Thursday, August 28, 2008
The Famous New Berlin Free Tour
If you want a great way to get to know Berlin when you first arrive, The New Berlin Free Tour comes highly recommended. In fact, it's so famous that even my friend Dawn, who was traveling all the way in Prague heard about this 3.5hr English walking tour. It's unique because all the guides work for tips only, which means they're all really interesting, dynamic, and will share with you their love for Berlin. You'll get to see all the main sites and find out a bunch of interesting things about the city. Tours leave daily and the guides are easy to spot (they'll be wearing red New Europe t-shirts). Check out the website for more details on exact times for tours, pictures, videos, and other details. From what I hear, the tour is nothing short of awesome so it'll definitely be worth your time!
Coheed and Cambria in Berlin
I was lucky enough to see one of my favorite bands, Coheed and Cambria, when they rolled through Berlin on the European leg of their tour. It was at a medium-sized music venue called Columbia Club. They played a great show, and while I had already seen them a few times in the states, it was pretty unique to see them while I was staying in Berlin. If you're into live music and concerts, keep an eye out to see if bands you like happen to be in Europe while you're abroad. You can also check the Zitty for concert listings, either in print or online.
Prague
Prague (album) was amazing. We went during spring break, before our quarter in Berlin began. The city itself was beautiful, it's kinda like walking through a fairy tale. It was a little cold, and it actually snowed a bit, but in general the weather held out and we got to see all the sights. We had a group of 6 and got an apartment-style room at the Czech Inn (clever, isn't it) hostel. This was by far the nicest hostel I have ever seen, it felt like a 3 or 4 star hotel. Definitely try to stay there if you make it to Prague.
The bars there were great, too. A half-liter beer was only about €1 considering the exchange rate, a fact that I did not really appreciate until I got used to buying beers for at least 3x the price everywhere else in Europe. The sausages sold at stands on the street were also absolutely delicious, I definitely had a few of those.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
The Night of my First Beer in Berlin
Getting my first beer in Germany was a difficult task. So the plan was for me, and my friends Artur and Trey, to do this whole "bar a night" thing, where we'd go to a different Berlin bar each night. I backed out of the plan after the first week cause it got too tiring, but congrats to Artur and Trey who stuck it through and actually COMPLETED the challenge; they literally drank one Beer for every day they were in Berlin, and believe me, some of the days were tough. They not only managed to come out of the challenge without any beer bellies, but they also have GREAT stories from it. If you're interested, ask to hear some.
Now back to the night of my first beer. Since it was Sunday and lots of businesses are not open late on Sunday nights, we couldn't really find any bars on the street we were on near Nollendorf Platz. But we finally found ONE that was kind of full. We looked in and decided to go in because we saw this man and this blonde lady who seemed to look like they were enjoying themselves. But the second we went in, EVERONE stoppped and looked at me. We were all confused cause we weren't sure if we had done something wrong. It took us a minute to realize the "woman" we saw was actually a man and that we were in a gay bar; so that's why they were all looking at me! Cause they didn't understand why a girl was there. And that is how we accidentally ended up in a gay bar. What a night. Later, we ended up finding another local bar nearby. It ended up being a nice find--a candle lit bar with a chill atmosphere. We settled in and I finally enjoyed my first German beer (a Pils)!
Now back to the night of my first beer. Since it was Sunday and lots of businesses are not open late on Sunday nights, we couldn't really find any bars on the street we were on near Nollendorf Platz. But we finally found ONE that was kind of full. We looked in and decided to go in because we saw this man and this blonde lady who seemed to look like they were enjoying themselves. But the second we went in, EVERONE stoppped and looked at me. We were all confused cause we weren't sure if we had done something wrong. It took us a minute to realize the "woman" we saw was actually a man and that we were in a gay bar; so that's why they were all looking at me! Cause they didn't understand why a girl was there. And that is how we accidentally ended up in a gay bar. What a night. Later, we ended up finding another local bar nearby. It ended up being a nice find--a candle lit bar with a chill atmosphere. We settled in and I finally enjoyed my first German beer (a Pils)!
The U-Bahn and S-Bahn: Einsteigen Bitte!
