I finally made it to Berlin after a short tour through some other areas of Germany.  I had honestly not heard much about Berlin before arriving other than it’s techno club reputation.  I arrived on the bus and made a quick transition to the U Bahn so I could get to my Hostel.  Florida John and I booked together and we were going to meet there a day apart!  I had a few more days in Berlin than the other locations in Germany and wanted to make sure I took advantage to check out the largest city in Germany.

I didn’t meet anyone at the Hostel the first night but I turned to Couchsurfing hangouts to see if there was anyone else looking to meet up.  Luckily, there was a group down to meet up, so we went to an Irish pub for a pint or two.

After the Irish pub a few of us decided to see if we could find some of that Berlin style Techno that we had heard so much about.  One of the people had heard of a club that sounded promising so we decided to check it out.  The club we ended up at had several different rooms that all had a different DJ who was playing a slightly different type of techno.  It was a huge compound with a large building, a yard and several smaller areas all with different things going on.  We arrived there around midnight and next thing we knew it was after 5am!  It was a really good time and I am glad i got to experience Berlin techno culture just a little bit.

The sun was coming up when I made it back to the hostel.

The next day was a bit later of a start but I wanted to catch one of the free walking tours of the city especially because there is so much history in Berlin and I really didn’t know much about it.  I was planning on meeting up with John for an afternoon tour and so I spent the early afternoon wandering around Museum Island which is basically a small island in the middle of the city that has most of the cities musuems located on it.  I did’t feel like going inside any of them, but the architecture was pretty.

After a bunch of wandering, I met up with John for a beer before jumping on the tour.

I got a few photos along the way as well.  On the tour we went to a few key places within Berlin including the line that used to seperate East and West Berlin, The old East German HQ, the holocaust memorial and several parts of the still standing wall.

It was probably one of the best city tours I have been on because there was just so much history that I had not known previously.  Anywhere you went in Berlin there was reminders and yet it was one of the most diverse and international cities I had visited in Germany (and one of the top in Europe so far)  I learned a lot and am grateful we had a great tour guide.

John had a friend in Berlin and so we planned to meet up with him at a Brewery that evening.  The Brewery was called BRLO and they had a really nice patio with great beers!

John and I decided to call it early that night, so after the brewery we headed back to the hostel.

The next morning, I decided to go for a long run and in my research for best places to run in Berlin, I found Tempelhof airport which used to be a wester Berlin airport used extensively by the Americans post war.  It has since been turned into a park where you can RUN ON THE RUNWAYS! which was super cool.  I did a 32km run around and through the park which was super fun!

There was also a flat land international mountain biking competition happening and they also use the space as a refugee camp.  There were tons of people utilizing the space, I am jealous they have access to such an awesome park.

the post run recovery took a little while but after I was ready to go out again, John and I went in search of some beer.  We found a small brewery which took up shop in the corner of a market.  It was called HeidenPeters and apparently the beer is brewed in the basement at pretty small scale.  The bartender was actually a Canadian Engineer who went to Waterloo who was living in Berlin learning German and learning the beer industry.  After Heidenpeters we headed to a beer bar I had heard of, run by two guys from Vancouver who always had a really diverse and rare tap list.  It was called the muted horn and that was where John and I headed next.

One of the things I struggle with when it comes to beer bars is that when I was traveling I wanted to try the local craft scene and in many cases, a craft place got a good reputation by bringing in hard to find beers from around the world.  This is the case with muted horn.  The tap list was unbelievable with great offerings from Belgium, the UK and California including Sante Adarius and Fieldwork which are two bay area staples.  Despite not having all that many local beers, I decided to embrace the list and get some solid beers from elsewhere and just enjoy myself.

John and I were chatting with the bartender and eventually these two women down the bar.  We ended up having a few rounds with them and eventually decided to head out to find some food.  At the end of the bar was another woman who was actually Canadian and knew one of my friends from my home town and she decided to come along too.  We ended up making a super fun night of it, getting burgers and then closing the night out at a pretty fun bar!  Jenn and Ace were from New York and unfortunately were leaving the next day, so we didn’t get the opportunity to meet up with them again.  However, Ace might pop back up in this story…. more to come.

I didn’t take many photos of that evening because we were having such a good time!

The next morning, I had heard of a saturday market at one of the Parks nearby that was a mix between thirft style vendors, food vendors and home made crafts.  I decided to go check it out!

I wandered around for a while and enjoyed a busker that was performing.  It was a fun way to spend the morning.

One of the things I was going to try and do while I was in Germany was to catch a German league hockey game and luckily our Hostel was next to the arena and the Berlin Ice Bears were playing that afternoon.  Tickets weren’t too bad so I decided to catch a game.

The Ice Bears are a member of the German Hockey league which has 14 teams across Germany and from the attendance at this game seem to be pretty popular.  The NHL had done a few exhibition games a few weeks before with the team in Cologne.

The hockey was probably a step down from the AHL level but was overall pretty good.  I had a great time and made friends with the people around me.

After the game, I collected John and we headed in search of more Berlin craft beer.

We went in search of a place I had seen online that turned out to be much more of a store than a bar, but across the street there was an excellent bar with a really cool bartender.  This is where we had our Berlinerweisse in Berlin!

Biererei Bar was a great spot and Cihan the bartender was very knowledgeable and fun to talk to.  We ended up hanging out there for a while until it was time to head back.

The next day was our last in Berlin and I got up and went for a run around the area of the city we were staying.  It was coming up on a month out from Athens Marathon so training should have been ramping up. (looking back I was only doing between 45 to 65km a week which is ok but not great)

after the run it was time to head to the airport.  John was planning on joining me in Coppenhagen but was on another flight, so I was on my own for the afternoon.  I didn’t have much to do so I grabbed a beer or two and enjoyed them in the park before jumping on the U Bahn to the airport.  Berlin’s airport situation is pretty funny as there are two with a large new one having been under construction for several years that has yet to open due to a lot of politics.  Anyways, I was headed to the cheap, crappy airport decently far out of town.  It was a short flight to Copenhagen which was my next destination.

I really enjoyed my time in Berlin and will for sure count it on my list of top worldwide big cities.  It is an international city that does not feel like the rest of Germany in some senses and very much like the rest of Germany in others.  It has tons of history and is pretty cool.  I am glad that it has one of the world marathon majors which means I will be back at some point in my life.  I apply to the lottery every year so fingers crossed I will get in within the next few. (that or run a 2:45 marathon which is 11 minutes faster than my current PR haha).

I had a blast in Berlin and will be back! Off to Copenhagen for a bonus destination that was unplanned.