the improbability drove you here
click here to go back to the heart of gold hostel berlinberlin and the city
berlin has no borders and boundaries.., or it has too many different of them..
from 13th century on two small villages left and right of the river spree built
some bridges and decided to form one small town.
They build a wall around it and called it 'BERLIN', or something like that..
they started building inside the town and outside, until they reached the next
small village - and took it.
thus, Berlin grew. And what was a lot of seperated houses and farms once became
a
city through the years.
so whenever one speaks of parts or districts of Berlin, one means little old-town
centres spread out inside Berlin,
being connected by big and bigger streets. The gaps got filled with housing,
factories, woods and stuff..
What became West-Berlin was just woods up to the palais in charlottenburg and
sanssousi
in potsdam, and Unter-den-Linden,
where the Brandenburg Gate is situated today, was the king's horse path to potsdam
...
So this embracing of smaller parts outside the city kept going on and on until
the wars in the beginning of the 20th century.
After the second world war the city was parted again, devided into 4 sectors
- one for each of the
Allies..
and just when germany started to recover the cold war split the world in two,
and to protect the communist ideas and the russion sector
a wall was built. However poeple don't really know needed to be protected
and what from...
and again some neighborhoods were captured and put into Berlin in the 1970..
and again since the wall fell, Berlin went through another two politically driven
changes of administrative
parts.
Even a unification with the surrounding Brandenburg was discussed, but rejected.
And here we are now, used to borders and poeple who think they can split Berlin,
but hey -
we don't care. There has always been nice parts of the town, some for nightlife,
some for the independent scene, some
for the rich folks, some where nobody wants to go, and some where nobody needs
to go.
There is quiet places, and every now and then there is a trendy part, where poeple
move to, there is a students area,
then it changes to some other part of town..
just like a city should be.
When
the crowd comes in the Insiders go, and when
the tourists come, prices start increasing, when prices and hippness cannot be
stood any longer, nobody wants to go there no more..
AND ANOTHER PART OF TOWN IS HIP. Whatever that means... - nothing to a 'Berliner'
of course...
and of course it has got nothing to do with the real life.
So where do you need to go in Berlin ...??
what never changes are locations of the old museums and famous places:
like
on Museums Island the Pergamon Museum, the Old Museum, the Old National
Gallery, the Berlin Dome (Cathedral).
at the end of Unter-den-Linden the the Brandenburg Gate, just behind it the
Reichstag, the Tiergarten, Victory Column.
just south of Unter-den-Linden, further down the Friedrichstrasse the German
Dome, the French Dome on Gendarmenmarkt.
north of Unter-den-Linden the jewish Synagoge,
on Unter-den-Linden the Opera, Humboldt-University, Hegel-Cathedral, the big
State Library and many more...
next to Alexanderplatz the Marienkirche, the TV-Tower with the perfect view
over Berlin, the townhall, called Rotes Rathaus,
the Nikolaiviertel - one of the oldest but rebuilt areas...
in Charlottenburg, the Palais and the Egyptian Museum, the Olympic Stadium
at the end of Friedrichstrasse the Wall Museum, the Topography of Terror, the
Nazi-Buildings
at the Zoologische Garten the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Gedächtniskirche,
the Europacenter
the Jewish Museum, the Stasi-Museum
and
yet many more....
but where is the real Life, where do I meet the poeple ??
as a backpacker staying in Berlin for the first, paying a short visit..
look for the common places, half tourist - half Berlin:
Hackescher-Markt, Scheunenviertel, Oranienburger Strasse with the Tacheles,
Alexanderplatz, Simon-Dach-Strasse, Kastanienallee,
Rosenthaler Strasse, Friedrichstrasse, Kollwitzplatz, Wasserturm, Tresor, try
shopping on Ku'Damm ..
as an addicted, revisiting and staying for a few days:
explore the city, find your own berlin:
hang out in Kreuzberg, around Oranienstrasse and don't go early, wait for poeple
to warm up,
you can't expect anybody to act like in a tourist area, but you can expect
to be treated like a berliner, not like a tourist.
Some german or at least the will to learn some is highly appreciated...
Pay a visit to the surrounding of Simon-Dach-Strasse, don't be afraid of empty
streets, just keep walking and find small
bars run by the independent scene, formerly known as Hausbesetzer, in a weird
punk-like style..
Have a closer look into the Area between Oranienburger Strasse and Alexanderplatz,
besides the beaten track there are
small cinemas, theatres, small backyards with short-living clubs, private bars,
Art-performers in empty flats ... and what might be there,
once you are here, find out yourself -
Berlin is a safe area
, just keep inside
the S-Bahn-Ring as a general rule..
Berlin needs to be explored ...