This city is a favourite among trendy, wealthy people – but I don’t see the charm.
This city is beloved by tourists – but I don’t get the hype(Image: Getty)
I have been lucky enough to see a fair amount of the world not only in my role as a travel reporter, but also in my own time. However, after spending a long weekend in this popular European city I have finally discovered a place I will never return to.
Berlin is beloved by trendy east Londoners who pretend they don’t have a double barrelled surname and a trust fund. The city is full of even trendier Berliners who pretend they don’t have any interest in being cool, whilst still trying as hard as possible to appear so.
I have visited before and found the city grey, utilitarian, dirty and ugly. At the time I had a friend living there who told me the city would “eat you alive” if you let it – and I believed him.
I spent a weekend there and over those two days I stood in human faeces whilst walking through a park, watched people urinate in the U-Bahn, saw one man vomit and another man sit in it.
I was hounded by wasps for every hour of the day, and shady characters for every hour of the night.
I didn’t get eaten alive, but by the time I flew out of the city morale was low. I spent the next seven years vowing I would never return – but a twist of circumstance saw me packing my bags last Friday to spend another long weekend in Berlin.
My friends were visiting Europe from New Zealand, and the only weekend I had free time to see them was the weekend they were in Berlin, so I decided I’d give it another go. I was hoping my initial impression of the city had been wrong, and that my return trip would show me the real side of the city
Whether real or not, the side I saw was not to my liking.
The city was still as utilitarian and grey as I remembered. We stayed in Neukölln, a trendy artistic neighbourhood with plenty of coffee shops, späti (like off-licences but with seats outside to sit and enjoy a beer) and vintage shops. These are all my favourite things, but Berlin’s version of them was tinted with the greasy pallid feeling you get after a night out that has gone on several hours too long.
My least favourite thing about Berlin however, is the wasps. In late summer, they have reached peak population and ruin the city’s outdoor spaces. Sitting outside to enjoy a brunch, coffee or a pint becomes a feat of endurance as these angry insects swarm you, fall inside your pints, try to crawl inside your nose and mouth and generally make a nuisance of themselves. It’s also illegal to kill them, as they are protected under the Wildlife Act.
Over the three days I was there I had two of them die in my beer, and four of them make my £7 donut inedible.
My Berlin weekend was not all bad. I did find an amazing coffee shop near our accommodation called Leuchtstoff Kaffeebar. The coffee was delicious – perhaps the best I’ve had since I left New Zealand two years ago, and I enjoyed a Bircher Muesli that set me up perfectly for my day of wandering the city.
The café also serves pastries, and had a very cool mezzanine that you could climb up to via a ladder.
I also visited the Jewish Museum in Kreuzberg. Admission is free, and the building is truly something to behold. It uses architecture and art installations to create a feeling of absence and highlight the huge loss felt by the community as a result of the millions murdered during the Holocaust.
A large section of the building is below ground, with multi-media installations and plenty of information about the history of Judaism and their persecution in Germany. It was a sombre afternoon, but definitely worth a visit if you are in the city,
Despite finding a few things I liked about Berlin, overall my sense of the city was that it is without whimsy. I won’t say it’s soulless – but the soul it possesses is not one I care to find out more about.