Get used to hearing those words. You’ll hear it EVERY time you sit on an U-Bahn or S-Bahn. For those with limited German, those two words mean “Board Please”. Pretty soon you’ll get so used to it that you’ll feel like something’s missing if you don’t hear it. When my friends and I went to London all we heard was “Mind the Gap”, which is WAY less cool than Einsteigen Bitte! Not only that, some of the trains never even came; the Tube (that’s the name of the London system) is really old, and at one point, the lights went out while we were all on the train. So needless to say, when we got back to Berlin, we were so HAPPY to finally hear the ever-familiar “Einsteigen Bitte!”. You gotta hand it to the Germans, they definitely know how to run their transportation system. It works like clockwork and can get me to anywhere in the city at any time, day or night. You’ll end up using it ALL THE TIME and you won’t even realize how amazing it is until it’s gone. One day during Winter quarter, all the U-Bahn drivers went on strike so NONE of the trains were running and the city went into complete chaos. Nobody could get to work, none of us could get to school; people couldn’t get anywhere--- it was just crappy. Anyhow, the point is, German trains are the best in Europe, so enjoy the short time you have to use it before you have to go back to Stanford and are forever stuck with the “wonderful” CalTrain.
P.S. To those who are interested, drinking on the U-Bahn is allowed. This little tidbit comes in handy when you're taking your long ride from your homestays on the west over to the east (where most of the nightlife is)...Prepartying on the U-Bahn made for great fun and stories :)
Bar 55: huge cocktails
Bar 55 (map) was one of the first bars I went to in Berlin. They serve these massive 1.3L cocktails, and of course there are different drink specials depending on the night. It's on the east side so it's a good place to go with friends right before heading to the clubs. Last time I was there I had a 1.3L long island iced tea, and needless to say the rest of the night was pretty fun. But whether you're sharing or taking on your own liter cocktail, it'll be a good time.
Homestays
If you're anything like me, one of the benefits of going abroad is the way better housing situation. No more of this 1 room double business. Nope. Here in Berlin, everyone gets a SINGLE! And you don’t even have to enter the draw. In general, homestay rooms are all really nice, and the host families have all been carefully screened, so no worries, you won’t get a weirdo or a rapist or anyone of that sort. Mine ended up being really nice and even made dinner for me every Sunday. I posted pictures of my homestay and me cooking with my host sister just to give you an idea of what to expect.
McDonalds: upscale in Europe?
Believe it or not, this is what McDonalds at the Berlin Hauptbahnhof looks like inside. Yep, they are definitely slightly classier establishments here. While I never really ate at McD's in the US, I have grown to appreciate it here in Europe as an ubiquitous place to get cheap food. Also, we found that American fast food chains are unfortunately some of the only places you can find burgers with normal-tasting beef patties.
They also have this McCafe thing going on at a lot of locations. It's basically their version of Starbucks, with a coffee menu, smoothies, pastries, lighter sandwiches, and other such coffee-joint food.A Real Winter
On one of the first few days in Berlin, I got ready to go out and explore the city at 5:30PM. Though it doesn't sound that late, it gets dark really early during the Winter. But when I went down in my tennis shoes, the entire sidewalk and street was frozen over with a sheet of ice. It was even colder than it was earlier in the day (-3 Degrees C). Just as I took my first step, I slipped and fell on my butt and this one German guy who was gracefully gliding on the ice down the street just laughed at me. I saw lots of people slipping all over the place so I accepted the fact that there was no way I was going to make it anywhere safely. I went back upstairs and told my host Mom, who then decided to give me snowboots to try on, but told me she didn’t think it’d help cause they were for snow, not ice. With no better options, I put the snowboots on and walked down to the door, took one step, and slipped AGAIN; another hard fall. Needless to say, after slipping 2 times right on my butt, I called it a day and settled for the fact that I still had plenty of days ahead to explore the city. According to my host mom, that day was the worst day of the Winter. In fact, after the first couple of days, the rest of winter quarter had basically no snow; it was just really really cold and there was lots of rain. As a Californian, I'd still prefer the mild winters we get at Stanford, but you definitely start getting used to the harsh weather and then it's not so bad. Plus, there's nothing like eating a nice, warm pretzel when it's snowing outside.
