Sunday, 27 May 2018
Book Review: We Were Liars by E. Lockhart
“Be a little kinder than you have to.”
I was looking for something light and easy to read and this book had been sitting on my shelf for a while now so I decided to bring it with me for my trip to Belgium and The Netherlands, hoping it would last me the whole week (it didn't). We Were Liars is a modern, sophisticated suspense novel from New York Times bestselling author, National Book Award finalist, and Printz Award honoree E. Lockhart.
So what exactly is it about? It's a book about beautiful and distinguished family, the Sinclairs, and history. It's about a private island, where this family spends their summers every year, real estate and distorted, juvenile Marxist ideals. It's about a brilliant, damaged girl and a passionate, political boy, and a group of four cousins - the Liars - who've been inseparable all summer, every year, and whose friendship turns destructive. It's about memory loss, plain old loss, and recovery. It's about privilege and money, the way they can wrap people and rip families apart - and the drastic steps some self-righteous kids might take to free themselves of the tyranny of material possessions. A revolution. An accident. A secret. Lies upon lies. True love. The truth. Also, it has a plot twist. And another.
Have I convinced you yet? No? Here's 5 reasons why you should read it, then:
1 - The writing style
It's not very descriptive but it's poetic prose and it has a nice flow to it. It's very simple in a way you can follow everything and still be amazed but how it all comes together in a big picture. It's about feelings and sensations and you're not just reading a book, you're experiencing everything with the narator.
2 - Go in blind
I feel like the best experience with this book is when you go in blind (which is what I did). Don't try to search for a lot more of the plot because it'll ruin the whole book and the experience.
3 - It's small
So it's easy to go through it quickly and believe me, you'll want to do just that.
4 - You'll get invested
Cady is seventeen and she hit her head when she was swimming during summer, two years ago. She doesn't remember what caused it to happened and everyone in the family refuses to talk about what happened so this is her journey to finding out how did the accident happen. And you get to discover that with her, step by step! You'll become invested in the story and, everytime she finds out something new, you'll gasp with her! And, finally, you'll let out of your lips the final gasp when you read the final twist.
5 - It'll stick with you
You'll want to go back and reread it. Believe me, you'll think about it after you're done (whether you liked it or not). I'm crossing my fingers, hoping this will turn into a movie because I think it has a lot of potential!
So take home message? Just read it. Do yourself a favour and read it. You can order it on BookDepository with free shipping and then you can thank me and we can scream about the ending together! Oh, and if anyone asks you how it ends, just LIE!
“Do not accept an evil you can change.”
Saturday, 19 May 2018
A No-Maj Ponders Potter: The Goblet of Fire
Have you missed my godson's journey through the Harry Potter films? Well, today he's back at it again with his review of the Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005)!
“Unlike the previous chapters, this movie doesn't start with Harry being the victim of mistreatment in his uncles' house. Instead, we find ourselves with an old man trying to enter an abandoned house. Probably a homeless friend of Professor Lupin and Sirius Black. When he manages to get inside, he encounters that balding and very clumsy rat-man talking to someone sitting in an armchair. The only thing we could see form the person resting in the armchair was a skeletal hand poiting with his finger, recognized by all movie lovers. Shortly after this, the character notices the presence of the homeless and, instead of offering him coffee and cookies, shoots him a spell. I would never say that E.T. didn't enjoy guests.
Harry Potter and Ron are woken up by Hermione in a hovel they must have rented. Oh, well... Teenagers are like this, they rebel against their families and go live in herds. They pick their housing according to their degree of drug addiction: small apartments next to universities for the sporadic users, hippy wagons for the usual consumer and houses in ruins for the most serious cases. Drugs and summer festivals are the top pastimes of teenagers, and Harry's group is ready to go to a festival when they meet the Twilight vampire. Turns out he's playing the stud-role, judging the way Hermione looks (there's no need for that, we all know he ends up with Bella Swan). By now, you should know my opinion about characters who play a stud-role: I always suspect that they're malicious or that they hide secrets. I will watch Edward Cullen's behavior with suspicion. The main signs that tell us we have reached teenhood are long hair, sleeping till noon, drug usage and attendance at festivals. No doubt that Harry Potter, his friends and the other people who walk behind them (I think it's Ron's family) meet all these requirements.
