Get Lost In Berlin
By Ng Jing Yng, TODAY | Posted: 03 July 2008 1150 hrs

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In Berlin, it is perfectly cool to be clueless about where you are, especially in summer when the days are long. Part of what makes the German capital fascinating can be found right on the streets, so no matter where you go, there is something to arrest your attention.

Take the graffiti.

Berlin’s walls are splashed in vivid colours, bubble letters and spray paint giving expression to the thoughts of mostly anonymous artists. It’s not necessary to know what the strings of German words mean, the art is striking enough to warrant at least a glance, if not an all out stop-and-gawk.

Graffiti art flowered when the Berlin Wall — constructed in the ’60s to divide a post-war city into a democratic west and communist east — gave artists an extensive stretch of canvas to express themselves. The art form spread to other walls and today, they boast works from some of the most established graffiti artists in the world.

Coming from a country like Singapore where spray painting public property is considered vandalism, to be immediately rectified, I was left fantasising about a city with walls covered with words and colours. How different it would be to walk streets where ideas are publicised through art every few metres.

But there’s more on Berlin’s streets to capture your attention. A stone’s throw from the painted walls would be a medieval cathedral that has its highest tower reaching for the skies. The architecture and intricate art work on the doors and windows leave one marvelling at the imagination and ability of medieval builders.

Where history meets the present in one spot, that is Berlin for you.

My interest was piqued even before I stepped into established tourist sites such as the Reichstag, or Parliament building, and Tiergarten, the city’s central park. My travel companions and I found ourselves roaming the streets of Germany’s largest city aimlessly, diverted from our planned routes by interesting finds such as quaint, flower-fringed cafes or a bear — the animal a symbol of the city — that lives in the middle of a park.

And upon reaching an odd end of a neighbourhood, we could always count on a bahnhoft (train station) to be around the corner. Berlin’s public transportation network — comprising the S-Bahn (trains and trams) and U-Bahn (subway) — is extensive, so it’s easy to find a train to take you to your destination.

Walking the streets of Berlin taught me something as a traveller. To see a city, just visit all the main tourist spots and go home to tell everyone that you have been there, done that.

To feel and know a place, take the map, abandon any pre-conceived plans of what you’d like to see and get ready to stumble into unknown, if edifying, parts of the city.

Our conclusions: Berliners take cafe culture and people watching seriously. Chairs are arranged to face the streets to allow cafe sippers to watch the world go by. This is done while eating a bratwurst or downing cool German beer that goes well with any type of food, at any time of the day.

With the sweltering summer heat and exorbitant prices of sparkling water ($4), we adopted the German’s approach to cooling down and drank an extraordinary amount of beer.

We also adopted the German lifestyle by shopping in flea markets, stuffing our bags with homemade pear jam infused with lavender honey, smelling freshly-cut flowers, drooling at rows of glazed cakes and spending the last few euros on a pair of vintage earrings.

In addition, we had one of the best Sunday brunches ever with church bells chiming to the laughter of the old and young gathering to enjoy the last day of the week.

We leisurely dug into freshly baked, melt-in-your-mouth croissants and fruits drizzled on soft warm crepes.

To address our fast expanding bellies, we took a three-hour Berlin city tour. Along the way, we revisited our history lessons at what’s left of the Berlin Wall — the infamous divider that separated German families for 28 years and killed many Germans in East Berlin as they tried to cross the wall to escape to the wealthier West Berlin.

The tour included the Holocaust Memorial, which featured 2,711 grey slabs to remember the mass killing of Jews in World War II. The place was disconcerting as the monotonous rows of grey were a reminder of what human beings can inflict on one another.

Afterwards, watching a German neighbourhood wake up as we wait for a cafe to open, breathing in the sweet morning air that is made fresher thanks to the large number of eco-friendly cars and being greeted by friendly Berliners, I became optimistic once more.

I might not have seen everything I had wanted to in Berlin, but I had worn out my shoes treading the neighbourhoods, drunk enough beer and eaten my share of bratwursts to say I had had a satisfying taste of this dazzling city. - TODAY/ra

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