visiting

As probably one of the last official posts I will make for this site (since I am planning on changing up my site to reflect my new position in life), I wanted to present you with a side-by-side analysis of Berlin and Hamburg. I spent a good amount of time in Berlin near the end of my stay in Germany, because my mother was teaching a study-abroad group there, but obviously spent a year in Hamburg and really got to know it.

In the comments, I’d be interested to see which city you would want to visit first. Enjoy!

	Hamburg	Berlin	my verdict
Center	With the impressive Rathaus, Hamburg’s center and downtown are easy to find and explore	Known for being a patchwork of many small towns before it became Berlin the city, Berlin also fails to have one real center.	For seeing the “what’s what” of a city by foot, Hamburg wins. If you have several days, however, Berlin can be more vielseitig, multifaceted.
Transportation	HVV S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Bus routes, some Strassenbahn, ferry boat from Hafencity/Stadthausbruecken to Blankenese	BVG S-Bahn, U-Bahn, Bus routes, some Strassenbahn, ferry from Wannsee to Kladow and back	Since I was a student in Hamburg, and had to pay for each individual ticket in Berlin, Hamburg wins this round
Theater	Deutsches Schauspielhaus, Thalia und Thalia-Altona, multiple other theaters Musicals- you take a ferry… which pretty much wins Hamburg in this category	Berlin used to be the center of theater and the arts in Germany, and much of that cultural presence still remains. One can find it in the Berliner Enseble theater, the Deutsches Theater, and various others, most often small and private. Maybe it’s because I haven’t been able to take advantage of the Berlin theaters or so, but the theater presence wasn’t as strong for me in Berlin as it has been in Hamburg	Hard to decide, but since Hamburg has both music and theater, they win
Museums	Beautiful art museums, a fantastic anthropology collection	A whole Museum “island”	The vast number of different museums, usually very accessible for tourists and non-tourists alike wins Berlin in this category
Tall buildings/ landmarks	Fehrnsehturm, St. Michaelis, Elbsymphonie	Fehrnsehturm, Funkturm, Siegessaeule, Brandenburger Gate	Hamburg has a cooler skyline
Green spaces	various parks, Volkspark, Altonauer Park, Planten und Blomben	Gruenewald, Tiergarten, various other small parks	I actually liked Berlin’s green spaces more, maybe because I walked around in them more?
Water	the Alster, the Elbe	Spree, Wannsee	Hamburg, all the way.
Sports	HSV, St. Pauli, both in danger of downgrade The HASPA Marathon!	Hertha BSC, in slightly better shape than Hamburg’s teams, but not much better The Berlin Marathon (where the world records are always made)	Eh. I don’t really care
Any last words?	I called it home for a year, and it’s the second largest city in the country	Capital of the country	Both are definitely worth visiting