•    HOME   
•    NEWS   
•    BUSINESS   
•    INTERNATIONAL   
•    TECH   
•    SPORTS   
•    LIFE & TIMES   
•    OPINION   
•    MY JAKARTA   
•    BLOGS   
•    EYEWITNESS   

When one lives and works abroad, going home for even just a quick vacation to catch up with family and friends is always a pleasant experience.

Such was the case when I recently went back to Berlin for two weeks. Aside from meeting up with people I had not seen in a while, my trip also reminded me of what I missed most about the city where I lived before moving to Indonesia.

Berlin in winter can be cruel. The temperatures drop to as low as minus 15 degrees Celsius and often come with winds strong enough to numb your body.

Berlin in summer, however, is a totally different story. Tourists flood the streets, giving the German capital a multi-cultural air about it.

The residents, who are generally in a better mood because of the sunny weather, meet up in parks, cafes and restaurants for a chat.

For the most part, I enjoyed taking long walks. This is a luxury I do not often have in Jakarta, simply because the pollution, traffic and lack of green space don’t make walking a pleasant experience.

In Berlin, however, all I needed to do was literally take a step out of my apartment and follow where my feet took me. Because in a city as steeped in history as Berlin is, you always inevitably discover new things.

One Saturday, I set out on a walking tour through with my sister and two friends who were visiting.

We started our sightseeing around noon in Central Berlin at 17th June Street. Every weekend one of the oldest flea markets in the city attracts many visitors in search of treasures and antiques or weird and unusual collector’s items you wouldn’t find in ordinary shops.

Old vinyl records, jewelry, paintings and books are for sale next to pocket knives, tableware, flower vases and door knobs. I even spotted a stall that offered fur coats and a set of cups with scary-looking skull designs.

The flea market is right on the border of Berlin’s biggest inner-city park, the Tiergarten. Previously used as a hunting ground, it is now one of the most popular recreation areas of the capital.

Spanning 200 hectares with several lakes, the park sports green lanes for running or taking a stroll, cafes and restaurants and green grass inviting anyone to sit or lie down and maybe even take a nap.

A word of caution for the prude of heart, however. Many people who come to the park to sunbathe take all their clothes off.

After walking through Tiergarten, we decided it was time for our first break and stopped at the garden restaurant Cafe am Neuen See.

We had fresh juice and a quick lunch, sitting on simple wooden benches and tables alongside many other people taking a stroll who, like us, also needed to rest their feet.

Many parents sent their children to the adjacent playground, which gave them time to read the newspaper or simply enjoy lingering under the shade of the trees.

Since the cafe was right next to a small lake, you could also rent a rowboat and paddle in the waters if the mood strikes.

Invigorated, we continued our walking tour eastward, passing by the Reichstag building where the modern German Parliament, the Bundestag, is located.

On that day, the German flags were hoisted at half-mast, in remembrance of the victims of the Love Parade stampede in late July this year, when 19 people died and hundreds were injured.

From the Reichstag, the Brandenburg Gate, one of the most famous Berlin landmarks, is only a stone’s throw away.

On top of the city gate, a chariot drawn by four horses is driven by Victoria, the Roman goddess of victory, who overlooks the tree-lined boulevard Unter den Linden.

It is one of my favorite streets in the city because almost every building here is an architectural gem.

Several museums, former palaces, embassies, the opera house, the Humboldt University and the Hotel Adlon all stand side by side as reminders of Berlin’s rich history.

A few meters away from the Brandenburg Gate stands The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, which was officially inaugurated in 2005.

Consisting of more than 2,700 concrete stelaes — slabs of stones of different heights — the memorial site has stirred up controversy.

Some critics deemed the memorial’s construction as unnecessary, while others found fault in the fact that it was only dedicated to the Jews and didn’t include other minorities who became victims of the Holocaust.

There is no official sign at the site that indicates the purpose of the memorial, which might be a deliberate strategy to let visitors make up their own minds.

Personally, I found walking through the stelaes disorienting, probably symbolic for the way many people must have felt during World War II, but only a thousand times worse for them.

From the memorial, we strolled to the train station of Friedrichstrasse, which used to be the major crossing between east and west Berlin when the city was still divided.

Already a little exhausted from walking around the whole day, we decided to join an evening boat tour that traverses the river Spree.

This was a typical touristy thing to do. While it was my first-ever boat tour, it turned out to be quite enjoyable. We sat on the deck and drank cold beers as we took in the historical sites.

We passed by Museum Island, the Berlin Cathedral, the Nikolai Quarter and the TV tower before turning around and passing by the government district with its modern architecture.

All along the riverside, people were plunging their bare feet into the water, soaking in the last rays of the evening sun.

We ended the day with a dinner at Oranienburger Street, another popular hangout spot, before finally making our way home, with tired feet, but with fresh and relaxed minds.