Ich Liebe Berlin

I really hate the overcrowding, unfriendly staff, and massive size of Heathrow airport, but at least it's easy to get to.
My Ryan Air flight to Berlin was out of Stansted. I opted for the cheaper bus option to get there. Big mistake. First of all, I didn't have enough money for the bus; the website listed the wrong fare. I was missing 50 cents. I couldn't use a credit card to pay the fare, and no Londoner on board would donate the 50 cents to me. Well, the economy isn't great you know. And of course, the bus driver would do NOTHING to try to help me out. He left without me.

Good thing the bus runs every 15 minutes. I ran across the street to the nearest ATM (an Arabian bank), which refused to accept my card. Damn it. No other ATM in sight, only money exchanges. After I missed another bus looking for an ATM, I gave up an used the exchange office. Horrible rates, but at least I could finally get on the bus. Now, the bus. IT TOOK FOREVER. An hour just to get out of the city!!! We were still on the road an hour before my departure time. I seriously thought I was going to miss the plane. Once we got to the airport (45 minutes left!!!), I ran to the check-in counter, which was thankfully empty. Got my boarding pass, went through customs, and then to the gate. I was hoping to buy a sandwich at the terminal (since the airline doesn't provide snacks), but no time. I should've listened to my friend and taken a sandwich before I left...
Lesson of the day - if I ever need to go to Stansted again, I'm taking the train!

Since I arrived in Berlin late at night, the only thing I did during the first day was stared at all the drunk punks drinking beers on the subway, found my hostel, ate a sandwich, and slept in THE MOST COMFORTABLE BUNK BED yet :) I'm not kidding. I was only planning 2 nights here, but immediately decided to extend it by another day.

Over the next 2 days, I did A LOT of walking around Berlin. It's such a clean and beautiful city (most parts), I had a great time just wandering!
And the fall foliage...Having lived in the Bay Area for the past few years, I had completely forgotten about foliage. But as soon as I stepped out onto the Berlin streets, colorful leaves greeted me! Man, I missed it.
So, about sightseeing in Berlin. Most of it has to do with the World War and the East/West Germany split. Like Checkpoint Charlie (nothing too special really) and strips of the Berlin Wall. You can see them in several places, including the city center. But my favorite was a little further out towards the river, where you can see awesome displays of wall art: (Random memory - it was a heck of a long walk from there back to the hostel...)

There's also the usual Jewish memorial fare, including the Holocaust Memorial and the Jewish Museum. I'm sure there's a deep meaning to all these gray blocks at the Memorial, but I just thought they looked really cool - neat, orderly, modern: I didn't get to go into the Jewish Museum when I first got there, as everything Jewish was closed for the Jewish holiday (Yom Kippur, I believe). I seem to run into religious holiday problems these days...Ramadan in the Middle East, and now Yom Kippur here! Oh well, no big deal. I just had to go back the following day. I don't know....the history presented in the museum was quite interesting (for example, I never knew that the persecution of Jews had an extremely looooong history, dating all the way back to the Middle Ages and such). But a lot of it seemed too "modern art"-ish and philosophical. A different twist to the other Jewish museums I've seen during this trip. I'm not sure if I liked it...

Speaking of museums, the ONE art museum I wanted to go in Berlin (they have a bunch in the city) was the Neue Nationalgalerie. I figured they'd have a good collection of weird, unexplainable contemporary art suiting my taste : ) As it turned out though, they were closed for renovation. Tears.
I'm not usually a museum person, but I was in the mood for one. Since I couldn't go to my first choice, I ended up at the nearest one, Gemaldegallerie. Surprisingly, I really enjoyed it - there's a great Vermeer piece (I think) worth seeing, if any of you are out there.

I also went to the Reichstag (Parliament building) one day, where you can walk through the glass dome. Again, bad luck – the dome was closed for renovations. Argh. But I was still able to ride the elevator up to the top of the building for some great views.

Architecture in Berlin is awesome:
This is one city where I wouldn't mind living...if only ich spreche Deutsch.