Travels in Berlin

You know the saying, “my mom told me that if I don’t have anything good to say to not say it at all” and so keeping that in mind know that this will be a shorter post so if you want to hear about what to do, see, eat, etc. in Berlin I have suggestions for days from others as well as my own. Just reach out via the contact section.

Dear Berlin,

I desperately wanted to like you during my time with you. So many people love you, say great things about their time with you that I was genuinely excited to finally be able to be with you myself. But we didn’t get off on the right foot.

Thinking that I would spend the night outside of my hostel because the door code that was emailed to me to get in for after hours check in didn’t work and so with my #Lifeinabag I sat in the front of the door feeling tired, a little teary eyed and lonely. My only option was hoping someone would come out or come into the building with a key and I could get in or waiting till 8a for reception to open. Thankfully someone did indeed come out after 2 hours and I slept in a bed that night. My 2 days in Cologne, Germany prior to Berlin despite the delayed bus and awful time getting there proved to be worth it. Especially when getting a tour from native born Julian who I had met in Sofia as this was originally not in my #GirltakesMundo plans. I thought it would be the same with you but my bad times continued. From train fines because I mistakenly bought a wrong train ticket. I shouldn’t complain about you not being as English friendly as I would like you to be since this is such a bad habit Americans have and I don’t like to have it but after a $60 euro fine which came in only German directions and if it wasn’t for Julian helping me I’m not sure you would have let me back into Germany since your so strict that I will allow myself to bitch this once.

Even when I had heard that your nightlife was not to be missed I was left with a sour taste in my mouth as I saw people waiting for up to 2 hours to get into your massive clubs just to be turned away by your bouncers. And then when being “honored” to enter wasn’t sure why people got denied or why people got in. It didn’t feel good to see hostel mates get turned away and not being able to say anything as we had already walked in and since we had to split into small groups technically didn’t “know each other.” Or having to do research just to get in. Can’t hearing about a spot being good and wanting to have a good time at a place that is supposedly good not enough?

Even in the end, I couldn’t leave without a fight as a cabbie made me miss my bus to Poland when he purposely took me a longer route having me have to buy a new ticket altogether and losing money on my first ticket.

Yes, we had our moments when I thought I was warming up to you. Where else did I have the opportunity to finally meet up with my college friend, Vanessa who moved to Italy and I had not seen in years. She too was here for 2 days and finding out she was here and even being able to share a drink and catch up was simply lovely. Her story is inspiring and the work she is doing for women in the world is even more inspiring. I truly can’t wait to visit her in Italy the next time I’m in Europe.

And indeed with you I also met my good friend, DJ Ron Trent’s friend Kirk who has been living here for 8 years and owns the awesome Jamaican European fusion restaurant, Rosa Caleta. I could speak to him for days as his stories should be written in a book. I can’t thank Ron enough for all the contacts he connected me with and for his recommendations as he also lived here at some point.

The sun that reflected down the dome of Reichstag made my selfie simply lovely that I was surprised I didn’t even need a filter.

So as you can see, we had our moments and I need to remember those,
Chris

I knew that not every city would be amazing for me and so I had “prepared” myself to accept that this would be the case especially when traveling for so long. Just like in life, you have your highs and your lows this also happens with traveling. I will point out that as you can tell, it wasn’t the city itself that made me dislike Berlin (minus their club culture which is definitely a city thing) but rather the experiences I had here that caused this. I say this to not deteriorate anyone interested in visiting to come to Berlin as your experience will certainly be different from mine and you may actually see what the hype is all about.

To Berlin, I say, “It’s not you, it’s me”.