O nos gusta Berlin or We like Berlin (except for the weather)

We’ve been in Berlin almost a week now and we like it. Steven complains a lot (OK, almost nonstop) about the weather, which is kind of crummy. Damp, cloudy and chilly. Plus the sun disappears at 4:30 (the sunrise is allegedly 7:30am, and sun set is allegedly 4:30pm, but since it is always cloudy or raining, who really knows) , but other than that, it’s a thumbs up.

I came here with no expectations. Other people have told us Berlin was a nice city, but we just had no idea and Germany in my family does not have history on its side. However, Berlin has many of the comforts we look for: a diversity of food and people, excellent public transportation, lots of parks, museums, and other culture.

So far what I don’t like (aside from the weather): we got here on a Sunday and the grocery stores were closed plus everyone speaks German and I can’t even remember how to say that I don’t. The excellent part about the closed grocery stores is that we found an Indian bodega (for those of you who don’t know New York slang – a bodega is a corner grocery store) just around the corner that has fresh samosas every day. Yum. Sunday evening we went to a Greek restaurant, Nea Knosso, where the food was delicious and we realized that we wouldn’t understand a word people said to us. Monday we discovered that the grocery store has pretty much everything we like and plenty of vegan food. Plus, the bread reminds me of my grandpa’s bread: chewy, hardy, thick crust. Wait, maybe it just reminds me of my grandpa himself.

We did our usual routine of walking around the neighborhood to get the lay of the land Monday. We found what we call “the street,” which is the international brand heaven every city has whether it’s Fifth Avenue, Michigan Avenue, the Champs Elysees, Las Ramblas, etc., strolled past the zoo and Bikini Berlin (which is a building) and then wandered back so Steven could work. Oh, yes, and me too.

Tuesday we headed toward Rathaus Schöneberg, city hall for the borough of Tempelhof-Schöneberg in Berlin and the site of the famous speech where JFK called himself a donut (he didn’t really call himself a donut, the ein in his phrase is somewhat optional, and any German speaker would have understood his meaning, but a Berliner is in fact a jelly donut). On the way, we past through the Bavarian Quarter, which contains an art installation called “Places of Remembrance” with pictures and accompanying text of the rules the Nazis put in place to extinguish the rights of Jews. Our neighborhood also contains metal tiles on the sidewalks with the names of Jews who used to live in the neighborhood and what happened to them if that is known. We saw a woman polishing tiles like these. Nice to know someone cares, or is at least taking care of the memories.

In the afternoon, I confused myself further by having a Spanish class before leaving Steven slaving away at his computer and headed out for a solo death march to a photography class/mini-Berlin tour. I got my first glimpse of the Spree River and the Brandenburg Gate, but I also got to walk through a beautiful park. The leaves are still on the trees here and the parks look marvelous.

Turns out it was just me and the guide, Fabian, for the tour (one of the benefits of traveling off season) who is an amazing photographer, good teacher, and quite a nice guy. I hadn’t thought much about this, but because Berlin was bombed heavily, the downtown center is all brand new (and a great place for a photo shoot). Fabian also does photo tours of the Azores and other EU places. Check out his Instagram @travelpixelz for some amazing shots. He helped me with the ones below.

Then, I took my first ride on the Berlin underground. Very easy and clean, although there are buses, subways, trams, and trains so it can seem a bit confusing. The transit operates sort of on the honor system. You need an activated ticket, but you don’t know if or when anyone will check. however, they don’t mess around if you haven’t activated your ticket and it’s too late if you wait until the conductor comes around because e-tickets take two minutes to activate after you push the button on the app.

Wednesday, we headed over to a farmer’s market that was kind of a bust since it is cold and it is probably much more active on Saturdays. Really, we just wanted to walk (remember the 100-mile safari?). We did come across more of the Places of Remembrance signs, so that was interesting, if unsettling.

Thursday was the 85th anniversary of kristallnacht and while this is not a political blog by any means, I do have to say that it was emotional being here for that with the state of the world as it is today. The sentence “Nie Wieder Ist Jetzt!” (Never again is now!) was projected onto the Brandenburg Gate. From your mouth to God’s ears, as my grandma would say.

Friday, we went on a Berlin Underground tour of a bunker beneath the subway system. The guide focused on life for Berliners during the war as we toured through an air-raid shelter. As you can imagine, it sucked. It all hit a little too close to home, especially when the discussion turned to creating an atmosphere of fear and spying on your neighbors (if you see something, say something). I’m not going to say I enjoyed it, although the guide tried to lighten the mood at times, but it was very informative and a great reminder that maybe we need to pay more attention to our own slippery slope.

We headed back on the underground and had a delicious Vietnamese lunch at Cozy Asian Kitchen & Sushi, hit up a beer store where Steven’s eyes lit up like the proverbial kid in a candy store (wait, come to think of it, his eyes light up in candy stores, too) and we picked some random German beer, which I decided I like because they are not IPAs and they have low alcohol content. We walked back to the apartment with our beer and new souvenir (a reusable bag from the beer store) and I forced Steven back into the salt mines for the evening.