Berlin

19 September – 6 October 2018

(Onwards to Berlin)

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19 September

Continuing on from my previous post, we decided to grab a quick bite at the apartment with our instant noodles. Thereafter, we went out to explore.

Taking the TXL again, we started off at Berlin TV Tower, from here on, we basically walk everywhere we went and thankfully we had a great weather that day.

Graffiti everywhere!

Berlin TV Tower

First ice-cream of the trip

St. Mary’s Church, a short walk from Berlin TV Tower

Neptunbrunnen, a fountain depicting the Roman god of water, Neptune, & 4 women representing Prussia’s main rivers. (and I thought it was Poseidon…)

Hello from us!

Just after this, diagonally across, you’ll pass by the DDR Museum (which we did not go) and we went ahead to the Berlin Cathedral Church instead.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Boq4k__F5qV/?taken-by=annabellezl_

Note: To take such photos, use your Panorama mode! Love this method as it captures more than usual.

Typical tourist shot!

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn6uc_3llEj/?taken-by=annabellezl_

Onwards to Hackescher Markt for lunch.

After walking for a few hours, we were finally hungry and decided to grab lunch (or maybe it should be dinner?) Had our first pork knuckle, German sausages and drinks. After a good meal, we continued walking and exploring the place. We walked by so many places.

Brandenburg Gate

We managed to reach during sunset. It was a nice view, a little sad that there’s those construction going on. 

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe | Pardon my face. The place itself is amazing in the sense that the blocks looked short from far, but when you wander inside, it’s tall and huge. But sadly, people take this place as a seating area instead. 

When the Sun sets, and the shop closes.

& So, we took the bus back after walking around the area.

20 September 2018

After a good night rest (oh, I needed it so badly), it’s day two! Our first stop was to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp, a Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg.

While waiting for our friends, it’s an OOTD time. 

Breakfast at a nearby cafe.

Taking our first train out to Oranienburg.

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn9JlfZAOx_/

Take bus 804 to the camp. You won’t really get lost with the amount of crowd heading there as well.

Although you won’t be seeing much photos of the camp (cause I took videos instead), going to the camp made me feel lucky that I live in an era that has no war. The camp is huge and has only a few remaining bunkers left, but you’ll still be able to see the living conditions, the weapons, articles of clothing .etc there. 

We took almost 4 hours to finish walking by ourselves, you can rent audio guides there to help you understand even more. 

The now empty camp.

After the camp, we took the bus out and went for lunch. 

While waiting for our lunch

A must after lunch. Love a good old chocolate flavour. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BqgqOVtBuNH/

While waiting for our train to Checkpoint Charlie. 

After the camp, we went to see Checkpoint Charlie.

And indeed, anything and everything can be sold in this world.
*still confused at how this pile of rock can be sold at such price*

The closest we will ever be to Berlin Wall. 

We walked from Checkpoint Charlie to find Ritter Sports.

My friends went crazy shopping at Ritter Sports. 

After Ritter Sports, it was PRIMARK time. Enough said. We went a little overboard on day 2.

My loots then. 

After shopping, by the time we were back at our apartment, we were famished AND without food. So we went out to hunt for fast food restaurants that were still open. Thankfully, there was. After eating, it was time to rest.

21 September 2018

It was nice waking up a little late, went on for lunch at the place we had lunch on the first day. Then to Primark (again) as my friend had to get a new pair of shoes.

Mini Oktoberfest?

Then we went on to Spreewalddof for a different view and experience. 

The village of Lehde is a unique place in the middle of the Spreewald, which consists of many small islands, which are surrounded by water spars of the Spree and only connected by small pedestrian bridges. Until 1929, the listed village was only accessible by boat. Then only a land connection to the neighboring town Lübbenau, whose district Lehde is.

Spreewald Tourist Information Lübbenau e. V. Luebbenau / Spreewald

We actually found out about this place the night before and as the others were too far, this was about an hour-two journey there. But as we went, we didn’t know that it wasn’t part of the Berlin ABC area. So we were kinda caught by the train conductors and had to pay for the tickets only, which thankfully there wasn’t a fine. 

We stopped at Lubben and was definitely lost.

So we went back and took another stop to Luebbenau. Which finally made sense.

Walked about 10mins and we finally reached this small little town. Felt like we were transported to another place. 

And before we knew what was happening, we were whisked away and sitting in a boat. 

It was really scenic though. A complete contrast from the city life in Berlin.

We saw so many pumpkins!

I have no idea to say we were lucky or not, it started drizzling when we were about to end and it started pouring after we were on ground and near a shelter. 

So we found a restaurant and had small bites while waiting for the rain to subside or stop. Which it happened after we were done eating. It was really really cold as we weren’t really expecting rain. 

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bn_0ffFlMhO/

Always enough time for photos, no matter what weather condition. We left for the train station as soon as we could but was still caught in the rain. Waited at the train station for almost 40 mins. 

Went back straight to the apartment and whipped up a good meal from the ingredients we brought over and bought at the market. 

Rice and Japanese Curry was brought over from Singapore. What we didn’t know was there was a Korea supermarket near us., if not we would have bought it from there.

This was our last night in Berlin and it was nice having a good meal, some drinks. We had to pack our bags as we were leaving early in the next day. 

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Next up is Reutlingen! 

I apologize for the late post as I was procrastinating and Berlin was the longest stay we had. Let’s hope I’ll be able to update the others soon!