This post came from my older blog and may require revision.

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Hey relax, you are in Berlin. I know you are on a business trip, but leave your “officially” behind. Relax and feel the city.

I was previously meeting with exchange students and startuppers from Berlin. They all were all told that the city has “informally awesome” atmosphere. It has cheap beer and clubs to keep your mood up. And it has cheap rents and food, many awesome people around to form a startup. I have found out that expats in Berlin are totally different from expats in the rest of Germany.

I arrived in the evening and first I was thinking to go to the city center. My stay in Berlin was around 20 min walk. To my surprise, I found that there are things to do around the living area. That is probably what I liked the most, there many small clubs, cafeterias, home-like restaurants, and little shops spread all around the city. You never know what you would find behind the corner.

I think everyone would find something about Berlin that they like. Here are my 5 reasons to visit Berlin.

Berlin

1. Food

I rarely talk about food in my blog, but food in Berlin is probably an exceptional case. I love smaller, family-owned, non-chain restaurants. And, in Berlin they are everywhere (excluding probably the very center). Next time I go to Berlin, I would just walk around to find the next cute small place.

At the city center, I loved the Hackescher Markt. Some restaurants there are very old. I saw a grill, that has the mechanism constructed almost 100 years ago.

And yea, currywurst. I happen to love it. It is very popular in Berlin, so you can try several tastes and there is also a Currywurst museum!

2. Underground and nightlife

Besides the small restaurants, there is the same amount of clubs that you can find in very unusual places. Actually, the whole city full of graffiti and music.

Berlin Graffiti — Graffiti is almost everywhere, especially in the Eastern block

The nightlife is concentrated around streets of Friedrichshain and Kreizberg.

There used to be several large squats (occupied abandoned buildings) in Berlin, but now, only one is still functioning. It seem to be open for visitors at certain hours. Friends who just randomly visited it were not welcomed.

On top of that, you can literally go underground and visit on of Berlin bunkers.

3. History

The city has a rich history, with traces back to the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia. Berlin was the capital of Prussia from the 18th century and was the center of its rapid expansion in the 18th-19th century. During that time the shape of Germany was formed. If you want to take a quick glance – 2 days in Berlin are enough.

The German Historical Museum covers pretty much everything, from ancient times up to present.

The strict architecture is also a reminder of older times.

Berlin tours would explain all this in detail.

4. GDR

Somehow, many things connected me to Eastern Berlin, although I have never been there. It all started in early post-soviet time in a language school, where we were exchanging letter in Russian and German languages with students from former GDR.

IMG_8968 (900x600) — I took this picture recently but received almost similar from Berlin about 20 years ago.

Berlin is the only city that had a huge wall, splitting it into two different countries.

The wall existed for 28 years. It allowed the Eastern block to control the immigration. From the soviet side, it was strictly guarded and from the opposite side, it was painted with graffiti.

IMG_9753 (900x600) — Taken in GDR museum

Next to Friedrichshain, the pieces of the wall are moved, they contain the world-famous graffiti. It is one of a few free museums in Berlin.

There was a single checkpoint, which allowed getting from Eastern to Western Berlin. It is now redone into museum. It tells about the history of separated Berlin and about the people, who attempted to cross the wall.

The things shown in the museum of GDR look very much the same, to ones I remember from my childhood in early post-soviet time.

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IMG_9754 (900x600) — Well known GDR model – Trabant

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The two sides still look very different. If someone showed me a photo of eastern Berlin, I would tell that it is some place in Russia. There are high tower blocks and large squares.

IMG_9690 (900x600) — This is bar-bicycle

The Western side looks more European.

5. Technology

Past and present of Berlin is largely connected to technology and engineerontour-review wouldn’t be full without it. There is a lot of things that can be told about German technologies, here I will tell about the ones I found interesting in Berlin.

First thing – Berlin has a large startup scene. In a separate post, I will talk more about them. Here I would just mention that in Berlin I had an interesting conversation with some startuppers from Finland. According to them, Berlin has much cheaper costs of living and a larger amount of people to form a team. At the same time, Finland has a better support for new businesses.

Next thing I would mention is rail vehicles. Trains have always been my favorite way of transportation. In Berlin, Deutsche Bahn is the top employer, besides it has one of the oldest railways and subways in Europe.

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There is a huge exposition of trains in the Technical Museum of Berlin, showcasing the history of development of German railways.

The museum is actually enormous, and besides rail vehicles I found very interesting expositions for: aviation, shipbuilding, photography, development of computers and media, paper and printing industries.