Last week I did not really write a lot, because I was not able to. I was in Berlin to attend IFA for the first time. It is one of the biggest consumer electronics events in the world, and I really enjoyed myself at the expo, together with my girls from the techy chick website I write for. On Monday though, I went to Berlin already to have a day all by myself, and it was amazing.

It did not start amazing, as after I got out of the plane I did not understand the signs at the train station as well, so I ended up taking a different train to my hotel, and then I was walking around for an hour looking for my hotel (the Pestana near the Zoo). But when I arrived I was happy to see that it included a swimming pool and even a hot steam sauna, so that was amazing. However, I did not bring my bikini with me, so I had to buy one in one of the many amazing malls that Berlin has.

But first things first, I had to go do some touristy things, like going up the television tower, which was very nice, though I did not spend a lot of time up cause after you have walked around, taking snapshots at every angle you are quite done, but it is very nice to see the city from above, especially the huge difference between east and west Berlin. So as I was still in West Berlin at that point, at Alexanderplatz, I decided to go to East Berlin to go and see the outside gallery, with which they mean the remnants of the wall, that are painted by graffiti and painting artists. It was really amazing to see it, as I had not really been up close to the wall like that before.

I went to Dunkin Donuts, cause they have Dunkin Donuts all over Germany (and none in The Netherlands, NONE!), so I walked around the wall as I enjoyed a nice maple glazed donut. It is so weird to think about how things were out there thirty years ago. I was only two when the wall fell, and I am very bad at history, but still it feels so good to have this horrible wall gone. I also went to Checkpoint Charlie, but I was not very impressed. In the middle there’s this weird American army truck thingie, I mean, everybody is always like: aaah you are visiting Checkpoint Charlie when you are going to Berlin? But seriously I was so unimpressed by it, Berlin has so much more to offer.

My favorite building in Berlin is the Second World War church memory place, I am not sure what it is called, but it is a church that looks bommed, the pointy roof is off, and it is in the middle of a big square near the zoo. Lucky me: I had a dinner and rooftop drinks on two nights at that same square, first in the big Mercedes building (the Puro lounge) and then at Bikini, which is very trendy! Really loved it, as I could see my favorite building all the time, and at least I knew the area a bit.

Anyway, the second day I had some time alone, so I walked the Unter der Linden street, I went to a huge new mall at Potsdam and then I went to my hotel to have a very funny Uber guy that was going through a musical timelapse with me with all these super awful 80’s German bands, it was hilarious. I saw my girls at the hotel and we were having a lovely dinner and some cocktails in the evening, before IFA started the next day, which was mainly running around, writing, seeing awesome new electronics and stressing about public transport. But it was worth it. I had a good time and I was sad to leave the beautiful city of Berlin again.

I had amazing drinks, I have a lovely dinner at this Vietnamese place called Madami, and I have met funny Russian journalist, a very politically engaged Belgian journalist and a very lovely Dutch journalist, so that was pretty awesome. I just decided at one of these dinners: fck it, I am just going to sit at this table, shake hands and have a good time, and then it all ended very well. I had some drinks with a couple of British journalists too, and I met some older Dutch journalists that were great fun too. It was lovely to see the girls of the website a bit longer and get to know them better, especially L who I shared a hotelroom with, she is really lovely, very sweet, very independent, I think I can learn a lot from her!

And now I am back in Holland, back to work, and I miss the city so much, we already decided we would definitely go back later this year or beginning next year to have a weekend of clubbing, cause that is what Berlin is best at. I hope that will actually happen, cause when I was 17 years old I have spend an epic night clubbing in Berlin, thanks to a friend of mine who is from Berlin and worked at this event company, which made him wel connected and we got into the best parties.

Amazing person, very sweet, but I met him at a very troublesome time in my life. Anyway, Berlin back then was great, it was awesome last year when I visited the city with my ex (did the video game museum and the zoo, plus a very cool grafitti street art walking tour), and it was just as awesome now that I was there for more work related stuff. I am absolutely in love with Berlin, even though I still cannot figure out the signs or the German language very well. Something tells me I could be getting better at that in the future though, but who knows 😉