Interrail adventure #3 | BERLIN

City number 3: Berlin! Can you believe I've grown up in Germany and not once been to Berlin? It was so great coming back to Germany and discovering its capital along with its history and sights. We stayed 3 nights in Berlin in a hotel, which was by far the fanciest of the trip (and still wasn't any more expensive than the one in Amsterdam..). History is around every corner in Berlin, which makes the city so special and enticing.

Our hotel was situated a five minute walk from Potzdamer Platz so we there went first. Germany has by far the best Pretzels ever, hence that was our breakfast almost every day. Berlin also had amazing sandwiches ;). Anyway the Potzdamer Platz was pretty cool with it's modern buildings and skyscrapers. However it also had some pieces of the Berlin Wall on display, which were covered in TONS of gum.You literally couldn't even really see the wall anymore.

A piece of Berlin's history

Why?

Next we went to the Holocaust Mahnmal for the murdered Jews. It was pretty intimidating and fascinating, the artist has really created an impressive memorial.

The Holocaust Memorial

When you look like a ghost...

Afterwards we visited the Bundestag, even though we didn't go inside that day, due to the booking service being messed up. It's a pretty impressive building, however we could only access one side of it due to construction workings going on.

Bundestag

Right next to it starts the Tiergarten, which is a massive park right in the centre of Berlin. Situated inside it is for example the Carillon, which is a tall tower next to the House of World Cultures that functions as a manually played concert instrument. Pretty strange. The House of World Cultures is one of the most beautiful and unique buildings in Berlin which is used as a concert hall, but sadly it was under construction when we were there.

The Carillon

House of World Cultures (Haus der Kulturen)

 

We then went back along the river Spree to the German Chancellery. At that point the temperature had reached well over 35 degrees and we were desperate for something cooling. So, since there are water fountains near the German Chancellery, it just seemed right to play in them like the 5 year old kids next to us and get soaked. So worth it. 

 

The life-saving fountains

 

Guess where we walked after? THE BRANDENBURG GATE. I was soo excited to finally see it myself, and it's as cool as it looks in pictures. Only downside was that the place was packed with people, so it was hard to take photos in front of it.

 

The Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor)

 

After we went along Friedrichsstrasse, a really posh shopping street with the coolest shops. We finished the day off by going past the Berlin Konzerthaus, a famous concert hall, to the Gendarmenmarkt. It is a famous square in central Berlin, where you can find said Konzerthaus as well as the French and German Cathedrals. In the beginning it used to be a market place, hence its name.

Gendarmenmarkt

 

The day ended with a lovely meal of Doner Kebab, because that's a must-eat in Berlin. By the way if I can give you one tip about Berlin: Get a train ticket for the day! You will thank me and not walk barefoot because of your hurting feet in the end... (we sure did).

We started the next day off with a trip to the Berlin Cathedral and the Museum Island. The Berlin Cathedral really is beautiful and a place for people of all cultures to hang out. There was street music and dancing and everyone was just chilling in the blazing sun.

Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom) with the television tower in the back

 

Due to the extreme heat we went into the Berlin History Museum which, first of all, had air conditioning but also really taught me a lot about Germany's past. There were tons of extra exhibitions going on as well. Next we walked to Checkpoint Charlie, the best-known Berlin Wall crossing point between East Berlin and West Berlin, during the Cold War. To be honest I had imagined it more impressive, but I guess the Mac Donalds right next to it kind of killed the historical vibe.

Checkpoint Charlie (you had to pay for a photo with them...)

 

Then at last we FINALLY managed to get a place to go up the Reichstag and see its dome. It was a hassle as only the online booking was working and that not even properly. However it was definitely the highlight of Berlin. Our visiting time was during the golden hour, the sinking sun made it like 20x more beautiful. They have amazing auto guides there too and I absolutely loved it!

Look at that view!

I think you can see how happy I was :D

Inside the dome

Made it to the top

It got even better

That was the end of our amazing second day in Berlin, after that we had typical German dinner - Kaesespatzen which is kind of like Mac n Cheese but not really (and this is why I'm not a food blogger).

On our last morning we visited the Documentation Centre of the Berlin Wall, where you can see original standing bits of it as well as read about the stories of people who tried to flee. Many tragically died and it was a very emotional visit, but definitely a must-see!

The victims

A piece of the original Berlin Wall

After that we took the train to the Kurfuerstendamm, Berlin's most expensive and famous shopping street and walked through the KaDeWe, which is short for Kaufhaus des Westens. It's a big, posh department store that you have to have seen.
In the end we had to hurry to catch our train to our birth city, Munich. We stayed there one day to visit our grandparents and recharge our batteries (metaphorical).

I hope you enjoyed this very long blogpost and made it to the end. Berlin is SO beautiful and exciting, if you haven't seen it you should put it on your list of places to visit. Now the Italy posts will be coming up, which I am soooo excited to share with you. Spoiler: I will tell you where to find the best ice cream in Italy ;) Stay tuned!

