Berlin: Part 2

Welcome to the next installment of my trip to Berlin! If you missed the first one click here cause you know what? It was pretty sweet.

Day 3
So, day three started with a teeny lye in because of the previous evenings cocktails and rocking out in the underground rock bar. After some breakfast we got up and strolled to the Reichstag, which was about a 15min way away.

 My feet seem to disappear in this picture...magic shoes!



 It's so hard to take a photo of yourself with a historical building in view. Also, we are so like Chandler from Friends - goons!

After that we walked the two mins over the road to Brandenburg Gate, which was also amazing to see as it's where so many historical speeches from Hitler and his party were and of course the hotel where MJ hung his baby out the window is near it!

We then wandered in a straight line because that takes you to Museum Island which is (you guessed it) a roundabout with lots of museums off it - genius!

 There university is a little posher than Bournemouth's!

One of the many memorials

We went to the German History Museum, which we both really enjoyed. It's a great museum to learn about German history as a whole and not just the war related aspects, both very important obviously.

This guy's name was Keith, which cracked me up.

After wandering round the museum we went for a terrible lunch at some place called Andy's Diner (I think). If you are in Berlin, avoid. After feeling slightly unsatisfied we hopped back on the underground and went back to the hotel for a bit of a rest before another evening of eating and drinks!

We went for an Indian in the Kreuzberg area, thankfully the food was much nicer and we got free tequila shots - bonus. We didn't go out clubbing, but this is a huge area for clubs if you ever go to Berlin. Just a quick note though, almost all the clubs are in old warehouse type buildings, off the main streets and underground so do expect to be surrounded by people coming out of the station and then nobody.

After our Indian we paid 2 euros for a photo booth snap (they are dotted along various streets, so you just hop in), which you have to do in Berlin - cheeeeeese!

Day 4
On day 4 we went to a very pretty part of Berlin called Pretzlauerberg, that is suppose to resemble Barcelona in the summer months. It was still very pretty in the snow, just less beers and more coffees on the go.

I had their version of a cuppa and a cheese and ham croissant. Seeing the colour of tea through a glass does make it less appetizing and a little hot to handle, but it tasted like tea so I'm not complaining.

We then went to see some of the Berlin wall, which is right outside one of the tube stations. There's a fairly large section of the wall with information about the wall and how it was used in the war. It's a bit like an outdoor mini exhibition! Watch yourself when you have photos taken though, as there is a lot of chewing gum stuck to the wall... hair + gum = nightmare. I kept my distance and hoped for no sudden gusts of wind!

After this we went to the Topography of Terrors, which was so good. If you are going to Berlin and you want to learn about the war in as much detail as possible (who doesn't) then this is the place. Let me put it this way, if you don't know much you will leave here knowing all the minute details that got Hitler into power and how he continued to stay there. The museum shows you all the buildings the Gestapo operated in and takes you right up to the present day (pretty much) and shows how the Nazi party operated and the aftermath of Hitler's reign.

Our next stop was Checkpoint Charlie...

 

 

 

After all of this, it was getting pretty late and of course we were getting hungry (we love food way too much), so we consulted our Lonely Planet guide and decided to head for a delicious sounding Thai restaurant called 'Good Time' - great name - in Hausvogteiplatz

First off, thank you Lonely Planet! Good Time was literally good times, the food tasted so good we didn't want it to end! They had really nice candles for mood lighting, so all my pictures were way too dark and did not do the food justice, but we had:

The best prawn crackers in the world, ever. 

One gigantic prawn cracker, loads of normal ones and then these little wafer thin ones, plus a truly magical satay sauce
Duck with spring onions and plum sauce in pancakes

We then shared...
A pork penang curry & a beef dish with chilli and peppers
Jasmin Rice (came with the meals)

All washed down with singha beer and coca cola

 

The restaurant had an open kitchen, so you could see all of the food being cooked and there was a very welcoming and authentic atmosphere. We paid a total of 40ish Euro's for the above and would recommend. 

Feeling full and happy, we headed back to the hotel to relax before going out for a few more drinks (of course!)