But, fortunately, adolescence gives us as much as it takes from us, and Harry has acquired a bit of responsibility. After a fire at the festival they travel by train to Hogwarts because holidays are very nice but studies come first. During the trip, a lady walks past with a cart full of sweets, just like the ones Harry bought in the first movie. Ron buys some things and Harry was already ready to buy the whole cart when a girl anticipates herself and gets some candy. I don't know whether it's because he has gained some economic sense or because he likes to buy things before they are opened by other people, Harry ends up not buying the whole candy cart. At Hogwarts, Dumbledore announces that they will host the Triwizard Tournament, where three schools meet and compete with a student in a game involving three tasks. The director of one of them, Madame Maxime, is a giant and only there to distract Hagrid, throughout the film, who doesn't realise that it's a disguise to destroy his heart. It's certainly Voldemort's ploy to prevent Hagrid from helping Harry: being always around her, Hagrid won't remember that Harry might need help. Then a drunken man with a strange eye comes in and starts firing spells everywhere.
The singing up method for the competition is confusing and no wonder it will later give problems. Whoever wishes to register must fill out their application, which is nothing more than their name on a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. When the contestants are chosen, Harry is among them and no one's happy about it. Personally, I think it's the way they made the students to sign up. Hogwarts goes ahead with two candidates while each of the other schools only has one. In the first task, Harry runs away from a dragon to fly on a broom until the animal flies against a bridge and he manages to steal his egg. In the second, more complicated, Harry eats some spinach that gives him fins and lets him breathe under water. I'm not sure if this shouldn't have been considered dopping, since his opponents only had a shark mask, air bubble and I'm not even sure about the other one. The third and final test is a maze in which Harry Potter, boasting himself, even launches fireworks before victory. After winning he's transported to the presence of Voldemort where they fight a semi-epic battle, given that he flees halfway.
About the characters in this saga:
Voldemort
At the beginning we only see a skeletal hand and a stretched finger so we conclude that this time Voldemort is masked as E.T. At the end of the movie the rat man mercilessly shoots a baby into a boiling cauldron and adds Harry Potter's blood and a bone. From this mix a sort of fish with legs is born, saying he is Voldemort but I don't believe it. During the saga we were following Voldemort's preference for bald heads, so it's no surprise to anyone that the fish it's said he has turned into is also bald. When I was younger, I was offered a toy, apparently made of plastic figures. Playing time consisted in immersing these dolls in water and, as if by magic, within a while, they became jelly dolls several times larger than the original ones. I confess I've never experimented with a Dark Lord but I have to take my hat off to Peter Pettigrew for the idea. Then this legged fish duels with Harry Potter but he manages to escape.
Dumbledore
They say he's a great wizard but so far he hasn't been able to do much. At lighting up and extinguishing candles he's the greatest but when it comes to defeating enemies, he leaves a lot to be desired. Both he and Snape are very weak, doing only the most basic spells. If they don't improve quickly they will take serious risks in the next films, moreover now that the fish that killed the vampire is quite strong and will soon get inside Hogwarts. I think Dumbledore is out of energy and should think about retirement. At some point he starts taking out of his hair a few strands of spaghetti and puts them in a pot, he looks in and says that he is remembering things... I seriously don't think he's in good shape, he's a nice person, yes, but we need someone more suitable.
Cedric
I confess that I distrusted this boy early in the movie, but after all he's a decent guy. It's urgent to appeal against the prejudices towards vampires, as he could totally be in the sunlight and didn't see him bite anyone. He even helped Harry Potter in the triward competition.
Hermione and Ron
They finally gained some personality and left Harry alone. This kept them from getting into trouble. Earlier, I had warned that if this didn't happen, they would all die because of Harry's foolish ideas. Fortunately they gained some sense and stayed unarmed.
Moody
He's a drunk guy who appears firing up his wand in the air, killing spider and to turning students into weasels. Throughout the entire film he's been hanging on to the alcohol. Note that he's a very powerful wizard and helps Harry Potter on several occasions. When his drink finishes, he starts to bubble until he turns into the son of the Head of the Department of International Cooperation in Magic, a friend of Voldemort's, as he'd been seen in one of Dumbledore's spaghetti. The real Moody is inside an ark. I don'tt know if the real Moody is going to stay at Hogwarts but I do not think so.
