Berlin, January 2015

I had heard a few different opinions of Berlin before arriving so I wasn't sure what to expect, but personally, I fell in love while I was there. The city was brilliant and easy to get around, and there are a lot of interesting and varied things to do while staying there. As I am always keen to use my camera I was pleased to see loads of amazing street art around and something to look out for around Berlin is the black and white photo booths that are scattered around the city – not going to lie, my friends and I got a bit carried away with finding and using these!

We stayed in the Grand hostel Berlin which is an awesome hostel that I would highly recommend if you're looking to travel on a budget. The staff were really friendly who are able to offer really good insider travel advice which is always useful. They also arrange a weekly pub crawl which was a great way to see some good pubs and bars (including one where all the furniture was attached to the ceiling!) which we probably wouldn't have discovered otherwise. The staff also recommended some good spots for veggie food, and they directed us to somewhere called 'Glück to go' which really was amazing. Food-wise, another must-try is eating at the Hofbrauhaug Munchen German restaurant which we were taken to by our friend that lives there; the atmosphere was amazing and it's basically a traditional Bier Keller, with lots of live music and beer. If you're vegetarian you should probably get used to eating a lot of potato-based food, but I'm not complaining, it was all delicious. Something to also please the meat-eaters is that kebabs are really big out there, and normally of a good standard.

Of course, there is so much history to see in Berlin and luckily we managed to see quite a bit during our stay including Checkpoint Charlie, the East Side Gallery, the DDR museum and the Holocaust memorial and museum. The Holocaust museum is a sobering but important look into some of the individual families that were affected during the war, something that I think can be overlooked when you are looking at overall facts and statements. We did the obligatory 'finding a good viewpoint over the city' which you can find at the iconic TV tower. We experienced a lot of snowy weather so unfortunately our view was slightly covered by grey clouds... I suppose you can't always get the perfect sunset photo opportunity!

I personally was excited to visit the Berlin Zoological Gardens and Aquarium as it is the oldest in Germany, opened in 1844. It makes a great day out and gives you a bit of a change from sightseeing, and if you don't have time to do both you can get a ticket for just either the Zoo/Aquarium.

On our last day of the trip, we visited the Mauerpark Fleamarket, another insider tip from our German friend which was well worth the visit. I believe this is one of the biggest markets they have and one of the most popular and features all sorts of random items, from vintage clothing to crockery and luckily for us around Christmas time, there was an abundance of Glühwein. (Mulled Wine, my favourite)