Europe Travel Diary: Berlin

Our Europe Travel Diary is an informal rundown of our day-to-day activities while backpacking Europe, starting with Madrid. This travel diary entry is based on our five nights in Berlin. If you are after recommendations for Berlin instead, we have a Berlin travel guide coming soon!

Do check out our top tips for travelling Europe and our 2 months in Europe itinerary to see our route.

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Day 45: Prague to Berlin

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After a long journey from Prague, we arrived at one of Berlin’s many gigantic train stations. Luckily this train station had a food court so we made our way there to grab a late lunch.

While eating our chicken satay, we figured out our route to get to our hostel which was based in Alexanderplatz. It turned out we had to go via a tram which ended up being a really fun experience! After a short tram ride, we hopped off and walked another five minutes to our hostel.

We checked in to our (at the time, empty) four-bed dorm and chilled after our long day of travels. We also did some washing which is probably our least favourite activity whilst backpacking. This is due to tumble-dryers never working properly so your clothes are always still damp.

Once we started to get hungry, we went downstairs to the sports bar that was conveniently attached to our hostel. Luckily, as we were guests we got 25% off food which is always welcomed when on a budget. Alex ordered a pizza, which he regretted, whilst I ordered my first ever currywurst!

Berlin was the place where my best friend was coming out to visit us, so we were all very excited. However, she’d been pretty unlucky getting here so Alex decided to jump on the metro and meet her at the airport. This was so nothing else could go wrong.

My friend really had had quite the 24hrs…

Due to her working schedule, she had only managed to get two hours of sleep on her journey from Plymouth to Berlin. On top of this, she was working nights and started her travels at 4pm before meeting Alex at 8:40pm.
She was caught with an expired Railcard (who even checks railcards these days) in London and was shouted at very aggressively by some weird man.
When going through security, she had to bin half of her liquids. As seasoned travellers will know, you’re only allowed to take one small bag of liquids with all being less than 100ml.

Thankfully, however, she made it in one piece. They both got back on the train back into Alexanderplatz before walking back to the hostel. I then gave her a massive hug before getting ready for the evening.

We then headed to a cool bar around the corner, called Multilayerladen, where everyone was perched on bunk bed-style seats, to catch up. Once we finished here, it was onto some other local bars where we bored our friend with some funny travel stories.

We then decided to queue up at a nearby gay bar and were quickly approached by the bouncer who, despite not really speaking English, communicated it would be a long wait.

He then returned and tried to convince us to slip him 20€ to skip the queue. We politely declined, probably entrenching his hatred for us even further, and waited some more. Having eventually got to the front, we were informed that we weren’t allowed in. The explanation we got given was it was only “locals and homies” which was a shock to the system for us Brits. This obviously put a downer on our night but it seemed to be classic Berlin club culture. Having been rejected and realising it was 3:30am, we decided to head home ready for another big day tomorrow.

When we got back to the hostel, we were all raring for bed BUT much to our shock, we walked into our dorm room to find a guy sleeping in the spare bed. Now, when we booked the hostel, we were very much hoping that they wouldn’t squeeze an extra person in. We did joke about how we’d return to find another person in our room but didn’t actually think it would happen.

It took all of us a few seconds to realise the situation and then apologise profusely for the state of the room. Turns out the guy, from Portugal, was one of the nicest people ever and started apologising for being in the room. We felt extremely bad that we had come in and woken him up at 4am, poor bloke.

Day 47: Berlin

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To our horror, my friend wanted to get up at 9am despite our late night. She dragged us out to the metro kicking, in search of some street food.

We had a little wander and checked out Museum Island, took some snazzy pictures, and then realised we were quite hungry.

Once again, we got caught in the trap of becoming starving before actually starting to search for food. We did try to go to a Vegan and Gluten free Currywurst place but turns out it was neither of the two. After some more faffing, we settled on the Currywurst at the Wall. It was some walk away but as it was Vegan and GF, we couldn’t complain. Our wander also took us past Checkpoint Charlie and to the Topography of Terrors.

We then headed around the Topography of Terrors which is an amazing museum. It essentially detailed Berlin during WWII but mainly the crimes of certain individuals and what happened to them once the war had ended. Surprisingly it was an incredibly interesting museum and would thoroughly recommend it. Outside of this museum was also a large segment of the Berlin Wall with some narration.

Given how heavy the museum was, we found a nearby pub to refresh and plan the rest of the day.

