Bring On The Wall! (Berlin By Day)

If you follow me on Instagram, you'll know that I spent the weekend soaking up some culture and alcohol (more on that later) in beautiful Berlin. I'm not the world's most travelled 22 year-old, so I was all in when a mate suggested a long weekend in the German capital. Without boring you with all the historical titbits I picked up - did you know Hitler was addicted to speed? - here's a taster of what we got up to in the city.

Perhaps surprisingly, my favourite couple of hours in Berlin were in the Topography of Terror museum, which is based on the site of the SS headquarters during the Nazi regime. Nazi Germany, and the Holocaust in particular, have always fascinated me more than any era in history, so I was desperate for the exhibition to be on our itinerary. The exhibition is completely free (I couldn't even find a donation box) and gives a pretty comprehensive but concise guide of the development of the police state after 1933.  There's, inescapably, some pretty graphic imagery but if you can stick with it then it's an extremely worthwhile visit. A lot of the photo documentation is in colour as well, which you rarely see in history textbooks.

Killing two (maybe three) birds with one stone, outside the museum is some remnants of the Berlin Wall, with more of the Topography of Terror exhibition built in front of it. Ironically, the wall is now protected by metal fencing. And, just to add to the history of the site, the wall stands in the shadow of the offices that were built by the Nazis to house the Luftwaffe and now serves as the German tax office - told you there would be titbits... 

The site is just round the corner from Checkpoint Charlie, a former crossing point on the Berlin Wall, occupied by the Allies. It's now possibly the most disgusting shitstamp of Western culture in Germany. Outside a conveniently located McDonalds, you can actually pay to have your picture taken with Germans dressed as American soldiers.

The rest of trip around the city largely took in the architecture and all of their accompanying tales. While there wasn't time to go inside all of them, the sites themselves are pretty spectacular.

The Altes Museum, which I found a picture of from the 1930s in the Topography of Terror exhibition.

The Berliner Dom, which sits right next to The Altes Museum in the Lustgarten.  In the background you'll be able to pick out the TV Tower - about the only decent building the Communists contributed to the city during the Cold War. 

The Reichstag - I can't help but quote The Producers at the site of this building. 

The Brandenburg Gate

Finally, probably one of the less attractive but most modern constructions in the city; Peter Eisenman's Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. The memorial is constructed from hundreds of concrete slabs of different height, which rise out of the ground to form a sort of maze/prison. The idea behind it is to portray the Jewish journey through the Holocaust, so as time goes by, the blocks become more dominant and repressive. The memorial makes a lot of sense once you're in the middle of the piece and one turn in any direction can leave you very much on your own.

I could write a post on each one of these sites - but I'm well aware no one would read that. There's so much to see and so much to do that it's difficult to do it justice with just my tourist snaps. Of course, there was plenty more than what the travel guide suggests. Keep your eyes peeled for a sample of Berlin nightlife and the city's street art later this week...