Others were a bit more literal and had writing like “Say yes to freedom, peace, dignity and respect for all. Say no to terror and repression towards all living beings”.
In a bid to save some funds for our upcoming trip, we decided to stay at Easy Hotel; one of EasyJet’s city hotels where the rooms are basic, but pretty cheap compared to what’s around and are clean. It was perfect for us - double room with enough space to swing a (small) cat, a shower and a loo. The person on reception was friendly, helpful and cheerful - even though he was on nightshift every time we saw him. The hotel was perfectly situated, with plenty coffee shops, restaurants and bars around, as well as a metro stop and train station a short walk away.
To conclude our feelings of Berlin, I’d say it was a fantastic city bursting with history, culture, vegan food options and craft beer - just how we like it!
With the flightpath taking us via Berlin on our way to Singapore, we thought it’d be rude not to spend a couple of days exploring a new city.