Germans Are Really Nice: Part 3
Part 3:
On my way to the Reichstag, which is the parliament building which has amazing architecture, I was sniffling a lot. I sniffling on the U-Bahn when this one German girl sitting near me got up, said something to me in German, smiled, and gave me a tissue. I replied with danke and was truly grateful. So once again, Germans are really nice. Who says Germans are cold and stoic? Within my first 3 days in Germany, and 3 encounters with very nice Germans, this stereotype had proven to be nothing more than a stereotype. And throughout my time here, I've met many more Germans, all of whom have been caring, interesting, fun, and in general, have broken all stereotypes of how Germans are supposed to be.
On my way to the Reichstag, which is the parliament building which has amazing architecture, I was sniffling a lot. I sniffling on the U-Bahn when this one German girl sitting near me got up, said something to me in German, smiled, and gave me a tissue. I replied with danke and was truly grateful. So once again, Germans are really nice. Who says Germans are cold and stoic? Within my first 3 days in Germany, and 3 encounters with very nice Germans, this stereotype had proven to be nothing more than a stereotype. And throughout my time here, I've met many more Germans, all of whom have been caring, interesting, fun, and in general, have broken all stereotypes of how Germans are supposed to be.
Germans Are Really Nice: Part 2
Getting Lost
Part2:
Part of the experience of being in a new city is getting lost in it. We managed to get that item checked off of our Things to Do List our very first night in Berlin. On our first night, it was getting late so we decided to head back from Potsdamer Platz since my host family told me the Bahn system stops running at 1AM on weekdays. So we headed back to the station, but the entrance was blocked! “O crap.” Keep in mind it was 0 Degrees Celsius outside and none of us were dressed accordingly since we had definitely underestimated how cold it gets. It was freezing and we didn’t know where to go; just to get warmth we jumped on a random bus, cause apparently they were still running. While we were on the bus, we started looking at our maps to find a way back, and this nice old 50 year German grandpa asked us something in German. At this point, I've had only 1 quarter of German, a course taken over 6 months before, which meant I had forgotten everything. All I heard was the word “Wo” so I deciphered that he was asking us where we were trying to go. We told him the name of the station, and he just went off in a string of German while pointing at different spots on the map. The entire conversation was really funny cause he was helping us and telling us what we needed to know, but we couldn't understand anything. Once in a while I would try to interject with a couple words I did know in German. Yet somehow within all the jumble, he was able to understand me telling him that the U-Bahn (the train system) was closed, and in response, he was able to tell me in German what I understood to be “No, it’s open.” We said danke to this man, who amazingly was able to help us without speaking a single word of English. We got off the bus and walked around to find the nearest U-Bahn station and low and behold, it was OPEN. For some reason, it was just that one station that we came out of that was closed. Thank you so much to the German man who helped us get home. Unfortunately, even after getting onto that train we still ended up getting lost cause there were all these connections and transfers. But to make a long story short, we kept getting on and off trains, then missing trains, and thus having to wait 10 minutes at a time in the freezing cold, but in the end we made it back to my place at 2:30AM. YAY!
Part2:
Part of the experience of being in a new city is getting lost in it. We managed to get that item checked off of our Things to Do List our very first night in Berlin. On our first night, it was getting late so we decided to head back from Potsdamer Platz since my host family told me the Bahn system stops running at 1AM on weekdays. So we headed back to the station, but the entrance was blocked! “O crap.” Keep in mind it was 0 Degrees Celsius outside and none of us were dressed accordingly since we had definitely underestimated how cold it gets. It was freezing and we didn’t know where to go; just to get warmth we jumped on a random bus, cause apparently they were still running. While we were on the bus, we started looking at our maps to find a way back, and this nice old 50 year German grandpa asked us something in German. At this point, I've had only 1 quarter of German, a course taken over 6 months before, which meant I had forgotten everything. All I heard was the word “Wo” so I deciphered that he was asking us where we were trying to go. We told him the name of the station, and he just went off in a string of German while pointing at different spots on the map. The entire conversation was really funny cause he was helping us and telling us what we needed to know, but we couldn't understand anything. Once in a while I would try to interject with a couple words I did know in German. Yet somehow within all the jumble, he was able to understand me telling him that the U-Bahn (the train system) was closed, and in response, he was able to tell me in German what I understood to be “No, it’s open.” We said danke to this man, who amazingly was able to help us without speaking a single word of English. We got off the bus and walked around to find the nearest U-Bahn station and low and behold, it was OPEN. For some reason, it was just that one station that we came out of that was closed. Thank you so much to the German man who helped us get home. Unfortunately, even after getting onto that train we still ended up getting lost cause there were all these connections and transfers. But to make a long story short, we kept getting on and off trains, then missing trains, and thus having to wait 10 minutes at a time in the freezing cold, but in the end we made it back to my place at 2:30AM. YAY!
