We overslept, so we rushed to meet friends at a nearby bakery for breakfast. Tole’s Backshop was near our hotel, and all of the food looked good, but I only grabbed a coffee. Afterward, we went to the train station for a day trip to Potsdam to see the Sanssouci Palace.
Sanssouci is the palace of Frederick the Great, and while I was touring Sanssouci, I kept thinking, “Oh my god, this guy is such a queen.” Everything is pink or in a Rococo style. He clearly liked walking through his lavish gardens while only hanging out with men. He kept his wife away in a different palace. Even the most rookie gaydar could pick it up. Without even remembering, I had already read about Frederick the Great being gay. He is covered in a chapter of the book Bad Gays: A Homosexual History by Huw Lemmey and Ben Miller. I’d recommend everybody get the book, but I would also recommend you check out the corresponding podcast episode by the authors.
At the palace, we walked through the gardens, but it was raining quite a bit, so we were limited in our full exploration. It was really lovely, and we could have stayed a few more hours than we did. We had a really good time. The Sanssouci Palace is worthwhile to see because it’s beautiful and it’s obviously ostentatious, but it’s also not completely and remarkably over the top like Dolmabahçe in Istanbul.
When we were finished, we wanted to get some lunch before we returned to Berlin. It was hard to find a space, but we found room at the Cafe at Backstoltz. I had chili con carne and a salad.
When we got back to Berlin, we decided to do a little shopping. Bikini Berlin mall is a nice place where you can find German products. The other big malls have typical things I can find in the United States. I wasn’t buying much, but there was a store selling some German chocolates, cookies, and stuff in preparation for the Christmas season, so we bought some of those to take back as gifts. Also, the mall sits next to the zoo, so while you’re in the mall, you can look through a giant full-length window into the monkey pavilion of the zoo and see monkeys running around.
Our friends decided to nap, so Samer and I went for a walk and had a beer at a gay/dive bar called Dreizehn. Lots of cigarette smoking—too much for my taste—and a lot of old, rather frazzled men who seemed to have lived a hard life. We took our beers outside. I’m sure it has its place, but I could do without the closed-in cigarette smoking.
For dinner, we decided to be tourists and get a döner kebab from Mustafa’s Gemüse Kebap in Kreuzberg. This is a famous shop that I was a bit apprehensive about. If living in Philadelphia has taught me anything, it is that the eateries that tourists go to for their local signature sandwich are not good. I was not correct.
We waited about half an hour, and that was short. One thing I liked about this place was that it was very vegetable-forward. They put a lot of cooked vegetables on top of the meat. I had my sandwich with vegetables, and I skipped the meat, and then they added French fries to it. It was terrific. I wish they had put a lot more hot sauce on it, but this place was really good. I had always understood it to be a food truck, but it moved to a brick-and-mortar location. Döner kebabs are super fucking messy to eat.
When we were done, we walked across the street to check out Curry 36, which is sort of a chain currywurst place I’ve heard about. I liked this one better than the Original Berliner currywurst that I’d had the night before, but I think Witty’s was still better on all fronts. I don’t know—maybe the currywurst itself tied with Witty’s, but the fries at Witty’s were certainly better. We didn’t really need this. We had each had a döner kebab, and we were pretty full.
We returned to our neighborhood and had a cocktail at Hafen. I think this was our friends’ favorite gay bar. It was quieter than the others. There’s no smoking. There wasn’t much checking everybody else out. It really was just like a bar. And there actually was a woman in it in the back, which was maybe the first time I’d seen a woman in a gay bar while in Berlin. They made a very nice Negroni, and one of our friends was tired and dozing off while we were there. We only lasted for one drink. Great place, total recommendation, but it would undoubtedly be a place to go if you want to actually chat with somebody and have a decent cocktail.
Next: Germany – Day 5