Whether you’re exploring world-class museums on Museum Island, you are dancing until dawn in legendary underground clubs. You also be savoring currywurst from a street vendor. Berlin rewards every traveler. The city offers raw authenticity and boundless energy. It constantly reminds visitors that this is a city perpetually reinventing itself.

This captures Berlin’s unique blend of historical significance. It highlights the city’s cultural richness and modern vibrancy. Readers get a taste of what makes the city special.

Destruction to Restoration. A realization.
Every wall is a challenge.
I was awestruck by the depth and intricacies of Berlin’s history…

East + West

Checkpoint Charlie or Checkpoint C, it was coincidentally our first point of destination in Berlin. It used to be a crossing point between East and West Berlin. It also became a symbol of the Cold War in the 60s. The conflict was between the East, represented by the Russians, and the West, the Americans.

Not so far from Checkpoint C, the Topographie des Terrors (Topography of Terror) is an outdoor and indoor history museum. It used to be the headquarters of the Gestapo and the SS. These were the principal instruments of repression during the Nazi era. There you find the remains of the Berlin Wall. You also see the cellar of the Gestapo where many political prisoners are tortured and executed. Additionally, there is a long photo exhibit of political prisoners and of Berlin Jews being deported to their deaths.

This 1.3 kilometer section of the Berlin Wall is the infamous East Side Gallery, an international memorial for freedom. It showcases over a hundred paintings by artists all over the world. Among the best-known graffiti arts is the depiction of Leonid Brezhnev and Erick Honecker kissing as painted by Dmitri Vrubel. It is oftentimes referred to as the Fraternal Kiss. The words inscribed in the artwork read: “My God, Help Me to Survive this Deadly Love.”

The architectural design of the new building of the Jewish Museum in Berlin is very impressive. The exhibitions and installations are also very enthralling. There’s the Garden of Exile, the Holocaust Tower and the section of the Void where the Fallen Leaves can be found.

This sophisticated building is the Berlin Hauptbahnhof, the main railway station located on the site of the historic Lehrter Bahnhof.

Pub Crawl and Street Arts

I told a friend about my upcoming Berlin trip. She promptly suggested that I join the city walk tours of Alternative Berlin. My third night free and so is the day after, but then I hesitated at first.

Imagining getting back to the hotel at the wee hours of the night can be very daunting. Waking up the next day for another long day can also be challenging. “Anyhow let’s see how it will go,” I told myself. I decided to take the pub crawl. If I feel like it, I will take the Subculture Berlin free tour the next day.

And you know what? It was an amazing experience. For one, it was a refreshing take for being allowed to join in these walk tours by myself. I enjoy Berlin more and meet fellow travelers along the way.

I feel so proud of myself. I was able to experience the real Berlin at its finest hours. This included visiting the city’s nightlife districts. I also explored underground spots. Lastly, I learned to appreciate street arts. I’m never a big fan of it, but good thing I still decided to go. Street arts in Berlin proved me wrong – not all vandals are created equal.

All in all, it surely was a way of appreciating Berlin – purely raw and real.

Berlin Street Arts

There must be beauty with these gibberish scribbles on the wall! A more fitting term, street art tells a story and invokes compelling statements. Playful. Witty. Amusing.

In this tour, I learned more about Berlin’s evolving history and culture. I gained insights particularly on how street arts impact city life now. I also understood how pop culture influences everyday experiences.

Mitte is located at the heart of Berlin. It is a popular tourist spot not only because it holds many historical landmarks and attractions. Tourists normally visit places like the Brandenburg Gate, the Berlin TV Tower, and the Memorial for Murdered Jews of Europe. Mitte is also known for its more artsy, edgy vibe. It is surrounded by modern cafes, shops, and artsy residents living in this area.  

Before, Mitte was known as the district for many artists’ squats. Kunsthaus Tacheles was the most famous for housing an art community. This community existed only until it was closed down coincidentally 2 years ago. This closure occurred just a few months after this street art tour.

Our enthusiastic guide started telling us about El Bocho and his artworks. These include the ‘Little Lucy’ character and her cat. They also feature the security cameras!

The origin of El Bocho’s ‘Little Lucy’ street art traces back to when the artist was watching a cartoon. The cartoon, called Little Lucy, is much like Dora the Explorer.  In this cartoon series, Little Lucy would go on an adventure with her cat. Each adventure ended on a positive note. There was always a moral story.   El Bocho doesn’t like these perfect endings. He started caricaturing Little Lucy as someone who is not a little goody two-shoes after all. Instead, she is a cat bully-slash-murderer. El Bocho’s Little Lucy street art is both hilarious and disturbing.

We walked further and ended up in the alley of Rosenthalerstrasse. It is beaming with a mishmash of different works of street arts from renowned street artists. Large murals merge together to create one long art wall. Street art paste-ups have been a trend recently, according to our tour guide. “As local police are becoming stricter when it comes to vandalism, compared to painted and stenciled street arts, paste-ups are less considered as a vandal, technically speaking. And in case residents didn’t like it, it’s easier to remove,” he quipped.

James Cochran, also known as JimmyC, is a renowned street artist. He is a New Zealand artist best known for his urban narrative paintings and drip painting style. JimmyC created this pointillism-like art mural. He strongly supports aerosol art. His advocacy eventually led him to create and show his Aerosol Pointillist Series. This effort promoted drip painting in street arts.

Kreuzberg is often considered one of the grittiest neighborhoods in Berlin. It consists of people from different groups, diverse ethnicities, and backgrounds. It is a place that is culturally diverse and somewhat bohemian.  Victor Ash’s Kreuzberg Spaceman is a must-see street art. It is the biggest stencil in the world to date.

Our real Berlin walking tour ended in Yaam, a long-established, Jamaican-inspired beach bar in Berlin. Truth be told, beach bars are almost everywhere in Berlin.  I’d quietly snicker at the thought of how these Berliners really yearned for beach sand on their feet. They desired thirst-quenching tropical drinks so much that they really had to make one for themselves. While in the Philippines, we really have real sandy beaches. It’s effortless back home – just pick an island and the beach is yours!

Berlin Pub Crawl

We all met at this hippie-themed bar called Yesterday Bar. These two lovely ladies were our night tour guides. We’re roughly 20 people who joined this pub crawl tour. Most of us are fresh grads or college students from different countries. Between pep talks, the younger ones asked about me, where I am from, and what I do. They were surprised by the answers.  I squarely admitted that I am already 30.

At first I thought we’d just pass by this abandoned space, but it turned out to be our first stop. And it’s a ping pong bar! Everyone’s expected to grab a beer and play ping pong along.

Next, we visited this dark goth pub with a burlesque-like bar dancing quickly entertaining us. This is really one spooky place I wouldn’t go back again.

“It was already getting late. I have to go,” I told everyone. I must be really getting old, I told myself.  When we’re about to get into this sought-after underground techno club, I left the tour too early, too soon.

It’s already way past midnight and yet there were lots of people around the streets of Berlin. Bars and restaurants were still full and busy. The Berlin metro’s up and running 24/7. In where I live right now, this night is something unheard of.