 

Hope you enjoyed this post, bit of a long one! Stay tuned for Part 3 coming soon. Have I tempted you to visit Berlin or made you reminisce from a previous trip yet? 

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Berlin: Part 1

Guten Tag! Apologies for my recent disappearance from the blogging world, but I jetted (makes flying Ryanair sound much more sophisticated) off to Berlin during the very early hours of Good Friday morning with my boyfriend for a bit of an Easter break and I thought I would give myself a break from computers for a while too (obvs, jumped onto Twitter and Bloglovin as soon as I was home, but the break was good).

I thought I would do a series of my travels in Berlin and share some snaps from the six days with you all in case you are thinking of going or just want a peek! I will spread these posts out, so I don't bore you with the Berlin hype too much, but here's a few bits and pieces from the first few days:

We arrived to snow falling and caught a bus to where we needed to go to reach our hotel...kinda. We didn't realize for some reason that the underground was right next to the airport and blissfully unaware of this we hopped on this random bus that took us on a pretty scenic route to the centre (we also only paid 1.40 Euro by accident because we think we were suppose to get off a lot sooner and not at the last stop - oops).

Eventually, we made it to the hotel which was the Adina Apartment Hotel near Hauptbahnhof station which we were both really happy with! The hotel is like a mini apartment/suite with a bedroom, bathroom and lounge/kitchen and diner and it's all really modern and the staff were very helpful etc. We decided to get an apartment so we could save some money on breakfast and so we didn't have to wake up for it too. It's still like a hotel though, so it's like having a flat with a cleaner who cleans everyday - something I could get used to!

The rest of the first day was a bit of a boring one I guess, we got our bearings, stocked up on food, ate a lot of our food and watched the film 'Savages' before getting some sleep ready for a big day of sightseeing or 'getting our Berlin on' as I kept saying for some reason....

Day 2

Feeling fresher, relaxed and in holiday mode we went to the city zoo (there are two, this one is in zoolischer garten) because wherever there are cool animals, Alex has to go and see them. The zoo had pretty much every animal you can think of, which was amazing to see, especially so up close.

"I don't think y'all ready for this jelly" 

However, we both felt like the animals were a bit cramped and not in the best enclosures, which wasn't so amazing. Everything was in German at the zoo pretty much, so it was hard to tell whether they were on any breeding programmes etc or if they were there forever. We weren't fans to be honest, but would love to know what you thought if you have been? This guy pretty much summed it up! (I have censored his modesty. Not that he cares as he was just letting it all hang low...)

After the zoo we went to The Hard Rock Cafe, which I just love. I've been to quite a few now and started collecting the cocktail glasses a little while ago, so added to my collection a little further after indulging on a HUGE burger and fries.

We then wandered around some shops where we went in this crazy 'it's always Christmas shop' which was pretty cool and then sauntered back to the hotel for a cuppa and some Toffifee which I had never had before - pretty amazing hazelnutty goodness.

In the eve we headed out for some more cocktails, which was a bit of an ordeal at the beginning because we went the wrong way for a while and ended up in the freezing snow alongside the Berlin Wall in the pitch black. It was like we were trying to re-enact a scene from the war as there was nobody else to be seen as we hurriedly walked by the wall wondering how we ended up in such a sketchy place with prison like buildings.

After that experience though we did make it to where we thought we were headed before which was full of life (thank gawd) and cheap strong cocktails. A few Long island ice teas later, we went to some underground indie rock bar (loads of the bars are underground) which was really chilled and full of cool people (and me and Alex). We stumbled back in the early hours, made a chip butty and hit the sack.

Those were my first two days in Berlin! I will continue with the rest over the coming weekend/week, so keep an eye out if you are interested.

Something I know a lot of you are interested in is my blog giveaway winner, so without further a due, drum roll.....golden envelope....dramatic pause (plus other cliché award moments), the winner is the beautiful Hannah over at Which Way To Wonderland? Congratulations! Thanks to everyone who entered, major chuffed with the response to the giveaway.

On a final note, it's my birthday next Thurs (11th) so please send all gifts to Emma...kidding (sort of). I will be doing some b day related posts and beauty stuff though, so keep an eye out for those too!

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