Ali – In my first week working at the University of Zurich in August 2016, two different colleagues told me about their trips on the night train to Berlin. When you hear ‘night train’ you may either think of the critically acclaimed 1959 thriller by Polish director Kawalerowicz or the 1989 Guns N Roses song, depending upon your era. My colleagues mentioned neither murders nor cheap fortified wine in their descriptions of the trip but did use phrases like ‘little sleep’ and ‘exhausting’, which were about a similar level of buzz kill in selling the adventure. But then one mentioned that the night train was going the way of the Do Do bird, due to low cost airlines cutting down on ridership. The German train company – DBahn – was calling it quits in December 2016 and it was unclear whether anyone else would pick up the service. That changed everything! I think you would agree that there was only one thing to do: immediately book tickets on the night train to Berlin. Thanks to a train obsessed traveler who runs the Seat61 website, I was able to navigate the booking. How much would you pay to be on one of the last night train runs to Berlin??? If your answer is 239.80 Euros then ME TOO! That price got us a one-way trip in a 3 bunk economy sleeper cabin, breakfast included.
Flash forward and it’s Friday November 3, 2016 – the day of our departure. We are all pretty excited and set off to the Hauptbahnhof around 6:30pm for our 7:42 pm City Night Line train. Joe and I were feeling pretty smug, having packed a dime bag of legal downers (Benedryl and melatonin) to help ease our way into sleep (and possibly sell to other riders). We stopped off at the COOP to buy a picnic dinner complete with alcoholic supplement (legal downer #3). One thing was for sure: we would be sleeping or comatose on the night train, and either state was acceptable.
So I’m not sure what we were expecting, but when our night train pulled into Zurich HB it was indeed a bit like seeing a Do Do. We were awed by this rare specimen but it sure was a bit of an ugly old bird. We hunted down car 287, borded and were met by the conductor who took us to our….errrr….cabin? Cell? Body-stacking conpartment?
Well whatever you call it Maya was immediately enthralled. She loved her top bunk and all the compartments (e.g. tiny sink in corner). Now there’s no internet on the Night DoDo so after dinner we just tucked in and prepared for a well-medicated geschlaft. About 20 minutes after we turned the lights out, a booming voice on the intercom woke us up to tell us there would be no more announcements until morning. Joe and I then lay awake for the remainder of the night listening to the orchestra of train sounds and feeling every track switch and stop. Maya – the only unmedicated one in our party – slept well. 
We disembarked in Berlin and made our way to our AirBnB, where we had rented a room in an occupied apartment. This was our first “private room” rental and our Brazillian hosts, Joao and Mayrna, were about as friendly and extroverted as one would need to be to continually have strangers sharing your only bathroom. Joao gave us tips for what to do for the day and sent us out into Berlin. It was now about 9am and nothing was open. We hopped on the ‘hop-on-hop-off’ tour bus and headed to Brandenberg Gate, 
our first Berlin site of the day. Joe remembered seeing the gate with a chain-link fence around it in about 1987. Now it was all spiffy and ready for tourists. Maya was far more interested in the neighboring Dunkin Donuts.
Next we hit the Jewish Memorial, which is composed of 2700 concrete blocks and is both depressing and incredibly fun at the same time. We tried to remain respectfully cognizant of the tragedy that provided us with the BEST hide-and-go-seek game EVER. We failed.
Instead we tried to go down to the more depressing and less fun visitor center below the memorial but it was recommended only for ages 14 and up due to the graphic nature of the displays.
So onward to Check-point Charlie! On the way we made first contact with the former Wall.
We also got to have one of Berlin’s famous delicacies: the Currywurst. I know about this from a German book I read about an Italian guy in Berlin trying to learn German. He says in the book:
Eine Berliner Spezialität ist die Currywurst. Die Currywurst hat eine interessante Geschichte. Im Jahr 1949 hatte eine Berliner Frau von britischen Soldaten Worcestershiresauce und indisches Curry bekommen. Sie hat die beiden Zutaten mit amerikanischem Ketchup vermischt und auf eine deutsche Wurst gegeben. Man sagt, die Currywurst ist typisch deutsch. Ist multikulti typisch deutsch?
Got that? Well I can now report that indeed this is a big bratwurst soaked in Ketchup and Worcestershiresauce and then coated in curry powder. 
Bellies full we went to CheckPoint Charlie, which is now a photo tourist trap, 
and then hopped back on the tour bus for a very interesting ride through former East Berlin. We capped it off with a visit to the DDR museum where you can ‘experience’ life in the DDR. 
The museum had a representative apartment in a typical East Berlin Plattenbau, including a movie of a typical scene out the window. 
I also learned that East German’s were big nudists, probably a protest against DDR product scarcity taken in a light-hearted and satirical direction. 
The last thing of note during our 16 hours was thePergamon Museum, which is probably the most famous Berlin museum and well worth the trip. It was built to house restored and rebuilt architectural wonders from the ancient world. Definitely get the audio guide and stand in awe of the most challenging jigsaw puzzles ever completed.
