Birthday in Berlin

Feeling Conflicted

Jon and I went to Berlin for my 28th birthday, a few days after I received my German passport, and some weeks after my grandfather’s death.

My family has a complicated history with Germany, as do many families of Holocaust survivors.

In a way, getting my German citizenship was a way of honoring my grandfather and what he went through in his childhood. I’m not really sure what he thought of it or if he liked the idea.

Nonetheless, I was excited to finally go to the country where I held dual citizenship.

After joking that I was going back to the motherland, we looked it up and Germany is actually referred to as the fatherland. So we quickly stopped calling it that, packed our bags, and headed off early the next morning.

Here’s what we did on our weekend trip to Berlin, Germany.

Day 1

• House of Small Wonder for Breakfast

• Memorial to the Murdered Jews

• Charlottenburg Palace

• Brandenburg Gate

• Tiergarten

• PicknWieght Vintage Shopping

• Dinner at Anjoy

Day 2

• Visit the East Side Gallery Berlin Wall

• Stopped at Concierge Coffee for a delicious latte

• Breakfast at Roamers

• Bought a few books at Zabriskie

• Botanical Gardens

• Dinner at Markethall Neun

The city was way bigger than I expected and not super walkable, but we walked a lot anyway. The public transportation was very easy to use as well.

Everyone always used the adjective “gritty” to describe Berlin and now I totally understand why! It reminded me a lot of NYC.

For more photos, check out my Berlin folder under the photos tab.