Berlin Part 2

Saturday 4th June

Next year's student housing

We spent most of the day looking around Charlottenburg Palace, despite have accidentally booked for the wrong day the lovely lady on the door let us in anyway. You get a free audioguide and definitely make time to see the grounds, in my opinion they were the highlight of the palace.

Quick ice-cream stop before heading back to the hotel.

 As I mentioned in the previous post, getting lost became a habit for us, and after searching for 45 minutes for dinner at the deliciously sounding Asian restaurant Jolly in the Mitte district, we gave up and settled on a lovely restaurant called Oranium Corner. While it was very different from our previously anticipated Asian cuisine it served a wide variety of dishes and a very extensive list of cocktails which kept us happy.

Strandbar

After dinner we went for a wander and came across Strandbar, a delightful combination of bars, deckchairs and dancing (not club dancing, partnered dancing) nestled next to the river. The atmosphere was unique and hard to describe but I recommend everyone and anyone to visit this magical place if you have time.

 Sunday 5th June

Berlin Cathedral

View of Berlin 267 steps up

We had intended to visit not just Berlin Cathedral but also the many museums that existed on the aptly named Museum Island. However we had booked tickets to go up The Fernsehturm or The TV Tower as it's more widely known, therefore we had to rush off to dinner. 

Frozen Strawberry Daiquiri 

Dinner that evening was at the Supreme Burger Grill & Bar in Mitte. Not only did my exquisite Blue Cheese burger satisfy me but my vegetarian and vegan counterparts also enjoyed their less meaty meals, a real crowd pleaser! We managed to also sneak in a few cocktails before our trip up the tower.

The Fernsehturm

The trip up the tower was ultimately one of the highlights of my holiday. We arrived at the tail end of sunset allowing us to watch the sun creep down and leave a trail of colour in its wake (the pictures really don't do it justice). After that beautiful sight we hit the bar (obviously) and proceeded to consume some of the nicest cocktails I've ever had. While pricey (although to be expected being 200m in the air) it was hard to resist and we spent the last of our money happily consuming cocktails until they finally asked us to leave as they wanted to close.

Monday 6th June

With the last day having dawned and having completed our list of things to see, we took a lazy morning and sat down in Potsdamer Platz, had some food and drink and simply watched the world go by for a few hours.

To round our trip off we visited the Reichstag Building after having previously been turned away and were greeted with a panoramic view of Berlin. Unlike The Fernsehturm where you were obstructed from seeing a clear view, here you could stand in one spot, rotate and be able to see everything. They also had information about the history of the Reichstag and the German Government which made an interesting read.

After that it was a quick dinner, back to the hotel and back home.

Out of all the places I have visited Berlin has to be up there in my top few, everyone was incredibly relaxed, friendly, there was lots to do and see and I genuinely look forward to visiting again in a few weeks with my TopDeck tour!

Tori

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Berlin Part 1!

After a few days recovering from Berlin I've started to sift through the photos, I had an amazing time exploring Berlin and it's made me that much more excited for the rest of this summer!

Thursday 2nd June

Final drink in Victoria Station before I headed off to Gatwick

A bright and early 6.20 am flight

One thing the group agreed was that there were no 'adults' around to tell us we couldn't eat ice-cream

Entrance to Berlin Zoo

Berlin Zoo filled me with confusion; on one hand you could get incredibly close (arm distance) to their beautiful animals; on the other hand their enclosure's were the smallest I'd ever seen.

Dinner at L'Osteria which served the largest (and possibly the nicest) pizza I have had

Watching 'Room' in the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg Outdoor Cinema

After a long search for the cinema which resulted in us walking in the wrong direction for 30 minutes (something that became a recurring theme throughout this holiday) we finally found it. Set in a park the outdoor cinema felt very cosy with deckchairs, blankets and popcorn machines, for me it was one of the highlights of Berlin.

