Beyond the Tourist Spots in Berlin – one Recommendation at a time

The untouched beauty of Köpenick.

A post by HZB summerstudent Milanka Lović: Breaking news – you cannot find everything you want to know on the internet. Not so easily anyway. Being a semi-experienced short-trip tourist, I set off to Berlin with a list of places to see and lots of things to do, which I proudly curated from the regular ‘Top 10 Berlin’ and ‘Berlin hidden gems’ google searches. Upon arrival, I immediately noticed the faults in my plan.

The places were scattered around the city, and I hadn’t yet got used to a 40 minute train ride being a light breeze. What’s more, I started to find it odd when the monuments I went to (or at least their surrounding area) weren’t under construction. After the first weekend, I ended up dissatisfied and exhausted.

My Challenge

This is why I devised a new challenge for myself: Whenever I meet someone, I ask them to name one place in Berlin that they would recommend, and go to that place when I have some time to spare.

One day I found myself in the incredibly crowded and rowdy Mauerpark Sunday market; and the other day, I was sitting on the ground in front of the Staatsoper, listening to Zubin Mehta’s concert. My game led me to an undeniably beautiful but lengthy visit to Gemäldegalerie, followed by a Gorki theater show with nude actors, and a movie at Kreuzberg freiluftkino on a rainy day.
I was taken way out of my comfort zone – and I loved it! I was finally experiencing Berlin in all its gorgeous cultural diversity.

Every person I talked to was in Berlin for different reasons and their recommendations showed it. For example, students who moved here to stay long term were always prepared! They gave me entire lists of clubs, restaurants and museums to go to. On the other hand, native Berliners often were less excited about the city. They were more eager to tell me about the rest spots, such as parks and lakes. When a German collegue uncovered the untouched beauty of Köpenick to me I was left speechless. I felt like knowing such magnificence as a tourist was nothing short of illegal!

My stay here became filled with unique sceneries, good coffee, and concerts of every genre. But what’s most valuable, I don’t just remember the stunning shows and peculiar places, I remember the people who gave me these recommendations. People with whom I rarely shared any common background, but whose paths crossed mine for a short while. By seeing Berlin through their eyes, the city became entrenched in vivid colors.

I’ve learned to value experience more than crude information. There is much to explore beyond the ‘Berlin top 10’, and if you get yourself a guide (or ~30 of them!) there are no limits to what you might discover.
Don’t only listen to me, go out and ask for yourself!

On the author: Milanka Lovic studies photonics and nanoelectronics at the School of Electrical Engineering in the Physical electronics bachelors programme at the University of Belgrade. As a summerstudent at HZB she works on characterization of nanodiamond/MXene composites in the group of Tristan Petit.