the getAwayZ Podcast
Real travel stories and practical guides for exploring Europe the way people actually travel.
Welcome to the getAwayZ. We’re Erin and Lisa, friends and roommates who moved from the U.S. to Europe in 2017. Since then, we’ve spent years traveling across the continent, mostly by car, figuring out what’s worth your time and what isn’t.
Sometimes that travel includes Erin’s teenage son and Lisa’s dog, Rex. Sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, we talk honestly about where to stay, what to skip, what to eat and drink, when to go and what you need to plan ahead for.
Whether you’re planning a trip to Europe or thinking about living abroad, the getAwayZ shares realistic, practical advice based on real experience.
the getAwayZ Podcast
48 Hours in Berlin: What We Did, Ate and Loved
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In this episode, we’re diving into Berlin, a city that never quite lets you forget where you are. From the Berlin Wall to museum hopping, riverside strolls to underground clubs, Berlin balances its heavy history with some serious creativity. We’re talking about what we did, what we ate, and why Berlin keeps pulling us back. Whether you're visiting with teens, friends, or on your own, Berlin’s got something for you.
👉 What we loved
🍴 Where we ate
🛏️ Where we stayed
🎧 Plus a few surprises you might not expect from Germany’s capital.
Hello and welcome back. I'm Lisa. And I'm Erin. And this is the Getaways Podcast.
unknown:Hi.
SPEAKER_00:Hello. We are we are happy to be back. Today we get to talk about someplace we've only been for a few days, but we really had a good time there, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, we did. And I really want to go back and explore it more. But I do feel like in our two days, we packed in so much.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So we're talking about Berlin. And Germany isn't somewhere that we've really totally explored. No. We've sort of hit some random cities. Like we said, we've been in Berlin for a few days, but it is somewhere that we need to sort of dive a little deeper and explore. But yeah, Berlin is definitely somewhere that I would go back.
SPEAKER_01:So we went in fall, which I thought the weather was like so nice.
SPEAKER_00:It was. It was lovely. So we flew from Torino into Berlin. And then after Berlin, we went to our first time in Copenhagen. So we spent we spent two days there.
SPEAKER_01:Two full days.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And we stayed at the hotel Berlin, Berlin, right?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, which was right on the edge of a park.
SPEAKER_00:On the Tear Garden.
SPEAKER_01:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I liked the hotel. Did you not?
SPEAKER_01:I liked it. I thought it was really cool. It was very like neon y, very poppy in color. Yeah. The rooms were fine. They were fine. Yeah. The Wi-Fi was terrible.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I don't remember that, but I don't probably didn't care as much as Dylan at the time.
SPEAKER_01:And remember what it looked like right by the elevator that somebody had an accident? Oh no, I don't remember that. You always remember the good stuff.
SPEAKER_00:It was sustained, but it wasn't a pretty one. Oh goodness. Anyway.
SPEAKER_01:Back to Berlin.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so we were really close to the huge park, which is kind of like the central park in Berlin, right? Tier Garden. And it was it's lovely. And we rented bikes and rode through there, and it's huge. It's there's tons of paths, really, really beautiful.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Yeah. We did try to rent scooters because it's right when the birds came out, remember? And yeah. And I put Dylan Dylan, who was 14, on it, and he got stopped by the police.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, the police like circled us instantaneously because you have to be 18 to ride them. And we started off the trip, like we start off many of our trips by sort of doing organized tour.
SPEAKER_01:Yes, my favorite.
SPEAKER_00:And this one was a boat tour on the Spree River. And we kind of got a nice like overview of what the city looks like. It's always nice to see it from the water, too. And it was a beautiful day that day.
SPEAKER_01:It was really pretty.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, so we sort of got a little bit of a taste of the lay of the lands, a little bit of a historical background. We saw the cathedral, we saw a lot of the architecture and sort of the vibe of the new and old architecture and the where the city was split. It was split. Right. And the oh my god, what's it called? The big tower. The television tower? The TV tower? Yeah, but it doesn't have a name. Is that Sputnik? So yeah, so that kind of gave us like a nice overview and a nice, you know, it was relaxing. We had our little headset on so that we could get in English all the descriptions of everything. Lovely.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I loved it. I loved it. And then I think didn't we go straight from there to checkpoint entirely?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I think we did, which I really enjoyed. I mean, enjoy is probably not the right word, but I felt like it was, you know, it does have some touristy aspects with the gift shops and stuff, but it really kind of taught me a lot about the East and like the when the wall came down and what it was like before the wall came down. I thought it was really interesting.