As my final thoughts, with some cheating involved, the school of Hogwarts got the trophy. I confess that at this point I expected more powerful spells from the "good ones." The "bad guys" have very good and strong spells, while Hogwarts only seems to teach how to light up the tip of a magic wand. If the teachers think that they're going to beat the great Lord of black magic with Expelliarmus and Wingardium Leviosa they are well deceived.”
Don't miss out on his next review on the Order of Phoenix! If you haven't read the previous ones so far, you can find them over here:
“Unlike the previous chapters, this movie doesn't start with Harry being the victim of mistreatment in his uncles' house. Instead, we find ourselves with an old man trying to enter an abandoned house. Probably a homeless friend of Professor Lupin and Sirius Black. When he manages to get inside, he encounters that balding and very clumsy rat-man talking to someone sitting in an armchair. The only thing we could see form the person resting in the armchair was a skeletal hand poiting with his finger, recognized by all movie lovers. Shortly after this, the character notices the presence of the homeless and, instead of offering him coffee and cookies, shoots him a spell. I would never say that E.T. didn't enjoy guests.
Harry Potter and Ron are woken up by Hermione in a hovel they must have rented. Oh, well... Teenagers are like this, they rebel against their families and go live in herds. They pick their housing according to their degree of drug addiction: small apartments next to universities for the sporadic users, hippy wagons for the usual consumer and houses in ruins for the most serious cases. Drugs and summer festivals are the top pastimes of teenagers, and Harry's group is ready to go to a festival when they meet the Twilight vampire. Turns out he's playing the stud-role, judging the way Hermione looks (there's no need for that, we all know he ends up with Bella Swan). By now, you should know my opinion about characters who play a stud-role: I always suspect that they're malicious or that they hide secrets. I will watch Edward Cullen's behavior with suspicion. The main signs that tell us we have reached teenhood are long hair, sleeping till noon, drug usage and attendance at festivals. No doubt that Harry Potter, his friends and the other people who walk behind them (I think it's Ron's family) meet all these requirements.
But, fortunately, adolescence gives us as much as it takes from us, and Harry has acquired a bit of responsibility. After a fire at the festival they travel by train to Hogwarts because holidays are very nice but studies come first. During the trip, a lady walks past with a cart full of sweets, just like the ones Harry bought in the first movie. Ron buys some things and Harry was already ready to buy the whole cart when a girl anticipates herself and gets some candy. I don't know whether it's because he has gained some economic sense or because he likes to buy things before they are opened by other people, Harry ends up not buying the whole candy cart. At Hogwarts, Dumbledore announces that they will host the Triwizard Tournament, where three schools meet and compete with a student in a game involving three tasks. The director of one of them, Madame Maxime, is a giant and only there to distract Hagrid, throughout the film, who doesn't realise that it's a disguise to destroy his heart. It's certainly Voldemort's ploy to prevent Hagrid from helping Harry: being always around her, Hagrid won't remember that Harry might need help. Then a drunken man with a strange eye comes in and starts firing spells everywhere.
The singing up method for the competition is confusing and no wonder it will later give problems. Whoever wishes to register must fill out their application, which is nothing more than their name on a piece of paper and throw it into the fire. When the contestants are chosen, Harry is among them and no one's happy about it. Personally, I think it's the way they made the students to sign up. Hogwarts goes ahead with two candidates while each of the other schools only has one. In the first task, Harry runs away from a dragon to fly on a broom until the animal flies against a bridge and he manages to steal his egg. In the second, more complicated, Harry eats some spinach that gives him fins and lets him breathe under water. I'm not sure if this shouldn't have been considered dopping, since his opponents only had a shark mask, air bubble and I'm not even sure about the other one. The third and final test is a maze in which Harry Potter, boasting himself, even launches fireworks before victory. After winning he's transported to the presence of Voldemort where they fight a semi-epic battle, given that he flees halfway.
