How to Fit (It All) In [Berlin, Germany]
We’ve just completed our first 10 days in Berlin and though we’ve mastered the basics of settling in à la Didi & Natty (join CrossFit gym, rent bikes, find supermarket, find suitable working space…), Berlin has definitely felt like a vast universe with many facets and layers to explore. On one hand, it makes getting to know the city very exciting; on the other, it feels overwhelming and difficult to fit everything we want to do into the time we have at our disposal.
First, a quick update, since I’m sure you’re dying to find out what happened with our little WiFi situation… We’re going WiFi-less! Not entirely by choice, I admit, but we’re going to embrace it nonetheless. It does make things difficult during the day, as many coffee shops in Berlin have varying degrees of laptop policies and not all of them even have internet, but we’re going to bed a lot earlier, reading and journaling instead of watching TV shows, and generally spending more time with each other rather than with our screens, so it’s not so bad!
Now, onto the big theme this week: fitting things, and ourselves, in. Of course, we took advantage of our first weekend in town to do some solid exploring, starting with a 4.5-hour-turned-6-hour bike tour around all the hot spots: from the Fernsehturm (TV tower) to the Spree, Bebelplatz where Nazis burned censored books to the location of Hitler’s bunker — now a parking lot as the Germans prefer to pay homage to the victims of their history rather than the perpetrators — Museum Island to Checkpoint Charlie via Tiergarten Park, and of course, a beer garden for “lunch.” We witnessed a protest in front of Brandenburg Gate, a concert outside the Reichstag and couples making out in Lustgarten. I’m not even done sharing all the sites we saw, but I’m getting listy and you get the point.
Our Fat Tire Tour Guide, Randall, was amazing, and I mention him because his heavy Aussie accent gave me a taste of home and his love of history and beer gave us a taste of Berlin, making him, in effect, a perfect guide. Not to mention, he took all these selfies before snapping a (singular) shot of Nat and me in front of the Berlin Wall. Precious.
Left to our own devices, Nat and I were nowhere near as productive on Day Two of intensive touring. With great intentions of going to two, maybe three museums, seeing the New Synagogue and the Berlin Wall Memorial on our way to Mauerpark for Sunday karaoke, we made it to one museum — albeit a great one! — sauntered past the synagogue and made it to the Berlin Wall Memorial just before dark.
I will say, we loved the Deutsches Historisches Museum. Our 2.5-hour goal turned into a 6-hour walk through history, culminating in WWI, WWII and the Cold War. There is so much heavy, recent history here to experience, it’s omnipresent throughout Berlin. So maybe we just fail at doing museums (we barely made it through half of the Jewish Museum a few days prior before it closed on us), or maybe it’s another metaphor for our 6-month trip, which we intentionally crafted to fully absorb each city rather than cram too many things into a short trip.
That and well, I’ve always been bad at skipping through things. It’s one of the reasons I can’t read a newspaper. I end up reading it from start to finish. 🙄
In addition to coming to terms with our inability to fit everything into even our 3.5 weeks here, I’ve been struggling with my sense of misfitting into Berlin. We’ve spent most of our time so far in East Berlin, where the vibe is hip and grungy and people are too cool for school. It’s like Williamsburg, the way it was first imagined (i.e. not when I lived there, however cool I felt anyway). That’s not to say I don’t think I’m cool, but, you know, I’m not cool cool.
This is all epitomized by the experience we had going to the world-famous club, Berghain. OK, fine, I’d never heard of it before (case in point?) but apparently it’s really special and worth checking out, and what’s more, Nat was dying to go.
So for those who don’t know, Berghain is the most exclusive of exclusive clubs. Not fancy exclusive, but you-have-to-fit-their-idea-of-who-should-grace-their-dance-floor exclusive. That means an extremely long line and a bouncer at the front that gives you a once-over and either nods yes, you are welcome to enter, or no, gtfo. Sometimes he points, too.
Club night opens at midnight on Saturday night and goes straight through until 1AM on Monday morning. If you get graced with a question at the door, it’s good to know who’s on the lineup, to show you really care. We arrived early, around 10:45PM, and surprisingly, there was no line yet — we barely found the door. So we turned back and had what I deem the best part of the night: a warm ginger mint tea by a campfire at a bar nearby. The bar, Nirgendwo, was hosting an event inside, so you could find all the Berghain wannabes huddled by the fire outside listening to a live band go through all the big tunes. Forty-five minutes later, we head back to the line, which has now begun to form. It starts moving another forty-five minutes thereafter and it’s quite the sight to see.
We spot some newb hopefuls with Longchamp handbags and preppy clothes that even I know don’t stand a chance. A couple of confident sex bombs with loud hair and leather pants make me take mental notes. As we get closer, Nat takes off his Uniqlo Ultra Light Down jacket to reveal a short sleeve button down shirt and slacks. Very handsome, if you ask me. I unzip my jacket (I’m too cold to take it off fully), look down nervously — I feel like I’m on a first date. Should I unbutton my shirt to reveal more of my skin-tight tank top (whose original purpose was just to keep me warm)? It probably wouldn’t have made a difference. We get to the front of the line and in a moment, it’s over. Was that a silent smirk? I’m pretty sure we got even less than the allotted two size-up seconds. We quietly walk away along with ~80% of the people before and after us in line.
It’s not like we’d gotten our hopes up; and I was curious to see what it would actually feel like to get judged so consensually. Not great, it turns out, prompting my whole existential crisis of ‘fitting into Berlin’ and, well, a big chunk of this post.
We still have a couple more weeks to venture through the rest of this deep and layered city. I do love how seriously Berlin takes its history. Hopefully we’ll see more of the West to get a better picture. Make it to Mauerpark for that karaoke. Be more efficient at museums.
In the meantime, I’ll leave you with my favorite quote of the week, via text: “Hey mush, where are you? I’m at the French Revolution.” “Hey babe, I’m at the end of Bismarck.” #onlyinberlin***