SPEAKER_01:It is, and it's it's not big, so it's very easily digestible for children, I think. And then it has like the actual checkpoint out in front of like where the I want to say museum, but it's not really a museum.
SPEAKER_00:You're talking about on the walls? Yeah. Well, it's sort of like a learning walkway, right? I mean, there's like on the the historical information is written on almost like plywood as you're walking through the area where it feels like it's under construction, but I think that that's just what the way that it sort of was to funnel people into the checkpoint, right? Yeah. Yeah. But yeah, I mean it's definitely worth seeing. And it, you know, and it's such a recent and important part of history that it's definitely worth a visit.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree. Oh wow, we really did pack a lot into these two days as I'm looking through our whole itinerary. Yeah, we did. So was that did we go to the DDR museum on the same day? I think so. So the DDR Museum, I had high hopes for it. It's it's a museum based on what life was like living in Berlin during communism. And it it's really it's cool on the inside. It was so crowded and it was very chaotic. Like just there was no clear path. So there was just it was hard to get around people. It was hard to like find a path to go. It had a lot of good information. My favorite parts were those rooms at the inn where it was like what a a room for a teenager would look like, or what a room for a married couple would look like, or what a kitchen would look like. And there was this one room where you could try on clothes. That's creepy. Yeah, no, Lisa, not a big fan of touching things. Uh so in my opinion, I I definitely wouldn't go back. I probably wouldn't go had I known what it was before we went.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I didn't love it. I mean, I felt like there are a lot of other ways to get that same information that's a little bit more interesting. You know, maybe if you have a week and you go in and off time, that might be something. But it certainly isn't on my list of must-do's.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I agree. I agree. We also went to the Berlin Cathedral that day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which is stunning.
SPEAKER_01:Uh beautiful.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, definitely. And you know, that's something that you can just sort of go in and you can actually pay to go up to the top.
SPEAKER_01:Which we did.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, which is great. But but it's a very easy activity and thing to see sort of in the midst of your day when you're walking around to just go in there real quick because it's not it's not like an hours and hours thing. It's something you can do between activities. Yes. We also went to the it's the East Side, what's it called? The East Side Gallery. Eastside Gallery, which was really, really interesting. I mean, again, it's on the touristy side because people go there for a photo op, but it's just so interesting to see like how that became sort of an outlet for creativity and education. Let's tell you what it is, though. It's part it's the remaining part of the standing wall. Right. So that was the part that, you know, so it was an a bit of evidence of how people express themselves, right? Because it was, it was graffiti, yeah, but it was artistic and it was you know, food for thought in terms of, you know, comments and handprints. There's one of my favorite pictures of Dylan is all different colored handprints behind him. And it was just sort of like, you know, in one picture, a really interesting statement on what that period was like, yeah, you know, and how many different people were affected and how everybody's handprint is the same, but they lived so different from the other side of the wall. Like it's just kind of crazy. But I found it really interesting and I would definitely recommend going there.
SPEAKER_01:Oh no, 100%. 100%.
SPEAKER_00:We also other things that we went to was the Memorial for the Murdered Jews of Europe, which is indescribably powerful. I mean, everybody's name is listed on the wall, and then there are these sort of different shapes and different heights of cement blocks. Yeah. And it is so stark and so I don't it's it's hard to put into words. But right in the middle of the city, I guess. Yeah. Yeah. And it was sort of a weird thing because it is this memorial and it is this like powerfully devastating tribute, and then there's kids running around in it.
SPEAKER_01:Playing hide and seek. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And it's sort of, I guess it's sort of an interesting juxtaposition of like the sadness and the hope of moving forward, right? I don't know. It was it was something that I'll never forget going there. Uh we went to Bradenburg Gate. Which, you know, is right at the gate was right where the concerts happened for we know, right as the wall was about to come down. So, and a lot of historical Cold War events happened right at that center. So it's it's also just kind of an important symbol of the time and for Berlin in general, I think.
SPEAKER_01:No, I agree. So our uh the last two things that we did are not touristy things, they were Dylan things.
SPEAKER_00:They were Dylan things.
SPEAKER_01:We went to a place called the Museum of Computer Science, which was so cool. It was just like kind of a history, an interactive history of computers and computer games from this the beginning until the current. And we spent what two hours in there? Yeah, which was really cool. And then the other thing we did, which I think may have been all of our favorite things about Berlin. Yeah. We went to the Berlin Zoo, which might be one of the top zoos in the world, I think.
