Berlin really is a huge and diverse city, offering a cross section of modern and old, beautiful, sleek, baroque and outrageous – whatever you want the German capital’s got it.
The city of Berlin is located in eastern Germany, just 70km west of the Polish/German border. It's situated on the River Spree, a river beside which two towns developed in the early 13th century give rise to the present day metropolis.
Berlin is steeped in a long and eventful history. At the end of the WWII in Europe around 1945, the superpowers divided the city, with the Western Allies taking over the west of Berlin and the Soviet sector taking over the east of Berlin. However the Cold War led to the construction of the Berlin Wall which closed the border between east and west Berlin for 26 years!
The present day Berlin is divided into many districts with the most popular being Mitte, Charlottenburg, Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, Prenzlauer Berg and Zenlendorf.
This city which is home to over 4 million people, has a pulsating nightlife and is fast becoming known worldwide as the party capital of Europe. Steeped in history, it’s been remoulded and reshaped to become an excellently designed city, and you’ll find that the superb transport links certainly make it easy to see what it has to offer. There’s the S-Bahn (that’s the mainline rail network), the U-Bahn (the metro) and the Tram (no explanation needed here!), as well as a pretty handy bus network, so although it’s a huge and fairly spread out city, you won’t need to worry about how you get around.
Whatever your preferences are when it comes to sightseeing, eating, drinking and finding new things to do, this city has it all covered. You might be forgiven for thinking that Berlin has a stereotypical air of seriousness about it, but in fact once you’ve visited a few of the bars and mixed in with the locals (who speak pretty good English for the most part), you’ll find Berliners to be a very easygoing and open minded bunch. This certainly adds to the cool, free flowing feel of the city, so it’s really worth your while to get out here and experience the cutting edge of cosmopolitan Europe!