Berlin and Prague

At UCC we were lucky enough to get a reading week to study before finals, instead of just a couple of reading days like I’m used to. From the beginning of the semester, my housemate Alyssa and I had planned a weeklong trip to Berlin and Prague since we knew it would be the Christmas market season this time of year. Despite brainstorming early, the semester got away from us, and we didn’t actually do much planning for this trip in advance.

However, the lack of planning ended up making it a relaxed and stellar trip! We arrived in Berlin in the dark with only enough time to stuff our bags in our room and meet another one of roommates for dinner. We ate at a great Middle Eastern restaurant, and I was surprised to find I can still read some Arabic! Our other friend, Mariana, is a great travel researcher, and it was perfect to catch her on her last night in Berlin so that we could benefit from some of her suggestions.

The next morning we got up and headed straight for brunch. Berlin turned out to be a very modern city with a great hipster/grunge feel, and brunch featuring various avocado toasts and smoothie bowls was very popular. It was amazing how much English was spoken: menus were in English, every waitress spoke English perfectly, and even advertisements were in English. I think it’s possible we encountered more English than German in Berlin. This gave the city an American feel that I wasn’t expecting of a place with so much history, though it actually makes sense, since so much of Berlin was destroyed in relatively recent decades and had to be rebuilt, that everything would feel more modern than in other European cities.

After brunch we walked the portion of the Wall that contains the East Side Gallery with beautiful and impactful murals stretching the length of the Wall for about a mile. It was crazy to stand between the broken bits of the wall, looking out into both sides, and think about how that relatively short and thin wall was once such a significant divide. Even today you really can see a difference in modernization between the East and the West.

From there we did a lot of walking, getting a feel for the city and marveling at how clean and spacious everything felt. Berlin is easily one of my favorite big cities I have ever visited, and the public transportation there was absolutely spotless. We ended up walking until we hit our first Christmas market, where we devoured our first German bratwursts. One of my favorite parts of all of the Christmas markets is the mass amounts of fun and unhealthy food there is to eat, and I’m pretty sure I spent half of the trip talking about what I wanted to eat next. We spent time browsing all of the stalls and even rode the ferris wheel to see some incredible views of the city all lit up. Unfortunately, it was raining pretty badly that night, and we decided to head back to the hostel pretty early after getting drenched at the market.

The hostel in Berlin was one of the nicest I have been to, and each bed had a curtain, reading light, and several outlets. The beds felt ridiculously comfortable compared to the sad, dorm-style mattress I’ve been sleeping on in Cork, and we were definitely well-rested for this portion of the trip. Of course, we weren’t as well-rested as our roommates, who literally never got out of bed…one of the strangest things I’ve seen while traveling. And of course they constantly smelled like sweaty socks. Anyways, our hostel was situated above a bar, so we had a lively place to escape our roommates with amazing fried food and the most delicious German beer.

The next day we got brunch again and then decided to hit the historical sights. This day was FULL of walking, and we started by heading towards the Brandenburg Gate, passing through a couple of Christmas markets as we went. If I’m being honest, I don’t really know the historical significance of this monument, but I know it was built in the 18th century and that it’s a super famous image of Berlin.

We also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe. This monument was a spooky maze of different sized cement blocks stretching out on every side on an oddly sloping plane. Apparently the artist never revealed the meaning behind the art, but there’s no doubt it gives off a somber vibe. From there we walked on to the Soviet War Memorial, which I think is the one that struck me the most. The grounds were impeccably kept and the monument had stunning bouquets of flowers placed all over it, but I couldn’t help but wonder who these people were that were actually taking the time to care for it? That sounds harsher than intended, but what I mean is that it felt strange to me that Germany has a memorial to soldiers that weren’t...German...and for a country that no longer exists. Who would be the people consistently dropping off flowers?

Anyways, at this point we had done a ton of walking and seen plenty of history for one day, so we decided to do something crazy and visit the zoo! Apparently the Berlin Zoo is one of the largest and most popular in Europe. However, I actually found it kind of disappointing. Maybe it was the season or the time of day, but the place just lacked the fun energy I usually associate with going to the zoo. In the US going to the zoo is like going to a carnival, and all of the animals have colorful, spacious cages and cool displays near each exhibit where you can learn a ton of information. In this zoo it was difficult to even find a sign telling you what animal you were looking at, and the whole thing just looked like one cohesive park that happened to have some animals in it rather than divisions with different ecosystems. Of course, I guess you get what you pay for, and the price was reflective of the different level of experience.