We then walked up to the famous Brandenburger Tor for some pictures of the monument. Our next job was to get cash out, as everywhere seemed to only take cash which was very frustrating. Carrying on our theme, we sat in the shadows of the Tor, drinking mulled wine and catching up some more.

After visiting the world’s most disgusting toilet, literally just a hole in the ground, I am not kidding, we shopped in Primark for some new jeans. This was to replace the ones I ripped when I fell over in Poland. Once this was completed, we found a Vietnamese restaurant for dinner which was very yummy!

We headed back to the hostel to chill and get ready for an evening experiencing the best of Berlin’s nightlife.

When we got ready, we headed downstairs to the hostel bar and found out it was the bar’s “birthday” it was very full. It also turned out there was international rugby being played which kept Alex happy. He naturally made friends with other rugby fans from France and New Zealand.

We eventually get ready to leave and as we were literally walking out the door, we shockingly bumped into the two Irish guys, and their friends, we met in Krakow on the pub crawl. Long story short, they convinced us to go to the same club (Soda) so we happily tag along. The walk wasn’t too bad, if we were sober we wouldn’t have done it, but it was amusing nonetheless. We did go for a pit stop in a bar round the corner for some mulled wine.

We eventually leave and join the main queue for Soda and the three of us, plus the six Irish lads, decided to split up. This was so we had more chance of getting in. We started chatting to loads of people and we lost Alex further down the queue. Apparently, he was speaking to two guys about their experience hiking in Slovakia and bumping into a wild bear.

We were in the queue for nearly an hour and a half before I got to the front. At this precise moment, the angry German bouncer shouted something in German in my face. Luckily, a nice girl next to me translated and said we had to be lining up in pairs. Getting into clubs in Berlin is such a palaver!

My friend and I were allowed in, it’s a lot easier being a girl sometimes, whilst Alex was further down the queue. He eventually got to the front and handed the bouncers his ID and COVID pass. The guy looked at it, back to him, and said “sorry, not tonight”. Alex tried to plead his case but knew he wouldn’t win in an argument with a bouncer in a foreign country.

For some strange reason, literally 20m from the queue, was another queue. This turned out to be more for locals. Nonetheless, he joined the back hoping to sneak in with some locals. He managed to get to the front in five minutes and showed him my new ID. Lucky Alex gave a sob story about me being in the club alone and they reluctantly let him in.

Most of the night ended up being just us three going to all the different rooms and having a great time. We made sure to keep a watchful eye on our friend as she kept looking like she wanted to run off on her own adventure. Whilst we would’ve happily let her, it wouldn’t be the best to do in a foreign country.

After many many hours of boogieing, we decided to call it quits and headed back to the hostel. One of the highlights of the night came just outside the club where we found a trampoline (of all things) asking to be jumped on. Needless to say, we all had the time of our lives jumping around.

By the time we got home and into bed it was about 6am and we proceeded to fall straight asleep. We had also forgotten that there was another guy in our dorm so we instantly felt bad when we woke him up for the second night in a row. Oops.

Day 48: Berlin

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As you can imagine, we had a lie-in given our late arrival home and were still feeling pretty rough. Despite this, we thought it’d be wise to head out for some breakfast at a nice brunch place nearby.

We ordered, got coffee, and eventually, our food arrived. Unfortunately for such a busy and popular place, the food was quite average so not sure we would recommend it.

We walked back to the hostel to get ready for a busy day. By this time it was quite grey and was definitely going to rain so we prepped for the conditions. Due to COVID in Germany, many Christmas markets had been cancelled but thankfully not all. Therefore, we hopped on another tube to Potsdamer Platz for the Christmas market.

As we all know, the hair of the dog is the best way to overcome a hangover. As such, we purchased some mulled wines and a mulled cider in so pretty cool glasses. It was a real shame we couldn’t take the glasses home. Whilst we stood outside, it did absolutely hammer down so everyone huddled under the same roofs and attempted not to get wet.

We then wandered around in search of food but ended up doing a massive circle and coming back to the Christmas market for some more drinks. For food, I got a Currywurst bowl with wedges whilst our friend got a pretzel and some special fries. Alex on the other hand got two baguette slices, the size of your forearm, with a multitude of toppings.

Once refueled, we hoped on another tube and bus to Berlin’s Botanical Gardens which had a Christmas lights show on. Despite being €20 each, it was really a cool experience and very very pretty. Alex’s favourite part was getting some pictures with Santa. As you can tell, he was very happy with the pictures.

