The last time I was in Berlin, it was on a school trip. We stayed somewhere near some remnant of the Berlin Wall, in a dingy hostel. We went to the Legoland centre and the Opera, and apart from that I don’t remember much of it (it was almost 10 years ago). I do remember not really enjoying it that much — I found the city to be noisy and dirty, I remembered the water tasting awful, and it was awfully hot. I’ve just finished up a week here researching gamelan, and my opinion on the city could not have changed more. Here’s everything I found great about Berlin this time around.

1. The Architecture

Berlin is a fascinating city because of its deep and complex history, and nowhere is that more obvious than its architecture. No joke, my first day in the city I did a walk from the Brandenburg Gate, one of the oldest symbols of Berlin that dates to pre-Germany, to Alexanderplatz, where a giant TV tower that was erected by the socialist Soviet-aligned government in the 20th century. It’s like Paris, if the Eiffel Tower was much uglier. Yet the ugly Soviet-era buildings in East Berlin are charming next to the antiquated Parisian-like architecture of the main street and buildings down past the Brandenburg Gate. Paris is beautiful because all of the architecture in the city is so beautiful; Paris is beautiful because it flits between urban grunge and Romantic idealism.

2. The History

As already mentioned, Berlin is a great story for history buffs. You have so much to explore in the city that you can focus largely on one time period for a week and never touch (except superficially) the others. Want to just focus on Cold War Berlin? You can. Want to just focus on World War II Berlin? You can. Want to focus on Prussian palaces? You can. You can even focus on pre-German history, though you might have to dig a little deeper to find it, but it’s there. This doesn’t even touch all the other things in museums, where you can spend hours looking at Ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian history. I flitted around all sorts of time periods in Berlin, and that makes it great place if you are interested in learning more about those time periods.

3. The Music

Admittedly, I was here during a major music festival on a day, but I was spoiled for choice for music during my week in Berlin. One Opera was doing a world premiere of an English composer, the Philharmonie was playing but sold out, the other Operas had family-friendly concerts, other symphonies had concerts during the week, I randomly stumbled across a stage band one day just walking around, and this doesn’t even touch on the numerous other small events going on. For my money, I went to a small and intimate 3-act show at the Villa Kuriosum, a coop garden that has a small room for about 30 people. I saw a live solo gamelan gender with electronics and gong; a collection of Persian/Iranian instruments; and a double bass performance for ten euro, and it was one of the best concert atmospheres I’ve been to.

4. The Food

I didn’t experience this too much because alas I am but a poor PhD student, but I had a döner kebab one night and it was delicious. Enough said. (If that’s not enough for you: Just walk down any street and you’ll find a restaurant or food stall selling something delicious).

5. The Public Transport

I think I went on every public transport system that Berlin has. I used the Metro mainly, but I did also experience the tram, buses, and regional trains. Everything runs incredibly efficiently, even if there are delays these tend to get papered over quickly, and everything connects beautifully so you never have to walk far if you are catching two different modes. I travelled all over Berlin exclusively this way and never had any problems.

There you have it, my Berlin list. What stands out for you about Berlin? Let me know in the comments below.