Weekend Breaks Berlin
I’m the second eldest of five children (and first oldest girl) my two youngest siblings are ten and fifteen years younger than me. When my youngest brother was born I felt maternal over him rather than sisterly, I LOVED taking care of him and when I visited from uni I would walk him to and from school, read his bedtime story, play dress up… all of which he has zero memory of course!
My baby brother somehow turned 18 years old this year, I’m not quite sure how considering I’m only just in my twenties… but anyway we booked a weekend breaks Berlin
Me and my youngest sister Serin decided he deserved a real treat as he’s had a rough for years lately for various reasons so we both pitched in for a city break just as soon as his A-Levels were over. We picked a Berlin weekend break as he’d shown an interest in Germany before and also because its a super cool city.
I flew by myself for the first time in my life (I am NOT a good flyer) but with three glasses of wine and two episodes of Greys Anatomy downloaded it was ok! (Not so much on they way back when I had no time for pre wine and had forgotten to download my shows).
I thought I’d share a few pics of what we got up to, where we stayed, ate and what not. I did think about doing a video but my siblings are like startled deer whenever a camera is pointed at them and tbh I just wanted to enjoy some sibling time, hope you understand.
So we stayed in Kreuzberg in this AirBnb I thought the location was great but I wasn’t used to staying somewhere which was directly on the street. At home, we are in a very residential area a little off the main roads and previously we lived in a cul-de-sac so I found the hustle and bustle from outside hard at times. That being said my siblings didn’t notice it at all so that was just my personal bugbear I think. The AirBnb can also host up to 7 (with two sofa beds) so would be a good one for a group of friends maybe although it only has one bathroom.
We spent the first day walking around the area and also Neukolln which is full of cute cafes, vintage shops, and art galleries. I was also super impressed with how many parks are dotted around everywhere and I think it would definitely be fine to come back with the kids (although we probably couldn’t walk around so much with them in two). Right next door to our Airbnb was a cafe called Pola which was SO good. I had a headache the first morning and being able to drink a flat white (with Oatly Barista) and an avocado toast ticked all my millennial boxes.
We also took in the Berlin Wall and had my sister Serin as our historical guide (she had researched a tour for us bless her heart and was laden with facts) she also recommended the film ‘Goodnight Lenin’ which I’m adding to my list to watch asap. Have you seen it?
On the second day, we went for a more sober but important trip to the Topography of Terrors then to Check Point Charlie and the Holocaust Memorial. I’d say out of the three the Holocaust Memorial had the most impact on me, the Topography of Terrors was of course..terrifying but in a way that it’s so awful you sort of can’t believe it? I would recommend skipping that one with kids until they are older for sure..
On a lighter note, we were also made to eat Currywurst (my sister lives in Germany and said it was important to try it) mine was way too hot as I got cocky at how much spice I could handle but I was impressed they had vegan sausages at most of the stands. In fact, I found shopping for food in Berlin so easy, there are loads of organic supermarkets around with aisles of veggies plastic free which is such a joy to see. They also have organic vegan supermarkets which we didn’t stop in but great to know they are there. The cafes also seem to all have Oatly and lots of hipster lunch options, not sure why was surprised about that as Berlin is the capital of hipster right?
See what I mean about deer in headlights? 😉
The other thing I LOVED about Berlin was how many plants and greenery was everywhere! Growing on the buildings, pouring out windows and cafes as full of pot plants as people. Add to that the wide streets and tree-line streets and the sense of space and green in the midst of a city was beautiful.
The Holocaust Memorial was designed to give a sense of unease which it definitely did.
The only photo of my baby brother I’ll share on here from our Berlin weekend break, but how is he 18 and off to uni already??
An example of the organic or ‘bio’ supermarkets and look at all these beautiful veggies!
And cacti!
One of the places we were recommended a lot was this cafe/bar/museum ‘The Ramones Museum’ we actually didn’t get a chance to pop in but we did walk past. Another time for sure.
SO many classic cars on every street. Apparently, there is a big tax deduction for cars past a certain year so lots of people take advantage of this and the result is much more beautiful cars on the streets 🙂
There were so many great suggestions over on my Instagram when I asked for things to do in this great city. As we only had two full days I didn’t even skim the surface of them but if you want to see then just click on this post for a full list!