This whole circuit took a couple of hours before a little walk and then back on the subway. We made it back to the hostel where Alex didn’t even go upstairs, he just sat down in the sports bar watching NFL. Conversely, my friend and I went upstairs where she packed for her 6:30am flight and fell straight asleep.

As my friend was flying out at 6:30am, it meant she had to leave the hostel at 3:30am. In order for us to say goodbye and to make sure she got to the right place, we accompanied her to the train station at 3:30am. It goes without saying we were ALL extremely tired.

After dropping her off, we quickly ran back to bed to get some more sleep.

Day 49: Berlin

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Unfortunately, despite the lack of sleep the previous day, we had to check out by 11am. The frustrating aspect was that we booked a private room in the same hostel for a further two nights and we weren’t able to check in until 2pm when the cleaners had finished. This meant we had to check out, put our bags into the hostel’s storage next door and come back at 2pm to check in once again. It really was a bit of a nightmare if you ask me.

Anyway, we were really tired so today was definitely a chilled kind of day. We first went out and finally managed to locate some food. This is always a main priority first thing in the day and the fancy poached eggs on toast with avocado were amazing. We then wandered to another small Christmas market near our hostel to kill some time.

We obviously had another mulled wine (and hot chocolate) in some more funky glasses. It was then time to go back to the hostel where we checked into our own room. Everyone needs the own space in normal times but whilst travelling, it is even more desirable. I caught up on some sleep that was rudely interrupted by Alex who was bored.

We eventually mustered the energy to get ready and go to a Christmas market that had just opened. Obviously, this was done by tube as Berlin is literally the opposite of walkable.

Nonetheless, we got there and immediately found some food that resembled a Christmas dinner which we lapped up. Whilst it was definitely lacking some gravy, we had a good slice of pork, creamy kale and fried potatoes. Yum yum.

We then had a wander around the market, taking in the smells of mulled wine and chocolate crepes being made. We also watched a live show but given the quality of performance and various laughter in German, we presumed it was for children. As ever, we had a few cups of Gluhwein before heading off to a nearby Irish pub for some much-missed Strongbow cider.

After a couple of drinks, we got an Uber to a very highly recommended club called KitKat. In order to enter, our phones were put in a safe box at reception. As we had no concept of time, we just enjoyed the music and performances in the club and ended up leaving at 4am!!! This was a big whoopsie and knowing this, we got tired immediately. Straight to bed for some sleep.

Day 50: Berlin

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We were again very tired and proceeded to have another lie-in, our visit to Berlin was definitely catching up on us. Nonetheless, we dragged our tired bodies out of bed and to a nearby burger place. The burgers turned out to be pretty decent and they served curly fries, my favourite!

Given how tired we were, our main task for the day was to go back to the Topography of Terrors and walk along the Berlin Wall where there was another exhibit. Compared to their Topography, it was very average and had basic information. After this, we headed home, via a coffee stop, and had a very long nap in our comfy, quiet room. It was very enjoyable.

Eventually, we summoned the energy to meet our English friends (who we met in Krakow and Prague) downstairs as they were also staying in the same hostel. We intended on visiting the Christmas market we’d visited previously but ended up in the sports bar downstairs. This was mainly due to the cheap food and drinks and meant we didn’t have to move. Plus, the football was on so it kept the boys entertained for a while.

After a while we did get a little bored of the football so decided to go next door for a free comedy night. Thankfully it was all in English so we understood everything. Unfortunately, all the comedy was pretty dire and most (if not all) of the laughs were just for pity.

We then called it a night, whilst everyone else stayed out for another drink, as we had to pack ready for our bus out the next day.

Day 51: Berlin to Hamburg

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As with every travel day, we got up early, sorted ourselves out and got on the 30-minute tube to the bus station.

Whilst every train station in Germany was mightily impressive, I don’t think I had seen a worse bus station ever. Overlooking this fact, and the lack of catering facilities, we hopped on the bus to Hamburg. Quite notably, we witnessed one woman being refused entry to the bus as she wasn’t vaccinated and didn’t have a negative test to show.

Berlin Summary

Looking back, I’m not sure we would have enjoyed Berlin if it wasn’t for the fact we met up with lots of friends there.

The weather wasn’t great which unfortunately has an impact on how much we enjoy a destination. It may just have been the time of year but we mainly found the city quite grey and boring.

If you are looking to party, Berlin is obviously a top destination. The queues tend to be long and the bouncers are strict but once you get in, the club scenes are unbeatable!

I think if we were to go again, we would try to visit in Spring/Summer time to see if it livens up the city a bit.