About the characters in this saga:
Voldemort
At the beginning we only see a skeletal hand and a stretched finger so we conclude that this time Voldemort is masked as E.T. At the end of the movie the rat man mercilessly shoots a baby into a boiling cauldron and adds Harry Potter's blood and a bone. From this mix a sort of fish with legs is born, saying he is Voldemort but I don't believe it. During the saga we were following Voldemort's preference for bald heads, so it's no surprise to anyone that the fish it's said he has turned into is also bald. When I was younger, I was offered a toy, apparently made of plastic figures. Playing time consisted in immersing these dolls in water and, as if by magic, within a while, they became jelly dolls several times larger than the original ones. I confess I've never experimented with a Dark Lord but I have to take my hat off to Peter Pettigrew for the idea. Then this legged fish duels with Harry Potter but he manages to escape.
Dumbledore
They say he's a great wizard but so far he hasn't been able to do much. At lighting up and extinguishing candles he's the greatest but when it comes to defeating enemies, he leaves a lot to be desired. Both he and Snape are very weak, doing only the most basic spells. If they don't improve quickly they will take serious risks in the next films, moreover now that the fish that killed the vampire is quite strong and will soon get inside Hogwarts. I think Dumbledore is out of energy and should think about retirement. At some point he starts taking out of his hair a few strands of spaghetti and puts them in a pot, he looks in and says that he is remembering things... I seriously don't think he's in good shape, he's a nice person, yes, but we need someone more suitable.
Cedric
I confess that I distrusted this boy early in the movie, but after all he's a decent guy. It's urgent to appeal against the prejudices towards vampires, as he could totally be in the sunlight and didn't see him bite anyone. He even helped Harry Potter in the triward competition.
Hermione and Ron
They finally gained some personality and left Harry alone. This kept them from getting into trouble. Earlier, I had warned that if this didn't happen, they would all die because of Harry's foolish ideas. Fortunately they gained some sense and stayed unarmed.
Moody
He's a drunk guy who appears firing up his wand in the air, killing spider and to turning students into weasels. Throughout the entire film he's been hanging on to the alcohol. Note that he's a very powerful wizard and helps Harry Potter on several occasions. When his drink finishes, he starts to bubble until he turns into the son of the Head of the Department of International Cooperation in Magic, a friend of Voldemort's, as he'd been seen in one of Dumbledore's spaghetti. The real Moody is inside an ark. I don'tt know if the real Moody is going to stay at Hogwarts but I do not think so.
As my final thoughts, with some cheating involved, the school of Hogwarts got the trophy. I confess that at this point I expected more powerful spells from the "good ones." The "bad guys" have very good and strong spells, while Hogwarts only seems to teach how to light up the tip of a magic wand. If the teachers think that they're going to beat the great Lord of black magic with Expelliarmus and Wingardium Leviosa they are well deceived.”
Don't miss out on his next review on the Order of Phoenix! If you haven't read the previous ones so far, you can find them over here:
- A No-Maj Ponders Potter: The Philosopher's Stone
- A No-Maj Ponders Potter: The Chamber Of Secrets
- A No-Maj Ponders Potter: The Prisoner of Azkaban
Sunday, 13 May 2018
Eurovision 2018
Despite the fact that I tell myself I really don't care about this contest, every year, without failing, I sit in front of the tv and watch it just to confirm if Portugal is still the worst one. I did have a big surprise last year, but I wasn't very hopeful for this year. I mean, only Spain, Luxembourg and Israel have ever won twice in a row so the bar was set very low for us!
For the most distracted people (or american population that may follow my blog in general), the Eurovision Song Contest is the longest-running annual international TV contest of all time, currently in its 63rd year with over 40 countries eligible to compete. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the competition's winning entry. The final result is calculated with 50% the country's juri vote, whom I have no idea who they are, and the other 50% the public at home and there's usually a lot of politics involved, like neighbours voting for neighbours. For this contest, we bring it all in and we basically have two different kinds of performances: ballads and weird wtf songs.
So last year, Portugal managed to score their first victory, ending the longest winless run by a country in Eurovision history (53 years). Salvador Sobral got us another record as well: the highest scoring winner under the current voting system, with 758 points. And, as the winning country, that meant we got to host this year. Not surprisingly, though, we ended up in last place, back to our usual spot. This time, the UK even managed a higher score than us!
