Notes from Berlin

Golden hour on Museum Island.

Watching people taking goofy dance lessons along the riverfront.

Following the marked path that the Berlin Wall took before it fell.

Brandenburg Gate, Reistag, and the Berlin Palace and Cathedral.

Learning probably more than I really wanted to about Hitler’s life at the Berlin Bunker Story (possibly the most thorough museum of any kind that I’ve ever been to!).

Running to catch up with other people because I didn’t want to be left in the creepy basement in the bunker by myself.

Someone badly covering “Ring of Fire” at an outdoor market.

Nerding out over a well-done grocery store.

Cherry blossoms.

Texting my family pictures of statue butts.

Biscoff and Twix cookies, Caesar salad, mini jars of Nutella, Vanilla Coke Zero, Somersby red rhubarb hard sparkling cider, and Berliner Natur Radler.

Year-round Christmas shops. 

Learning about the history of the art on the walls of the East Side Gallery and wanting to learn more about that part of history.

Noticing the change in architecture from other cities I’d been in so far and the still visible differences between parts of East and West Berlin.

Outdoor park gyms.

Being a little underwhelmed by going out of my way to visit Checkpoint Charlie. 

So many parks and green spaces–big and small everywhere.

Stumbling across eclectic outdoor spaces like Holzmarkt 25.

Buying my mom thimbles from a flea market along the river.

How striking yet simple the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe was.

A less than pleasant hostel experience that made me appreciate the good ones. 

Being confused trying to find the memorial to the Nazi book burning in the Bebelplatz square with the older couple and realizing it was the cloudy window on the ground that you couldn’t really see through.

Seeing locations that are the backdrop of iconic photographs in history.

Old building remains.

An evening made better by a stranger inviting themselves to share my table at the hostel and swap food and stories.