Friday 3rd June 

This was the day we planned to try and hit most of the main tourist attractions and boy did we succeed.

The Brandenburg Gate

The Reichstag

Note that while it is free, in order to visit the dome in the Reichstag you need to register in advance and you will need to bring formal identification with you. Follow the link here for more information on how to register. I'd also advise registering at least two days before you want to visit as it can frequently get booked up.

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe 

Checkpoint Charlie

'Summer rolls' at Samadhi Vegetarian Restaurant

With a Vegan and a Vegetarian in our group eating out was harder than usual, however we managed to find several restaurants that served amazing food for all of us and this was one of those places. Located in the popular Mitte district and run by a lovely couple the service was incredibly fast and the food delicious! Even if you aren't limited like we were I would absolutely recommend this restaurant.

On the way to finding drinks we passed the Brandenburg Gate and were amazed to find it was even busier than it was during the day

The strongest Mojito I've ever had

After dinner we decided to explore Mitte and find a place for drink or two, we stumbled across Tex Mex Cantina, which was under the railway bridge and served a selection of various cocktails. I chose the classic Mojito and was not disappointed! This was the evening that we realised that Berlin really doesn't sleep. We arrived at 11.30pm and people were still arriving and ordering burgers and steaks, and when we left in the early hours people didn't seem to be slowing down at all.

Tori
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Intro to Tori's Travels

There are two things I know, 

1) I love to travel to new places.

2) The family trait of loving photography has passed down to me.

I had always imagined that during university I would travel, seek new places and new experiences, but when I arrived I felt so at home that I didn't want to go anywhere. 

Roll on January 2016.

 I began to feel that sense of panic, the end of my first year was in sight and I hadn't even travelled outside the city. I was never going to travel England, let alone all the countries on my bucket list! So I sat down, took a deep breath and started researching for holidays. Little did I know that all the forces would combine to create what I will tentatively call 'The Best Summer Ever'.

After weeks of searching, involving creating algorithms and ranking systems (I take this very seriously you see) in order to find a trip that was best for cost, duration and countries visited, I decided to take part in TopDeck's 13 day 'East Meets West' tour. The tour starts in Budapest, stopping over in Vienna, Krakow, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam and finishing in London. While it is only 13 days my aim was to get a flavour of what Europe has to offer to help me decide if I should return in future.

While I was deep in my planning my newfound university friends decided that they also wanted to cement our kinship by going on holiday. Many conversations then ensued in trying to decide a place that we all wanted to visit, after much deliberation we settled on Berlin. Whilst I was already travelling there with TopDeck, I knew that Berlin had so much culture, history and of course nightlife, that I would not be able to complete it all in in my short stay.

I could go on and explain how each of my other holidays came into existence but I don't want to bore people on my first post. So instead I'll just summarise my final itinerary for the summer, in order:

1) Berlin, with university friends

2) TopDeck's East Meets West, solo travelling (more information can be found on TopDeck's website: https://www.topdeck.travel/tours/east-meets-west) 

3) Cornwall, with extended family

4) Choir Tour of Ontario, with Holy Trinity Church Choir, Stratford Upon Avon.

5) Malta, with my immediate family

As you can see, it's a lot to fit in this Summer. I knew I wanted to record all the memories from my trips in a travel journal a friend gifted me for my birthday, but I didn't know how to store all the photos I'd be taking. Then when I was procrastinating from my end of year exams I ended up on travel blogs and it just fitted, it was the perfect way to present everything. 

In addition to this summer, in 2017 I will be upping and moving again for the Year Abroad section of my uni course. I am in equal parts excited and... bricking it. Whilst there is no fixed location as of this moment, I know that wherever I go, it will go in the blink of an eye so I want to be sure to put all the memories down.

So here I am.

 

I don't know who's going to read this or if in fact, anyone will, but I'll be posting photos from each of the places I visit, if not for anyone else then for me and my memories.

Tori

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