We had walked over ten miles at this point and were completely dragging, so we finished the day at another Christmas market, filling up on sausages and Nutella-covered sweets before calling it an early night!

The next day we took a train to Prague in the Czech Republic. The train ride lasted about 5 hours and was absolutely gorgeous! I know it’s the typical European experience to travel by train, but since I’ve had to depart for all of my weekend trips from Ireland, I actually hadn’t taken any big train rides this semester since my trip to Belfast early on.

We arrived in the dark, but it was obvious that Prague was breathtakingly beautiful. Throughout the trip we talked endlessly about how much we missed America and wanted to go home, and in Prague we satisfied our homesickness by eating at the American restaurants. We filled up on burgers that night at TGI Friday’s, and I do not regret it one bit. At this point we hadn’t just been traveling for 5 days, we’d essentially been in travel mode for four months.

The main Christmas market in Prague took place in the Old Town Square, and it was definitely one of my favorites. Prague is architecturally gorgeous, and the Christmas ambiance made it quaint and breathtaking. We each bought decorations there, since the prices were lower than in other markets we had visited, and we took our time taking in all the lights and pouring over the different displays.

The next day we decided to bang out some major sightseeing, so we headed straight to the Prague Castle. The castle was actually its own little walled and functioning town back in medieval times, so there was a lot to walk around and see, and the hillside offered one of the most stunning views of the city. We took our time walking through the little town and marveling over how old everything was. The cathedral was first built in 930 (!) and was possibly the most beautiful one I saw during my whole time in Europe. It’s crazy to think about how many man-made sights and buildings I have looked at in Europe that have been preserved for thousands of years. That’s something you just can’t really experience in the US in the same way.

Apparently the Rolling Stones think the castle is pretty special as well, since they are the ones who pay to keep its lights on. I think this is a super fun fact! The story goes that after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1990, the Rolling Stones were the first “Western” band to perform a concert in Prague. When the concert was over, Mick Jagger and President Vaclav Havel are said to have gone out for a drink. They got to talking about the castle, and Mick Jagger commented that it was especially gorgeous but difficult to see from the city at night. President Vaclav Havel said he had more important political priorities at the time than worrying about lighting the castle, so the Stones sent their lighting crew to install a lighting system, and they still foot the bill today!

After visiting the castle, we walked the half an hour back to the town square and took a tour of the Old Town Hall and Clock Tower. The Clock Tower is home to an astronomical clock, the third oldest in existence and the oldest one that still works. At the top of the tower, we saw incredible views of the town square and surrounding landscape and took our time in the pretty evening light.

From there, we headed back to our hostel to rest up for a pub crawl we had signed up for that night. This pub crawl is the most famous in Prague and is actually a scary good deal based on how much alcohol they give you (enough to make multiple people in our group sick by the halfway point). Now, I was not looking forward to this pub crawl at all, and had been talked into doing in by Alyssa since we hadn’t experienced any nightlife in Berlin. I knew it would be wild and had been enjoying the relaxing nature of our trip thus far. However, I actually had the BEST time! The group was small enough to get to know people from all over the world, and everyone was absolutely fantastic! We met an awesome friend from Brazil who walked us home and met us for breakfast the next day, and I’ll never forget it!

The next day was slow, as we’d been out late the night before, and we spent most of it just strolling around after breakfast. Towards the evening we walked across the Charles Bridge and over to the John Lennon Wall for more pictures. The Wall was founded after the assignation of John Lennon and was also used to express complaints against the communist regime back in the day. Now, it’s a gorgeous rainbow graffiti wall with various Beatles and political imagery.

Getting cash in Prague was a reoccurring issue because we didn’t want to take out too much Czech currency and not use it, but the ATMs charged ridiculous fees (even on my magical Schwab card!). We’d been told during our whole semester that Prague would be really cheap since the currency was worth so much less than the Euro, but I actually think the shop owners did a good job charging the difference, and I didn’t feel like it was particularly cheap at all. By the end of that last day we had resigned ourselves to being tired and out of money and ended up eating dinner in at the hostel.

This trip was some of the most fun I had while I was abroad, whether that was the result of traveling with a friend after going so many places by myself, the culmination of a lot of gained travel confidence, checking some major sights off my bucket list, or the fact that my countdown to going home was so low, I’m not sure. But I do know that I left this trip with a realization of how much I’d gotten to experience this semester and a strong sense of how much self-confidence I’d gained along the way. I felt like a new and much older person!