From the 27th to the 29th of November I was lucky enough to spend a weekend in Berlin with my host family. It was one of the nicest weekends I’ve had with them, and having some time away with us all together was lovely. It was about a 5 hour drive on the autobahn to our hotel in central Berlin, and once we got there we left our stuff then headed out to do some Black Friday shopping. The walk to the mall was beautiful, a lot of brightly coloured apartment buildings with cute decorated balconies. We spent quite a while shopping before finding a little restaurant to have dinner at. After dinner we walked back to the hotel, stopping for hot chocolate and mulled wine at a hut covered in lights in the Christmas market. The Christmas lights were so pretty and really brightened up the dark streets. The next morning, after breakfast, we ventured out into the cold to go and see all the touristy things. About 10 minutes after leaving the hotel tiny flakes of snow started to fall, and only got heavier as the day went on. First we walked to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, the protestant church which was bombed in the second world war. Although the church was repaired, you can still see the damaged caused by the bombs, and feel bullet holes in the walls. At this time of year the church is surrounded by Christmas market, so we looked though them as the snow fell. Next we headed to the Siegessäule, the victory column in the middle of a huge roundabout. The column was built in 1873 after the Prussians defeated Denmark, Austria and France, and is still standing today. Off to one side of the roundabout was Brandenburg Gate, and after walking down the long straight road to the gate we finally reached it. It was so surreal to actually see something your’ve seen in so many pictures, and I had never imagined I would actually get to see it in real life. It was amazing to see, and with a layer of white fluff and snowflakes still falling, was honestly way better than any picture. By this point the snow was pretty heavy, and we were all pretty cold, so we found a “hop on hop off” tour bus to take us back to the Kaiser Wilhelm Church, where we had a traditional German sausage with bread, and the nicest cinnamon hot chocolate inside one of the many Christmas market huts. Once we were all warmed up we hopped back on the bus where we drove to see some of the Berlin Wall and Checkpoint Charlie. Checkpoint Charlie was where the West Berliners could cross to the East, however if the East Berliners were to cross to the West they would be shot. During the Cold War West Berlin belonged to the Americans, and the East to the Russians. The people living in the East were being forced to live there, they were not allowed to leave, however many did. A lot of people would try and break through the wall, but if you were spotted in the “no mans land” on the other side you would be killed. Many East Berliners were smuggled across hidden in cars, and we even saw one of the cars which was used to do this. It was so interesting to learn about all this stuff while actually seeing when it all took place, and seeing how the city is now compared to back then was pretty cool. We then got back on the bus and drove to see the Fernsehturm, (the Berlin TV Tower), and do a bit of shopping. The tower looked really pretty all lit up in the night, and seemed way taller the sky tower. We dropped all our stuff off back at the hotel then walked to a very German schnitzel restaurant for dinner. The food was amazing, and after we were all super full we slowly walked back. We talked and relaxed in our hotel room drinking wine and eating the cheese and crackers we had snuck into my bag from breakfast, and it was the perfect way to end such a long but lovely day. The next morning we packed out stuff and left the hotel after breakfast, before heading to Weihnachtsmarkt (Christmas market) in front of the Charlottenburg Castle. The castle was so pretty, and walking through the markets with all the lights and sweet smells was really nice. We had a good look around and brought a few things before starting the drive home.
This was literally the perfect weekend, and I will always be able to look back on it and smile. I came to Denmark thinking I would stay in Denmark, I hoped to maybe see a little bit of another country but I would have never imagined spending 3 days in Berlin, I am honestly so lucky and can never thank my host family enough (tusind tak fam <3).
Sara, Lene, Rikke, Nicolai, Allan, Rasmus and me in front of the victory column
