And so it begins. After a very long time since our last trip in February eight months ago ( I guess that isn’t too long ago, but my work has been some long hours), we are finally on the move again! Our flight to Berlin was pretty late in the day (9:05pm) so we had lots of time to do last minute packing and things at home. My mom and Rob came over to visit and get some instructions about how to take care of the fish and the rabbit. We sat outside in the 26C weather and had a beer to relax and then got some groceries for when we returned home.

We left the house at 3:15pm and drove to Mapleview mall where we bought some more euros and got a Timmies before driving the rest of the way to the airport. We arrived at the Park and Fly at about 6pm and got on a shuttle almost immediately. The trip to the airport took only a few minutes. We printed our boarding passes at a kiosk and proceeded through security. The whole process took 15 minutes. We then chose a seat near our boarding gate and ordered a Collective Arts IPS from an app that was delivered to our table. After enjoying our leisurely beer and drawing in our books, we headed to our boarding area. The flight was delayed, but not by a lot. We actually had two seats together on the flight, big up to Airtransit for not intentionally splitting us up! We sat beside a man that I suspect was a military guy, but super nice, even though we hardly spoke two words. We wear masks on flights, and it’s nice when your seat partner is not super rude to us about our choices. It’s nice when people respect each other. 

Our in flight meal, which I hadn’t even expected, was so disgusting I ate the bun and nothing else. For some reason most airlines provide vegans/ vegetarians with this weird oily sweet pepper paste in EVERY dish. It’s terrible! The flight was only 8 hours but it felt much longer. I slept a bit and watched Goodfellas which I had never seen.I actually really liked it! I also watched a medical drama called “The Pitt” which was really good, reminded me of ER. 

Our flight landed at 11:30am Berlin time, and we made our way through customs. The line for customs took maybe 30 minutes, but the customs official asked us zero questions and then let us through to baggage claim. We walked through baggage claim, as we were travelling with a small personal sized back pack, and bought a train ticket from a vending machine. The train ticket cost 4.70 euro each and we boarded the train (after validating our tickets on the platform). The train ride from the airport to the city centre took 56 minutes and we arrived in Berlin HBF at about 1:15pm. At the station I bought a coffee and pretzel which we ate in the sunny courtyard outside the station. The pretzel was lovely and savoury, exactly what my little heart desired. 

We walked along the water way towards our hotel. There were many canal cruises going by. Almost immediately we could see the Reichstag with its German flags and gleaming glass domes on the other side of the canal. It was lovely and warm in the sun. We then walked to our hotel “Arste Kunst Hotel” to see if they could hold our bags for an hour before check-in, but the lady said our room was ready, so we just dropped our bags off in the room instead. The hotel’s sort of theme is art and each room is apparently designed a different way. Our room was painted in green and yellow and everything had a thick black outline to make it look like it was a drawing or painting. There was a communal washroom down the hall with showers and toilet stalls. Usually I don’t like sharing a bathroom, my hostel days are over, but this wasn’t bad at all, very clean and also never occupied. From our room we had a view of the TV tower, the iconic needle shaped tower in Alexanderplatz.

After getting situated we set out on a little walking adventure starting at the Reichstag. We spied some cool little mustachioed guys on the posts outside the Reichstag and then headed to the Brandenburg Gate. This area was swarming with tourists! We forgot to mention that we had landed in Germany for the last three days of Oktoberfest and also we learned later that there was a big football match going on in Berlin as well.

We then headed to “The Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe” this memorial is made up of an entire city square. There are various sized concrete columns and the ground is uneven, dipping up and down. As you walk among the columns you feel a bit disoriented and overwhelmed by the vastness of the monument and how deceptively small the columns appear from the outside. It is a very moving monument . The trees around the square were just turning colour and popped against the cold grey columns. 

We then walked to two different sections of the wall that are still standing. Throughout the city there are rows of bricks in the pavement, roads etc that follow the line where the wall once was. We saw these lines throughout our time in Berlin. 

Next we found a stall selling vegan curry wurst and bratwurst, so we linked up and got one of each as well as a beer each. I loaded the bratwurst up with spicy mustard. They were delicious! We sat in the square at a little table in the warm sun, eating and enjoying our beers. Our table neighbours were from a small town, but visiting Berlin for a football match. They thought I was a supporter of their team as I was wearing my Family Mart socks (from Japan) in their team colours of grey green and navy. 

Next we wandered around a different segment of the wall where the Gestapo headquarters once was, before briefly visiting Check Point Charlie. 

We then walked through some very lovely old town squares on our way to the May 10th 1933 Nazi Book Burning Memorial in the middle of Bedelplatz. The memorial is right in the middle of the square, but down through a glass window. Below the glass there is a library of empty shelves spanning as far as the eye can see. Very moving and eerie given the current environment of book banning in the United States. 

We then walked back to the Berlin HBF and bought a pizza and two beers and we enjoyed them on a bench along the water as the sun went down.