SPEAKER_00:I mean, I loved it. I thought it was the best zoo by far that I've ever been to.
SPEAKER_01:And it's not just for little kids. Like Dylan was, you know, 14 years old and he had a blast.
SPEAKER_00:And there is the biggest and best playground I think I've ever seen inside the the zoo. And it was, I mean, uh equipment for all ages. Yes, I did play on them. And it was just I mean, it's so well done and so beautiful. But the animals at the in the zoo are, I mean, the monkey rooms. Oh, I mean, we could have stayed in there all day long.
SPEAKER_01:We were there for hours, yeah. Which was a lot considering we were only there for two days, and we could have stayed for hours more.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And I loved, I took a video of the elephants. Do you remember that? They were like kind of dancing. It was like swinging his head around and swinging his tail around. Yeah. I mean, they just looked happy, like, which you don't see very often in zoos. But yeah, no, that is a that is a definite recommend because it's it's super worth it. And give yourself time, give yourself like half a day because you will spend it and enjoy it. Yeah. All right, so we talk about food. We mentioned curry worst. Yeah, which Dylan loves curry worst. Well, I don't mind it. I mean, I wouldn't want it every day, but I kind of like it. Yeah?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. I guess I don't mind it. Germany has like really good beer. So if you're if you're into that sort of thing.
SPEAKER_00:But there's also just a lot of international food in general. I mean, aside from the traditional German food, which is great, obviously, they have a lot of I mean, we ate Mexican food there. Shocking. Oh, yeah. I put on Instagram the elephant dancing, and I said, what it feels like when you find great Mexican in Berlin.
SPEAKER_01:Well, coming from Italy, we were craving good Mexican food.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. And so yeah, no, we had we had good international food in general and and lots of options. When it was where our hotel was not far from a train station, and there was just street after street of bars and restaurants and cafes and stuff. It was it was nicely positioned for for easily walking to whatever you could want.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. And I will say that I was surprised because I feel like the Germans, at least in Berlin, like a good coffee shop that serves coffee as much as an Italian. They were everywhere.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So we ate lunch. I had a really good Rubin sandwich, which I hadn't been able to find in Italy, a place called Mog in Mitt. And I I don't I don't know if I'm saying that right, but it was the neighborhood was Mitt. And remember it was like kind of a cool place.
SPEAKER_00:Super cool, like artistic area of Berlin.
SPEAKER_01:That's where we should stay next time we go.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. But Berlin is a it's an interesting city because obviously there's a ton of history, both recent and older. And it's, you know, there's sort of a creative vibe. There's, I mean, it's just it's an interesting place. It's it's not like anywhere else I've ever been.
SPEAKER_01:And then if you're into the club and rave scene, apparently, I don't know. Berlin has some like some of the most notorious, famous like clubs. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And that, yeah, I mean, they definitely like their like their raves and their clubs and their food. And you know, it's also kind of an interesting place for fashion. It's a little bit of a darker vibe, but it's definitely it's a very hip city.
SPEAKER_01:It is. It is. I think that's why a lot of young people immigrate there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. So yeah, I mean, I think that there's a lot more that we didn't explore that we would do next time.
SPEAKER_01:Something I I would also say that in Berlin, most people speak English. We didn't have a problem with language in Berlin, which we do sometimes in like other smaller cities in Germany.
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah. But no, I think I think pretty much like when you get into the capitals and the really big cities, you'll you'll do okay in terms of just speaking English. But but again, everybody likes it if you at least throw down a Donka every once in a while, you know.
SPEAKER_01:And for those that are thinking about immigrating to Europe, Berlin, Berlin, particularly, not Germany as a whole, but Berlin has a really good artist visa for writers and artists. I thought it was all in Germany. I don't know. I think I I thought it was just Berlin, but I could be wrong. But there's a really good like artist program that doesn't have a lot of requirements, really.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So look into that.
SPEAKER_00:But yeah, I would say next time we are going to maybe spend a little more time, maybe stay in the mid-area and then live like a local. Yeah. And and just sort of dive in a little bit more into the culture. And like I said, we we do need to explore more of Germany. So if there's somewhere that you've been that you love, let us know. Hit us up. Yes, please. So thanks for listening. We look forward to your reviews, and we will see you next time.
SPEAKER_01:Check out our website www.the getaways with the Z.com. Hit like and subscribe down there, and we'll see you next week. Thanks, everybody. Bye.