My favourite and, to me, the rightful winner was "You Let Me Walk Alone" by Michael Schulte from Germany. I also enjoyedo "Fuego" by Eleni Foureira from Cyprus with her Beyonce vibes (who ended up in second place), "Outlaw in 'Em" by Waylon from The Netherlands, who brought some country to the competition, austrian Kanye West mixed with Craig David vibes with "Nobody but You" by Cesár Sampson (who was also competing for the trophy right until the end) and estonian Elina Nechayeve with "La Forza" who got a good public vote position. Honestly, though, I would have loved to see the british SuRie with "Storm" win, since despite all the security involved, someone managed to get in the stage and steal her microphone (not shown in the video), but she managed to finish strong anyway (she was given the chance to perform again but declined)! Had she won, next year, after Brexit day, the UK would be forced to host a massive celebration of European unity and diversity!
Honorable mentions go to Ukraine, with a vampire kid who made me Google where Transylvania is actually situated (Romania, not Ukraine), Czech Republic with its MC Hammer vibes, Hungary with its metal-rock, and Denmark's artist who, despite the need of men up in the Wall of Ice, still managed to sing at the contest.
Now, I've given you five good winning potential songs, in my opinion. Those fall into the ballad option of Eurovision songs. Let me now tell you about the winning song, which definitely falls into the weird category. The winner was "Toy" by Netta from Israel, which apparently was a favourite when it comes to the betting pools, and combines a trademark chicken dance, electronic dance song, japanese manga and women's empowerment lyrics. So, as you can see (and hear), it had everything to be a major hit!
All in all, I have a mix of good feelings about the contest. I'm satisfied with Portugal's score - so much pride in fighting for the last place, I like to think we were such good hosts we didn't want anyone to feel sad about scoring last. However, I'm unhappy with the winner. While I get how Netta won, I still feel like my favourite Michael Schulte was injusticed and deserved the trophy. I will definitely be following Eurovision 2019 in Israel and I hope it's even better (read: weirder) than the 2018 edition!
For the most distracted people (or american population that may follow my blog in general), the Eurovision Song Contest is the longest-running annual international TV contest of all time, currently in its 63rd year with over 40 countries eligible to compete. Each participating country submits an original song to be performed on live television and radio and then casts votes for the other countries' songs to determine the competition's winning entry. The final result is calculated with 50% the country's juri vote, whom I have no idea who they are, and the other 50% the public at home and there's usually a lot of politics involved, like neighbours voting for neighbours. For this contest, we bring it all in and we basically have two different kinds of performances: ballads and weird wtf songs.
So last year, Portugal managed to score their first victory, ending the longest winless run by a country in Eurovision history (53 years). Salvador Sobral got us another record as well: the highest scoring winner under the current voting system, with 758 points. And, as the winning country, that meant we got to host this year. Not surprisingly, though, we ended up in last place, back to our usual spot. This time, the UK even managed a higher score than us!
My favourite and, to me, the rightful winner was "You Let Me Walk Alone" by Michael Schulte from Germany. I also enjoyedo "Fuego" by Eleni Foureira from Cyprus with her Beyonce vibes (who ended up in second place), "Outlaw in 'Em" by Waylon from The Netherlands, who brought some country to the competition, austrian Kanye West mixed with Craig David vibes with "Nobody but You" by Cesár Sampson (who was also competing for the trophy right until the end) and estonian Elina Nechayeve with "La Forza" who got a good public vote position. Honestly, though, I would have loved to see the british SuRie with "Storm" win, since despite all the security involved, someone managed to get in the stage and steal her microphone (not shown in the video), but she managed to finish strong anyway (she was given the chance to perform again but declined)! Had she won, next year, after Brexit day, the UK would be forced to host a massive celebration of European unity and diversity!
Honorable mentions go to Ukraine, with a vampire kid who made me Google where Transylvania is actually situated (Romania, not Ukraine), Czech Republic with its MC Hammer vibes, Hungary with its metal-rock, and Denmark's artist who, despite the need of men up in the Wall of Ice, still managed to sing at the contest.
