Brandenburg Gate, clubbing, streetcars, and a technological anti-establishment attitude. I thought Berlin would be full of nomadic digital hippies, EDM clubs and DJs on the street corner to cater to your influx of young travelers. But in practice, we ran into this sort very rarely. Maybe it was the area we stayed in (Mitte). It seemed more like just a bigger version of Frankfurt, more going on, a grungier vibe. It also seemed very political.

For a city that was nearly 80% destroyed in World War ll, there’s very little evidence remaining. Berlin is a sprawling metropolis that parties all night.

1. Things to see

First stop was for a bit of culture at the Natural History Museum, which contains the largest mounted dinosaur in the world. It was cool to see a Dodo bird, but there was something sad about seeing lions, tigers, and other animals stuffed and behind glass, compared to seeing them… live, in a zoo. If I had to do it again, I’d probably skip the Natural History Museum in favor of another activity that wasn’t so dusty.

Next up was a visit to the Berlin wall, which came down in 1989. While little of the actual wall remains, a section of the wall known as the East Side Gallery is covered in 105 murals. It was fun to walk the length and see the artwork. However, most of the time the artwork wasn’t that thrilling compared to other modern muralists.

One morning we were woken up by a huge parade of people walking just under our window, there were thousands of people in the street and it took over a half-hour to pass, we thought it might be something interesting, gay pride, a festival, but it turned out to be a political party thing. Still, it’s an interesting thing to wake up to.

Probably the most ‘Berlin’ thing I did was just sitting in an outdoor café watching the locals meet up and talk to each other while playing with their kids. You can sit as long as you like and it’s amazing how laid back people are.

One thing on my bucket list was to see my first circus. The kind with flying trapeze artists, a ring-master, tent, dancing bears or whatever. Unfortunately, every EU city we hit we had either just missed the circus or there wasn’t one during the holiday season. Instead, we bought tickets for a theatre where artists did some acrobatics, balancing acts and other physical things – it was a small venue but a fun way to pass a few hours.

Speaking of Circus, we stayed at the Hotel Circus. I like theme hotels and was hoping for something wild, or at least full of photo-worthy spots. It turned out the only Circus thing about the hotel was the name, there were only a few small photos and trinkets around that hotel that hand anything to do with Circus and the rooms lacked basic amenities for a high charge. In Berlin, check carefully all the hotel pictures to try to get a feel for what they’re really like before you book.

At the Wall

Movie-star taxi

All around Berlin

Scary

An interesting ride

Posing at the East Side Gallery

More Berlin!

Vintage bus

2. Nightlife

Kit Kat Club is infamous, but it turns out to get through the strict door you have to dress up in Fetish gear. I didn’t even know what that meant. It turns out it’s wearing leather, latex, or as little as you can. Some people went fully nude. We wanted to go on Saturday night, it was already 4 pm and we didn’t have much time to find a shop to buy some ‘fetish gear’. With only an hour to shop, we couldn’t find (or weren’t brave enough) to get anything really ‘fetish’ and just ended up going with ‘gothic’ (all black).

We arrived at the club at 11:30 pm and it took about an hour to get through the two doormen, we watched as they turned several people away. Luckily we just scraped by and were let inside. Inside you have to surrender all your belongings to the staff who stash them in a plastic bag, and then you’re free to wander the different rooms. Inside was all kinds of decadence, a pool you could swim in, each room had its own DJ. However, most people were just posing and looking at other people who were posing and checking out everyone’s costumes, or lack of. It was a weird vibe of we made it through the door so aren’t we all special. We ended up leaving after a few hours because honestly, it was a little boring to watch that weird dance of everyone looking at everyone else and no-one having much fun.

We found another club where everyone was dancing (weirdly – another gothic night) and here everyone WAS having fun, dancing, and not caring what anyone thought about them. Although every club may not be suited for every person – Berlin has some great nightlife.

Kit Kat Club

3. Spend

I didn’t buy much in Berlin, besides the gothic clothes. Instead, I spent money on going out, doing things, mainly nightlife, clubs, and bars. Buying more things would mean carrying more things home and my poor suitcase was already overfull and wheels groaning from the weight. Besides, there wasn’t anything to buy in Berlin you couldn’t buy in any other major EU city. The longer you’re on the road the less you want to weigh yourself down with.

4. Food

The most interesting thing I saw was a cereal restaurant, in the windows, where just about every kind of cereal you could imagine from Lucky Charms to Cookie Crisp, I guess you just go in, order your cereal and milk. Strange but cool.

We did a 5-course dinner at our hotel, but only one other couple showed up and it was a bit of a lost cause.

This time, we didn’t chase down recommendations from Lonely Planet, instead, when we were hungry we just looked around and stopped at places that looked like they might be good. It was hit or miss, but overall worked much better than chasing down someone else’s marketing promise. We had some good Vietnamese out on picnic tables on the street.

5. Getting Around

Berlin has the best taxi app I’ve ever used (MyTaxi), Literally, as soon as you text for a taxi it’s there. The most I ever waited was 5 minutes. It’s inexpensive, taxis are seemingly everywhere and it’s all very efficient. Sometimes though I’d end up at the right address and find it was the right name but the wrong place. My bad.

6. Costs

Berlin was pretty inexpensive, as far as Europe goes, beers and cocktails seemed reasonable, cover charges to clubs also. Taxis were a great deal for the service you got, and the tourist trinkets you buy (magnets) and such are just about the same all across Europe.

7. Tips

I’d have to have stayed longer (or go back) to offer any good tips, however a few:

Some places you visit, enjoy but don’t necessarily want to return to. Berlin, however, was someplace I truly want to explore more. Next time, I’ll pick a more artistic/edgy neighborhood and leave my expectations behind.