My Little Trip to Hamburg and Berlin

In February I headed off to Germany for a week because I have this inability to stay in one place for too long. I'd been back in England for just over a month and that was far too long! (I'm joking, but also kinda not). My intentions were to attend the Berlinale Film Festival, which had always interested me since learning about it in school, and eat my weight in falafel kebabs. Unfortunately I failed both my aims :( Nonetheless I just wanted to be back in Germany and I had a great time. It was so nice to get back to speaking German as I've been really lazy with this since leaving Switzerland and it was nice to know that I'd retained more than I expected.

I flew in and out of Hamburg and travelled to Berlin by bus as this was the cheapest option. My main aim of my little trip was to go to Berlin and I only chose Hamburg as it was a city I had never been to before but I wasn't that invested in my time there. However I was so pleasantly surprised and absolutely loved it. I was extremely tired by the time I got to Hamburg, having slept on the floor of Gatwick airport, and made my way into the main city. The one thing I do in every new city I go to is a free walking tour and I'm a creature of habit so Hamburg was no different. I was lucky enough to have arguably one of the best tour guides I've ever had and also met two awesome English people who I ended up going on a boat ride through the harbour at sunset with, which was pretty beautiful. We then went to the Elbphilharmonie which gave a beautiful view of the city all lit up at night.

On the second day I did a lot of wandering throughout the city. I visited the Sternschanze Quarter, taking in the beautiful street art and using my disposable to capture the area. It's the hipster part of Hamburg but I loved it. I then walked to Reeperbahn but couldn't find the actual place whoops. And it snowed!!!!!!!!! I missed the winter snow in the UK because I was in Australia and I was so sad so I was so excited for all the snow I had in Germany. Funny though because it was actually hardly any and I ended up having loads back in the UK (courtesy of the beast from the east).

On my return to Hamburg I went to the Miniatur Wunderland (Miniature Wonderland) and was enjoyed it a lot more than I was expecting. It's a giant space filled with miniature models of different cities complete with moving trains and an airport with planes taking off and landing. It's incredible to see how talented people really are and I will definitely visit again when some more cities are there. Once it was dark I walked through Speicherstadt which is the Warehouse city and it was beautiful seeing the reflections of the lights on the water.

What I was most looking forward to was being back in Berlin by myself and able to do what I wanted. When I went in 2014 I was in a group and I loved being with them but I was underwhelmed by Berlin and wanted to redeem the image I had of it. That I definitely did! After unpacking in my hostel I headed to Alexanderplatz and along the way saw a bunch of places that brought back so many memories of my summer there, making me miss my PAD Gruppe 11 so badly! Then I walked past the Berlin Cathedral (absolutely beautiful) and all the way down to the Brandenburg Gate (irrelevant side note: it's really hard to remember to write all these things in English because I just always call them by their German name). By the time I got to the Brandenburg Gate the sun was setting behind it and it looked magical, absolutely stunning. Then I headed back, not before eating a truly magical kebab, the best of my trip.

Day 2 I did a walking tour with somebody from my hostel room and tried vegetarian Currywurst (don't rate it). Honestly I can't remember what I did the rest of that day, just some more wandering in Alexanderplatz.

On my final day I went to the Topographie des Terrors, a museum built on the old grounds of the Secret Police during WWII. I visited the East Side Gallery which is always fun and explored Friedrichshain, again another hipster suburb but very beautiful. I got free Baklava! Cannot believe I forgot that in my initial writing. My aim in Berlin was not to do as much touristy stuff as I'd already done that years before, but rather to see some new areas and experience it more like a local (hopefully one day I will be a local!).

Overall, I'm so glad I went on this trip, it was really needed. Germany is one of my favourite countries and I really hope to move there in the not too distant future. It made me so happy to be back there speaking German and slowly ticking off more parts of the country that I haven't seen. I met some wonderful people (people from the Balkans are so wonderful!) and made the most of my disposable camera, getting some beautiful film photos. Hopefully I'll be back before long to tick off some more places!