If Munich is the traditional heart of Germany, Berlin is the restless soul; raw, creative, and forever reinventing itself.
I first visited in October 2023 whilst considering the move to Germany. Beneath leaden skies and along graffiti-covered streets, Berlin felt cold and unwelcoming, a city weighed down by its past and indifferent to my presence.
But I returned in April 2025, and under the spring light, Berlin softened. The same streets felt alive with energy rather than resistance. What once seemed harsh now felt honest.
All I was missing was a black T-shirt, tattoos and a nose piercing!
Below are some of my postcards from Berlin (2023-2025):
I have hazy memories of watching the Berlin Wall fall on TV in 1989, but I was too young at the time to understand its significance. Seeing remnants of the Wall up close (especially the murals at the East Side Gallery) brought home the human devastation caused by the division. I also hadn’t fully grasped, until this visit, that West Berlin was once an island surrounded by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany).
Once a power station, now a temple to sound and light, Kraftwerk Berlin was probably the highlight of our second trip to the city. The installation had something to do with quantum physics, but even without understanding the theory, standing before the kinetic sculpture at the heart of that vast industrial space was an experience in itself. Cool, strange, and oddly moving.
Finally, the food in Berlin was noticeably more varied than in Munich, with a wider range of international options. We particularly enjoyed sampling the many small bites at Markthalle Neun, not far from Kraftwerk.
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