Oh hello there, it’s been a while since we sent an update!

We lucked out with a surprisingly sunny two weeks in Berlin. The parks and playgrounds were full of locals who were making the most of the weather.

We followed suit by walking all over, and hopping on the tram for those longer stretches, as Berlin is the biggest city we’ve visited so far.

This Airbnb has been our favorite so far, with a big kitchen and sun-filled living room. The host is a music producer with a big record collection that we sampled daily.

Nate found an English-language bookstore called St. George’s where the owner let him take a book home and pay the next day, since he didn’t have cash. They bonded over a shared love for Terry Pratchett.

We also stumbled upon Shakespeare & Sons, a bagel shop-bookstore. Nate was in heaven.

We took a long walk toward the river to visit the Eastside Art Gallery – an open-air art display painted directly on the remnants of the Berlin Wall. Many of the murals were created in 1990, right after the wall came down.

After walking the gallery and crossing the Spree River, we stopped for lunch at Annalies Cafe (which we stole from Anjali’s list of recommendations). Everyone seemed to be ordering the pancakes, so we had to find out why.

These bad boys turned out to be the most rich and buttery confections we’ve had in a while. Shruti says they reminded her of gulab jamuns. Nate thinks they’re the best pancakes this side of Encinitas Cafe.

Another favorite meal of ours was at a traditional German restaurant called Zur-Haxe.

The interior of this place looks like your Grandma’s house (thanks Renata for the recommendation!), and everyone acted like family. Soon after we arrived, the owner (a surly bearded man) donned a bumblebee costume and danced around a birthday cake for the table next to us.

As we shared a fried pork knuckle while regulars sang karaoke, we knew we’d found a special spot.

On a more serious note, we spent time at the Topography of Terror, a museum dedicated to commemorating the victims of the Nazis, and detailing how the party came to power.

It was a sobering and important stop that we had always planned to do in Germany. By the end, we were exhausted, but glad to have been exposed to this important chapter in history.

Nate found his share of coffee shops, and even a computer games museum where he indulged his inner geek. Shruti took a spontaneous ride on the M29 double-decker bus (thanks to Vijay’s advice), to the end of the line, just to watch the city roll by.

Our big day trip was Potsdam, about one hour west of Berlin by train. It’s an idyllic, postcard town that reminded us a bit of Salzburg. We walked through its Dutch Quarter and into Neue Garten – a big, riverside park where the wind howled through the trees.

Back in Berlin, we met up with Shruti’s family friend Joy, who showed us around his neighborhood. We learned the virtues of wandering off the main roads; the “hidden” courtyard cafe he showed us had some of the best bread we’ve eaten so far!

To Shruti’s delight, we found a sprawling flea market in a neighborhood that reminded Nate of Brooklyn’s Greenpoint. There were mountains of thrifty things for us to pour over while a DJ played live music in the distance.

Like New York, Berlin seems to have so many distinct neighborhoods that it’s hard to keep track. Like LA, Berlin is a vast place, but the great transit options make it much easier to get around.

We feel like we barely scratched the surface of this town, but thankfully didn’t scratch any of our host’s records… 🥁

Berlin has been such a diverse city, in both people and food, and we marveled at how we could just disappear into a crowd without being noticed. Of course, we didn’t fail to notice these characters!

Our next stop is Greece, which is our final destination (eek) on our Europe trip. It’s been a whirlwind, and we’re looking forward to taking things a little more slowly on the island of Crete.

See you then!