Days 122 and 123: Two More Days in Berlin

September 04, 2025

Days 122 and 123: Two More Days in Berlin

Two days ago, it rained in the morning. I was feeling a bit down and didn’t do much until the late afternoon.

Sebastian and I decided to take the subway from his place to the Berlin Zoological Garden. We walked around until we saw a ramen restaurant and had dinner there. It started to rain again so we ended up catching a bus back home. Nothing exciting happened that day in terms of sightseeing.

Yesterday, I was in a better mood because it was a sunny day. Sebastian’s friend Sarah arrived in the morning and I thought to give them some alone time so I left the apartment early.

After having some coffee, I cycled toward the Victory Column. The cost to get up to the top of the column was €4.50. After climbing some staircases, I was rewarded with a great view.

I wanted to go inside the glass dome in the Reichstag Building, but I learned that I had to reserve a ticket online. All the slots were booked for the day so I ended up not going.

I took some photos of the Neptune Fountain by the Berlin TV Tower then cycled to the East Side Gallery, which is the world’s longest open-air gallery. It’s graffiti art covering the Berlin Wall.

At noon, I met my friend Jonathan, the German game developer I had met in Kuala Lumpur over a year ago. He contacted me on Instagram and we decided to meet for lunch.

We had fish sandwiches at a food stall and chatted about life in Berlin and German politics. I learned that there are so many political parties in Germany. One party is simply called The Party. It’s a joke party that wants to bring back the Berlin Wall. Anyway, it was great seeing Jonathan again. I didn’t know I have so many friends in Germany.

After lunch, I cycled to the Soviet War Memorial. I was surprised this place wasn’t mentioned in my ChatGPT search about things to do in Berlin. This memorial is quite big. I assume it must have been built by the Russians in what was East Berlin.

I didn’t know where to go after visiting the memorial so I cycled to Tempelhofer Feld, which was an old airport, now a park. I rested for a while there before deciding to visit the Jewish Museum.

Part of the Jewish Museum was designed by the famed architect Daniel Libeskind. I had seen an architectural documentary about the design of the museum about 10 years ago and always wanted to see it in person. Since the admission was free after booking my ticket, I cycled there to see the buildings and the exhibition.

There are three buildings to the museum. The main exhibition felt like I was walking around in a maze. The Garden of Exile was similar to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe with raised concrete blocks. And the Holocaust Tower was particularly interesting because it’s just light coming from a slim slot at the top.

After visiting the museum, I rode my bike to meet with Sebastian and Sarah at Kleiner Tiergarten, which is a small park.

While Sarah and her friend were playing ping pong and Sebastian was skateboarding, I took the time to clean my bike with an old toothbrush. As you can imagine, it took me quite some time.

When Sebastian and I came back to the apartment, we had a Vietnamese dinner at Tônis. I paid because I wanted to thank Sebastian for letting me stay for so long, a total of 5 days and 6 nights. The only other time that I stayed this long on my trip was in Toronto.

Last night, I slept for about 8 hours. Today, I’ll be taking the 3:49 PM train from Berlin to Kutno, Poland. I have to pack, but I’m not really sure what I’ll do before getting on the train. I guess I’ll just go with the flow.