Now, I've given you five good winning potential songs, in my opinion. Those fall into the ballad option of Eurovision songs. Let me now tell you about the winning song, which definitely falls into the weird category. The winner was "Toy" by Netta from Israel, which apparently was a favourite when it comes to the betting pools, and combines a trademark chicken dance, electronic dance song, japanese manga and women's empowerment lyrics. So, as you can see (and hear), it had everything to be a major hit!
All in all, I have a mix of good feelings about the contest. I'm satisfied with Portugal's score - so much pride in fighting for the last place, I like to think we were such good hosts we didn't want anyone to feel sad about scoring last. However, I'm unhappy with the winner. While I get how Netta won, I still feel like my favourite Michael Schulte was injusticed and deserved the trophy. I will definitely be following Eurovision 2019 in Israel and I hope it's even better (read: weirder) than the 2018 edition!
Sunday, 6 May 2018
Hallo Deutchland! (Or: Four Days in Berlin)
Me and a friend decided to break the routine and take two days off to travel somewhere. We ended up choosing Berlin, in Germany, because neither of us had been there yet and the flights were cheap compared to the other options. We booked the flights and the hotel and last Saturday took off to Germany's capital and stayed there for four days.
So where did we stay while there? We chose the H2 Hotel Berlin-Alexanderplatz via Booking.com and I seriously couldn't recommend it enough because it seriously exceeded our expectations. It's marketed as a two-star hotel but it definitely doesn't look like it! It's very clean, the staff was very nice and the breakfast had lots of food to choose from. Besides that, it's a five-minute walk from Alexanderplatz so you couldn't be more central and the bus from the Tegel airport (TXL) goes straight there. You can also find a supermarket behind the hotel and, if you feel like eating typical german food, do visit the restaurant next to it. It's called Hofbräu München Tavern and it's where we, on our last night there, ate a delicious sausage the size of my arm, the Hofbräu Currywurst.
Let me now tell you about what we did. We got ourselves in the 9am flight with a stop in Munich and landed in Berlin at around 15h. We got into the first TXL bus we saw (after buying a 7€ daily ticket), which took us to Alexanderplatz, dropped our stuff at the hotel and left immediately for the Tv Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm), a symbol of the communist power of the German Democratic Republic, where we looked at Berlin from 203m high. We then caught the S-bahn, Berlin's railway system, to the East Side Gallery where we walked around 1km following the remnant of the Berlin Wall covered in art from artists all over the world.
On the second day, we took a bus to the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) and walked to the Reichstag. We initially wanted to visit the Reichstag's dome as we heard it has a very nice 360º view of Berlin. However, it is only open to visitors with prior registration (which we didn't have) so we looked around for a few minutes and walked back to the gate towards the Holocaust Memorial. After that, we kept walking until the Potsdamer Platz and caught a bus to Checkpoint Charlie and from there, caught another bus to the Jewish Museum. I was honestly a bit disappointed with the museum, since the permanent exhibition is under reconstruction and we could only access the basement of the Libeskind Building, the Garden of Exile, and the Voids. While the Memory Void is pretty powerful, the basement is mostly abstract art. After the Jewish Museum we went to the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom), climbed to the top (it's a lot of steps, be prepared) and then decided to take a boat trip on the river. We went on the one in front of the DDR Museum (which we decided we weren't really interested in, since it was 10€) and it had a really nice and funny guide, I totally recommend.
On the third and last full day we went all the way to Charlottenburg Palace (Schloss Charlottenburg) but we decided not to go inside since the tickets are around 20€. It's about 45 minutes from the center of Berlin and we took the S-bahn and then the bus to there. After that, we took the bus to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Victory Column but we didn't climb to the top, walked to the Bellevue Palace and then took a bus to the Topography of Terror (Topographie des Terrors) which is a free outdoor and indoor history museum in the former headquarters of Gestapo. On the last day, we slept in, ate a big breakfast and decided to walk a bit around the Alexanderplatz to check a few places we hadn't yet: The Neptune Fountain (Neptunbrunnen), the Red Town Hall (Rotes Rathaus), the St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche) and the St. Mary's Church (St. Marienkirche).
