When we talked to friends from Berlin early on about day trips from Berlin some people mentioned Szszecin, Poland. After living here for a year we finally decided it was time to go to Poland for a weekend. From Berlin, you can cross into Poland within about an hour depending on where you are headed. So we thought back to what people had said about Szczecin in northern Poland. Then I started to do some research looking up what to do there and whether we should spend the night or come back the same day as it is only a 2 hour train ride. After several blogs and other sites the general impression I got was- "Don't go." It seemed people much preferred the day trips within Germany. I started to waver and was thinking about alternatives. 
Then I talked to a friend from work who is from Poland. He has been to Szczecin and said that if people go there thinking they are going to a big European city like Rome or Paris, they are often disappointed. Also, much of the city was destroyed in World War II, so it is not as old as some other destinations in Poland, so it has less of a sense of history about it. He felt that the town was a bit grey, but it was a nice place to walk around and was worth seeing. Also it would be a taste of Poland: the culture, the people, the food, while also being close to home. Not only is not far from Berlin, it was for a time part of Germany and only went back to Poland after WWII. In German the town is called Stettin. I recently saw a map of Europe from during Frederick the Great's time and Stettin was on the map as part of Brandenburg. In the end we decided to go.
We tried to book train tickets online but could only get them mailed to us. We decided that since it was less than a week a way that might not be the best plan. So we went to the station and got them a few days in advance. This turned out to be a good plan. Online the only option was about 60 euros per person round trip. At the train station we got tickets for only 20 euros round trip per person. This made it definitely worth going to just get out of Berlin for a couple days.
We of course picked the rainiest weekend in weeks, but since we had tickets we stuck to the plan. Even in the rain, I really enjoyed walking around the city. It is really a good place to walk around. There is a tourist path (drawn in red on the sidewalk, even) with historic and important sites to stop at (all numbered and everything). We didn't really have the walking tour book and didn't care much to take out paper to read about what we were seeing since it was raining. While parts of the city are a bit grey and looked even more grey in the rain, the buildings were cool. I know nothing about architecture, but the architectural styles around town were varied and interesting. Some of the old part of the city have been redone with bright colors, so that made everything a bit more cheery. There are museums but they apparently don't have much labeled in English, so we didn't go to any of them.
As a significant port city, they have a nice waterfront walk in front of the Maritime Museum and Nautical Academy, which impressively sat upon a hill overlooking the water. As you walked along the river you could smell chocolate from the chocolate factory on the other side of the city. In the future they will be creating gardens in the water where the river is too shallow for large ships. Apparently you can also rent kayaks and canoes, although it was a bit too cold for that in October. 
There is a castle of the Pomeranian Dukes, which supposedly has some exhibits, but really was just a cool building to walk around. In the warmer weather they do open air concerts in the courtyard. And the space inside is also used for weddings which we saw as well.
We ended up meeting with my friend's friend who lives there and she took
us around the city a bit. Two things she showed us which we would not
have done on our own were to visit the cemetery and to go up to the 22nd floor restaurant to overlook the
city. I had seen that the cemetery was one of the things to see in Szczecin, but as it was a bit outside of the historical district (so you needed to take a bus or tram) and we don't speak Polish I figured we wouldn't bother. I am glad that we did because it was unlike most cemeteries I've been too. Szczecin at some point decided to move all of the cemeteries from around the city into one place. What resulted was one ridiculously large cemetery with some sections specific to certain religions and others more general. There are fountains and statues. Also, there are many many trees. I am used to no trees and being able to see all of the graves. I think about the military graves from the civil war where you can just see lines of the white crosses forever. But here the graves sites seemed more intimate, with personal touches like gardens and benches and they are hidden from the roads and pathways with clear sections between graves. I liked the feel much better. Although I suppose that this cemetery has a different intention than the military ones where they want you to feel how great a loss it was. 
Overlooking the city was also fun, although would have been nicer on a nice day. You could really see how green the city was with all of its parks from above.
The food was also amazing, which makes the train ride worth it on its own. For lunch we went to a brewery that opened a year ago called Browar Stara Komenda. The beer was great and the food was awesome! Not all of the food was traditional Polish but we tried a more traditional soup (I think it was a cabbage soup), bread with schmalz, and what we decided was a Polish hot pocket (only actually good).
For dinner we went to Karczma Polska Pod Kogutem, which both our Poland tour book and the hotel recommended as good for traditional Polish food. It was a bit hokey and touristy (people on one side of us spoke German and on the other side English), but the food was good. We had Bigos (cabbage stewed with pork in a bread bowl) as a starter, then Polish pierogi with bacon and barley, and pork knuckle village style. Overall, it was a lot of cabbage, but all so wonderful. The pierogis aren't at all like the ones we get in the US and in fact not what we had at the Culture Festival in Berlin either. (This was a bit of a shame, as the Berlin ones were the best.) We again had beer, which was great. We were tired from the long day and rain so we didn't move on to vodka. Some say Polish vodka is the best. I am not in a position to say, since I don't drink vodka often. But it is cheaper and they have a great variety so we did bring some home with us!
If you are visiting Berlin and don't have much time, it may not be worth going to Szczecin. There is plenty to see in Berlin and Potsdam. But if you are in Berlin for an extended stay or are living here, it is definitely worth it. I would recommend going in nice weather and maybe when you can go kayaking. It is a perfect mini getaway that makes you feel like you have gone much further. Plus you get to train through the countryside to get there.
