Thirty

London

No, not me! I still have a little time before I hit that milestone. I did, however, reach another milestone this year: getting a 30th country under my belt, Croatia. Though far from considering myself a travel expert, I have picked up a few tricks over the years on my travels from everywhere from Cartagena to Copenhagen to Canada. Here are my five personal favorites.

1) Find a hotel

.... if you need a restroom.  Many countries have unfortunately not embraced the idea of free public restrooms, and they are often tricky to locate. I find that hotels are the best bet for a free pit stop as a tourist. They have so many people coming in and out they generally can't remember who's a guest and who isn't, and all of them have public restrooms on their main floors. It's foolproof! Otherwise I'm not such a big fan of hotels: Airbnb, small guesthouses, or better, staying with locals, is always my preference.

Copenhagen

2) Say (and learn) "Hello"

No one expects you to learn every language in the world and we all struggle when abroad. Learning a few words (like hello, thank you, please, and how much?) can go a long way. But no matter how much you struggle with language, say "hello" when you greet a waiter, hotel concierge, museum ticket seller, or bartender. Oftentimes these people greet throngs of tourists a day and just demanding what you want (in a foreign language, no less) doesn't go over so well. A smile and a short greeting in the local language can make all the difference.

Croatia

3) Get up early

...not just for the sunrise. Tourists tend to sleep in (it's vacation, after all!) but the locals are living their normal, every day lives. In busier touristy cities (think Prague, Paris, Dubrovnik) the morning is the best time to see locals going about their business as usual, rather than just your business as a tourist. While your fellow travelers are sleeping, they're heading to work, grabbing a coffee, and taking their kids to school. Prime people watching time.

Or mountain watching time. Alps, Switzerland

4) Don't make special meal requests

There aren't direct flights between Berlin and DC so I always end up transferring in London. During one of my layovers last year I was showing my passport at Heathrow when the attendant glanced over my boarding pass, typed something into his screen, and suddenly asked if I would like an upgrade. After enthusiastically nodding yes and thanking him profusely he leaned in and said, "you know why we picked you? Because you don't have a special meal request. We can't upgrade people with special meal requests because the meals are different in every class." You know, so they won't get sued if you eat something you said you didn't want to eat. What's the point of special meals anyway? Veggie options are pretty standard these days and unless you're allergic or do it for religious reasons I think we can all agree that no airplane meals are particularly "special" to begin with.

Berlin

5) When in doubt, ask the New York Times

These guys don't mess around. The recent 36 Hours in Berlin article profiled one of my absolute favorite restaurants in the city that is not even that popular (yet). In the last 1.5 years I've followed their guides for Dubrovnik, Krakow, and Copenhangen and haven't been disappointed once. (A bottle of NYT recommended Croatian wine that I lugged from Hvar-Dubrovnik-Berlin is sitting in my apartment as proof.) Of course it's great to be flexible and spontaneous and just see where the wind takes you, but sometimes you want the wind to know what it's talking about. Other than good ol' locals, I consider the NYT my reliable wind.

So there you have it. This coming winter I'll be backpacking around country #31 (unless I get a work travel surprise between now and Christmas): Sri Lanka. It'll be a different type of trip than I'm used to - less planning ahead, more go with the flow, a new region of the world - and I'm bound to add something to this list. In the meantime, there's always the NYT.

Gesehen: B&W at ESG

ESG, or East Side Gallery, is one of those major Berlin sights that everyone who visits the city should see. It's the longest stretch of the Berlin Wall that still remains (1.3 km) and was preserved as a form of outdoor/interactive art gallery. Since the Wall came down in 1989, artists from all over the world have been invited to paint a section and leave messages of peace and hope. It's also one of those fantastic "see Berlin history/culture without paying to go into a museum" things to do, which I am particularly fond of.

Clearly the scene itself wasn't black & white, that was courtesy of newly discovered color settings on my camera. But it's a serious message, and b&w seemed appropriate. For my Anglophones, look closely on the left for the English translation.

Devil's Food and Devil's Mountain

Berlin is a city of contrasts. Cute old ladies, punk rebels. Soviet soldier memorials, Soviet terror museums. German bratwurst, Turkish döner. The history, culture, diversity, and sheer scope of this city means that on any given day, there are a gazillion ways to spend your time, learn, and enjoy yourself. There is no one Perfect Berlin Day, in my humble opinion. That being said, this past Sunday we came pretty damn close.