As last thoughts, Berlin isn't very a pretty city but it's mostly full of history and you can totally get the hang of the city in four days, like we did. We found the transportation system (at least the S-Bahn) a bit confusing since we never knew which side to stand on and buses were easier to understand and very reliable. It's easier to buy the 7€ daily ticket than walking everywhere because it's a big city, and it's totally worth it if you're planning to take at least two trips in the day. Do validate your ticket if you buy it in the S-Bahn/U-Bahn stations instead of the bus because you will get caught by the controllers and they will fine you (60€), even if you're a tourist and don't know you need to validate. Trust me on this, it's not very pleasant (and neither are they).
So where did we stay while there? We chose the H2 Hotel Berlin-Alexanderplatz via Booking.com and I seriously couldn't recommend it enough because it seriously exceeded our expectations. It's marketed as a two-star hotel but it definitely doesn't look like it! It's very clean, the staff was very nice and the breakfast had lots of food to choose from. Besides that, it's a five-minute walk from Alexanderplatz so you couldn't be more central and the bus from the Tegel airport (TXL) goes straight there. You can also find a supermarket behind the hotel and, if you feel like eating typical german food, do visit the restaurant next to it. It's called Hofbräu München Tavern and it's where we, on our last night there, ate a delicious sausage the size of my arm, the Hofbräu Currywurst.
Let me now tell you about what we did. We got ourselves in the 9am flight with a stop in Munich and landed in Berlin at around 15h. We got into the first TXL bus we saw (after buying a 7€ daily ticket), which took us to Alexanderplatz, dropped our stuff at the hotel and left immediately for the Tv Tower (Berliner Fernsehturm), a symbol of the communist power of the German Democratic Republic, where we looked at Berlin from 203m high. We then caught the S-bahn, Berlin's railway system, to the East Side Gallery where we walked around 1km following the remnant of the Berlin Wall covered in art from artists all over the world.
On the second day, we took a bus to the Brandenburg Gate (Brandenburger Tor) and walked to the Reichstag. We initially wanted to visit the Reichstag's dome as we heard it has a very nice 360º view of Berlin. However, it is only open to visitors with prior registration (which we didn't have) so we looked around for a few minutes and walked back to the gate towards the Holocaust Memorial. After that, we kept walking until the Potsdamer Platz and caught a bus to Checkpoint Charlie and from there, caught another bus to the Jewish Museum. I was honestly a bit disappointed with the museum, since the permanent exhibition is under reconstruction and we could only access the basement of the Libeskind Building, the Garden of Exile, and the Voids. While the Memory Void is pretty powerful, the basement is mostly abstract art. After the Jewish Museum we went to the Berlin Cathedral (Berliner Dom), climbed to the top (it's a lot of steps, be prepared) and then decided to take a boat trip on the river. We went on the one in front of the DDR Museum (which we decided we weren't really interested in, since it was 10€) and it had a really nice and funny guide, I totally recommend.
On the third and last full day we went all the way to Charlottenburg Palace (Schloss Charlottenburg) but we decided not to go inside since the tickets are around 20€. It's about 45 minutes from the center of Berlin and we took the S-bahn and then the bus to there. After that, we took the bus to the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Victory Column but we didn't climb to the top, walked to the Bellevue Palace and then took a bus to the Topography of Terror (Topographie des Terrors) which is a free outdoor and indoor history museum in the former headquarters of Gestapo. On the last day, we slept in, ate a big breakfast and decided to walk a bit around the Alexanderplatz to check a few places we hadn't yet: The Neptune Fountain (Neptunbrunnen), the Red Town Hall (Rotes Rathaus), the St. Nicholas Church (Nikolaikirche) and the St. Mary's Church (St. Marienkirche).
As last thoughts, Berlin isn't very a pretty city but it's mostly full of history and you can totally get the hang of the city in four days, like we did. We found the transportation system (at least the S-Bahn) a bit confusing since we never knew which side to stand on and buses were easier to understand and very reliable. It's easier to buy the 7€ daily ticket than walking everywhere because it's a big city, and it's totally worth it if you're planning to take at least two trips in the day. Do validate your ticket if you buy it in the S-Bahn/U-Bahn stations instead of the bus because you will get caught by the controllers and they will fine you (60€), even if you're a tourist and don't know you need to validate. Trust me on this, it's not very pleasant (and neither are they).
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