My arrival in Berlin
My friend (and drawmate) Ricky and I arrived in Berlin early during spring break, because we were going to take a short trip to Prague before the quarter started. That night we enjoyed our first German Hefeweizens at Junction Bar in Kreuzberg, and then got some sleep for the early train the next morning.
After getting back from Prague, all of the spring students met for the first time and did a walking tour around the Reichstag area. The weather wasn't great, but we got a guided tour and got to see some of the sights early on.Germans Are Really Nice: Part 1
Arrival in Berlin
Part 1:
The hardest part of the flight was sitting for ten straight hours on the United plane, in the center seat, right between an old German couple and a young German couple. It was during the 10 hour flight, sitting between the two couples speaking German to each other and understanding about 2 words the entire time that I realized, “Wow, I’m REALLY going to Germany.”
After I got off my plane at Tegel Airport, I rushed down to the baggage claim. I had 2 huge suitcases and 1 duffel bad, so I badly needed to get one of those cart things to push my luggage in. Unfortunately, the cart required 1 Euro, which is a coin (I didn't know that at the time), that you must push into the cart’s coin slot to unlock it. But all I had was a 5 Euro bill, which obviously wouldn’t work. And there was NO WAY I could carry all my luggage by myself. But luckily for me, this nice German lady saw me looking confused and gave me 1 Euro. ☺
Part 1:
The hardest part of the flight was sitting for ten straight hours on the United plane, in the center seat, right between an old German couple and a young German couple. It was during the 10 hour flight, sitting between the two couples speaking German to each other and understanding about 2 words the entire time that I realized, “Wow, I’m REALLY going to Germany.”
After I got off my plane at Tegel Airport, I rushed down to the baggage claim. I had 2 huge suitcases and 1 duffel bad, so I badly needed to get one of those cart things to push my luggage in. Unfortunately, the cart required 1 Euro, which is a coin (I didn't know that at the time), that you must push into the cart’s coin slot to unlock it. But all I had was a 5 Euro bill, which obviously wouldn’t work. And there was NO WAY I could carry all my luggage by myself. But luckily for me, this nice German lady saw me looking confused and gave me 1 Euro. ☺
Hallo
Hey,
I'm Lily. In January of this year, I packed my bags and headed off to Berlin for what would be the beginning of my 9 month abroad experience. It was my first time to Europe and would also be the longest time I'd ever been away from home (the US). After enduring my first real Winter (I'm from California, so this whole concept of living in snow is foreign to me), seeing the city completely transform during the Spring, and then spending my summer doing a Krupp internship and traveling all around Germany, I can definitely say it has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So get excited about Berlin, and Germany in general! Hope our insights help!
I'm Lily. In January of this year, I packed my bags and headed off to Berlin for what would be the beginning of my 9 month abroad experience. It was my first time to Europe and would also be the longest time I'd ever been away from home (the US). After enduring my first real Winter (I'm from California, so this whole concept of living in snow is foreign to me), seeing the city completely transform during the Spring, and then spending my summer doing a Krupp internship and traveling all around Germany, I can definitely say it has been a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So get excited about Berlin, and Germany in general! Hope our insights help!
Hallo
Hey, everyone, Naiming here. I was abroad in Berlin for spring quarter 2008, and am currently finishing up my Krupp Internship in Magdeburg. My first time in Europe has been a 6-month stay complete with studying, working, traveling, old friends, and new friends. It has been truly unforgettable.
We created this blog to relive and catalog all of our great memories from our abroad experience, and to provide all prospective, preparing, or current Stanford in Berlin students with an interesting resource to get an idea of what the experience is like, find something interesting to do/see/eat in Berlin, read about traveling outside of Berlin, etc.
Hope it's helpful and/or interesting, enjoy!
We created this blog to relive and catalog all of our great memories from our abroad experience, and to provide all prospective, preparing, or current Stanford in Berlin students with an interesting resource to get an idea of what the experience is like, find something interesting to do/see/eat in Berlin, read about traveling outside of Berlin, etc.
Hope it's helpful and/or interesting, enjoy!
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