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Interrail adventure #1 | PARIS

I'm honestly so excited to finally be able to share this with you guys. The whole year I'd been looking forward and planning my interrail trip, so it feels really strange to have done it. It's been 3 of the best weeks of my life and I've seen some of the most beautiful cities. Of course, I will be sharing the whole journey with you, which might take a while due to the extreme amount of photos I have to go through and edit. I hope you're as excited as I am about this, let's get started with the first city: PARIS.

Before even getting there my sister and I had decided not to go into any of the museums due to our limited time there. We had booked a hostel 3 minutes away from Gare de Nord, where we arrived on the Eurostar, which was quite nice considering the weight of our backpacks. So we dropped off our stuff and started going exploring, walking all the way to the city centre to save some money. Not sure if it was the best idea in the extreme heat but we did it anyway. It enabled us to get to know a different side of Paris, walking through the side streets where you will find more locals.

Our first stop was the Louvre which is located within a beautiful palace, so if you don't know where to look, it's pretty hard to find. I've been to Paris before and been inside the Louvre, so we skipped it this time. To be completely honest, as great as the Mona Lisa might be, it is a very small painting that is hard to see at busy times, so I suggest to research the best time to visit the Louvre.

Spot the Louvre :p

After we just explored Paris' riverside, which by the way has lots of drinking fountains alongside so make sure to bring a refillable water bottle. It will be a lifesaver if you're there in the summer.

Not a drinking fountain

I had written down before the trip everything I wanted to see in each city, so we just marked the sights on the (free) map we got from the hostel and it was super easy to find everything. Anyway we crossed over the Pont Alexandre III which is one of the most beautiful bridges in Paris and made our way to the Notre Dame. On our way there we passed the former love bridge, which they sadly rid of the padlocks due to their weight. However we still found quite a few on a view plateau near the Notre Dame, which I sadly can't find the name of anywhere.

View from the Pont Alexandre III

Love locks on the plateau

Moi

Notre Dame

At that point we'd been walking for at least 5 hours so decided visit the Luxembourg Gardens and then finally get dinner in the Latin Quarter, which supposedly had cheap food (just we couldn't find it). On the note of food, be prepared that Paris' restaurants are very expensive almost everywhere! We tried to research cheaper options before but were left without solutions. Oh also, if you don't like mustard, don't eat salad in Paris. I was taken by surprise and was starving so had to eat it. And finally, if you want good, cheap ice cream, don't go to Paris :D

Salad of doom ;)

Super picture worthy road

The next day we first walked up to the Sacre Coeur, which I didn't think it would be worth it (I'm so ignorant) but it totally was! Just a heads up that there will be people trying to sell bracelets which they try put straight onto your arm but you have to pay as soon as it's there. So however hard they try (which is very hard) DO NOT let them put it on. Anyways the view from the top of the hill was breathtaking and worth the terrible walk up the stairs in the blazing sun!

If you walk down the streets from there you will even catch a glimpse of the Eiffel tower.  Next was the Moulin Rouge, which wasn't half as impressive as I had thought.... Maybe at night. We then went to see the (as impressive as expected) Arc de Triomphe and took a look at the very posh shopping streets around it. Seriously you cannot miss those streets when in Paris, if just to laugh about the ridiculous expensive shops, cars and restaurants there (We went past a street filled with Mercedes and Lamborghini). Make sure to look out for macaroons and buy some (if you can afford it). Or just take to take a picture of them as I did.

Arc de Triomphe

Didn't buy them but still - how cool do they look?!

And then FINALLY we made our way over to the Eiffel tower. Make sure to visit the Trocadero on the opposite side of the river for the best photo opportunity of the Eiffel tower. The view was amazing and there were people swimming in the fountain lake underneath due to the heat. We then walked over to the Eiffel tower just to realise the queues were stupidly long, especially the ones for the lifts. Hence we had dinner first (warning: restaurants near the Eiffel tower are obviously even more expensive so it'll take a while to find a reasonable one). In the end we ended up just taking the stairs to the second platform and not go all the way up. Me having a phobia of heights played into that decision. Unfortunately we waited a bit too long to start to queue as we wanted it to get dark so the Eiffel tower would light up, so in the end the queue was super long (1.30hrs). The best time to go up seems around 6-8pm. Anyway we went up, it got dark, we saw the city all lit up - it was one of the best experiences ever. So beautiful and breathtaking. I actually felt alright on the first platform but the stairs to the second one were surprisingly long and I had a panic attack due to the height. Not a fun experience, trust me. Still, I'm glad I made it up there. It was worth every second of the effort it took to get there!

I think I'm so cool.

That view tho.

The never ending stairs.

On top of Paris.

This.is.what.it.is.about.

When we finally got down, the tower started sparkling as well and it was a sight I'll never forget!

Anyway that is the end of our Paris trip. After that we just went back to the hostel and caught a train early in the morning to Amsterdam. All in all I think the time was enough and we saw everything we wanted. An incredible start to an amazing journey. Stay tuned for the next part, I already gave away where it would be ;)

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