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| She came, she saw, she cycled. |
Ich liebe Berlin is almost the extent of my German having given up studying it when I was 15 Jahre alt. However, for some reason, I have retained the ability to order Black Forest Gateaux and tea in Deutsche ('Ich möchte ein Stuck Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte und eine Tasse Tee bitte').It probably won't come as a surprise to hear that this phrase didn't crop up when I visited Berlin recently.
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| Me at Berlin Airport (in my dreams) |
Every year I make a list of places I want to visit and this year Berlin was top of that list. My decision was cemented by the fact that a friend of mine has moved there to work on a station called Deutsch Velle. (For anyone living in Germany she broadcasts sports bulletins on DV; check her out!!). When I was there, the weather was amazing. Of course I was completely over dressed when I got off the plane from Dublino and looked a like a cross between Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan dressed, as I was, head to toe in black (including black leather leggings).
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| Checkpoint Charlie |
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| 2.5 hours in |
A quick costume change later and I was in full blown tourist mode. If you are planning on visiting the City then I would highly recommend doing a Fat Tire bike tour. Berliners love their bikes and doing a bike tour is a great way to cover a lot of ground. What followed was a marathon cycle. We expected an hour and a half max cycling around. Cut to four and half hours later and we wondered if we'd ever get home. We thought we were being kidnapped. However, after retrospectively consulting their website we saw that the tour was in fact meant to be that long but we didn't know this at this time. Half-way through we were thinking 'What has this tour guide taken?Will we ever get home?' That said, with the sun shining, it really didn't feel like we were cycling for that long plus you stop for food along the way. Do not fear!
The next day we wandered around the Turkish market in Kreuzberg and stuffed our faces with felafel. After sitting by the river to soak up some Germanic rays we headed over to Tachless which is a big artist warehouse. To be honest, most of the works we saw there were not my cup of tea but to each their own.
The night time activities were equally as fun particularly given that there is no official closing time for bars and nightclubs in Berlin. Nights just go on and on and so did we. In fact we had so much fun that I almost missed my flight the next day. You can imagine my joy as I had to hand over an additional €40 to Ryanair to print off my boarding pass. This trip to Berlin was centered around eating, drinking and having fun. Next time though, I'm hitting the shops; bring it on.
P.S If anyone has suggestions as to where I should visit next time I go, let me know. Danke!
http://www.neueodessabar.de/
