Berlin today is a mix of old world eastern culture and sleek modern design. Even though the Berlin Wall fell over twenty years ago, the division between east and west Berlin is still stark. Communist era buildings in the east are still painted in drab grays and yellows with an industrial design and the harshness of concrete. In West Berlin, the twenty-first century has taken over with the glass-domed Reichstag and the tall, futuristic spire of the TV Tower.

The Berlin Wall divided the city between east and west for decades during the Cold War. The wall fell in 1989, but portions of it are intact and in their original location. You can walk along the wall as it bends to the curve of the river while imagining what it would have been like to know that you couldn’t cross it. The wall divided a country; some friends and families didn’t see each other for decades even though they lived only a few miles from one another while the wall was up. Consider taking a walking tour along the wall and through important sites in East Berlin to get a better idea of what life was like then. Older, local guides give the best tours as they were here before the wall was history.

Checkpoint Charlie is a large museum that tells the story of Berlin during the Cold War. The museum houses stories and artifacts surrounding the Berlin Wall and the security in place surrounding it including successful attempts to hoodwink security and escape from east to west.

Since the fall of the Berlin Wall, the city has become a cultural melting pot with a buzzing restaurant scene and kicking nightlife. Most hostels have bars and pretty much every neighborhood has a few fun spots. The neighborhood of Prenzlauerberg has a particularly high concentration of good bars and restaurants; it’s a neighborhood popular with artists and students.

There are always plenty of concerts and theater performances going on so it’s a good idea to grab a local newspaper or check in at a tourist information center to see what’s going on while you’re in town.

For a late night snack, stop at a kebab stand or shop. Doner kebabs are a wrap filled with seasoned meat, lettuce, tomato, and a yogurt-based sauce. Some shops stuff theirs with additional accoutrements like fries, cheese or hot sauce. Many shops are open into the wee hours of the morning or don’t close at all and the kebabs come neatly wrapped in aluminum foil for munching on the go.

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