An exciting weekend in Berlin

I can’t thank myself enough for not coming back to Leipzig straight after the BA concert on Friday, and rather staying in Berlin for the weekend – to witness this great city soaked in history and culture, and also the famous famous Berlin Marathon 2008! Although I could not witness the legendary Haile Gebrselassie crossing the finish line and setting yet another world record (I was on the roof of the German Parliament when he was doing it), like he did in 2007, also at Berlin, it was quite an experience to be at the Brandenburg gate watching more than 40,000 runners start off, and then follow them around the city along famous Berlin landmarks.

The day before, I took a city tour conducted by the New Berlin Tours which I think is one of the best things this city has to offer! New Berlin Tours is a part of the Sandeman’s New Europe which conduct free and paid tours in many famous European cities, apart from providing accommodation booking and other travel related services. They have great guides who come from various parts of the world and walks of life and are actually volunteering there, they know the history of the places they show inside out and and do a great job in keeping the tourists engrossed throught the 4 hours of the tour.

Starting in front of the Starbucks cafe at Brandenburg Gate, which itself is the postcard of Berlin, we saw the Holocaust Memorial right beside it, followed by all major attractions in the vicinity, including Hitler’s bunker, the former headquarters of the Stasi, Berlin Wall, Topography of Terror, and then reaching Checkpoint Charlie. The latter is a really interesting and vibrant tourist spot which was 1 of the 3 checkpoints in the erstwhile divided Berlin.

Walking along the brickmarks of the Berlin Wall, we met hundreds of enthusiastic tourists and atheletes who had come to participate in the marathon the next day. Bebelplatz, the French and German Cathedrals, The Humboldt University (home to 29 Nobel winners!!), Unter din Linden and finally the imposing Berliner Dome brought to end a small but exhaustive trip of the great places to visit while in Berlin.

I was lucky enough to find accommodation in two of the many super-inexpensive but ultra comfortable hostels of Berlin for my 2 nights of stay, as Sunday being the Marathon day, there were hundreds of thousands of non Berliners in the city for the marathon, who had already booked most of them.

The characterists of Berlin which made me a fan of this city are its great cosmopolitan and international culture (for a change in Germany, I did not see raised eyebrows on talking in English!) and the balance which it has maintained between the new world sophistication and old world charm. The Fernsehturm (TV Tower) standing 350+ metres over the swanky Alexanderplatz makes for a great click when you stand in front of the Berliner Dome! The magnificent concept of the Reichstag (Deutsch Parliament) complex which allows ANYONE to walk in the German Parliament and go up to the top dome, which is an architecural masterpiece, astounded me completely. They not only talk of having transparency in the administration, they actually have it! The transport system of Berlin is as extensive as it can get with the S-Bahn (overhead rail/metro), U-Bahn (underground metro), trams, buses and every possible kind of transport networking the huge city that Berlin is. Not to mention costwise it is one of the cheapest capital cities in Europe offering unlimited party options as well as great historical and cultural insights of Germany.

Thanks to my dear friend Giovanni Dicesare from Milano, with whom I spent the 3rd day and enjoyed the sunny weather