Sunday was Julia and Jonathan's last day before flying back to homework and deadlines, so we knew it had to be good. Yet after tons of sightseeing and a four day packed trip to Istanbul, we were exhausted, and the only "official" thing left on the itinerary was Kaffee und Kuchen. So that is where we started our day. At 3pm.

Julia was excited:

Now, Kaffee und Kuchen really is an institution here in Germany. On Sundays, a well-respected Konditorei is packed solid with those yearning for a nice slice of something coupled with a strong coffee to round off their weekend. And those belonging to this group tend to be on the older side, as you can see in the background of this next photo. I decided that for my sister's one last Berlin wish, I had to deliver, so I did my research and found one Konditorei so far West in Charlottenburg it was practically not Berlin anymore.

Oh yeah, and Rebecca came along!

I checked the guide book while we finished off our cake to see if there was anything else of interest in the neighborhood. To my delight, Teufelsberg was a walkable distance away. Teufelsberg translates literally to "Devil's Mountain," and is an artificial hill that was constructed out of rubble left over by World War II. Apparently an old Nazi military school lies underneath but the Allies weren't able to destroy it with explosives so they decided to build a hill on top of it instead.

The Americans built a listening tower on top which they used to listen in on East German and other Communist radio signals. It's clearly been out of use for some time, but the Germans haven't gotten around to getting rid of it, nor turning it into an official tourist site. As a result, it's an eerie, abandoned building surrounded by three layers of fence meant to keep people out. Sneaking in and exploring have consequently become one of those "cool Berlin things" to do. And on this particular Sunday, we decided to be cool.

Listening tower in the background:

Walking to the tower:

Rebecca climbing through a hole in the fence:

Getting closer:

Listening tower up close:

Inside:

Our day was topped off with delicious veggie burgers and a last stroll by the Brandenburger Tor so Julia and Jonathan could say goodbye. With beers of course, because Berlin or otherwise, there is no other proper German way.

Mauerpark

The Mauerpark, or literally "Wall park" is known for a weekly flea market, a crazy karaoke tradition that I hope to take part in one day, and for being home to a remaining stretch of the Wall. It's not the longest remaining stretch, that's East Side Gallery, but what Mauerpark does have is a section of what used to be called the "death strip."

When many people think of the "Berlin Wall" they are just thinking of the more symbolic wall on the West side that's covered in graffiti. That is the "barrier wall" and only one part of the very intricate barrier that existed between East and West. To get to the barrier wall, attempting escapers first had to pass a slew of other barriers that become known as the death strip. These defenses included watch and control towers, barbed wire, sand so that footprints of attempting escapees would quickly be noticed, ferociously trained dogs, and surface barriers such as beds of nails.

The Wall was not originally constructed this way. It started off as a wire fence in 1961 and evolved into its most sophisticated and impenetrable form between 1975-1980.

Karl-Marx Allee

Once home to many middle-class Berliners, then massively destroyed during the war, and then transformed into "Germany's first socialist street" by the DDR government, this street is famous, yo.

Karl-Marx Allee, which heads east from Alexanderplatz into an eastern borough called Friedrichshain, has a lot of history behind it. In DDR days, it was called Stalinallee and is the best example of socialist architecture in former East Berlin. The building of Stalinallee was a massive undertaking between 1951-1960 that became the focal point of the 1953 worker uprisings I mentioned back in December. In order to build the numerous eight-story "wedding-cake style" apartment buildings that lined the boulevard, "work norms" were increased such that workers were required to work more hours without increased pay. People were understandably displeased. Though the apartments were quite spacious and modern for their time, the over 2,000 apartments mostly become home to higher-ranking members and functionaires of the SED (Socialist Unity Party- main party during the DDR) and not those actually constructing the apartments.

Kelly and I explored the street together and also checked out Cafe Sibylle, a famous cafe that houses a small exhibition about the boulevard's history. I'm a fan of this joint museum/cafe concept, especially in this case where there was more emphasis on the cafe. What? Just walking down the street was enough of a history lesson!

Kelly checking out the cafe menu:

Cafe Moskau, a "national restaurant" from the DDR days that housed salons, lounges, and galleries, among other things, and is now a historic building:

DDR "wedding-cake" style housing complexes:

All smiles in the bitter, bitter cold:

Marx and I getting acquainted:

 

Maybe next time he and I can catch up when it's not -10 degrees Celsius out.